This is a non-standard, heavily modified IGC-enter if you dare (a prize will not be available for the people who correctly notice the non-historical elements ! 
Setting the scene- "Hmm, Telepath net up? Good! Communications with fellow eminence grise' established? Excellent! Everything set? Then let us begin..........."
HOLLAND-Jan. 1 1492-Jan. 1 1497, NEW BEGINNINGS, NEW ENDINGS?
So, let the mists clear, what do we see. To the west I see England, a superpower in waiting. Scotland, Ireland and Brittany lie as quiescent vassals in their grasp-we must be cautious........
To the north is Kalmar, riven by rebellion, but what if the rebels fail? To the east, Germany, the HRE, so tempting in its' weakness, to the south-Ah! To the south lies Flandres, friendless and alone, our ancestral foes (well, as of five seconds ago!) To business......
First, the dull stuff-Catholic tolerance to maximum (who cares about Islam), maintenance sliders full, income to 0.10, the rest to land. Field Artillery, must have Field Artillery! The telepathic network is clearly working, as we map-swap with England, Morocco, Novgorod, Astrakhan, Persia, Nubia and Ethiopia-ah, what splendid new vistas are revealed before mine eyes..............
Our armies must proceed to Zeeland, where four thousand foot and three thousand horse are being recruited to join them. No merchants sent, but who cares, there will be time........
January 1 1492-as the final act, Hannover accepts our entreaties, and enters an alliance.
February 25 1492-we take a loan, which is converted into research-land tech was taking too long. Cannon, give me cannon! Should reach it in October.
On March 10 1492, the lousy Spanish declare war on Navarra, Milan joining in..........of course, none of us really understands why Milan should do this! A new war breaks out on the 21st, when Byzantium declares war on the Papacy, joined by the Knights and Georgia. Savoy stands at the Papacy's side. Why the Knights should come boiling out of Lebanon in support of an Orthodox Crusade is beyond us. Oh, well.......
April to July are so dull, Munster and Cologne join our alliance, and one of our ruler's relations marries the daughter of the Archbishop (at his suggestion, ah, the modern Catholic church!) September's an improvement, when the Poles declare war on Russia-since the Russians are backed by Pskov, Ryazan and Crimea, this may be a mistake, although if I was Novgorod, I'd sieze my chance.........
October comes and the Palatinate join our alliance-but "Field Artillery" doesn't come-the chief researcher "apologises", his deputy should be capable enough.........November brings the technology, and our research is reoriented-while not ignoring any fields, infrastructure gets the lion's share. On the second, we take another loan, and a thousand cavalry and thirty artillery pieces are placed under construction in Zeeland. On the seventh, the Poles annex Pskov-who cares?
December brings an offer of a RM from Hannover, we accept on the 16th.
1493 shall be a year of ACTION! With our 83 ducats, we commence the promotion of a tax collector in Friesen, and send four merchants to Flandres and two to Anglia. I guess we had to look at economics sometime. Kleves joins our alliance, but Flandres still walks alone, hee, hee. A pair or marriages is all........
On the twenty-third, Turkey attacks the Mamelukes. I expect we'll hear of tens of thousands of screaming warriors pouring out of their heartland around lake Van, and from the shores of the Caspian. Good for them!
We play a great April Fool on Flandres-we declare war! We'll handle it alone, allies not required. From May 17-24, a great battle rages in Zeeland, where for negligible losses we slaughter nine thousand of the accursed foe-we advance on Flandres, as their shattered remnants withdraw to Hainaut. Van Egmont will not be denied!
Flandres falls on October 25 1493, Calais on January 16 1494, Picardie on May 7 1494, and Artois on August 28 1494. Stung to action, the army of Flandres finally reacts, and troops begin construction in Hainaut. From September 15 to September 23, battle rages in Artois, but at its' close, we stand victorious, and the army of Flandres is no more-on to Hainaut! The siege begins on October 13 1494, we defeat a desperate sortie in early December of eight thousand foot and five thousand horse, and the city falls on February 13, 1495! ignoring their despairing pleas, we annex Flandres on the fifteenth of the month. Mysteriously, the ships and men of Flandres seem willing to serve us................
Elsewhere, we've contracted a number of Royal marriages. Merchants have been sent to Anglia, a tax collector promoted in Holland. Austria, supported by Hungary and Bohemia, declared war on Venice on the thirtieth of January, 1494. Tuscany, Modena, and Genoa rallied to Venice' aid. The Poles yielded Krementjug, Donetz and 176 ducats to Crimea on 25 May 1494-I thought they'd bitten off more than they could chew! In December 1494, Navarra pays Spain 16 ducats in indemnities.........the Spanish really are incompetent!
Most importantly, in August our infrastructure increases to High Renaissance, and a brave soul volunteers to go exploring for us (better him than me!) So in 1495, as he nears where my prescience says the "Americas" are, it's time to preserve money for possible colonisation................
On March 1 1495, he reaches the Newfoundland Banks, but can't find anything. Oh well, nothing ventured, onwards he is ordered to go. On May 6 he reaches the Bay of Fundy and discovers the fair land of Nova Scotia! To our horror, we no longer have enough money, so out comes a third loan. A colonist is sent, three merchants begin the trek to Genoa, and tax collectors are promoted in the Hague, Zeeland and Hainaut.
The news that Austria has paid 60 ducats in indemnities to Venice on 28 August 1495 is overwhelmed by the horrifying news that our explorer didn't make it back across the Atlantic. Oops!
1496, the year of rest........our first loans are due in 1497, so time to save! Budget slider to 0.20! The Ottomans accept peace with the Mamelukes on January 26 in return for Syria, Sinai and Qattara. Since intelligence had reported that they were on the verge of total victory, this seems foolish. Maybe time will tell.........The wonderful telepathic link apparatus informs me that Japan (a place I've never heard of) declared war on Korea (another place I've never heard of) on the fifth of April. Poland cedes Vorones to Russia on the 19 November.
Our colonist fails on the sixth of November-without doing much, it's been that sort of year. Still, ever onwards.........
We have concluded many royal marriages (Austria, Bohemia etc.) Our RM with France has revealed that they are now allied with the two "L"s, Lorraine and Luxembourg. As our next victims, this will be ideal! Better keep an eye on Burgundy though.........
But first, we must face the year of the "Attack of the Loans"! It is January 1 1497................
Setting the scene- "Hmm, Telepath net up? Good! Communications with fellow eminence grise' established? Excellent! Everything set? Then let us begin..........."
HOLLAND-Jan. 1 1492-Jan. 1 1497, NEW BEGINNINGS, NEW ENDINGS?
So, let the mists clear, what do we see. To the west I see England, a superpower in waiting. Scotland, Ireland and Brittany lie as quiescent vassals in their grasp-we must be cautious........
To the north is Kalmar, riven by rebellion, but what if the rebels fail? To the east, Germany, the HRE, so tempting in its' weakness, to the south-Ah! To the south lies Flandres, friendless and alone, our ancestral foes (well, as of five seconds ago!) To business......
First, the dull stuff-Catholic tolerance to maximum (who cares about Islam), maintenance sliders full, income to 0.10, the rest to land. Field Artillery, must have Field Artillery! The telepathic network is clearly working, as we map-swap with England, Morocco, Novgorod, Astrakhan, Persia, Nubia and Ethiopia-ah, what splendid new vistas are revealed before mine eyes..............
Our armies must proceed to Zeeland, where four thousand foot and three thousand horse are being recruited to join them. No merchants sent, but who cares, there will be time........
January 1 1492-as the final act, Hannover accepts our entreaties, and enters an alliance.
February 25 1492-we take a loan, which is converted into research-land tech was taking too long. Cannon, give me cannon! Should reach it in October.
On March 10 1492, the lousy Spanish declare war on Navarra, Milan joining in..........of course, none of us really understands why Milan should do this! A new war breaks out on the 21st, when Byzantium declares war on the Papacy, joined by the Knights and Georgia. Savoy stands at the Papacy's side. Why the Knights should come boiling out of Lebanon in support of an Orthodox Crusade is beyond us. Oh, well.......
April to July are so dull, Munster and Cologne join our alliance, and one of our ruler's relations marries the daughter of the Archbishop (at his suggestion, ah, the modern Catholic church!) September's an improvement, when the Poles declare war on Russia-since the Russians are backed by Pskov, Ryazan and Crimea, this may be a mistake, although if I was Novgorod, I'd sieze my chance.........
October comes and the Palatinate join our alliance-but "Field Artillery" doesn't come-the chief researcher "apologises", his deputy should be capable enough.........November brings the technology, and our research is reoriented-while not ignoring any fields, infrastructure gets the lion's share. On the second, we take another loan, and a thousand cavalry and thirty artillery pieces are placed under construction in Zeeland. On the seventh, the Poles annex Pskov-who cares?
December brings an offer of a RM from Hannover, we accept on the 16th.
1493 shall be a year of ACTION! With our 83 ducats, we commence the promotion of a tax collector in Friesen, and send four merchants to Flandres and two to Anglia. I guess we had to look at economics sometime.
Kleves joins our alliance, but Flandres still walks alone, hee, hee. A pair or marriages is all........On the twenty-third, Turkey attacks the Mamelukes. I expect we'll hear of tens of thousands of screaming warriors pouring out of their heartland around lake Van, and from the shores of the Caspian. Good for them!
We play a great April Fool on Flandres-we declare war! We'll handle it alone, allies not required. From May 17-24, a great battle rages in Zeeland, where for negligible losses we slaughter nine thousand of the accursed foe-we advance on Flandres, as their shattered remnants withdraw to Hainaut. Van Egmont will not be denied!
Flandres falls on October 25 1493, Calais on January 16 1494, Picardie on May 7 1494, and Artois on August 28 1494. Stung to action, the army of Flandres finally reacts, and troops begin construction in Hainaut. From September 15 to September 23, battle rages in Artois, but at its' close, we stand victorious, and the army of Flandres is no more-on to Hainaut! The siege begins on October 13 1494, we defeat a desperate sortie in early December of eight thousand foot and five thousand horse, and the city falls on February 13, 1495! ignoring their despairing pleas, we annex Flandres on the fifteenth of the month.
Mysteriously, the ships and men of Flandres seem willing to serve us................Elsewhere, we've contracted a number of Royal marriages. Merchants have been sent to Anglia, a tax collector promoted in Holland. Austria, supported by Hungary and Bohemia, declared war on Venice on the thirtieth of January, 1494. Tuscany, Modena, and Genoa rallied to Venice' aid. The Poles yielded Krementjug, Donetz and 176 ducats to Crimea on 25 May 1494-I thought they'd bitten off more than they could chew!
In December 1494, Navarra pays Spain 16 ducats in indemnities.........the Spanish really are incompetent!Most importantly, in August our infrastructure increases to High Renaissance, and a brave soul volunteers to go exploring for us (better him than me!) So in 1495, as he nears where my prescience says the "Americas" are, it's time to preserve money for possible colonisation................
On March 1 1495, he reaches the Newfoundland Banks, but can't find anything. Oh well, nothing ventured, onwards he is ordered to go. On May 6 he reaches the Bay of Fundy and discovers the fair land of Nova Scotia! To our horror, we no longer have enough money, so out comes a third loan. A colonist is sent, three merchants begin the trek to Genoa, and tax collectors are promoted in the Hague, Zeeland and Hainaut.
The news that Austria has paid 60 ducats in indemnities to Venice on 28 August 1495 is overwhelmed by the horrifying news that our explorer didn't make it back across the Atlantic. Oops!
1496, the year of rest........our first loans are due in 1497, so time to save! Budget slider to 0.20! The Ottomans accept peace with the Mamelukes on January 26 in return for Syria, Sinai and Qattara. Since intelligence had reported that they were on the verge of total victory, this seems foolish. Maybe time will tell.........The wonderful telepathic link apparatus informs me that Japan (a place I've never heard of) declared war on Korea (another place I've never heard of) on the fifth of April. Poland cedes Vorones to Russia on the 19 November.
Our colonist fails on the sixth of November-without doing much, it's been that sort of year.
Still, ever onwards.........We have concluded many royal marriages (Austria, Bohemia etc.) Our RM with France has revealed that they are now allied with the two "L"s, Lorraine and Luxembourg. As our next victims, this will be ideal! Better keep an eye on Burgundy though.........
But first, we must face the year of the "Attack of the Loans"! It is January 1 1497................
