It does make it an interesting read to see fallability, and it is also inspirational reading (maybe I could do better). Thank you for your hard work.
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Chapter 37- Voyage to Nowhere
Chapter 37- Voyage to Nowhere
As if to humiliate the Poodle even more in death, his wife turned out to have more of a mind for military matters then he ever had. As Kazan had had little more opportunity to recover then had Sweden, the Swedish army, though somewhat ragged, was able to push forth into enemy territory, with the unexpected assistance of the Nogai Horde.
Fig. 1- initial push into Kanazi lands
In under a year, the Army of Kazan was shattered, and Kazan City had fallen, and peace was signed. Most of the territorial changes were in the south, including the annexation of all of Circassia to Turkey, but the Norse did get Kostroma for their troubles, and high praise from the Padishah for taking the enemy capital. Oskar Alkmaar made sure that all heard of his statement that the Caroleans were “the boldest men under the sky.”
Fig. 2- the Treaty of Shanche
This was somewhat successful, and a force was mobilized to sail south to Benin, though there was a dispute as to who would command it. However, the constant war footing was straining the Scandinavian economy.
Fig. 3- Norse promissory note found in an archive, with “REJECTED” written on it n English, French, Spanish, and Creek
In the absence of Norse forces, the decisive Beninese chieftain, Ahenzae Ahomadegbe, had seized the Scandinavian trade port of Whydah, and had dared consider that the claims of Norse power had been exaggerated (for he had no maps of Europe). Though this proved false once the Norse armies arrived, he was able to draw out the fighting for a few months. And he was not slain in battle, but lived to see that he may have done more damage than he had known.
Fig. 4- Sacred grove in Bonny
For, though Queen-Regent Ulrika had intended to finally breathe, and set about repairing the cannons fired so many times, it was not to be.
Fig. 5- Swedish Cannon mould, early 18th century, form Dalecarlia
After a series of weak, short-lived Holy Roman Emperors, the Electors decided that they needed a strong leader to restore order. The French hegemony was restored. And the new Emperor, Charles VIII, seeing that Sweden was weary, part of her forces were out of position in Africa, and her chief ally was going thought a potentially-destabilizing succession, decided that now was the time to strike and take back not only Ryga, but to push the Norse out of Livonia entirely!
Fig. 6-Emperor Charles/Karl/Karolis being crowned in Aix
(OOC- It was at this point that I realized that I needed to play better to avoid catastrophe, and called it a night)
Initially, the Norse reckoned that the French had made a major mistake- they were backed only by Wurzburg, meaning that they did not have a clear numerical advantage over the combined forces of Sweden, Turkey, Bavaria, and their allies. However, closer analysis soon made it clear that this missed several key factors on the French side. Firstly, the wealth brought in by their European hegemony had allowed them to back their similarly-sized army with a truly massive number of cannons- and warfare was starting to move towards the phase where artillery was the arm of decision.(OOC- It was at this point that I realized that I needed to play better to avoid catastrophe, and called it a night)
Fig. 7- estimated troop counts at the start of the Livonian Border War
Secondly, while the number of men already armed was approximately equivalent, Sweden was already dangerously close to falling short of the number of men in their prime needed to bring in the harvest, while France had no such issues. There had been hope that the Turks could make up the difference, but in fact they were in little better shape.
Fig. 8- invective-filled letter from the mayor of a small town in Gotaland to the recruitment offices- “Barley is already rotting in the field!”
Finally, the French had timed their attack very well. The expeditionary forces sent to Benin had not yet returned. They were being shipped back to Sacndinavia, and their route back would need to take them through waters very close to France. If the French navy could intercept them, an entire enemy army could be destroyed without risking a single soldier!
Fig. 9- captain Krag’s planned route back
However, chance- and competence- prevented this clever French strategy from cutting. By happy chance, the Norse captain Lars Krag heard from a Moroccan trader of the war before he entered French waters, and proved to have a keen grasp of the strategic picture. He chose not to risk the North Sea at all, instead moving into the Mediterranean, where the Turkish navy, with its many galleys, was the supreme power, and offload the returning troops in Turkish Greece, where they could join with their allies and attack Lithuania from the south or defend Bavaria, depending on the orders received. Scandinavia was in for a hard fight, but it would be a fight, and not a slaughter.
Fig. 10- captain Krag’s actual route back
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I am not sure this is going to go well... France is always the real test in any EU4 game in Europe.
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How many German states are siding with the French due to their membership in the HRE? This war will be very difficult.
At least Sweden got something from that war besides mere compliments, even if they didn't get a lot of territory.
At least Sweden got something from that war besides mere compliments, even if they didn't get a lot of territory.
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I do not think any. But just being emperor gives you (if I remember correctly) money, manpower, and force limit.
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The Measured World
The Measured World
At the dawn of the eighteenth century, the balance of power in Europe had been thrown out of balance, and the flames of war were lit. The French Hegemony was re-established, and likely to endure for some time (Charles VIII was young, born in 1682). As such, Poland now viewed their union with Lithuania as lost forever, and was reinventing itself as a West Slavic nation-state, seeking to conquer Bohemian and Lusatia for that end
The New World had mostly stabilized, with border in Verdea having hardly changed over the previous century. Markland was slightly more dynamic, as Britain’s colonies had largely been seized by Spain.
Spain, in general, was clearly a power on the rise, having also consolidated their control over the Maghreb, with Morocco now being practically exiled from their clime of origin and becoming a sahelian power. However, outside powers still struggled to exert any power over the heart of the continent, held out by disease and substantial regional powers like Adal and Kilwa who did not want potential enemies to get a foothold.
The Near East was increasingly dominated by the Ottoman Empire, but though the Mamluk regime was collapsing, they were not unopposed- the rising power of the Deccan Empire was now their chief regional opponent, with the politically-fractured lands of Persian and Peninsuler Arabia becoming a chessboard for them.
The Upttermost Southeast was still greatly divided, but the Khmer seemed to have eyes on changing that, having expanded into Siam and Laos, and south as far as Sumatra. Further conquest in that direction was unlikely- canny diplomacy by the republic of Lanfang had not only maintained good relations with Khmer, but secured an alliance with distant Britain!
In the Orient, the Yue dynasty had now firmly established themselves as the true Emperor of China. But that did not mean that things had gone back to how they were before. While previous Chinese Emperors had reckoned themselves rulers of the earth, the Yue were treating the Liang state and the rising powers of Korea, Khmer, the Chagatai Khanate, and the northwards-looking Indian kingdom of Jaunpur as something like peers. East Asia had gone from a unipolar to a multipolar system, and it seemed that the restoration of order to China would not reverse that.
This had effects beyond the political. During China’s time of division, the Chinese scholar-gentry had lost their former purpose of “teaching to the test” and grubbing after offices from the one government that mattered, with many fleeing the Middle Kingdom entirely for more stable lands such as Korea and Jaunpur. A desire to remain in communication, and more movable type friendly alphabets, had led to the emergence of a decentralized, international, academic and philosophical community- one that was allowed an incredible degree of latitude to research what they wanted, due to the combination of the Confucian idealization of academia and the new multipolar system meaning that one could not let a potentially-useful technology slip by, for your rivals surely would not. In the year 1700, An Chwa-jin of Korea first formally defined the scientific method. A few esoteric Buddhists in Macau proposed that enlightenment might not be a state for a chosen few, but for humanity as an aggregate. In Balkh, philosophers (inspired by both distant Greco-Roman ideas of democracy and the local Sikh minority’s idea of social mobility being desirable) speculated that if the replacement of hegemony with peer interactions among states had had such benefits, could the same principles be applied to individuals? The world was changing, and nobody quite knew into what.
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This world update was nice. I'm finding the new East Asian system especially riveting.
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Chapter 38- Damage and Control
Hope I haven;t kept you waiting too long for this one.
Charles had been well prepared when the opportunity rose. A large French royal army had already been in place in French Ruthenia to lay siege to the Varangian exclave of Vladimir, which the Turks, despite a nearby border, could not easily respond to, being forced to move westward to prevent the total collapse of Bavaria. So confidant was he of the backwardness of the Norsemen that the task of actually invading Scandinavian Livonia was left to the Lithuanian army.
Armand de Luyens, the French commander assigned to actually conquer Vladimir, was less confidant, being unnerved by how far he was operating from any allied forces, and when he heard word of a large Norse counterattack massing, abandoned the siege and fled. The Norse army under Karl Gustav Ackeleye, redirected westwards and caught the Lithuanian army in a dispersed state after the fall of Reval and utterly crushed them.
However, the Lithuanians soon struck back- the army that had sailed back from Benin, dissatisfied with the failure of a substantial allied liberation of Bavaria to materialize, struck north through Lithuania, hoping to push through and join the nest of the Norse army in Livonia, only to be intercepted by another Lithuanian army and scattered across hostile lands.
Both sides sought to follow up on their successes. The Norse desperately sought to recruit someone- anyone- to lead a follow-up attack, often regressing to calling upon the levy forces of local nobles. The Imperial forces sought to follow up on this success by joining to the victorious Lithuanian levies a large portion of the French Royal Army and sending them north to Livonia to prevent the Norse from gaining anything by their victory.
However, Ackeleye, in a desperate attempt to avoid disaster, sent out a screening force to delay the French main army long enough for him to restore and garrison the fortifications at Reval, and then retreated his own main army north of the Gulf of Finland. While Scandinavia might not have been winning every battle, none could deny that the Norse army was able to get things done, and get them done quickly.
By the start of the 1705 campaign season, the war remained inconclusive, with the Ottoman army occupying Lithuanian Tartary, but unable to push into the more heavily-fortified Ruthenian lands, with the French having, after a year of hard fighting, driven the Norse from Livonia but failed to truly control it themselves.
However, the winter had been hard, and the defenders were short on food. Several key Norse strongholds fell in quick succession, and, at the urging of the young King Knut, Ackeleye rode out again in the summer to prevent a complete collapse of the defensive lines.
Buoyed by the successes, the Emperor restated his goals- to push Sweden from Livonia entirely and reduce Norse Varangia to the wild lands beyond Holmgard.
This was, of course, unacceptable to the Norse, and as the newly-raised army had performed well so far, Karl Gustav Ackeleye sought to continue his advance with the now-ready Norse army by taking the fight to the French- specifically, their direct royal holdings on the Varangian border. Unbeknownst to him, De Luyens’ reinforcements had finaly arrived, and he was preparing there for a renewed push into Varangia. What resulted was a messy, chaotic, bloody encounter battle with disconnected forces and frontage dozens of leagues across.
A battle the French ultimately won.
The armies retreating back to Sweden had no rest, as Lubeck had fallen, and the ever-reliable fortress of Lund was again under siege. Harrying attacks failed to dislodge the French invaders.
Though the Turks had finally arrived at the Livonian front, it seemed to be too little, too late. The Norse army was practically gone. Retaking Livonia would be a hard and uncertain fight. Saving Bavaria, let alone pushing into the French home country, seemed impossible. All seemed lost.
At least, that was the view from the Royal Palace in Stockholm.
Though Karl the Wolf had filled the Stockholm Thing with his loyalists, it had on paper retained a decent amount of power. And the Royal Pack was now succumbing to old age, or had been disillusioned by the mismanagement of the Poodle. When a young, well-travelled up-and-comer named Arvid Horn suggested that he be given authority over diplomacy with France, he was able to persuade the thing to back him, and the young king Knut was not prepared to stand against him.
Horn’s plan was simple- a pure bluff. Before joining the Thing, he had been a merchant captain, and was well informed of what the French believed. Specifically, they did not know how close they were to victory. They had gone into this war believing that Seweden would be as lightly-defended as it had in previous conflicts, so the Burkenskoldian Fortifications had caught them by surprise. But more than that- bring unable to penetrate significantly into the Scandinavian heartland, the French had no real idea of what was going on in there. Better yet, it was assumed by many in France that Armand de Luyens, from his position on the front lines, would have a better idea than most of the situation. However, De Luyens had already shown himself to be overcautions, and was telling Paris that the armies he had defeated at the Tvertsa were in much better condition than they actually were- and the French general staff weren’t even sure that that armies they had fought at the Tvertsa and in Scania were one and the same! By appearing to confirm these assumptions, Horn was able to negotiate a much less onerous peace then what Charles had been calling for a year ago- instead of practically pushing Sweden back to the Baltic, there was merely an expansion of the French exclaves in Russia and Tartary, the island of Osel, and the creation of an independent Croatia.
Horn had genuinely been trying to save his homeland from ruin, but it had also been a means to an end. In his travels, he had seen many things, read many books, and spoken to many people. He was fluent in many languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, Yue Chinese and Korean. And he was one of the first to interpret the Balkh Club’s ideas into a western context (he may be the first person to have described himself as an ‘Illuminatus’), trading the unfamiliar Buddhist mysticism for evocations of the government-by-council spoken of in the Icelandic Sagas and the glory of the Roman Republic.
Chapter 38- Damage and Control
Charles had been well prepared when the opportunity rose. A large French royal army had already been in place in French Ruthenia to lay siege to the Varangian exclave of Vladimir, which the Turks, despite a nearby border, could not easily respond to, being forced to move westward to prevent the total collapse of Bavaria. So confidant was he of the backwardness of the Norsemen that the task of actually invading Scandinavian Livonia was left to the Lithuanian army.
Fig. 1- initial French invasion routes.
Armand de Luyens, the French commander assigned to actually conquer Vladimir, was less confidant, being unnerved by how far he was operating from any allied forces, and when he heard word of a large Norse counterattack massing, abandoned the siege and fled. The Norse army under Karl Gustav Ackeleye, redirected westwards and caught the Lithuanian army in a dispersed state after the fall of Reval and utterly crushed them.
Fig. 2- Troop movements for the Battle of Osel.
However, the Lithuanians soon struck back- the army that had sailed back from Benin, dissatisfied with the failure of a substantial allied liberation of Bavaria to materialize, struck north through Lithuania, hoping to push through and join the nest of the Norse army in Livonia, only to be intercepted by another Lithuanian army and scattered across hostile lands.
Fig. 3- the Battle of Voluine, mid-18th century painting supposedly by a Lithuanian veteran, though this has been disputed
Both sides sought to follow up on their successes. The Norse desperately sought to recruit someone- anyone- to lead a follow-up attack, often regressing to calling upon the levy forces of local nobles. The Imperial forces sought to follow up on this success by joining to the victorious Lithuanian levies a large portion of the French Royal Army and sending them north to Livonia to prevent the Norse from gaining anything by their victory.
Fig. 4 the Livonian Front, Winter 1704
However, Ackeleye, in a desperate attempt to avoid disaster, sent out a screening force to delay the French main army long enough for him to restore and garrison the fortifications at Reval, and then retreated his own main army north of the Gulf of Finland. While Scandinavia might not have been winning every battle, none could deny that the Norse army was able to get things done, and get them done quickly.
Fig. 5- Extract from Kim’s 1743 commentary on Sun Tzu, using the Retreat from Reval as an example
By the start of the 1705 campaign season, the war remained inconclusive, with the Ottoman army occupying Lithuanian Tartary, but unable to push into the more heavily-fortified Ruthenian lands, with the French having, after a year of hard fighting, driven the Norse from Livonia but failed to truly control it themselves.
Fig. 6- actual areas of control in Eastern Europe, spring 1705
However, the winter had been hard, and the defenders were short on food. Several key Norse strongholds fell in quick succession, and, at the urging of the young King Knut, Ackeleye rode out again in the summer to prevent a complete collapse of the defensive lines.
Fig. 7- Runestone raised in Reval during the winter of 1704-1705, praying to Freyja to keep wendigoes from the minds of all inside the fortress
Buoyed by the successes, the Emperor restated his goals- to push Sweden from Livonia entirely and reduce Norse Varangia to the wild lands beyond Holmgard.
Fig. 8- French initial demands
This was, of course, unacceptable to the Norse, and as the newly-raised army had performed well so far, Karl Gustav Ackeleye sought to continue his advance with the now-ready Norse army by taking the fight to the French- specifically, their direct royal holdings on the Varangian border. Unbeknownst to him, De Luyens’ reinforcements had finaly arrived, and he was preparing there for a renewed push into Varangia. What resulted was a messy, chaotic, bloody encounter battle with disconnected forces and frontage dozens of leagues across.
A battle the French ultimately won.
Fig. 9- diagram of the Battle of the Tvertsa This is somewhat speculative, as nobody had a prefect idea of the tactical situation on the day
The armies retreating back to Sweden had no rest, as Lubeck had fallen, and the ever-reliable fortress of Lund was again under siege. Harrying attacks failed to dislodge the French invaders.
Fig. 10- damage to the old walls of Lund
Though the Turks had finally arrived at the Livonian front, it seemed to be too little, too late. The Norse army was practically gone. Retaking Livonia would be a hard and uncertain fight. Saving Bavaria, let alone pushing into the French home country, seemed impossible. All seemed lost.
At least, that was the view from the Royal Palace in Stockholm.
Fig. 11- troop positions in Eastern Europe, spring 1706.
Though Karl the Wolf had filled the Stockholm Thing with his loyalists, it had on paper retained a decent amount of power. And the Royal Pack was now succumbing to old age, or had been disillusioned by the mismanagement of the Poodle. When a young, well-travelled up-and-comer named Arvid Horn suggested that he be given authority over diplomacy with France, he was able to persuade the thing to back him, and the young king Knut was not prepared to stand against him.
Horn’s plan was simple- a pure bluff. Before joining the Thing, he had been a merchant captain, and was well informed of what the French believed. Specifically, they did not know how close they were to victory. They had gone into this war believing that Seweden would be as lightly-defended as it had in previous conflicts, so the Burkenskoldian Fortifications had caught them by surprise. But more than that- bring unable to penetrate significantly into the Scandinavian heartland, the French had no real idea of what was going on in there. Better yet, it was assumed by many in France that Armand de Luyens, from his position on the front lines, would have a better idea than most of the situation. However, De Luyens had already shown himself to be overcautions, and was telling Paris that the armies he had defeated at the Tvertsa were in much better condition than they actually were- and the French general staff weren’t even sure that that armies they had fought at the Tvertsa and in Scania were one and the same! By appearing to confirm these assumptions, Horn was able to negotiate a much less onerous peace then what Charles had been calling for a year ago- instead of practically pushing Sweden back to the Baltic, there was merely an expansion of the French exclaves in Russia and Tartary, the island of Osel, and the creation of an independent Croatia.
Fig. 12- territorial changes after the treaty of Osel
Horn had genuinely been trying to save his homeland from ruin, but it had also been a means to an end. In his travels, he had seen many things, read many books, and spoken to many people. He was fluent in many languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, Yue Chinese and Korean. And he was one of the first to interpret the Balkh Club’s ideas into a western context (he may be the first person to have described himself as an ‘Illuminatus’), trading the unfamiliar Buddhist mysticism for evocations of the government-by-council spoken of in the Icelandic Sagas and the glory of the Roman Republic.
Fig. 13- Transcript of a speech to the Thing by Arvid Horn “Are we not those who refused to kneel to One!”
(OOC- Forest Expansion was always intended to be temporary, so if I can get rid of it, I can get at or near 100 absolutism even under those conditions, and I’m pretty sure everything beyond that has few if any tangible benefits and might even make you more likely to spawn the revolution, which I’m rather hoping will disrupt France or Spain)
(OOC- Forest Expansion was always intended to be temporary, so if I can get rid of it, I can get at or near 100 absolutism even under those conditions, and I’m pretty sure everything beyond that has few if any tangible benefits and might even make you more likely to spawn the revolution, which I’m rather hoping will disrupt France or Spain)
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That defeat was shameful, but at least Horn's bluff worked. Hopefully Sweden has time to recover from that... travesty.
How do the Ottomans feel about the treaty? Horn basically had them give up Croatia, and I don't think they were in a terrible position. Do they feel betrayed?
I wonder what the Horn government will be like...
How do the Ottomans feel about the treaty? Horn basically had them give up Croatia, and I don't think they were in a terrible position. Do they feel betrayed?
I wonder what the Horn government will be like...
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Thank you for the updates. Poor Poodle! They call it the Big Blue Blob for a reason. Jaunpur (personal fave) is having a good game. Ottomans is not in a runaway even with a human ally.
Chapter 39- Two Cheiftains
@HistoryDude Considering that the independent Croatia was pretty tiny if I remember correctly, probably not too off-put- I suspect my losses were greater.
@Midnite Duke I'm starting to think that allying the Ottomans was not such a great move as I thought at the time. They may be strong, but they aren't beat-everyone strong and everybody in Europe tends to rival them, making it hard for me to get any other strong allies. What's more, they can't really project power into the North Sea or the New World, which are places I was not able to expand nearly so well as I had hoped. Hindsight is 20/20, but I really feel like if I were to play this again (which I might actually do, once this is over, as I'm recognizing a fair few mistakes I made as I write this up) I'd probably look for an alliance with France or Spain instead. On the other hand, they can actually be called into holy wars against Christians with some reliability, so there are advantages and disadvantages.
King Knut was, of course, not well-pleased with this provocation. He was, however, not really in much of a position to do anything about it. The public perception was that he was a sot drinking himself into oblivion on exotic goods in his palace while Horn was the man who had swindled the French out of a total victory. His decision to quash improvements on the shipyards of Gotland were viewed as particularly short-sighted.
Nonetheless, both the king and the Thing were in agreement on one matter- now was the time to rebuild. And pay back the loans taken in the course of the war. But also to prepare if the worst should happen again. With the new fortifications being largely credited with having averted total collapse, the decision to double down on fortifying the borders was the obvious path.
The fear in of the worst happening again was somewhat alleviated in 1707 when Emperor Charles died young and the lords of the Holy Roman Empire decided to elect a local lord instead of his son, both because he had, again, used Imperial resources not to benefit them but to expand his French holdings and because his son Louis XVIII was seen as too young for the job. Karl remains to this day one of history’s most popular what-ifs, with some wondering if, had he lived to a ripe old age, he could have turned his unified empire into the world’s greatest power, while others claim that it would have created a unipolar power system in Europe similar to that which the Ming had created in the East some centuries prior, leading to a similar stagnation is technological progress.
While some viewed the lesson of the war as being that defense had been Scandinavia’s salvation, others reached the opposite conclusion. As has been said, the world was entering into the age when the cannon ruled the battlefield, and the Norse had not had so many as their adversaries, and this would not be a problem that could be quickly addressed. However, there had been some engagements where the Norsemen had been able to neutralize the enemy advantage in artillery through drill and sheer berserk aggression- charging in too close to the enemy lines for the enemy cannon to fire without destroying their own men. Those who had survived thus went on to train new recruits under the assumption that, in the short term at least, Sweden would be more likely to win battles from extreme close range.
In 1708, King Knut, still feeling a bit sidelined from his own government, tried to raise his profile with a lavish wedding to a young noblewoman from Jutland named Christina Jagerhorn (the name had become so common in the years before the Norse Revival that it still occasionally turned up, reused after relatives without thought of its meaning. Still, the royal couple was sure to give their first son a properly Norse name.) The couple received many beautiful gifts, some of which had even been paid for. The festivities were somewhat marred by the news of an epidemic in Estonia.
Though King Knut was getting busy, Scandinavia was not a great place to do business in at the time. Even Karl the Wolf had not set the highest priority on maintaining the economy, and his son had let thing slip even further. In much of Lapland, things were so dire that medieval norms of everyone remaining as illiquid as possible and viewing money as something tax-men and merchants tricked you into using had returned (or possibly never left- it’s disputed). Arvid Horn, as a former merchant, was well aware of the problem, and frequently discussed the importance of restoring confidence in the Krona.
Horn, however, soon found himself in something of an awkward position when a prominent Korean statesman and fellow Illuminatus whom he had previously spoken highly of used Scandinavia as an example of a benighted country. Horn responded in an open letter speaking of Scandinavia’s history as a center of innovation.
But this was not just talk- at around the same time, he was able to redirect resources from the King’s personal vinyards to fund Hakon Gathenheim’s creation of a technical university in Dalecarlia.
Horn had the Stockholm Thing acting with a level of decisiveness not seen for nearly a century, and the Goðar were at east tolerating his claims that “Valhalla is for fighters, not kneelers- the Younger Edda says as much”, and King Knut was, for the time, going along with it. Why? Because the Norse army was back at full strength, and Horn had promised Knut something that had evaded every Swedish monarch since before the Swedish Uprising.
The final unification of Scandinavia.
@Midnite Duke I'm starting to think that allying the Ottomans was not such a great move as I thought at the time. They may be strong, but they aren't beat-everyone strong and everybody in Europe tends to rival them, making it hard for me to get any other strong allies. What's more, they can't really project power into the North Sea or the New World, which are places I was not able to expand nearly so well as I had hoped. Hindsight is 20/20, but I really feel like if I were to play this again (which I might actually do, once this is over, as I'm recognizing a fair few mistakes I made as I write this up) I'd probably look for an alliance with France or Spain instead. On the other hand, they can actually be called into holy wars against Christians with some reliability, so there are advantages and disadvantages.
Chapter 39- Two Cheiftains
King Knut was, of course, not well-pleased with this provocation. He was, however, not really in much of a position to do anything about it. The public perception was that he was a sot drinking himself into oblivion on exotic goods in his palace while Horn was the man who had swindled the French out of a total victory. His decision to quash improvements on the shipyards of Gotland were viewed as particularly short-sighted.
Fig. 1- King Knut, official portrait
Nonetheless, both the king and the Thing were in agreement on one matter- now was the time to rebuild. And pay back the loans taken in the course of the war. But also to prepare if the worst should happen again. With the new fortifications being largely credited with having averted total collapse, the decision to double down on fortifying the borders was the obvious path.
Fig. 2- the walls of Reval, built in 1708
(Ooc- I really want to get merchant guild loyalty up so I can remove a privilege, but they keep giving me difficult missions)
The fear in of the worst happening again was somewhat alleviated in 1707 when Emperor Charles died young and the lords of the Holy Roman Empire decided to elect a local lord instead of his son, both because he had, again, used Imperial resources not to benefit them but to expand his French holdings and because his son Louis XVIII was seen as too young for the job. Karl remains to this day one of history’s most popular what-ifs, with some wondering if, had he lived to a ripe old age, he could have turned his unified empire into the world’s greatest power, while others claim that it would have created a unipolar power system in Europe similar to that which the Ming had created in the East some centuries prior, leading to a similar stagnation is technological progress.
Fig. 3- Official portrait of Loius XVIII of France. Note the extremely thin beard.
While some viewed the lesson of the war as being that defense had been Scandinavia’s salvation, others reached the opposite conclusion. As has been said, the world was entering into the age when the cannon ruled the battlefield, and the Norse had not had so many as their adversaries, and this would not be a problem that could be quickly addressed. However, there had been some engagements where the Norsemen had been able to neutralize the enemy advantage in artillery through drill and sheer berserk aggression- charging in too close to the enemy lines for the enemy cannon to fire without destroying their own men. Those who had survived thus went on to train new recruits under the assumption that, in the short term at least, Sweden would be more likely to win battles from extreme close range.
Fig 4- Extract from a Norse officer training manual, c1710. “When in doubt, move forward”
In 1708, King Knut, still feeling a bit sidelined from his own government, tried to raise his profile with a lavish wedding to a young noblewoman from Jutland named Christina Jagerhorn (the name had become so common in the years before the Norse Revival that it still occasionally turned up, reused after relatives without thought of its meaning. Still, the royal couple was sure to give their first son a properly Norse name.) The couple received many beautiful gifts, some of which had even been paid for. The festivities were somewhat marred by the news of an epidemic in Estonia.
Fig. 5- contact diagram by an historian in the aftermath of the Pandemic of 2017, suggesting that the 1708 Swedish Royal wedding may have been a superspreader event
Though King Knut was getting busy, Scandinavia was not a great place to do business in at the time. Even Karl the Wolf had not set the highest priority on maintaining the economy, and his son had let thing slip even further. In much of Lapland, things were so dire that medieval norms of everyone remaining as illiquid as possible and viewing money as something tax-men and merchants tricked you into using had returned (or possibly never left- it’s disputed). Arvid Horn, as a former merchant, was well aware of the problem, and frequently discussed the importance of restoring confidence in the Krona.
Fig. 6- five-Krona coin bearing the portrait of King Knut
Horn, however, soon found himself in something of an awkward position when a prominent Korean statesman and fellow Illuminatus whom he had previously spoken highly of used Scandinavia as an example of a benighted country. Horn responded in an open letter speaking of Scandinavia’s history as a center of innovation.
Fig. 7- Arvid Horn’s ‘Incomplete list of maters Mr. Park is apparently unaware of’
But this was not just talk- at around the same time, he was able to redirect resources from the King’s personal vinyards to fund Hakon Gathenheim’s creation of a technical university in Dalecarlia.
Fig. 8- Falun Tech. Campus to-day.
Horn had the Stockholm Thing acting with a level of decisiveness not seen for nearly a century, and the Goðar were at east tolerating his claims that “Valhalla is for fighters, not kneelers- the Younger Edda says as much”, and King Knut was, for the time, going along with it. Why? Because the Norse army was back at full strength, and Horn had promised Knut something that had evaded every Swedish monarch since before the Swedish Uprising.
The final unification of Scandinavia.
Fig. 9- plans for invasion of Denmark
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Denmark must be subjugated!
The HRE rejected France's dominance? How did France react to that?
The HRE rejected France's dominance? How did France react to that?
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@HistoryDude there isn't really much they can do- you can't really do things in-game against the HRE, or indeed much sense of the HRE as a thing of itself rather then an a container for them (unless the Emperor has already half-reformed it), only against its member states. I just assume there are channels between them that aren't represented in-game for the purpose of the write-ups.
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Chapter 40- The Final Unification of Scandinavia
Chapter 40- The Final Unification of Scandinavia
The invasion was launched in winter of 1713, in the hopes that the Danish capital of Nykobing would already be low on supplies, and would fall quickly. The Norse fleet, under Lars Krag- recently promoted to admiral- occupied the Kattegatt, allowing a swift crossing by the armies. Nykobing was soon besieged, and the meagre Danish army swept aside.
Fig. 1- the Fall of Bornholm, as depicted by a Venetian artist of the time
Though Denmark was occupied quickly, and their fleet was able to make a breakthrough, allowing the last king of Denmark to flee to join their allies in Bohemia. It was there that the real fighting would take place. This was another reason for the decision to attack in wither- it was believed that the comparatively mild German winter would be tolerable for the Norsemen, but not the Bohemians. This seemed to be bearing out, and the Norse army that had taken Fyn was able to march on and intercept the Bohemians in Stettin, under the leadership of King Premysl Otakar IV himself, before they could gain a real foothold in Norse Mecklenburg. The battle did have one key casualty – the Captain of the Aft Lines Oskar Alkmaar had insisted on being personally present for the final fall of Denmark. Bengt Wallemberg was chosen as a replacement, but not before he repeated the title he was to be given thrice.
Fig. 2- troop movements in spring 1713
Alkemaar’s son Alfred inherited his father’s vast holdings in Sunnasland, and as such was assigned the task of ensuring that the sea lanes to the colonies remained clear onthe grounds that he would be very motivated to do so. This was proving more difficult ten anticipated, as the Danish navy in exile was proving surprisingly resilient.
Fig. 3- Alfred Alkmaar
On land, the pace of the war slowed to a grinding halt as the Norse forces entered Bohemian Brandenberg. The Bohemians, fearing invasion by either the Norse of the Poles, had built many mighty bastions, forcing a series of long, grinding sieges before any real progress could be made. There was little way round it- the front was narrow, and though the Bohemian army was outnumbered, it was believed to be large enough that if the Norse dispersed- for instance, to launch a flanking attack through Poland- they risked being defeated in detail. With the war well into its second year, Queen Christina tried to keep spirits high on the home front as Norse warriors died to disease in siege camps
Fig. 4- map of the Bohemian fort system.
The failure of the Norse to continue their push emboldened the Bohemians, and they twice attempted to do an outflanking attack of their own- once in autumn of 1714 and again just under a year later, negotiating access through Poland to try to take Stettin and leave the Norse cut off. Premysl Otakar trusted in the impenetrability of his fort system to prevent the Norse from pushing through, and leaned the entirety of the Bohemian army into this attack. However, Stettin was also decently well fortified, so the effect was only to allow the Norse to know where their enemies were, and they were numerous enough to send two divisions north to see off the attackers whilst a third remained at the front to lay siege to the next fortress.
Fig. 5- Comparison of positions at the First and Second Battle of Stettin.
Continued struggles at sea lead to a belief that the Danes simply had some superior ship design that the Norse lacked, and the occupied Danish naval facilities and ports were searched for documents, designs, and models to reverse-engineer.
Fig. 6- Documents taken from the port of Svendborg
By the end of 1715, the earlier vague notions of aggression as a compensation for dated equipment had, after being tested and proven in battle, consolidated into a proper doctrine, commonly called the “Carolean Charge”, by which the Burning Huscarls would be placed opposite wherever geography would suggest the enemy would likely place most of their artillery and concentrate fire before swiftly closing to bayonet range, thus both depriving the enemy of an easy target and push for an early, devastating breakthrough.
Fig. 7- examples of correct deployment diagrams from Norse officer’s training material, c1720
OOC- I just realized that that picture does not actually show the benefit of that privilege. It gives +15% damage dealt by Caroleans. Also, yeas, I was drawing the war out a bit to farm army tradition to finally get that mission.)
OOC- I just realized that that picture does not actually show the benefit of that privilege. It gives +15% damage dealt by Caroleans. Also, yeas, I was drawing the war out a bit to farm army tradition to finally get that mission.)
By the end of the 1715 campaign season, the city of Dresden had finally fallen, the county city of Anhalt was suing for peace, and the Norse army was about to enter into the Czech heartland. Premysl Otakar was finally willing to talk terms. The Norse demands were fairly forgiving- the Norse merely asked for the Uckermark to provide a connection between their holdings in Stettin and Neubrandenberg and a large sum of money.
Fig. 8- the treaty of Cheb
Because that hadn’t been what they really wanted. The real goal was the final unification of Scandinavia- the complete conquest of Denmark, and unopposed control over the mouth of the Baltic.
Fig. 9- King Knut is re-crowned King of Denmark.
The plunder from the war was largely invested in the Dalecarlian copper mines, in hope of finally making up the deficit in artillery in time for the next war- while aggression had proven a decent substitute, it would surely be better still to have both!
Fig. 10- the mines of Falun, still in operation to-day.
Despite all this, the world at large was not particularly impressed with the Norse, still seeing them largely as benighted heathens at the edge of civilization, albeit ones who could clearly fight well. A remnant of Europe’s past in a world increasingly looking toward the brighter future.
Fig. 11- seating arrangements at a great international conference in Madrid, 1715.
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Congrats on annexing Denmark!
What will you do now? Continue colonizing over in Vinland? Expand in Germany? Or do you have other plans?
What will you do now? Continue colonizing over in Vinland? Expand in Germany? Or do you have other plans?
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@HistoryDude Depending on how things proceed, either expand along the Baltic coast or further into Eastern Europe, or possibly retake some of the New World if an opportunity to do so that does not involve fighting Spain shows up.
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Excellently done! The reversal of Danish fortune is complete! I hope no greater power attacks too soon
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Well done on the unification, a speedy war with no setbacks or suprises. I do hope you manange to take more in the new world but if not then eastern conquests will do just as well.
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Thank you for the update. Congratulations on your putting the Swedish boot on the Danish neck.