Let's hope they also don't become allied to France which happens often due to France's Missions especially when Player is Austria (confirmation bias)......
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I'll agree with @diskoerekto - that's an OMINOUS ending!
@El Pip will be along shortly to agree with @Steckie.
I loved the black flag thing. "You're trespassing!" "No, we're not - we're just passing through!" "This is French land!" "It wasn't yesterday!"
Great work getting the gold income up. I had no idea the difference would be so stark.
Can you handle a war with France now? Are they even interested, now that your lands aren't adjacent?
Renss
@El Pip will be along shortly to agree with @Steckie.
I loved the black flag thing.
"You're trespassing!" "No, we're not - we're just passing through!" "This is French land!" "It wasn't yesterday!"Great work getting the gold income up. I had no idea the difference would be so stark.
Can you handle a war with France now? Are they even interested, now that your lands aren't adjacent?
Renss
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As the proposal appears to be War With France I absolutely agree with it.
Ret eo distrujañ Bro-C'hall as the Breton would say.
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The chances of death are also lower. No diseases, murders, imprisonments, or pagan sacrifices.
Good to know the cliffhanger is doing its job.
We're not in a position for that yet. But it will come, don't worry.There's always a balance between railroading and being a sandbox. I understand why missions like the one you mentioned were added, for a bit of historical flavor/context, but I think it's more fun if France-Ottos ally because of their common rivalries and interests in-game.
I tried to find the specific mission and its triggers on the wiki for some more info, but had no luck.
Yes, that was fun (if slightly annoying). Sounds Monty Python-esque almost.I loved the black flag thing.
Gold provinces are a great source of early-mid game money. We could gain even more from Matsolo if we invested some diplo points to develop it further, but I can't remember if I did at this stage. I'll have to look over my screenshots.
We're also heavily benefiting from the Mexican gold and fleets of our CN.
France is not interested in our Irish land now that we don't border them. But they still dislike us due to our Spanish alliance and colonial rivalry.
I plan for our reconquest of Brittany proper to be a major finale for the campaign.
We will attack France when we're good and ready, not a moment before.
It requires a century so of build-up. And I hope I can showcase during it how to grow fast, faster than the AI, and come back from defeats like this.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Bretons in the Kongo! Plus, Barrages, Assaults, & Disasters (September 1545-February 1550)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Bretons in the Kongo! Plus, Barrages, Assaults, & Disasters
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(September 1545-February 1550)
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(September 1545-February 1550)
Our army has landed in Kongo and occupied the province of Soyo. We get to work sieging their capital, but then I decide to take a good-looking battle instead. The sides are even and we’re winning…until an extra 7k reinforces the enemy from the fog of war. We retreat to Benguela.
I don’t make the same mistake as our Jolof war (Chapters 32 & 33), I hire mercs right away (an extra 17k). We’re losing 8.12 ducats a month, but if we wrap this up quick, we’ll be alright. The Franco-English war ends, with the latter ceding Calais, an enormous sum of money, and their alliance with Austria.
Kongo decides to occupy our holdings in Bonny and Calabar rather than defend their own land. This is a classic move by the AI. If they don’t think they can win in a fight, they’ll siege you anywhere you’re not contesting.
Right then I’m reminded of a new privilege we can take from the Nobility. This one only becomes available when you have 2 or more vassals. It gives 2 extra relation-slots and less Liberty Desire.
With the Kongolese too scared to attack, we take their capital, Mpemba, after only 27 days. It was only a level 1 fort, we had enough cannons for a full +5 bonus to our siege rolls, and we had a medium-sized Spy Network all speeding our progress.
The realm is without an heir. We’re beset by the French on all sides. This would be enough to make anyone despair. King Henri doesn’t know what to do. But then he has a productive conversation with Queen Gwenvred.
Prince Richard’s stats are below the 9-point average, but I keep him. As mentioned at the end of the last part, I want to see if the House of Dreux lasts until 1821. And Henri is 58. He could die at any moment.
The war in Africa goes nicely. We’re besieging another fort, and I barrage it. Barrages were mentioned in passing in Chapter 28. When sieging a fort, you have 3 buttons that cost mil power: naval barrage, land barrage, and assault.
Barraging a fort gives you a Wall Breach (a significant bonus to your siege rolls). Assaulting a fort has your army attempt, well, an assault. As you’d imagine, it’s quite costly in terms of men, so I rarely attempt it against fully garrisoned fortifications. But something with less than 1,000 defenders is probably fine if you have enough infantry.
Shift-Consolidation (Chapter 4) works for this too. When assaulting, your army takes casualties every day-tick. But slowing the game-speed down and consolidating the army every tick (even if it is micro-intensive) helps take forts faster and for less losses.
As we progress in Africa, we also end two wars in Mexico. And Belitung gets Spices as its Trade Good, completing our Diet Agenda. We lose another battle, but I have a plan. Kongo outnumbers us because of their allies. But what if they had no allies? Using our Spy Network, I steal Kongo’s maps to reveal the interior. Our armies march for Kalundwe’s and Lunda’s capitals.
Here’s a major development. Our country is on the brink of Disaster! Not in a real sense, but in a game sense.
Along the top row of your Stability and Expansion tab, there are many eligible Disasters that could happen if the requirements are met. When one ticks up to 100%, it fires. You’ll need to take certain actions to end it. By default, when a Disaster starts ticking, an alert (in this case, a red-orange flame icon) will pop up to draw your attention.
Hovering over the Disaster shows what you need to do to stop its progression or end it completely. Hovering over the progress bar shows the factors affecting its growth.
In our case, the Religious Turmoil Disaster will fire soon because we have less than 75% Religious Unity. The province that’s taken us over the edge is not any of our African, Asian, or Louisianan land, but our own capital!
The different religions of the Reformation will, for the duration of this Age, spawn Centers of Reformation to convert away Catholic provinces. One located in Scotland has done so for Cork. We’re unable to convert it back due to an enforced cooldown, so the Disaster will fire. We can’t stop it.
Meanwhile, Portugal gains a CN in Louisiana. But the Pope, for whatever reason, doesn’t sanction their claim. We also catch up on diplo tech (tech 12), giving more naval morale and CW, and a building.
After 117 days we take Kalundwe’s capital. I make sure to move our army away so we don’t get blackflagged. We peace out for money, reparations, and Trade Power. That army then moves to Kongo’s last fort in Kasanje. The enemy has retaken Mpemba, but as I’ve said, it’s only a level 1 fort. It should be easy to recapture it. A few months later, after 163 days, Lunda’s capital falls. They’re given the same deal as Kalundwe.
Another war over in Mexico ends about this time too. Another victory for Brittany! This gives us Tarascan’s OPM vassal, Matlatzinca.
With no one to help them, we drive a small Kongolese force off Mpemba. Some separatists revolt in Gabu. We’ll deal with them once we’re done here. Kasanje falls after 191 days.
Despite many Bretons’ justified anger towards the Pope, we follow his command to treat the New World natives as Christian souls, not slaves. Perhaps we can mend our relationship yet.
We’ve also finished exploring the seas. Vougay de Tintériac has served us well. I let him enter semi-retirement. His 3 ships will protect trade in the Malacca node as we continue expanding our presence there. It’s said that the aging captain, having nothing left to explore, starts compiling his memoirs at this time. We read his account of the Breton Exodus previously.
After this, we end our war with Kongo. Their entire coastline, capital, and an inland Trade Center for the Ivory Coast node are taken. It was a bloody fight. But it’s also a bigger victory than our Jolof war. And these spoils should be well worth the cost once we integrate them.
And the next Institution, the Printing Press, spawns in Germany.
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France continues to get stronger, I'm not sure that a return to mainland Europe is possible ever.
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Wow. England got quite the spanking! That's not helping you belittle the French.
Very sneaky, stealing the maps so you can fight inland! Great work in Africa.
You seem to be in good shape! Except for France. But what game doesn't end that way... Great shape... Except for France.
Rensslaer
Very sneaky, stealing the maps so you can fight inland! Great work in Africa.
You seem to be in good shape! Except for France. But what game doesn't end that way... Great shape... Except for France.
Rensslaer
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Never say never. We have 270 years to go, so anything could happen.
It is. We've cut off Kongo from other Europeans, gained a nice bit of land for trade, and it's our first real victory in Africa.
France is in a great position as the strongest land power in Europe bar the Ottomans. But the French and Turks don't compete anywhere so France is basically unchallenged.Wow. England got quite the spanking! That's not helping you belittle the French.
Very sneaky, stealing the maps so you can fight inland! Great work in Africa.
You seem to be in good shape! Except for France. But what game doesn't end that way... Great shape... Except for France.
I usually forget that you can steal maps and do other stuff with spies. But this was a useful time to remember.
The game's not over yet though. These next few chapters have some major developments.- 1
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: Just a Sudden Major War (February 1550-March 1553)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: Just a Sudden Major War
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(February 1550-March 1553)
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(February 1550-March 1553)
With our victory against Kongo, King Henri affirms his right to rule over all Breton territories, even those owned by a certain continental blue blob. Absolutism is a mechanic I’ve mentioned a few times now, but I still don’t think it’s the right time to explore the topic. Just know that we’ve taken a Government Reform boosting it further.
In more important news, we’re at peace. Our Spanish ally, seeing that we’re freed up, decides to call us in for a venture of their own. And this time, we’re not just fighting some native with a tech disparity:
This is a great opportunity. We can claim Ireland and a part of the spoils, surpassing England and coming one step closer to beating France. Not only that, but also any share of the North Sea node we take will help immensely with our income.
Our position now, while better than in 1444, still has the same issue we faced back then (all the way back in Chapter 1): most of our home trade node is owned by someone stronger than us. Back then it was Bordeaux and France, now it’s the North Sea and England.
I hold the Call-to-Arms for now, then spend 130 gold on the Free Company (7k inf) in Ireland. Our fleet of 25 light ships move to the Irish Sea, ready to block the strait between Ulster and Ayrshire. I could’ve even waited another month (the CtA will be auto-declined after 2 months), but I enter the war on the 2nd of April.
While it isn’t relevant to this war, during the waiting period, I ally Austria and Naples. I am eventually hoping to use favors to break the pact between Naples and France, even if they’ve lost the momentum on the peninsula because of their Papal defeat.
As soon as we join against England, our fleets clash in the Irish Sea. Their heavy ships and the presence of an admiral force us to port in Dublin. We lose 2 ships.
I hire, then fire, a temporary merc-stack in Gabu to deal with the rebels there. I want our African forces back in Ireland ASAP. We don’t have time to stop in Gabu. Another 7k mercs are hired in Ireland.
The sides of the war are heavily in our favor. But we’re on the front lines. England is concentrated while Spain is spread out. If we lose Ireland, there’s no way we’ll be able to unoccupy it. We’ll be stuck waiting for Spain to slowly win as our homeland burns.
Incidentally due to the longstanding Anglo-Portuguese alliance, we face action across the Atlantic too. We have 7k that’s been in Nouvelle Nantes since the Natchitoches war, deterring revolts. I move them west into Portuguese Louisiana and Mexico to see what we might accomplish.
Our colony at Mentawari finishes. We move on to Halmahera, a very key province in the East Indies. It’s the only land border to the native OPMs of Ternate and Tidore. Halmahera has a decent chance for cloves to appear. And the other two provinces already have them. Cloves is a very rich good, perfect for making money.
Nias is almost finished, so we head to the Trade Center of Palu on the island of Sulawesi. As that happens, Huron tries their luck with Henrika again. Of course we intervene.
Now, you may be thinking, with all these mercs, how is the economy looking? Well:
(A look at our armies, cash, and manpower reserves too. 14k in Ireland, 20k in Africa, 7k in America.)
We’re hurting, but our balance for now is still in the black.
Our army is attacked in Louisiana and defeated, luckily we can retreat to our Mexican land, joining up with our subjects and allies.
Belitung is done. I send our colonist to the westernmost of the two free Borneo provinces, Katapang. I also decide we might as well call Spain in against Huron to see if they help.
At 63, King Henri and Queen Gwenvred have seen more than most. As the war drags on, they receive word from Malacca. The legendary explorer, Vougay de Tintériac, is dead. Meanwhile, everything we took from Kongo has been cored. The 3 Trade Centers are all made into TCs. Mpemba, Kongo’s former capital, is in a different node under a different region (see Chapter 25).
It's been a year since our entry into Spain’s war. The English have sent no response. We’ve occupied all of Ireland. Our 14k mercs stationed there wait eagerly for action. Feeling confident, I let our Kongo army stop off in Benin for another quick war. They’ve just lost a war and have basically no army, so this should be easy.
In another engagement off the Irish coast, our fleet picks off a lone English heavy. Our admiral boasts heavily about his victory against the famed English navy, gaining a trait. He takes another battle against East Frisia a few days later, sinking the entire thing.
Our Irish forces fight a minor battle against England, stackwiping their army. I see more of their forces gathering across the strait in Scotland.
Ojibwe goes against Henrika again. You know what we do. Same with Iroquois a bit after that.
Here’s a choice I made during the war. A major one as it turns out.
Rather than plant our armies on Ulster, I want the English to cross. If they cross, our navy can prevent their escape or reinforcement, letting us negate England’s numbers advantage one battle at a time.
The English cross.
We fight.
We lose.
We had numbers. The army qualities were even. But I think it came down to rolls, and maybe the English cannons. Seeing this, I take one of our Missions for extra army morale. We’re now in a race against the clock.
If England occupies Ulster, they can cross freely, regardless of our blockade. We can’t wait to recover our morale or reinforce our men. We need to attack. I suicide my navy out into the Irish Sea, hoping we can delay their Scottish armies long enough.
We lose 9 ships and another 4,000 men with the two defeats. We retreat to Desmond, but the English AI smells blood. Their army splits up, and a force half our number attacks. We retreat again.
A final battle spells our doom. We have nothing in Ireland to stop the enemy.
(Battle 1 is when the English first crossed. Battle 7 is when our last army was destroyed. I hired a third merc stack for battle 4 which was killed instantly. Discounting the stackwipes, we actually did decent damage to the English, it just wasn't enough.)
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You're going to have to flee Ireland now as well, aren't you? But where will you go?
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Strategic Disaster.......hopefully you can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against England.
Waiting for the AI to win isn't optimal.
Waiting for the AI to win isn't optimal.
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Oh wow!
I was going to compliment you on the strategy with Austria and Naples - the alliances - and I still will.
But that's a huge defeat to have to swallow. You can come back! Surely there's a way. But gosh you've mortgaged your army and navy both. Can you yet pull off victory, or do you have to make a quick, costly peace, as with France?
Looking forward to seeing your next move.
Rensslaer
I was going to compliment you on the strategy with Austria and Naples - the alliances - and I still will.
But that's a huge defeat to have to swallow. You can come back! Surely there's a way. But gosh you've mortgaged your army and navy both. Can you yet pull off victory, or do you have to make a quick, costly peace, as with France?
Looking forward to seeing your next move.
Rensslaer
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It's bad, but not that bad. England is losing the war overall with Spain, and for us to lose land, England would need to be winning (or we would need to accept a separate peace offer from them). The real issue now is, the effect this occupation is having on our war exhaustion. It's not looking good. By the time the war ends, we're going to be maxed out at 20. That comes with its own consequences...as you will eventually see.
Yes, we have to slowly wait for Spain. Not ideal. At least the war overall is going fine.
Then we risk facing England's armies all at once and not piecemeal as I was trying to do with the blockade/strait crossing trick. As you can see, as soon as England came fully across, we were overwhelmed.
We're strong enough that many of Europe's medium/small powers will ally us. The problem is the soft relations cap and that anyone we would ally is still weaker than France.Oh wow!
I was going to compliment you on the strategy with Austria and Naples - the alliances - and I still will.
We're in a mixed situation. England can't take any land off us. They don't have enough warscore to stab hit, so I can decline anything they offer. But we also can't take anything off England. Spain is winning anyway, so we're stuck waiting for the eventual victory.
There's also the option of us leaving the war separately with a white peace, but England won't accept that currently. If the war goes on long enough, all AIs enthusiasm will drop. Usually, once on low enthusiasm, the AI will always accept a white peace. Enough time just hasn't passed yet.
Thank you all for your comments! And thank you to the other readers, catcher-uppers, and lurkers as well!
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I'll take this time to highlight the End of the Year Awards. Even an incomplete ballot means a lot to the writers here. There are many, many works completed and written this past year. Make sure to not leave it to the last minute. Your future self will thank you.
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After much diligent back-reading, I have finally caught up with this very instructive AAR.
However, I am dismayed to find you in this state, at the mercy of the Brits.
Looking forward to how you extract yourself. Even if Spain comes to the rescue, looking forward to how you repair all the damage.
Also, I wonder what you are thinking about the EU5/Tinto developments? Great to get this wonderful guide from you, but will it be undone as folks move on to that new platform? (Or will EU4 continue to thrive, just as folks continue to play CK2?)
However, I am dismayed to find you in this state, at the mercy of the Brits.
Looking forward to how you extract yourself. Even if Spain comes to the rescue, looking forward to how you repair all the damage.
Also, I wonder what you are thinking about the EU5/Tinto developments? Great to get this wonderful guide from you, but will it be undone as folks move on to that new platform? (Or will EU4 continue to thrive, just as folks continue to play CK2?)
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@Chac1 If I might intrude, I bet that will have a lot to do with how good EU 5 is. V3, for instance, was really such a departure from previous models and hasn't dated so well. The V2 subforum in AARLand is still more active than V3. I hope EU 5 is more like EU 4 than V3.
Rensslaer
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Thanks for making the effort, @Chac1! I noticed your reactions in my notifications feed as you worked your way through. Hope you enjoyed it. And comment away if you have any questions or comments about past updates. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Yes, Brittany is in dire straits right now. This war hasn't gone as I'd hoped. We'll see it's conclusion in a bit.
I've been reading the Tinto dev diaries as they come out. From what Paradox has shown, it looks to be the most ambitious thing they've made. Whether it will all function on release is anyone's guess. I'm hopeful, though.
Going off @Rensslaer's answer, the Vic 2 and CK2 subforums are still active. Same, to a lesser degree, with HOI3. I think that's because the newer titles all have departed radically in some way from the previous game (Vic 3's war system, CK3 getting rid of most of the crazy events, and HOI4's focus trees). EU4 did that as well with its introduction of the three mana types, something that wasn't in EU3.
EU5, from what's been shown, looks to be building on the decades worth of feedback from the community (no mana, adding pops, better colonization/diplomatic systems). It's hard to judge without playing it, but Paradox seems to be listening and open to community feedback.
There's also the modding scene. There are lots of popular EU4 mods that won't be available on the new game's release. So EU4 will still have the edge, initially, in that regard. Just as CK2 currently has features CK3 lacks, such as merchant republics.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: An Exhausting Peace (March 1553-November 1559)
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: An Exhausting Peace
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(March 1553-November 1559)
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(March 1553-November 1559)
As our lands are occupied, our navy is forced out. Another 8 ships are lost. We make port in Mann.
Seeing the desperate situation at home, Benin is peaced out. It’s a great victory, but not the focus right now. All I’ll say is that the capital of Benin, also called Benin, is made into a TC. This gives us the 51% control in the Ivory Coast needed for a merchant. He’s assigned to Transfer from Timbuktu.
Huron is white peaced. I build 1k of infantry in Lower Limpopo to occupy the English holdings in South Africa. They have nothing to stop us, so we occupy the whole thing.
We gain cloves in Halmahera. England offers us peace if we cede Leinster and 36.8 ducats. I refuse. Spain is winning the war elsewhere handily. We just need to wait for a favorable settlement.
We’re starting to feel the strain though. Our economy, while in shambles, isn’t the worst thing. We have a stockpile of money to burn through and periodic fleets from Mexico to top us off.
No. We need to worry about our War Exhaustion (Chapter 10). Having so much of our nation occupied is increasing it rapidly. Revolts fire in Benguela and Inhambane. We have no armies available right now to stop either of them.
As our nation burns, the Pope calls the Council of Trent. This gives us a decision, which we don’t enact, to embrace the Counter-Reformation. It also unlocks a new section of the Papacy interface.
In this interface, every nation with a Cardinal can choose to either be Harsh or Conciliatory to Protestantism. Depending on how many Cardinals swing to each side, a stance will be chosen and all Catholics will get certain bonuses for the duration of the Age. I move to a Conciliatory stance.
A month after that, Queen Gwenvred passes away. King Henri is now 66, and the young Prince Richard is only 8.
A time of great change will soon be upon Brittany. Ireland is fine, but the King laments that his son has never seen the shores of the mainland, of home. What a chaotic time of change Richard is being born into, a time of religious upheaval and war.
Iroquois is defeated, giving gold, reparations, and Prestige. Nearly a year afterwards, Spain forces Portugal out of the war. We get 2 provinces in Louisiana (one step closer to a CN there) and 75.85 ducats. Not bad.
Some separatists rise up in Mann. As a result, I move our navy to the safer shores of Spain.
The Disaster that’s been slowly ticking up also fires. We can choose two ways of dealing with it, either rebels or increased Stab cost. The rebels don’t look appealing right now. I go the other route.
Two more colonists are sent to distant lands, Manado on the tip of Sulawesi and Ohlone in California.
The Protestant League begins to form. We take diplo and mil techs 13 which give new artillery units with more Fire and Shock, and a transport ship upgrade.
It is February 1557. I can’t wait anymore. If I do, Brittany will be consumed by revolts and manpower issues (two of the things high War Exhaustion affects). I transfer our occupations to Spain, so they don’t lose too much warscore, then accept England’s white peace.
At least the war has been going on long enough that Spain doesn’t care that we’ve left. That’s about the only good news. Here’s some good/bad news, depending on how you look at it, we can’t gain anymore War Exhaustion. We’re at the cap!
(Not sure why the game isn't listing our CNs here. At least most of these casualties are mercs, not actual manpower)
And here’s a slap in the face. Spain ends their war 2 months later. England loses 3 provinces in South America and 2 in Ireland through released nations.
Our diplomats get to work improving relations with Tyrone and Sligo. We ally both too. I use some of our limited manpower to recruit 5k infantry at home.
One of our colonists heads to the other free Bornean province, Sampit. I also start preparing for the next Age by revoking a Privilege from the Bourgeoisie, increasing our eventual Absolutism cap.
We last looked at our Great Power ranking in Chapter 35, 16 years ago. With the war against England concluded, I think it’s a good time to look at it again. Before, we were in 6th place, barely behind England. Now we’re in 5th, well ahead of our recent foe. We grew by 266 points during that time. Most of the others also grew by 200-300.
The next admin tech is picked up on schedule, giving a very minor boost in Production Efficiency.
Another native war also happens against d’Elbene. We must intervene. Our War Exhaustion only goes down while at peace, but it’s that or lose the colony.
A portion of our Benin army and our new Irish army deal with the revolt on Mann. We annex one of the Mexican vassals.
And after a long, difficult life, King Henri passes away at 71. The new King Richard is 13 and in a regency. In under 2 years, he will be crowned. A new king for a new era.
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Will King Richard be the one who recovers the mainland, or is Brittany doomed to remain forever in Ireland?
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