This is my first EU2 AAR. I am playing Athens, starting in 1453 and am using the following MODS.
Historical Realism MOD.
ATAGE (titles mod).
De-Blobbing Mod.
Greece Mod.
I am also playing at normal difficulty
*************************************************************
1453-1454
Athens starting setup, while the province of Athens itself is Orthodox, the Duchy of Athens itself is Catholic. Overally, Athens is pretty dirt poor, producing only fish in sufficient quantity for export.
But most worying of all, is the small and ugly red shield in the corner of the picture, to the right of the glorious purple lion of the Athenian Nation, this signifies that the great Red Menace, the Ottoman Empire, considers Athens to be an integral part of it's realm
.
As you can see, my starting position is not ideal. A small, fairly poor minor, with a big warlike empire that has it's big greedy eyes on her.
The Duchy of Athens was over 2 centuries old, it's origins lay with the Fourth Crusade, which saw the Fourth Crusade, against the will of the Pope, sieze Constantinople and destroy the Byzantine Empire. It was carved up into fuedal states by it's new Latin Rulers. Among these states was the Duchy of Athens. Athenian Duchal history was divided into three eras.
In the first era, Athens had been ruled by the de la Roche family, a family of Burgundian origin that had initially conquered it.
However, as the Greek Byzantine splinter states of Epiros and Nicea destroyed the Latin Empire, Athens hired the Catalan Company, an army of merceneries from Catalonia to fight them. However ultimately these merceneries took over Athens and established the second era, the rule of the Catalans.
The third and last era, started when the Acciajouli, a wealthy family from Florence bought the Duchy and established their rule, which has lasted until the present day.
Duke Francesco I Acciajouli, present Duke of the Duchy of Athens.
***********************************************************
30th May 1453
The fall of Byzantium to the rising Ottoman Empire, came as profound shock to Francesco, just as it had shocked the whole Christian world. An expansionist new power was rising in the north-east and his own prospects for the future looked grim.
Franscesco understood that the survival of Athens relied upon their rapid success in two areas, trade and diplomacy. Without trade, Athens would never be able to gain anything but a small amount of wealth in order to fund her armies, she also needed to obtain allies for the inevitable future fight against the Ottomans, if she was to have any chance of survival.
The Athenian treasury was small no more than 70,000 hyperon (7 ducats in game). In a bid to increase revenue, Athens used roughly half of that to fund an expansion of it's share of the Venitian Trade. In a bid to increase the amount of money for expendature on merchant ventures, minting was increased and together with investment in law enforcement (stability) took up much of the expendature of the duchy.
A new law was passed, extending full tolerance to "all who believe in one god, distinct from his creation" (full tolerance sliders for Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox). Since Athens was unlikely to ever come in much contact with Oriental or Pagan religions, this was a wise move.
Marraiges were arranged between Francesco I Acciajouli family and the Crispo
family of Naxos, a Duchy ruled by Guglielmo II Crispo. They were also arranged with the family of Gjerj K Skanderbeg King of Albania.
Offers of marraige were recieved from Duke Borso of Modena and also Duke Ludovico il Turco of Mantua.
Duke Leonardo of Corfu, formed a trade agreement with Athens on the 2nd of June.
King Alfons of Sicily also formed a trade agreement with Athens. Trade competition was bieng minimised through diplomacy.
Further Royal Marraiges, were formed with the families of Duke Fedrico of Urbino and Duke Ludovico I of Savoy.
***********************************************************
Serbia, June 30th 1453
Snapshot......
Mehmed II led his forces into Serbia. The Serbians and their Hungarian and Wallacian allies had faught bravely, but ultimately they had proven no match for the might of the conquerer.
A lone Serbian spearman, hid from the Turks in a ditch, the rest of his company were dead. As he and butchered butchered the fleeing Serbs, the Serb spearmen, in an act of suicidal bravery lunged himself in the path of the Turkish cavalry. By chance he ran right in front of the Ottoman Sultan himself, lunging his spear with all his might he pierced his horses throat, before the spearman himself was cut down. The horse threw the Sultan into the very ditch into which the Spearman had hidden, but not before he had smashed his skull against a rock. The glorious conquerer of Constantinople had died not that long after his siezure of Constantinople, to an unknown Serbian spearman.
His death gave the oportunity for the rise of another. His name was Abdul-Hamid, a cousin of Mehmed II. He took command of the Ottoman army and had the immediate family of Mehmed killed before he rose to become Sultan Abdul-Hamid I. Chaos begins to spread through the empire as supporters of Mehmed, angry at his percieved betrayal ally themselves with dissident bulgarians and greeks in opposition to the New Sultan. However, the standing army remains loyal to Abdul, who takes up command in the armies in Serbia. The campaign into Europe continues under new leadership.....
***********************************************************
2nd July 1453
An alliance was formed with Naxos, though Albania proved stubborn. On the 3rd of July, the independance of Morea was guaranteed. Marraiges had been arranged with the family despot Demitrios I of Morea, though the poor relations with Morea made alliance impossable. However, cleverly Francesco had made sure to marry the sole surviving FEMALE member of a rival branch of that family. Through her, he would be able to gain a disputable claim on the Morean throne, at a time of his pleasing, one which could then be used as a casus belli for war against Morea, if the circumstances were right.
On the 13th July, a delegation of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John arrived, eager to set up an alliance, just as they had already with Naxos. It was graciously accepted.
On the 3rd of September, Albania finally crumbled and struck an alliance with Athens.
**********************************************************
15th November, 1453.
Snapshot................
It just wasn't fair, David thought. Those merchants from Lorraine were beating him on everything. They could sell cheaper than him and in huge quantities, grab all the customers and yet their coffers were as full as full could be. How did they do it, it just wasn't fair!
**********************************************************
1453
The Venitians had recently proven unwilling to consider a trade agreement, shortly before the setback in trade due to the almost certainly evil uber-merchants of Lorraine. .
So Francesco I turned to Venice's main trade rival, Genoa for an agreement. Doge Pietro de Campefragosa proved happy to sign it. Things were working out well and another trader moved in, expanding the trade back to where they were before the Lorrainian setback on January 24th. Athens was establishing herself as a large trading power in Venice and the extra money was making itself felt already.
Shortly after the fall of Belgrade in January, Serbia was annexed by the Ottomans on February 10th. The other powers having already made peace, Hungary bieng pressured to do so by their war with Austria (backstabbing traitors that they are!), the war came to an end with this act.
This action apparantly alarmed Ragusa and the day after Rector Amedeo Tudisi of Ragusa forged an alliance with the Duchy of Athens. The allies of Athens were multiplying, as was it's prestiege and many others were beginning to consider an alliance also. Francesco's diplomatic talents were increasing aswell.
The income from the trade in Venice, allowed Athens to establish yet another merchant in Venice on 22nd April.
Impressed by this achievement, Pope Nicolaus V sent a representative to Athens to negotiate a trade agreement. It was accepted.
Impressed that the Holy Father himself had taken note of Athenian trading prowess, Fransesco decided to send a diplomat to negotiate a trade agreement with Venice, whose Doge Fransesco Foscirini had previously rejected a past trading agreement.
Aware of the possibility of Athens, Genoa and the Papacy co-operating to drive them out of buisness and awed by Athenian might, they reconsidered their earlier agreement. Now Athens had formed a trading arrangement with all the major trading powers in Venice. Genoa, Venice and the Pope.
*************************************************************
2nd November 1454
Snapshot..........
Francesco I had called together merchants and nobles from all over Athenian Greece, for a Grand Assembly. He had decided to adopt a national trade policy.
"Trade is key, without trade our duchy cannot be strong or great"
"Beacause trade is key to our wealth, our security, indeed even our survival, it cannot be left up to our merchants to succeed and fail as they wish, thus it is key that our goverment adopt a policy of encouraging and promoting trade, in order to minimise failiure in establishing new buisnesses"
"Thus I shall set up a Leugue of Athenian merchants, all members of this Leugue shall be protected from competition with their brethren and encouraged in competion with non-members.
"Membership of this body shall be mandatory for all merchants wishing to recieve subsidies from the Athenian goverment, and it shall also be open to merchants subsidised by Venice, Genoa, The Papacy, Sicily and Corfu and any who should in future form a trade agreement"
"In trade we shall conquer, that is to be our motto!"
"In trade we shall conquer!" the assembly shouts in unison, clapping wildly.
*************************************************************
Following the establishment of the Leugue of Athenian merchants, and atmosphere of triumphalism and optimism caught on. So brave were they, that a diplomat was sent to the Ottoman Empire with the following message.
This is a formal diplomatic message to the Sultan Abdul-Hamid I, we will not tolerate any acts of agression against nations whether Christian or Islamic. You are warned
************************************************************
An alliance was formed with the Italian republic of Siena on November 12th. More crucially however, even Genoa, the great Italian trading power forged an alliance with Athens on 8th of December. Athens now had many allies, great and small. The only question was, in the hour of need, would they abandon her?
**********************************************************
Trade Comparison
Trade status at the beginning of 1453.
COMPARE WITH
At the beginning of 1455
The Trading interests of Venice, were greatly harmed by the gruelling 1 and several months long war with Milan. This war saw Milan itself fall to the Venitian armies, but the Duke moved his base to Parma, and successfully rebound, recapturing Milan.
The cost of the war, did great damage to Venitian trading interests and may have (I do not know for certain) killed it's Doge Fransesco Foscarino, causing him to be replaced by Niccolo Memmo.
Indeed, it may have been the damage done to Venice by the war in relation to it's trading interests, that prevented the Venitians from continuing the war until major concessions were extracted from Milan. Although Milan had to pay token reparations to Venice, it's survival intact in the face of it's larger and wealthier neighbor and the damage done to the trading interests of that neighbor, made the war practically a victory for Milan.
Historical Realism MOD.
ATAGE (titles mod).
De-Blobbing Mod.
Greece Mod.
I am also playing at normal difficulty
*************************************************************
1453-1454
Athens starting setup, while the province of Athens itself is Orthodox, the Duchy of Athens itself is Catholic. Overally, Athens is pretty dirt poor, producing only fish in sufficient quantity for export.
But most worying of all, is the small and ugly red shield in the corner of the picture, to the right of the glorious purple lion of the Athenian Nation, this signifies that the great Red Menace, the Ottoman Empire, considers Athens to be an integral part of it's realm
.As you can see, my starting position is not ideal. A small, fairly poor minor, with a big warlike empire that has it's big greedy eyes on her.
The Duchy of Athens was over 2 centuries old, it's origins lay with the Fourth Crusade, which saw the Fourth Crusade, against the will of the Pope, sieze Constantinople and destroy the Byzantine Empire. It was carved up into fuedal states by it's new Latin Rulers. Among these states was the Duchy of Athens. Athenian Duchal history was divided into three eras.
In the first era, Athens had been ruled by the de la Roche family, a family of Burgundian origin that had initially conquered it.
However, as the Greek Byzantine splinter states of Epiros and Nicea destroyed the Latin Empire, Athens hired the Catalan Company, an army of merceneries from Catalonia to fight them. However ultimately these merceneries took over Athens and established the second era, the rule of the Catalans.
The third and last era, started when the Acciajouli, a wealthy family from Florence bought the Duchy and established their rule, which has lasted until the present day.
Duke Francesco I Acciajouli, present Duke of the Duchy of Athens.
***********************************************************
30th May 1453
The fall of Byzantium to the rising Ottoman Empire, came as profound shock to Francesco, just as it had shocked the whole Christian world. An expansionist new power was rising in the north-east and his own prospects for the future looked grim.
Franscesco understood that the survival of Athens relied upon their rapid success in two areas, trade and diplomacy. Without trade, Athens would never be able to gain anything but a small amount of wealth in order to fund her armies, she also needed to obtain allies for the inevitable future fight against the Ottomans, if she was to have any chance of survival.
The Athenian treasury was small no more than 70,000 hyperon (7 ducats in game). In a bid to increase revenue, Athens used roughly half of that to fund an expansion of it's share of the Venitian Trade. In a bid to increase the amount of money for expendature on merchant ventures, minting was increased and together with investment in law enforcement (stability) took up much of the expendature of the duchy.
A new law was passed, extending full tolerance to "all who believe in one god, distinct from his creation" (full tolerance sliders for Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox). Since Athens was unlikely to ever come in much contact with Oriental or Pagan religions, this was a wise move.
Marraiges were arranged between Francesco I Acciajouli family and the Crispo
family of Naxos, a Duchy ruled by Guglielmo II Crispo. They were also arranged with the family of Gjerj K Skanderbeg King of Albania.
Offers of marraige were recieved from Duke Borso of Modena and also Duke Ludovico il Turco of Mantua.
Duke Leonardo of Corfu, formed a trade agreement with Athens on the 2nd of June.
King Alfons of Sicily also formed a trade agreement with Athens. Trade competition was bieng minimised through diplomacy.
Further Royal Marraiges, were formed with the families of Duke Fedrico of Urbino and Duke Ludovico I of Savoy.
***********************************************************
Serbia, June 30th 1453
Snapshot......
Mehmed II led his forces into Serbia. The Serbians and their Hungarian and Wallacian allies had faught bravely, but ultimately they had proven no match for the might of the conquerer.
A lone Serbian spearman, hid from the Turks in a ditch, the rest of his company were dead. As he and butchered butchered the fleeing Serbs, the Serb spearmen, in an act of suicidal bravery lunged himself in the path of the Turkish cavalry. By chance he ran right in front of the Ottoman Sultan himself, lunging his spear with all his might he pierced his horses throat, before the spearman himself was cut down. The horse threw the Sultan into the very ditch into which the Spearman had hidden, but not before he had smashed his skull against a rock. The glorious conquerer of Constantinople had died not that long after his siezure of Constantinople, to an unknown Serbian spearman.
His death gave the oportunity for the rise of another. His name was Abdul-Hamid, a cousin of Mehmed II. He took command of the Ottoman army and had the immediate family of Mehmed killed before he rose to become Sultan Abdul-Hamid I. Chaos begins to spread through the empire as supporters of Mehmed, angry at his percieved betrayal ally themselves with dissident bulgarians and greeks in opposition to the New Sultan. However, the standing army remains loyal to Abdul, who takes up command in the armies in Serbia. The campaign into Europe continues under new leadership.....
***********************************************************
2nd July 1453
An alliance was formed with Naxos, though Albania proved stubborn. On the 3rd of July, the independance of Morea was guaranteed. Marraiges had been arranged with the family despot Demitrios I of Morea, though the poor relations with Morea made alliance impossable. However, cleverly Francesco had made sure to marry the sole surviving FEMALE member of a rival branch of that family. Through her, he would be able to gain a disputable claim on the Morean throne, at a time of his pleasing, one which could then be used as a casus belli for war against Morea, if the circumstances were right.
On the 13th July, a delegation of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John arrived, eager to set up an alliance, just as they had already with Naxos. It was graciously accepted.
On the 3rd of September, Albania finally crumbled and struck an alliance with Athens.
**********************************************************
15th November, 1453.
Snapshot................
It just wasn't fair, David thought. Those merchants from Lorraine were beating him on everything. They could sell cheaper than him and in huge quantities, grab all the customers and yet their coffers were as full as full could be. How did they do it, it just wasn't fair!
**********************************************************
1453
The Venitians had recently proven unwilling to consider a trade agreement, shortly before the setback in trade due to the almost certainly evil uber-merchants of Lorraine.
. So Francesco I turned to Venice's main trade rival, Genoa for an agreement. Doge Pietro de Campefragosa proved happy to sign it. Things were working out well and another trader moved in, expanding the trade back to where they were before the Lorrainian setback on January 24th. Athens was establishing herself as a large trading power in Venice and the extra money was making itself felt already.
Shortly after the fall of Belgrade in January, Serbia was annexed by the Ottomans on February 10th. The other powers having already made peace, Hungary bieng pressured to do so by their war with Austria (backstabbing traitors that they are!), the war came to an end with this act.
This action apparantly alarmed Ragusa and the day after Rector Amedeo Tudisi of Ragusa forged an alliance with the Duchy of Athens. The allies of Athens were multiplying, as was it's prestiege and many others were beginning to consider an alliance also. Francesco's diplomatic talents were increasing aswell.
The income from the trade in Venice, allowed Athens to establish yet another merchant in Venice on 22nd April.
Impressed by this achievement, Pope Nicolaus V sent a representative to Athens to negotiate a trade agreement. It was accepted.
Impressed that the Holy Father himself had taken note of Athenian trading prowess, Fransesco decided to send a diplomat to negotiate a trade agreement with Venice, whose Doge Fransesco Foscirini had previously rejected a past trading agreement.
Aware of the possibility of Athens, Genoa and the Papacy co-operating to drive them out of buisness and awed by Athenian might, they reconsidered their earlier agreement. Now Athens had formed a trading arrangement with all the major trading powers in Venice. Genoa, Venice and the Pope.
*************************************************************
2nd November 1454
Snapshot..........
Francesco I had called together merchants and nobles from all over Athenian Greece, for a Grand Assembly. He had decided to adopt a national trade policy.
"Trade is key, without trade our duchy cannot be strong or great"
"Beacause trade is key to our wealth, our security, indeed even our survival, it cannot be left up to our merchants to succeed and fail as they wish, thus it is key that our goverment adopt a policy of encouraging and promoting trade, in order to minimise failiure in establishing new buisnesses"
"Thus I shall set up a Leugue of Athenian merchants, all members of this Leugue shall be protected from competition with their brethren and encouraged in competion with non-members.
"Membership of this body shall be mandatory for all merchants wishing to recieve subsidies from the Athenian goverment, and it shall also be open to merchants subsidised by Venice, Genoa, The Papacy, Sicily and Corfu and any who should in future form a trade agreement"
"In trade we shall conquer, that is to be our motto!"
"In trade we shall conquer!" the assembly shouts in unison, clapping wildly.
*************************************************************
Following the establishment of the Leugue of Athenian merchants, and atmosphere of triumphalism and optimism caught on. So brave were they, that a diplomat was sent to the Ottoman Empire with the following message.
This is a formal diplomatic message to the Sultan Abdul-Hamid I, we will not tolerate any acts of agression against nations whether Christian or Islamic. You are warned
************************************************************
An alliance was formed with the Italian republic of Siena on November 12th. More crucially however, even Genoa, the great Italian trading power forged an alliance with Athens on 8th of December. Athens now had many allies, great and small. The only question was, in the hour of need, would they abandon her?
**********************************************************
Trade Comparison
Trade status at the beginning of 1453.
COMPARE WITH
At the beginning of 1455
The Trading interests of Venice, were greatly harmed by the gruelling 1 and several months long war with Milan. This war saw Milan itself fall to the Venitian armies, but the Duke moved his base to Parma, and successfully rebound, recapturing Milan.
The cost of the war, did great damage to Venitian trading interests and may have (I do not know for certain) killed it's Doge Fransesco Foscarino, causing him to be replaced by Niccolo Memmo.
Indeed, it may have been the damage done to Venice by the war in relation to it's trading interests, that prevented the Venitians from continuing the war until major concessions were extracted from Milan. Although Milan had to pay token reparations to Venice, it's survival intact in the face of it's larger and wealthier neighbor and the damage done to the trading interests of that neighbor, made the war practically a victory for Milan.
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