This is a casual AAR about my ongoing game as Brandenburg. My house rule in this game is to play the game as it is and goes on without any reloading for a better monarch or something like that. Hence, some pain will be endured. The goal of my game is to strife for a somewhat close to historical Europe, take over Germany and maybe some more land.. If for example England is threatened to die I will ally them and help them as much I can to survive.
You know when you start with Brandenburg in 1399 you are under a personal union with Luxembourg and you can A) break the PU by declaring war and hope you can make peace with them before Bohemia crush you or B) wait up to 50 years before the king of Luxembourg dies and the PU breaks when the relations are below zero. I chosed the latter option because Bohemia was not moving the 30k armies of theirs to France like they always do, and Burgundy incorporated Lux into the sphere of theirs.
35 years passed, nothing happened so I afked abit, did some laundry and cleaning in my apartment while keeping an careful eye on the screen. In the 35 years there was not much to do except from building constables and armories in all provinces for having a whopping 40 ducats / year income at the end of each year. So I thought hey lets save up 500 ducats and build a center of trade in Berlin. Great idea, it always turns out great in every game with some extra percent growth and income for my capital etc. But I didnt know that the provinces trading in my CoT was going to be like 5.. So after like 5 years the stagnation and low trade value in my CoT made it disappear! Horray 500 ducats thrown into the sea.
Three years later, I reckoned the king of Luxembourg had seen his best days and maximised my army to the forcelimit and the great number of 8000 free men to be ready for the coming of freedom. Oh, Brandenburg is arming themselves BOHEMIA realised and declared war, I dont think they had a CB even. Still shackled under Luxembourg noone came to my rescue. SOOoo here comes Bohemia with 2 x 15k deathstacks and steamrolls the peaceful 4 province state of Brandenburg. Game over I thought and turned up the game speed to max to end it fast. All provinces were occupied but somehow, Luxembourg, the leader of the alliance managed to get a peace only having to cancel some treaties and pay like 19 ducats. I turned game speed back to 3 and watched, except from the annihilation of my army and some scorching of my lands Brandenburg looks ok, lets see what could happen next.
A few years later the king of Luxembourg finally passed away and the shackles of marriage was lifted of my bruised 4 province state! The 8k army was resurrected and I cancelled the Silesia mission to get the one on Pommerania and I got it. So here we go I thought but not until Poland that was guaranteeing Pommerania had been dragged into an alliance war together with Novgorod against Lithuania, Pommerania, Mazovia and Danzig that rose up from Denmarkish Kaliningrad a decade earlier. The war went well, my 8k army was up against 4k Pommerania and 4k Mazovia, luckily they were split and not stacking on me. I also picked Military Drill as first NI, I tend to do that in most games nowadays because it overpowers your armies pretty well. My aim was to get some free trade up for my newly freed state so I vassalised Pommerania instead of annexing them. It was a gamble though as they were still in war with Poland that could possibly annex them. But the leader of their alliances made peace and Pommerania became the first vassal of Brandenburg. Novogorod annexed Danzig and converted Warmia to the ortodox faith! I felt this russian occupied Kaliningrad area had to be german land once again somehow, but time will tell how.
It didnt take long until Bohemia decided it was time for another beating of Brandenburg, another showdown in Berlin. So here they came again, but this time only one 15k stack marched into Brandenburg and besieged Neumark. And this time I had the time to ally Pommerania, Anhalt, Bavaria and Saxony before they came again. Also my army was now the size of 11K free men and not so easy to beat with the military drill they had been undergone. So this time Bohemia was beaten in a few long and very tight battles outside Berlin, Landsberg (Neumark) and in Cottbus. We pursued the beaten remains of their stacks and the last battle stood in Plzen where 7K Bohemians had the upped hand on 6K Bavarians but I managed to reinforced the side of my fellow Bavarians before they was defeated with my war torn remaining 6000 men and cavalry. So the battle of Plzen in 1441 something was won and total victory was a fact. The score was settled, Bohemia ceded Nieder- and Oberlausitz to Brandenburg and the people of Sileasia was granted freedom forming a state with very close bounds to Brandenburg.. Royal marriages was very soon arranged. This first chapter ended in 1451, Anhalt and Saxony vassallised and Pommerania annexed in 1451 after a few tries and thanks to an expanded sphere of influence. Only 15 years earlier my Brandenburg was looking to be enslaved under Bohemian rule but survived miraculously and then made it to safe ground walking on a very thin line barely having the 8000 men needed to vassalise Pommerania in the first war of aggression. I'll try upload screens on the current state of Europe in 1451:
You know when you start with Brandenburg in 1399 you are under a personal union with Luxembourg and you can A) break the PU by declaring war and hope you can make peace with them before Bohemia crush you or B) wait up to 50 years before the king of Luxembourg dies and the PU breaks when the relations are below zero. I chosed the latter option because Bohemia was not moving the 30k armies of theirs to France like they always do, and Burgundy incorporated Lux into the sphere of theirs.
35 years passed, nothing happened so I afked abit, did some laundry and cleaning in my apartment while keeping an careful eye on the screen. In the 35 years there was not much to do except from building constables and armories in all provinces for having a whopping 40 ducats / year income at the end of each year. So I thought hey lets save up 500 ducats and build a center of trade in Berlin. Great idea, it always turns out great in every game with some extra percent growth and income for my capital etc. But I didnt know that the provinces trading in my CoT was going to be like 5.. So after like 5 years the stagnation and low trade value in my CoT made it disappear! Horray 500 ducats thrown into the sea.
Three years later, I reckoned the king of Luxembourg had seen his best days and maximised my army to the forcelimit and the great number of 8000 free men to be ready for the coming of freedom. Oh, Brandenburg is arming themselves BOHEMIA realised and declared war, I dont think they had a CB even. Still shackled under Luxembourg noone came to my rescue. SOOoo here comes Bohemia with 2 x 15k deathstacks and steamrolls the peaceful 4 province state of Brandenburg. Game over I thought and turned up the game speed to max to end it fast. All provinces were occupied but somehow, Luxembourg, the leader of the alliance managed to get a peace only having to cancel some treaties and pay like 19 ducats. I turned game speed back to 3 and watched, except from the annihilation of my army and some scorching of my lands Brandenburg looks ok, lets see what could happen next.
A few years later the king of Luxembourg finally passed away and the shackles of marriage was lifted of my bruised 4 province state! The 8k army was resurrected and I cancelled the Silesia mission to get the one on Pommerania and I got it. So here we go I thought but not until Poland that was guaranteeing Pommerania had been dragged into an alliance war together with Novgorod against Lithuania, Pommerania, Mazovia and Danzig that rose up from Denmarkish Kaliningrad a decade earlier. The war went well, my 8k army was up against 4k Pommerania and 4k Mazovia, luckily they were split and not stacking on me. I also picked Military Drill as first NI, I tend to do that in most games nowadays because it overpowers your armies pretty well. My aim was to get some free trade up for my newly freed state so I vassalised Pommerania instead of annexing them. It was a gamble though as they were still in war with Poland that could possibly annex them. But the leader of their alliances made peace and Pommerania became the first vassal of Brandenburg. Novogorod annexed Danzig and converted Warmia to the ortodox faith! I felt this russian occupied Kaliningrad area had to be german land once again somehow, but time will tell how.
It didnt take long until Bohemia decided it was time for another beating of Brandenburg, another showdown in Berlin. So here they came again, but this time only one 15k stack marched into Brandenburg and besieged Neumark. And this time I had the time to ally Pommerania, Anhalt, Bavaria and Saxony before they came again. Also my army was now the size of 11K free men and not so easy to beat with the military drill they had been undergone. So this time Bohemia was beaten in a few long and very tight battles outside Berlin, Landsberg (Neumark) and in Cottbus. We pursued the beaten remains of their stacks and the last battle stood in Plzen where 7K Bohemians had the upped hand on 6K Bavarians but I managed to reinforced the side of my fellow Bavarians before they was defeated with my war torn remaining 6000 men and cavalry. So the battle of Plzen in 1441 something was won and total victory was a fact. The score was settled, Bohemia ceded Nieder- and Oberlausitz to Brandenburg and the people of Sileasia was granted freedom forming a state with very close bounds to Brandenburg.. Royal marriages was very soon arranged. This first chapter ended in 1451, Anhalt and Saxony vassallised and Pommerania annexed in 1451 after a few tries and thanks to an expanded sphere of influence. Only 15 years earlier my Brandenburg was looking to be enslaved under Bohemian rule but survived miraculously and then made it to safe ground walking on a very thin line barely having the 8000 men needed to vassalise Pommerania in the first war of aggression. I'll try upload screens on the current state of Europe in 1451:
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