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To quote Fry and Laurie, what a load of slobslock.
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And who needs facts or data when one has vibes? It is the spirit of the age after all.
Edit.
On the actual EU IV question turns out the game does, if I'm reading the wiki correctly
+5% tech and idea cost if you do the counter reformation. No idea how harsh a penalty that is but it seems directionally correct
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Nice update.
Who is Hungary allied to besides Brandenburg? I can foresee a crisis where the Turks attack Hungary and you will have to help , or dishonor. In both cases you will be left without reliable strong allies.
Who is Hungary allied to besides Brandenburg? I can foresee a crisis where the Turks attack Hungary and you will have to help , or dishonor. In both cases you will be left without reliable strong allies.
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Oof, that was quite the prestige hit for converting! And not just losing the Emperorship, but losing it to Austria. Still, it sounds like it was worth it. That wide-angle shot of the world is interesting; Lithuania looks a lot less formidable next to all that Russian green.
I'm loving how active Denmark is; not just colonizing in the Americas but also a Great Power! They could be a good long-term partner, depending on what your plans for Scandinavia and the New World are.
Huh, I'm a little surprised it doesn't have that, to be honest. IIRC, rebels could do that in EU3, provided they were the right type of rebels. Maybe it's a similar situation here - the rebels aren't a type looking for independence so they're stuck in rebel limbo?
I'm loving how active Denmark is; not just colonizing in the Americas but also a Great Power! They could be a good long-term partner, depending on what your plans for Scandinavia and the New World are.
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Splitting up replies to comments again...
@Midnite Duke Wurzburg remains a wild card for a while... There's no immediate revolution. But it's always on my mind, now, isn't it?
@jak7139 thanks for your comments and responses to game questions!
I had mentioned at one point that I didn't really have any countries I could give the Electorships to who either liked me enough to be of benefit and/or who weren't already allied to Austria, so....
Yes, Austria becomes a much bigger and more powerful foe, now that she's once more the seat of the Emperor. Forcelimit goes up quite beyond mine. That, plus the Coalition, plus the possibility of religious wars, makes for some VERY interesting times!
@mackwolfe I am not sure Hungary has any allies other than us. They are at loggerheads with most of their neighbors.
Yes, if Hungary happens to go to war with t'he Ottomans, I'll have to come to their aid, for sure.
@VILenin I know - it was a hard hit to take. But I think in the long run it'll be worth it. It was something that needed to happen, and there wasn't much point to putting it off for the perfect time. There wasn't going to be one.
Yeah - Denmark has been quite the active ally. Expanding on their own, calling me into wars where I take my own stuff. I'm a little surprised they haven't gone to war against Sweden. They have a border, and I swear they're rivals. But crickets!
@TheButterflyComposer while I'm not familiar with the reference, I looked it up and I think I agree.
@El Pip yes I suppose it is "Classic Renss" to go to war with 5 countries at once. And yes, that was a proper win, afterward. Thank you! Next update.... Yes, I did need to refurbish my loans -- they were getting worryingly low. And yes, the switch to Protestantism (I think) is MOSTLY modeled as a permanent bonus to vitality and productivity. The Protestant Work Ethic, or somesuch. I'm sure Jak or someone might have more to say on that. And it looks like you provided a link as well.
Also, thank you for contributing on the other point that was raised, which I'm going to address now...
@Historywhiz as a former atheist, I used to think of the Dark Ages as a sort of depression upon science created by the anti-intellectual Christians. And there were always a lot of cheap shots ready-made to draw upon to make those points. But even in my Renaissance Reformation history classes -- certainly no hotbed of Christian idealism -- I found that the whole idea of the Dark Ages were themselves inaccurate. There was actually alot of science at work during those times, and a lot of discovery. And much of it led by committed Christians, including Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei. There wasn't really a place for "atheist science" because most science -- pretty much all of academia -- was the Church. And the persecution of Galileo by the Church was more about politics than religion. Ironically, the Pope and the Church hierarchy were cherry-picking Biblical statements to defend the pagan Ptolemaic model even though Galileo's observations didn't truly contradict the scriptures at all.
Anyway, all I'm saying is that those tropes are distorting history and the truth, and while I used to believe them I don't any longer.
So, the next update... I am desperately trying to get my monthly update out for Shining Stars, and the update for this will follow close upon it. Hoping in about a week?
Thank you all for your readership!
Rensslaer
@Midnite Duke Wurzburg remains a wild card for a while... There's no immediate revolution. But it's always on my mind, now, isn't it?
@jak7139 thanks for your comments and responses to game questions!
I had mentioned at one point that I didn't really have any countries I could give the Electorships to who either liked me enough to be of benefit and/or who weren't already allied to Austria, so....
Yes, Austria becomes a much bigger and more powerful foe, now that she's once more the seat of the Emperor. Forcelimit goes up quite beyond mine. That, plus the Coalition, plus the possibility of religious wars, makes for some VERY interesting times!
@mackwolfe I am not sure Hungary has any allies other than us. They are at loggerheads with most of their neighbors.
Yes, if Hungary happens to go to war with t'he Ottomans, I'll have to come to their aid, for sure.
@VILenin I know - it was a hard hit to take. But I think in the long run it'll be worth it. It was something that needed to happen, and there wasn't much point to putting it off for the perfect time. There wasn't going to be one.
Yeah - Denmark has been quite the active ally. Expanding on their own, calling me into wars where I take my own stuff. I'm a little surprised they haven't gone to war against Sweden. They have a border, and I swear they're rivals. But crickets!
@TheButterflyComposer while I'm not familiar with the reference, I looked it up and I think I agree.
@El Pip yes I suppose it is "Classic Renss" to go to war with 5 countries at once.
And yes, that was a proper win, afterward. Thank you! Next update.... Yes, I did need to refurbish my loans -- they were getting worryingly low. And yes, the switch to Protestantism (I think) is MOSTLY modeled as a permanent bonus to vitality and productivity. The Protestant Work Ethic, or somesuch. I'm sure Jak or someone might have more to say on that. And it looks like you provided a link as well.Also, thank you for contributing on the other point that was raised, which I'm going to address now...
@Historywhiz as a former atheist, I used to think of the Dark Ages as a sort of depression upon science created by the anti-intellectual Christians. And there were always a lot of cheap shots ready-made to draw upon to make those points. But even in my Renaissance Reformation history classes -- certainly no hotbed of Christian idealism -- I found that the whole idea of the Dark Ages were themselves inaccurate. There was actually alot of science at work during those times, and a lot of discovery. And much of it led by committed Christians, including Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei. There wasn't really a place for "atheist science" because most science -- pretty much all of academia -- was the Church. And the persecution of Galileo by the Church was more about politics than religion. Ironically, the Pope and the Church hierarchy were cherry-picking Biblical statements to defend the pagan Ptolemaic model even though Galileo's observations didn't truly contradict the scriptures at all.
Anyway, all I'm saying is that those tropes are distorting history and the truth, and while I used to believe them I don't any longer.
So, the next update... I am desperately trying to get my monthly update out for Shining Stars, and the update for this will follow close upon it. Hoping in about a week?
Thank you all for your readership!
Rensslaer
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Perfect is the enemy of good enough, as the saying goes. Makes sense to rip the band-aid off and get it over with, I think, especially since Brandenburg looks to be in a better position moving forward.
Looking forward to the next update!
So in December of 1563 Brandenburg has been called as an ally to Oldenburg in her war against Berg (a 5-province sprawl across northwestern Europe – you can see all of these provinces in whitish-beige), and her allies Liege and Brunswick.
Two things quickly happen, with a relatively large battle between Liege and Gelre at Kleef (Liege won’t stand long), and the Brunswickers moving upon our Brandenburger fortress at Goslar, which was the worst thing they could have done.
A coalition of allies quickly defeats the Brunswickers’ entire army at Goslar, leaving the path clear to wage war upon the rest of Brunswick.
Soon thereafter Brandenburg adopts the Quality Education Idea – adding to yearly accumulation of Army and Navy Tradition.
And our preeminent enemy, the Austrian Emperor, rejects the Protestant Reformation and founds the Catholic League to stand against Protestantism. The clear threat is that they will do so militarily, if necessary. The sides begin to line up. A map of Europe at this time would show northern Germany – pretty much Brandenburg – and parts of the Low Countries, as well as Sweden, as Protestant, with most of the rest of Europe remaining Catholic. However, even this is an incomplete picture, as Sweden is, herself, allied with Austria, and most definitely is not Brandenburg’s friend.
At the end of March, nearly 30,000 Brandenburgers, Hessians and Dutch engage with 14,000 Bergers and Brunswickers at Oldenburg. The campaign lasts about 3 weeks and results in more or less a draw in terms of raw troop casualties, but is really a significant victory for our alliance. We can afford such losses – Berg cannot.
It's here that Gen. Johann Selasinky acquires the Cruel Tactitian trait, giving increased Morale damage.
And since the Brandenburg of 1564 tends to get bored while waging only one war, we accept when our ally Thuringia asks us in May to go to war (again) with Saxony. This brings us into conflict with Saxe-Lauenburg also. As you may remember, Brandenburg has cores on both Saxony and Saxe-Lauenburg, so you may see us decide to take some territory. Saxe-Lauenburg is north of Braunschweig, where it says Celle and Luneburg. Saxony is the grayish country on the far left below Brandenburg and east of Thuringia, which is the blueish 5 provinces.
By July of 1564 Brandenburg has occupied all of Brunswick and Berg except for Ravensberg, and at the end of the month we win a coalition battle at Ravensberg which cripples the enemy. Every one of the 10 countries allied against Berg had troops present. We don’t utterly destroy the enemy, but they won’t be standing against us again soon.
And there’s one of those random “Sack” events when we complete our conquest of Hanover. The event gives us a choice between just taking the money and ignoring the morality or taking action to rein in our troops and improve their professionalism, for a price. We choose to improve professionalism, even though we can’t really afford to spend money.
Oh, and recall what I said about Brandenburg getting bored? We’re not bored anymore. Hungary once more goes to war with Moldavia and Lithuania, so we re-tool for a repeat of that war.
In August, Brunswick agrees to peace with Oldenburg, which claims one province – Hoya – as their conquest. Brandenburg had kinda wanted pieces of Brunswick ourselves, but I don’t think we had the ability to take territory, because of the way alliances worked out, and so we allowed Oldenburg to do their thing. We get 50 ducats out of the peace deal.
As had happened in the previous Hungary/Brandenburg vs. Moldavia/Lithuania war, the Lithuanians moved swiftly against East Prussia, this time advancing as far as Danzig, where Gen. Johann von Merckatz attempted to stand against them.
We were outnumbered 2:1, and retreated as soon as we were allowed to (after 2 weeks of combat). Not especially happy about this loss.
But our ally Hungary catches up with Zygimantas I at Konigsberg a month later, and punishes him for his overreach. The Lithuanians retreat from Brandenburger territory for a while.
In October 1564 Berg sued for peace with Oldenburg. Oldenburg annexes yet another province, and now stands at 3 provinces in size. Quite an expansion for a one-province North Sea trading state. Brandenburg gets 92 ducats out of this peace deal. Was it worth it? Probably not, but I wanted to maintain my alliance. It’s not a huge annoyance.
A couple of months later the dogpile begins. Cologne declares against Berg and her allies. And soon after Aachen does so as well. Berg’s 4 remaining provinces are on the chopping block!
As with the other German war, the war against Saxony proceeded quickly, with victories over armies, and then city walls. I believe we were precluded, again because of the alliance structure, from asking for territory from Saxe-Lauenburg, and so we allowed Thuringia to dictate that peace as well. In February they take economic gains, and Brandenburg gets 13 ducats.
Brandenburg does, however, have the ability to take territory from Saxony, and we make a separate peace in June, claiming Dresden for ourselves, along with 75 ducats. Saxony moves its capital to Zwickau, but Thuringia makes peace a month later, claiming Zwickau for itself, and Saxony ceases to exist.
Umm…. Ceases to exist… For now. As you may recall, Saxony ceased to exist previously, and then came to be once more. And – I shall foreshadow – she will be back!
As had occurred in our previous war with Lithuania, our Hungarian allies seemed interested in seeking battle with the enemy, but proved not very effective at taking territory. So Brandenburg once more did that for ourselves.
This time, however, we DID NOT transfer our acquisitions to Hungary so they could make their peace. They hadn’t had the sense to take territory last time, and we surmised this could become another long, pointless war, and we decided to keep our options open.
In June 1565 our new general – Gen. Albrecht von Manstein, with 5 Shock (!!) – defeated the Lithuanian army which had come to roost at Danzig once more. This time, we decided to take advantage of the victory by making a separate peace. We asked for 55 ducats and a 10% indemnity, and Moldavia/Lithuania accepted. Hungary would fight on, but their dithering would be their problem, not ours.
I hadn’t noticed previously – hadn’t, actually, until just now – but this peace cost Brandenburg 25 Prestige!! Apparently the game was disappointed in our initiative, or felt that we should have hung in there longer. But I/we hardly noticed. In EU IV a country can have no more than 100 Prestige, and Brandenburg had been at that level. This penalty dropped us to 75 Prestige, and we probably made that back up pretty quickly.
To our surprise, Hungary decided they didn’t care to dither either. They made peace just 2 months after us, again asking for not much from their neighbor. This appeared to be just a money-making racket for them.
So Berg, which started this update with 6 provinces, lost another two provinces to Cologne when they made peace in April 1566. That left them with only Ravensberg and Julich (the two provinces in the screenshot that have purple crosshatching).
Aachen made peace a week later, but did not reduce Berger territory further. They only took whatever ducats Berg had left in their treasury, and also gained an indemnity of 10%. These 10% indemnities against Berg must surely be paltry gains since their economy had been so repressed by this war and its resultant conquests!
I know some of you have been looking forward to seeing how many loans I took out for the war. Actually…. I don’t think I took out any loans for the war. I did, however, take out some loans because of an event that increased development in Berlin. I got 2 development for nearly 1,000 ducats, and thinking through the math I have no idea why I chose to do that (it’s not worth it, is it??). But I did it, and I also improved Krakow to a Market Town. So both of these were intended to improve Brandenburg’s economy.
As it is, by 1566, I’m making 83 ducats a month (compare vs. 63 in 1543 and 69 in 1553). In that time Production appears to have doubled (since 1543). The others have gone up steadily, but certainly nowhere near the improvement I’ve seen in Production. I’m paying approximately as much in interest now as I was in 1543, but it’s “less” relatively, since my economy is stronger.
The other thing I notice, which I’m sure helps my economy, is that Inflation has gone way down. It was as high as 4% in previous years, whereas it’s at about a 1/2 percent now. That’s Idea-related, and tech related.
In May of 1566, as I’ve mentioned before, England annexed the rest of Scotland.
I mention it again, here, because it’s the reason why England is suddenly 1 point ahead of Brandenburg in the Great Power race. Looks like Russia will be ahead of us, also, once they embrace the latest Institution.
It’s maybe interesting to note that the last non-European power has been kicked off the Great Powers list. Technology, presumably, and possibly Colonization, have placed Europe ahead of the rest of the world.
These are the people I share a continent with. Friends, and enemies, and some of them as yet undetermined.
What do you think might happen next? There are plenty of ways this could go. I’m curious to see what your expectations are, at this point.
Thank you!
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That went reasonably well and the state finances are not nearly as strained as usual after some big conflicts. My guess is that you are creating Saxony as a small vassal and will start feeding it other people's land until it gets big and stong and is ready to intergrate thus netting you lots of lovely land without using up admin points to core it all. That is unless things take a more easterly direction.... That Teutonic order looks very tasty.
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If I remember correctly, Paradox did add a mapmode showing the different sides of the league at some point. The trick is finding it among the many other mapmodes.
Yeah. If you separate peace out of an ally's war too early, the game penalizes you. You need to stay in for at least a full year I think. You were only in from July 1564 to June 1525.
Probably a sign that Hungary's AI isn't confident enough on its own to win. So it wants your help and will call you in again during their next attempt.
Heresy!
Not worth it at all. But it's a good way to flaunt your wealth to your neighbors. Brandenburg is mighty and powerful! I'd like to see the Austrians try and afford a thousand ducat splerge on two development. They'd probably go bankrupt!
I wonder if you might end up joining the Protestant League. It could be a good way to take Austria down. And you're probably powerful enough to be declared the leader on the Protestant side (letting you decide when and where to declare the league war).
However, if the Protestant side does win, Austria will no longer be eligible for the Emperorship, meaning the title might fall back to you. So Prussia would then be off the cards if you still want to form it.
Do you try to outfit an expedition to England? America? France? I'm not sure. There will definitely be a war somewhere though. Your Brandenburg never seems to stay at peace for long.
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The Once and Future Saxony.Umm…. Ceases to exist… For now. As you may recall, Saxony ceased to exist previously, and then came to be once more. And – I shall foreshadow – she will be back!
Smart. You don't want Hungary v Lithuania to be become a regular event. If their war becomes ever-repeating, it's only a matter of time before it comes up at the worst possible moment and you either get dragged into a conflict you can't afford or you have to break off the alliance.
There's been some discussion about peace deals and favors, but how have you found to be the AI to be when it's in charge of the peace deals. Does it do a decent job giving the player it's fair share? In EU3 I remember not trusting the AI as far as I could throw it after getting left holding the bag a few times in a big war.
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@Cromwell Agreed! Reasonably well, and the economy is in passable shape. Ahh -- that's a good guess with Saxony. You'll enjoy the answer. And a good point about the Teutonic Order.
Yeah. If you separate peace out of an ally's war too early, the game penalizes you. You need to stay in for at least a full year I think. You were only in from July 1564 to June 1525.
Probably a sign that Hungary's AI isn't confident enough on its own to win. So it wants your help and will call you in again during their next attempt.
Heresy!
Not worth it at all. But it's a good way to flaunt your wealth to your neighbors. Brandenburg is mighty and powerful! I'd like to see the Austrians try and afford a thousand ducat splerge on two development. They'd probably go bankrupt!
I wonder if you might end up joining the Protestant League. It could be a good way to take Austria down. And you're probably powerful enough to be declared the leader on the Protestant side (letting you decide when and where to declare the league war).
However, if the Protestant side does win, Austria will no longer be eligible for the Emperorship, meaning the title might fall back to you. So Prussia would then be off the cards if you still want to form it.
Do you try to outfit an expedition to England? America? France? I'm not sure. There will definitely be a war somewhere though. Your Brandenburg never seems to stay at peace for long.
@jak7139 Good guesses as to the Protestant League, and Hungary's AI. And interesting points about the Emperorship and all that. As always, my thinking and the resultant history is inscrutable.
But also always entertaining.Oh, and on the subject of the development that wasn't worth it... I remembered what happened, and I will reply to HistoryWhiz below.
@Historywhiz I remembered why I made that silly choice about the 2 Development in Berlin! I wasn't being stupid, or nonsensical. I just didn't have a choice. I looked back and there were 3 choices offered. One of them involved a Prestige hit, and another involved giving one of the Estates 15 Influence, neither of which I liked. It probably would have been worth it to take the Prestige hit instead of the financial hit, but then the Prestige hit didn't give me the Development, so it was 100% bad. I think I figured I'd get a little bit of good to balance the loss of the money. But I would have lost something no matter what I'd chosen.
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Oh, I hit some button that accidentally posted my feedback to feedback too early. So I'll just follow up with @VILenin here.
Haha! I love that! The Once and Future Saxony! Yes, it is. You'll enjoy it when you see it.
Yeah I'm kind of tired of having to play with Lithuania, whose territory I have no interest in. I want the Teutonic Order, and Lithuania is a distraction from that.
The AI peace... I find the AI peacemaking process to be slow. I'm a man of action -- I want to get things done, as quickly as possible, and resolved as quickly as possible. I think the AI decisions aren't necessarily bad. They're just slow. And yes, when the AI measures "contribution" to the war (which is how it divides up the financial spoils when indemnities are taken) they do a good job of estimating how much I've contributed.
The EU 3 AI was a whole different animal, and the "war leader" thing in EU 3, I think, was much preferable to how EU 4 does it. There are definitely tradeoffs, though.
Thanks for your readership and replies, everybody! And @TheButterflyComposer thank you for nominating me and this AAR for the WritAAR of the Week Award! Very much appreciated!
Anyone else lurking out there? I've heard stories, from time to time, of the fellow who just lurked and read, and then one day was moved to post something. Anybody?
The next update will hopefully be in a few days, to a week. I'm going to be very busy these next few days. But I hope to have time to put the next update together, as I've already prepared much of the groundwork for it.
Rensslaer
Haha! I love that! The Once and Future Saxony! Yes, it is. You'll enjoy it when you see it.
Yeah I'm kind of tired of having to play with Lithuania, whose territory I have no interest in. I want the Teutonic Order, and Lithuania is a distraction from that.
The AI peace... I find the AI peacemaking process to be slow. I'm a man of action -- I want to get things done, as quickly as possible, and resolved as quickly as possible. I think the AI decisions aren't necessarily bad. They're just slow. And yes, when the AI measures "contribution" to the war (which is how it divides up the financial spoils when indemnities are taken) they do a good job of estimating how much I've contributed.
The EU 3 AI was a whole different animal, and the "war leader" thing in EU 3, I think, was much preferable to how EU 4 does it. There are definitely tradeoffs, though.
Thanks for your readership and replies, everybody! And @TheButterflyComposer thank you for nominating me and this AAR for the WritAAR of the Week Award! Very much appreciated!
Anyone else lurking out there? I've heard stories, from time to time, of the fellow who just lurked and read, and then one day was moved to post something. Anybody?
The next update will hopefully be in a few days, to a week. I'm going to be very busy these next few days. But I hope to have time to put the next update together, as I've already prepared much of the groundwork for it.
Rensslaer
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You are in the blessed HRE. Prestige is never a problem. Just declare war on one of your minor neighbors, rough them up a little, and in the peace deal make them break alliances and other cheap terms that give you a ton of prestige (and money, because heaven knows you don’t have enough money!) if you want the game’s least valuable mana that badly.
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Very occasionally I get people to break the Long Silence, but not often.
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It's been a while since I commented on the Brandenburg Way of War: Loans and Mercenaries FTW!
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This fact not stopping you from spending money is one of the core themes of this AAR.
Zombie Saxony. The worst sort of Saxony
We all know why you chose this option.
You mentioned it before and I cheered it before, I will therefore cheer it again - Huzzah!
War, loans, loans during war, joining other wars while already at war elsewhere, peace deals that don't really bring in enough ducats and borrowing lots of money for ill-advised but grandiose infrastructure.
Overall that seemed a successful session, after all the effort that has been put into building/supporting allies I hope they are there for you when required. In particular Oldenburg surely owes you a great deal after how much it has grown.
It is tricky. But then you get the odd strange posts, like the mysterious type who decided to post "Hello is this thing working" and then vanish. Is that actually an improvement over the Long Silence?
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IMPORTANT!
Before I get to feedback I wanted to put in a plug for all readers to please go vote in the Q3 2024 AARLand Choice AwAARds!
I normally plug it quite regularly, but I've had alot going on this month and have been quite irregular in posting and replying, etc.
Of course I also want to repeat that by no means an I asking you to vote for my AARs unless you absolutely love them. There are many very talented writers here, and I know there's alot of quality stuff I haven't had a chance to see yet. These awards are one way to bring attention to these lesser known works.
@Historywhiz I'm sure you're right, and I should have chosen to save money and lose prestige. It does come rather easily to Brandenburg.
@TheButterflyComposer I don't frequently hear from new folks, but I know they're out there because I occasionally hear stories of someone who was reading for 2 years without posting. I guess it's a little bit if hassle to post if you haven't before.
Lol @Hootieleece For your information I'm almost done with the loans (for now) and am relying upon mercenaries far less. Glad to have your readership!
@El Pip lol I suppose you're right about my spending habits. I have some discipline, but everything in moderation, right?. Well, THAT at least.
Yes I was very happy with the outcome. And I didn't have to scheme to get myself into those wars - they came to me!
All right. I've been on a very busy vacation and am yet working at about a 3/4 schedule at the new job. Nevertheless I took an hour from both work and vacation today and actually got most of the next update prepared.
Posting maybe tomorrow or the next day?
Thank you all for your readership!
Rensslaer
Before I get to feedback I wanted to put in a plug for all readers to please go vote in the Q3 2024 AARLand Choice AwAARds!
I normally plug it quite regularly, but I've had alot going on this month and have been quite irregular in posting and replying, etc.
Of course I also want to repeat that by no means an I asking you to vote for my AARs unless you absolutely love them. There are many very talented writers here, and I know there's alot of quality stuff I haven't had a chance to see yet. These awards are one way to bring attention to these lesser known works.
@Historywhiz I'm sure you're right, and I should have chosen to save money and lose prestige. It does come rather easily to Brandenburg.
@TheButterflyComposer I don't frequently hear from new folks, but I know they're out there because I occasionally hear stories of someone who was reading for 2 years without posting. I guess it's a little bit if hassle to post if you haven't before.
Lol @Hootieleece For your information I'm almost done with the loans (for now) and am relying upon mercenaries far less.
Glad to have your readership!@El Pip lol I suppose you're right about my spending habits. I have some discipline, but everything in moderation, right?
. Well, THAT at least. Yes I was very happy with the outcome. And I didn't have to scheme to get myself into those wars - they came to me!
All right. I've been on a very busy vacation and am yet working at about a 3/4 schedule at the new job. Nevertheless I took an hour from both work and vacation today and actually got most of the next update prepared.
Posting maybe tomorrow or the next day?
Thank you all for your readership!
Rensslaer
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So… Brandenburg has just come back from various adventures in Berg, Saxony and Lithuania, and is now at peace once more. I mentioned some of the efforts to improve our economy.
These efforts persist into the end of 1566. In November we pay for another Economic Idea – the Kammergericht – which gives us a 10% increase in National Tax. That, alone, causes us to gain an extra 2 ducats per month over what you saw in the last update in March 1566 (notice the Tax Modifier was 86% in March and is 96% now).
That brings us to a nearly 11 ducats surplus even with full army maintenance.
I think linked to our acquisition of the new idea is a bonus advance – the Merchant Passes bonus, which gives us an additional Merchant. We send this guy to Novgorod, where we actually have a pretty good trade presence already. I have him set to steer trade to the Baltic where we have another merchant collecting, just as our other guy is steering trade to the Saxony node where Brandenburg is also collecting.
And…. I know in the screenshot it says he’s Collecting. I just saw another where he was Steering. I kinda think I started him off Steering, and didn’t like the results, so I switched him within a couple of months to Collecting. I think he would get 1 ducat a month from Collecting, but the Baltic wasn’t getting that much from the Steering. I think that’s likely because there are a lot of strong trading powers that might have been feeding on that “steered income” besides us.
By the way, I noticed one of the introductory hints while loading the game a couple weeks ago which made my jaw drop. Apparently it’s not necessary to have a Merchant in your home trade node in order to collect trade income there!!! I did test this, and it’s true. So for 200 years I basically was wasting a Merchant sitting on my home node when I didn’t apparently need to have him there.
I’d welcome comments from those in the know about my strategies, discoveries, and below trade rundowns on what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong. Clearly I do not understand the trade world as well as I should, and I’m guesstimating my way through most of this game.
In other economic news, after conquering Dresden from Saxony, and then double coring it and turning it into a state, I then quickly upgraded the city to a Market Town, improving local trade power by +10.
And this (above) is the trade environment I’m working with. In the screenshot I slid the Baltic Sea and Novgorod nodes over to the left/west to compress the view. My attempt to analyze the trade screen to show how the trade is calculated has spectacularly failed, as “the math isn’t mathing”.
Saxony – We’re collecting 31% of 12.9 which would be 4 ducats, but we’re actually collecting 9 ducats per month.
Lubeck – We’re collecting 4% of 38.7, but supposedly we’re not getting any of that. A month later I see it says we’re collecting 2% of 39.3, but we’re getting 1.77 ducats/mo out of this node. I have no idea why that would have shifted so suddenly and seemingly arbitrarily.
Baltic Sea – We’re collecting 15% of 9.8, but actually getting 3 ducats/mo (which is 30%ish)
Novgorod – We’re collecting 8% of 9.1
Wien – We’re collecting 2% of 16.2
Rheinland – We’re collecting 1% of 20.7
Krakow – We’re collecting 34% of .5
And, supposedly, from these trade screen indicators, I’m taking in 12 ducats a month from trade, but I’m really taking in more than 13. Maybe that’s just a decimal issue, but for whatever reason these numbers aren’t making sense to me. I was actually hoping to explain it for you.
But one thing I’d wanted to point out was that even if I’m getting a much lower percentage of a much larger pot, it sometimes ends up making a lot more money than my large percentage nodes.
So by mid 1567, as you can imagine, the royalties of Europe have mostly found themselves with either the Catholic League or the Protestant League. I was surprised to find that their national religion didn’t seem to be a bar to one or the other. I suppose that’s probably historic to a degree – it wasn’t strictly a religious conflict, but more rather a political conflict garbed in religion, and so sometimes a country’s other political alignments and priorities dictated a different League.
But Austria and the Emperor led the Catholic League, with Brabant, The Palatinate, Cilli, Bavaria, Siena, Ferrara, Verden, Mainz, Lucca, Sweden, Teutonic Order, Holland, Liege and (NOT LEAST!) Spain as members.
Brandenburg leads the Protestant League, with Denmark, Lubeck, Dortmund, France, Mantua, Dithmarschen, Oldenburg, Bremen, Trier, Russia (!!) and Saxony as members.
Now wait…. Didn’t Saxony disappear in the last update, being annexed by Thuringia?
Yes, well…. In December 1566 Thuringia decided to assume the legendary and historic mantle of Saxony by declaring herself Saxony. So now our ally Thuringia is Saxony. And this is… mostly good?
Anyway, yeah I don’t know why Russia would be in there either. But she is. Probably figured the enemy of her enemy Austria (which I believe is her enemy) is a friend. Geopolitics at its best. I’m rather curious to see what the algorithm is that dictates who joins which League, but I don’t have time to look it up.
Meanwhile, as so many countries join in Leagues which threaten a European-wide coalition war, most of those countries which had joined in coalition specifically against Brandenburg lose interest and leave that coalition. We’ve ducked the bullet once more. That was partly luck, partly dedicated application of Diplomats to improve relations with these countries.
The screenshot above covers much of what happened in 1567-68. Our Stability increases, by event, to +3, which is very welcome. King-Elector Friedrich VI is an Embezzler, so Corruption increases (but not by very much). We take another Quality Idea to improve our Cavalry combat ability. We choose “Individual Creeds” as an Aspect of Faith (costing Church Power), which reduces our costs for Ideas (this was right before I chose our Quality Idea – score!).
And those of you who are “in the know” about Estates Management, might be interested to see the situation we’ve gotten ourselves into with the Estates. I’ve actually stopped doing the automatic 5-10 year game of “Sieze Land”/”Sell Titles” because I’ve started to recognize two things. One, it’s probably better overall to hold more land in the Crown’s hands, and two, I’m beginning to realize that the Burghers’ 80% Influence is not a good thing, and I’ve begun trying things out to try to get that number reduced. Through normal give and take of Estate Privileges, it’s possible (as I discovered) to get stuck, where you can no longer take an Estate’s Privileges away, because to do so you have to have a higher Loyalty than the Influence number. I’m not going to solve this today, but you’ll see this little struggle go on over the next several updates. However I do choose to Sell Titles this time, and so it goes back to 33%.
Oh, and I repaid another loan, putting our monthly interest payment down to 5 ducats. This is largely because only 2 of the remaining loans are at high interest, while 5 of my loans are the ones the Burghers gave me at 1%.
So, it’s been a while since we took a trip around Brandenburg’s wider world. Here’s a screenshot of how North America looks in 1569. The light red up top is Vinland, Denmark’s Colonial Nation. Newfoundland and Thirteen Colonies are English, and England has a little patch of their own there too. The French have a small foothold, and their Colonial Nation is also there, called Nouvelle-Flanders (the lighter blue). The Spanish have slowly begun to spread from Central and South America into North America (yellow, lower left/west).
But North America has avoided the ravages of colonial incursion much better than South and Central America have. Those little native alliances are even taking a toll on some of these colonial powers along the coast.
I also take advantage of an event, in March 1569, that reduces the Influence of the Burghers by 10% (down to 72%). That’s one step in the right direction, there.
Central America is pretty much that warm, cozy, Spanish yellow color. Or is it for Yellow Fever? Or New World Gold? Either way, there’s no question who is dominant here. I’m sure the natives are restless, but what are they going to do?
The Aztecs are still hanging on, in the midst of all that Spanish goodwill. But from their perspective it’s they and a handful of other minor powers against the rapacious behemoth.
In South America there’s a mixture. The colonial powers are certainly making inroads, and the Spanish are definitely challenging the Inca. But the southern and western powers still have a good deal of strength with which to oppose encroachment.
Portugal, obviously, is the major power here, with their Colonial Nations Portuguese Brazil and Rio de la Prata.
There’s been very little colonization in North Africa. I haven’t played EU IV as a colonial power, and I don’t know if they’ve modeled difficulty of survival/subsistence into the colonial model as they do in Victoria. Even in Victoria those African provinces are harder to colonize than a lot of the Americas.
But for whatever reason Spain has a little bit of territory around Morocco. The Dutch (Holland) has claimed two greyish-brown patches along the Gold Coast and the Bight of Africa. The rest of this is native powers. The Ottomans and Mamluks loom, in the northeast, but Ethiopia has thus far been strong enough to withstand.
In southern Africa Kongo and Kilwa are the native powers along the west-central and east central coasts, but Portugal, Spain and England have grabbed patches of the Cape of Good Hope as waystations to elsewhere.
There is no European presence at all in Central/South Asia. Vijayanagar, you might recall, is the dominant power here, as they only recently left the ranks of the world’s Great Powers. But there are a great many kingdoms and khanates and sheikhdoms and sultanates who remain major regional powers here.
In Southeast Asia Ayutthaya seems to be first among several states, but probably not particularly dominant. Dai Viet seems to be doing well, and even seems to have moved up along the coast to encompass Hainan and right up to Canton and Macao. Canton is owned by Wu, which might be known as a powerful Chinese country by the Brandenburgers, and we’re also aware of Macao, which is owned by Ming, which we’re aware is a rather larger Chinese power. Brunei and Sunda, I’d bet, are regional powers. Australia? What’s Australia?
I cannot, actually, locate any European presence in Asia at all, so far as Brandenburg is aware of.
As for Japan and the rest of China, who really knows? The Philippine Islands are there, on the far east/right, hidden by fog of war. Brandenburg is aware that such countries exist, but has little real knowledge about who leads those countries, what their geography might be, or what is going on there. Nor do they really care. We have other, more immediate concerns, yes?
We had various building sprees between 1569 and 1573. Mundane buildings, as well as some more strategic ones, such as several Regimental Camps, which improve our Force Limit to try to compete with the new Emperor, a Shipyard, a Textile Manufactory, and Coastal Defense for Danzig, for when or if I ever face a serious challenge against a power that can force its way into the Baltic Sea (the Coastal Defense blocks raids, increases the number of ships required to successfully Blockade, and causes amphibious invasions to take TWICE as long to land).
We also adopted a new Age Ability – Powerful Trade Ships give us 20% more Trade Power from light ships on commerce protection duty. And we took advantage of a random event to improve our Innovativeness, which has been sadly lacking due to us playing catchup with Monarch Points.
France continued to make everyone nervous, by sniping part of Liege – specifically Liege itself – and leaving Liege with only one province, slightly north of its erstwhile capital.
England, in 1570, became Great Britain under Queen Elizabeth (who actually has an heir!). France quickly declared a colonial war against Great Britain, aiming to seize her American possessions. But by late 1571 the British appeared to have been showing up the French on the British Isles, anyway.
In 1572 Brandenburg achieved Administrative Tech 14, which continues to be on par with our neighbors (this is one we lagged in for some time). And we adopt the Infrastructure Idea Group.
Not to be missed is that the Aztec finally succumb to Castilian predations in 1573.
And then, in November of that year, our ally Denmark calls us out of our 8-year peace to attack a minor neighbor in what used to be the Scottish Highlands. This also puts us at war with Trier.
We did participate in this war, but not for the purpose of territorial gain. In fact, most of our motivation was simply to put an end to the war as soon as possible. Trier gave way quickly, offering a sizeable 255 ducats for peace (and reparations to Denmark), with Brandenburg getting 240 of those (since we had borne the whole expense of war against them).
And then in November, a year after the war had started, Denmark made peace with Gaeldom, taking one province (Perth, with its fort) and taking reparations and 100 ducats from Gaeldom. Brandenburg received 86 ducats of this. The other gain of this war was a nice Leader Trait for Gen. Knobelsdorf, improving his troops’ morale and recovery speed.
This quirky duchy of Gaeldom, remarkably, still existed after this war. It remained to be seen how long that would last.
But before all this resolved, another MOST interesting war had begun. Spain and France were at war again, and Venice joined this effort to put France in her place. Recall that Great Britain was already at war with France, and seemed to be doing quite well. Would they succeed in weakening the dragon, I wondered?
So, there… I have placed before you maps of all the realms of the known world. Where do you suppose Brandenburg’s attentions might best be next directed??
And… (knowing me) What do you suppose I did instead?
These efforts persist into the end of 1566. In November we pay for another Economic Idea – the Kammergericht – which gives us a 10% increase in National Tax. That, alone, causes us to gain an extra 2 ducats per month over what you saw in the last update in March 1566 (notice the Tax Modifier was 86% in March and is 96% now).
That brings us to a nearly 11 ducats surplus even with full army maintenance.
I think linked to our acquisition of the new idea is a bonus advance – the Merchant Passes bonus, which gives us an additional Merchant. We send this guy to Novgorod, where we actually have a pretty good trade presence already. I have him set to steer trade to the Baltic where we have another merchant collecting, just as our other guy is steering trade to the Saxony node where Brandenburg is also collecting.
And…. I know in the screenshot it says he’s Collecting. I just saw another where he was Steering. I kinda think I started him off Steering, and didn’t like the results, so I switched him within a couple of months to Collecting. I think he would get 1 ducat a month from Collecting, but the Baltic wasn’t getting that much from the Steering. I think that’s likely because there are a lot of strong trading powers that might have been feeding on that “steered income” besides us.
By the way, I noticed one of the introductory hints while loading the game a couple weeks ago which made my jaw drop. Apparently it’s not necessary to have a Merchant in your home trade node in order to collect trade income there!!! I did test this, and it’s true. So for 200 years I basically was wasting a Merchant sitting on my home node when I didn’t apparently need to have him there.
I’d welcome comments from those in the know about my strategies, discoveries, and below trade rundowns on what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong. Clearly I do not understand the trade world as well as I should, and I’m guesstimating my way through most of this game.
In other economic news, after conquering Dresden from Saxony, and then double coring it and turning it into a state, I then quickly upgraded the city to a Market Town, improving local trade power by +10.
And this (above) is the trade environment I’m working with. In the screenshot I slid the Baltic Sea and Novgorod nodes over to the left/west to compress the view. My attempt to analyze the trade screen to show how the trade is calculated has spectacularly failed, as “the math isn’t mathing”.
Saxony – We’re collecting 31% of 12.9 which would be 4 ducats, but we’re actually collecting 9 ducats per month.
Lubeck – We’re collecting 4% of 38.7, but supposedly we’re not getting any of that. A month later I see it says we’re collecting 2% of 39.3, but we’re getting 1.77 ducats/mo out of this node. I have no idea why that would have shifted so suddenly and seemingly arbitrarily.
Baltic Sea – We’re collecting 15% of 9.8, but actually getting 3 ducats/mo (which is 30%ish)
Novgorod – We’re collecting 8% of 9.1
Wien – We’re collecting 2% of 16.2
Rheinland – We’re collecting 1% of 20.7
Krakow – We’re collecting 34% of .5
And, supposedly, from these trade screen indicators, I’m taking in 12 ducats a month from trade, but I’m really taking in more than 13. Maybe that’s just a decimal issue, but for whatever reason these numbers aren’t making sense to me. I was actually hoping to explain it for you.
But one thing I’d wanted to point out was that even if I’m getting a much lower percentage of a much larger pot, it sometimes ends up making a lot more money than my large percentage nodes.
So by mid 1567, as you can imagine, the royalties of Europe have mostly found themselves with either the Catholic League or the Protestant League. I was surprised to find that their national religion didn’t seem to be a bar to one or the other. I suppose that’s probably historic to a degree – it wasn’t strictly a religious conflict, but more rather a political conflict garbed in religion, and so sometimes a country’s other political alignments and priorities dictated a different League.
But Austria and the Emperor led the Catholic League, with Brabant, The Palatinate, Cilli, Bavaria, Siena, Ferrara, Verden, Mainz, Lucca, Sweden, Teutonic Order, Holland, Liege and (NOT LEAST!) Spain as members.
Brandenburg leads the Protestant League, with Denmark, Lubeck, Dortmund, France, Mantua, Dithmarschen, Oldenburg, Bremen, Trier, Russia (!!) and Saxony as members.
Now wait…. Didn’t Saxony disappear in the last update, being annexed by Thuringia?
Yes, well…. In December 1566 Thuringia decided to assume the legendary and historic mantle of Saxony by declaring herself Saxony. So now our ally Thuringia is Saxony. And this is… mostly good?
Anyway, yeah I don’t know why Russia would be in there either. But she is. Probably figured the enemy of her enemy Austria (which I believe is her enemy) is a friend. Geopolitics at its best. I’m rather curious to see what the algorithm is that dictates who joins which League, but I don’t have time to look it up.
Meanwhile, as so many countries join in Leagues which threaten a European-wide coalition war, most of those countries which had joined in coalition specifically against Brandenburg lose interest and leave that coalition. We’ve ducked the bullet once more. That was partly luck, partly dedicated application of Diplomats to improve relations with these countries.
The screenshot above covers much of what happened in 1567-68. Our Stability increases, by event, to +3, which is very welcome. King-Elector Friedrich VI is an Embezzler, so Corruption increases (but not by very much). We take another Quality Idea to improve our Cavalry combat ability. We choose “Individual Creeds” as an Aspect of Faith (costing Church Power), which reduces our costs for Ideas (this was right before I chose our Quality Idea – score!).
And those of you who are “in the know” about Estates Management, might be interested to see the situation we’ve gotten ourselves into with the Estates. I’ve actually stopped doing the automatic 5-10 year game of “Sieze Land”/”Sell Titles” because I’ve started to recognize two things. One, it’s probably better overall to hold more land in the Crown’s hands, and two, I’m beginning to realize that the Burghers’ 80% Influence is not a good thing, and I’ve begun trying things out to try to get that number reduced. Through normal give and take of Estate Privileges, it’s possible (as I discovered) to get stuck, where you can no longer take an Estate’s Privileges away, because to do so you have to have a higher Loyalty than the Influence number. I’m not going to solve this today, but you’ll see this little struggle go on over the next several updates. However I do choose to Sell Titles this time, and so it goes back to 33%.
Oh, and I repaid another loan, putting our monthly interest payment down to 5 ducats. This is largely because only 2 of the remaining loans are at high interest, while 5 of my loans are the ones the Burghers gave me at 1%.
So, it’s been a while since we took a trip around Brandenburg’s wider world. Here’s a screenshot of how North America looks in 1569. The light red up top is Vinland, Denmark’s Colonial Nation. Newfoundland and Thirteen Colonies are English, and England has a little patch of their own there too. The French have a small foothold, and their Colonial Nation is also there, called Nouvelle-Flanders (the lighter blue). The Spanish have slowly begun to spread from Central and South America into North America (yellow, lower left/west).
But North America has avoided the ravages of colonial incursion much better than South and Central America have. Those little native alliances are even taking a toll on some of these colonial powers along the coast.
I also take advantage of an event, in March 1569, that reduces the Influence of the Burghers by 10% (down to 72%). That’s one step in the right direction, there.
Central America is pretty much that warm, cozy, Spanish yellow color. Or is it for Yellow Fever? Or New World Gold? Either way, there’s no question who is dominant here. I’m sure the natives are restless, but what are they going to do?
The Aztecs are still hanging on, in the midst of all that Spanish goodwill. But from their perspective it’s they and a handful of other minor powers against the rapacious behemoth.
In South America there’s a mixture. The colonial powers are certainly making inroads, and the Spanish are definitely challenging the Inca. But the southern and western powers still have a good deal of strength with which to oppose encroachment.
Portugal, obviously, is the major power here, with their Colonial Nations Portuguese Brazil and Rio de la Prata.
There’s been very little colonization in North Africa. I haven’t played EU IV as a colonial power, and I don’t know if they’ve modeled difficulty of survival/subsistence into the colonial model as they do in Victoria. Even in Victoria those African provinces are harder to colonize than a lot of the Americas.
But for whatever reason Spain has a little bit of territory around Morocco. The Dutch (Holland) has claimed two greyish-brown patches along the Gold Coast and the Bight of Africa. The rest of this is native powers. The Ottomans and Mamluks loom, in the northeast, but Ethiopia has thus far been strong enough to withstand.
In southern Africa Kongo and Kilwa are the native powers along the west-central and east central coasts, but Portugal, Spain and England have grabbed patches of the Cape of Good Hope as waystations to elsewhere.
There is no European presence at all in Central/South Asia. Vijayanagar, you might recall, is the dominant power here, as they only recently left the ranks of the world’s Great Powers. But there are a great many kingdoms and khanates and sheikhdoms and sultanates who remain major regional powers here.
In Southeast Asia Ayutthaya seems to be first among several states, but probably not particularly dominant. Dai Viet seems to be doing well, and even seems to have moved up along the coast to encompass Hainan and right up to Canton and Macao. Canton is owned by Wu, which might be known as a powerful Chinese country by the Brandenburgers, and we’re also aware of Macao, which is owned by Ming, which we’re aware is a rather larger Chinese power. Brunei and Sunda, I’d bet, are regional powers. Australia? What’s Australia?
I cannot, actually, locate any European presence in Asia at all, so far as Brandenburg is aware of.
As for Japan and the rest of China, who really knows? The Philippine Islands are there, on the far east/right, hidden by fog of war. Brandenburg is aware that such countries exist, but has little real knowledge about who leads those countries, what their geography might be, or what is going on there. Nor do they really care. We have other, more immediate concerns, yes?
We had various building sprees between 1569 and 1573. Mundane buildings, as well as some more strategic ones, such as several Regimental Camps, which improve our Force Limit to try to compete with the new Emperor, a Shipyard, a Textile Manufactory, and Coastal Defense for Danzig, for when or if I ever face a serious challenge against a power that can force its way into the Baltic Sea (the Coastal Defense blocks raids, increases the number of ships required to successfully Blockade, and causes amphibious invasions to take TWICE as long to land).
We also adopted a new Age Ability – Powerful Trade Ships give us 20% more Trade Power from light ships on commerce protection duty. And we took advantage of a random event to improve our Innovativeness, which has been sadly lacking due to us playing catchup with Monarch Points.
France continued to make everyone nervous, by sniping part of Liege – specifically Liege itself – and leaving Liege with only one province, slightly north of its erstwhile capital.
England, in 1570, became Great Britain under Queen Elizabeth (who actually has an heir!). France quickly declared a colonial war against Great Britain, aiming to seize her American possessions. But by late 1571 the British appeared to have been showing up the French on the British Isles, anyway.
In 1572 Brandenburg achieved Administrative Tech 14, which continues to be on par with our neighbors (this is one we lagged in for some time). And we adopt the Infrastructure Idea Group.
Not to be missed is that the Aztec finally succumb to Castilian predations in 1573.
And then, in November of that year, our ally Denmark calls us out of our 8-year peace to attack a minor neighbor in what used to be the Scottish Highlands. This also puts us at war with Trier.
We did participate in this war, but not for the purpose of territorial gain. In fact, most of our motivation was simply to put an end to the war as soon as possible. Trier gave way quickly, offering a sizeable 255 ducats for peace (and reparations to Denmark), with Brandenburg getting 240 of those (since we had borne the whole expense of war against them).
And then in November, a year after the war had started, Denmark made peace with Gaeldom, taking one province (Perth, with its fort) and taking reparations and 100 ducats from Gaeldom. Brandenburg received 86 ducats of this. The other gain of this war was a nice Leader Trait for Gen. Knobelsdorf, improving his troops’ morale and recovery speed.
This quirky duchy of Gaeldom, remarkably, still existed after this war. It remained to be seen how long that would last.
But before all this resolved, another MOST interesting war had begun. Spain and France were at war again, and Venice joined this effort to put France in her place. Recall that Great Britain was already at war with France, and seemed to be doing quite well. Would they succeed in weakening the dragon, I wondered?
So, there… I have placed before you maps of all the realms of the known world. Where do you suppose Brandenburg’s attentions might best be next directed??
And… (knowing me) What do you suppose I did instead?
- 5