The Wallonian Wrath - A Hainautian AAR

[Webstantine]

Securing Wallonia​

William was sitting in the tent-palace, he had decided that his couldn't go on living in tents, the security was to easy to breach; someone would only need a sharp knife to enter. He had set a large workforce on the task of repairing the great palace, he had no materials though so they had to use whatever they could find, but it's better than nothing, they say they'll be done in approximately 30 years. He had also received an envelope marked 'Burgundy' inside he found a newspaper cutting and a letter, he read the newspaper first:

King's Apologies and Plans
After the disastrous war in Flanders King Phillippe has give a public speech of apology to the Burgundians in the north that are now Hainautians and the small community in Valenciennes that are isolated from the rest of us, "People of Valenciennes, I wish to help you in your small town, I know as well as any that expanding the Hainautian way is stupid; I've decided the best idea is Leige to the north, you will be given this land as compesation for loss." He then went on to speak to the Burgundians in Hainaut, "I'm sorry that you have found yourself in this position, I will help you one day but now is not the time, when Hainaut is weak I will strike again and free you, do not worry."​

So Phillippe had plans for Liege, and the part about Hainaut was so wrong, two of his provinces chose to be part of Hainaut, and the rest had quickly adjusted to Hainautian rule. Well what did the letter have to say then?

Dear King William, I'm sorry for the war, I expect you to hand back the land you took in
an attempt to make amends, I know you must be feeling proud of yourself after defeating
us but you must understand that we could have completely wiped out Hainaut if Lorraine
or France would have let us through. You got lucky, can you do it again?

Any attempt to destroy our progress will be punished adequately, don't get over-confident;
you have no palace, no happy populace, most of your land is considered ours. If you look
at it that way you're much worse off than you think.
Yours royally, Phillippe.​

How could a man be so idiotic as too send insults to a man that just defeated him, it doesn't make sense, Burgundy was no threat; progress had to be stopped for them before they become poweerful enough to fight back against Hainaut, Liege would have to be vassalised.

Letters were sent out to see if anyone would join, Cleves, Brabant, Gelre and Holland agreed but Cologne declined saying, "You're just trying to strengthen yourself, not help the world against the Burgundian threat". They didn't understand, defeating Burgundy was one thing, but then they must be stopped in their path.

Gertrude walked in with another letter, "It's from England sir." she said.

Hello William of Hainaut and Holland, we of England have seen
how you defeated Burgundy and increased the security on Calais for us, we would like
to say that if Burgundy ever tries to take back their land, we will join your alliance.
Sincerly, Henry of England

Well that was good to know, though Burgundy was weak and wouldn't fight Hainaut anyway without a madman in-charge. The Captain of the Army walked in, "Sir, Namur is successfully sieged, we have moved on to Liege."
"Good."

"Also Aachen and Utrecht have decided to join the war."
"On what side?"
"The dark one sir."
"Oh dear, well they're weak anyway, we'll be fine."

The first and only battle including Hainaut in the war was fought in Aachen, it was a great victory!

The siege of Liege was a success along with the siege in Aachen, William thought now was time for peace offers.

First off he dealt with Aachen, they were made a vassal. Burgundy couldn't expand this way either!

Liege was vassalised as well, the war was over, he had two more countries under his control!

 

[Webstantine]

I might edit this chapter later to make it more fun but for now it gets the point across.

 

[Emeny]

Off to a great start. Are you making plans to vassalise some electors yet?

Also, what game version/settings are you using?

 

[aniuby]

More expansion is always good, but it's quite clear that at this point the potential threat is not Burgundy but France. It's possible to hold them off with relatively fewer soldiers and clever use of scorched earth, but I'd recommend you keep expanding until you can field an army at least a third of their power. Also, I'm always worried to be guaranteed in EU3 ... it's entirely possible that England doesn't want to defend you from France, but rather hold you in one piece so they can attack you for themselves. Wait for them to get beaten in war and spawn rebels on Calais for a free province =)

Yes the writing style was supposed to make everything more sad sounding, I don't know why. The mass-killing was emotionless, I hoped to convey that.

Um, I think you misunderstood my comment. It's true that writing in a relatively serious style makes everything come off more humourless. But the problem with the mass-killing, when I say emotionless, is not so much to say that Louis was evil and cold-hearted (like I believe you intend by citing examples of other evil deeds). Rather, I meant emotionlessness in a literary sense. There was no foreshadowing, no real connection to the surroundings, no explanation as to what Louis and Guillaume were even doing there - it just seemed abrupt and non-sequitur, and this has the effect of making it more difficult for a reader to empathise with a character or even to have any feelings about them, even dislike. So my thoughts ran along the lines not of 'that's terribly unfortunate', but rather, 'that was weird, bizarre, and probably not even necessary', which is definitely counter to your intentions when writing in a more literary style.

 

[Webstantine]

I can change Aniuby!

France is veery scary indeed though.

 

[Webstantine]

I know this is slow, I had problems with France, but I'm ready, tomorrow will be an update!

 

[Webstantine]

Guys, I've re-written the passage where Guillaume dies, I think it's better, it's hard to make a guy die that easily.

 

[Webstantine]

The French Downfall - Part One​

William studied his map, south of Hainaut France loomed like an oversized blue balloon, if it got to big it would pop with death and destruction consuming Hainaut, but if it was deflated it would take longer to blow up again, William was waiting for the right moment to attack. First off though his new vassal, Liege was at war with Burgundy since before the vassalisation, William couldn't directly intervene but Liege seemed to be in control; they occupied the small Burgundian community in Valciennes.

A group of rebels broke out in Liege and William sent in the army so that Liege could focus on Valciennes.

After months of waiting Liege had made peace with Burgundy, and more good news arrived in the form of a letter from Brittany:

Greetings King William of Hainaut and Holland,
As you may have heard our king has died without an heir, he
decide on his deathbed that you shall be his successor, the
times when we were enemies is behind us now, let's forget all
about the Great War of Flanders, we didn't mean to be at war
then, your performance in the war got the respect of the king
and eventually got you his crown, congratulations.
Yours Sincerely, The Council of Brittany

There was a party later at the castle to celebrate the good news and the king of Lorraine turned up, whilst William and him were drunk they agreed that Louis will marry Lorraine's princess.

The following day a message from England arrived with some great news:

Hello William, we of England and the Portuguese have both decided
that France has grown too big and both of us have declared war, you may want to consider
joining to get yourself some of the spoils, think about it William, think about when you have
de Valois on his knees, you could demand anything, if you decide to join, we thank you.
Yours Royally, Henry of England.​

"Should we join Gertrude?" asked William.
"We'll see how England get on, if well, we join." she replied.

An update came from England in about two months time, they claimed to have defeated France's main army, it was now or never, "Get the armies ready for tomorrow, we have to be fast".

A letter from the king of Lorraine arrived, it read:

William! In honour of our heir agreement and our general friendship,
I've decided that as we also hate France, we will supply you with
a small amount of our treasury every month, we hope it help.
Yours Faithfully, Charles de Metz

With the money Lorraine had supplied, William could ensure that all of northern France could be under siege, he had even begun expanding into the South, however England already had sieges on many of the southern fortresses.

William received two more letters, one was from Lorraine in which Charles informed William he had declared against France himself, which was expected. The other was from Savoy,

Dear Hainaut, we of Savoy have decided that we will
join the growing number of wars against France and
we wish you the best of luck in yours, soon France
and we will be part of history!
Yours hopefully, Savoy.

It seemed many countries could sense France's weakness and had decided to attack, this was great news for Hainaut, more great news arrived from the battleground, the first Hainautian siege in Berry was a success!

However the report had a bad side, it seemed that the French were able to launch a surprise attack on the Hainautian army in Champagne and the first battle of the war was a loss.

A letter was received from de Valois in France, he had decided that making peace would be a good plan.

Hello King of Hainaut, Holland and Brittany,
We have seen your apparent success, don't get too confident
though, we have a great army in hiding, ready for the counter-
attack, we will offer you this last chance to agree to a white
peace with us,
De Valois​

Ha, did he really think William would fall for that, William ripped the letter up and tossed it into the fire.

Enraged, William sent the army out to hunt any soldiers from France and their vassals left over from the English, a small group of 4,000 soldiers from Armagnac were found trying to stop the siege in Paris and were quickly defeated.

The Portuguese made peace with France leaving Hainautians the provinces they used to occupy.

The great city of Paris was finally sieged and Hainautian flew their flags on the streets, it was a day of celebration in Mons, some people even volunteered to help in the repairing of the palace, they were sent to find new materials to fix it with.

England also made peace, strangely taking nothing, Hainaut and her allies quickly took the province they used to own.

Now, after so long, the entirety of southern France was under siege, except for Dauphine which was under Savoyard control.

The last of the French enemies dropped out of the war, now only Hainaut remained, A small regiment was quickly sent to Dauphine now that the Savoyards had left.

A letter arrived from Aragon the following day,

Now that you're alone against France we thought you may appreciate
some help with the war, we will send you some of our treasury
every month, France will fall beneath you I hope.
From, Aragon

But some French citizens in Berry had grown impatient with the war and had rebeled, soon Berry was captured and they had moved on to Nemours.

Another group of rebels rose in Vermandois, the French Resistance had formed. The War would have to end soon before rebel swarmed the entirety of France.

 

[aniuby]

I like the letters and how they're written in different fonts - it's always funny to make a joke out of international diplomacy =D That sounds like the kind of time I'd be rolling in my seat to see something bizarre, confusing, and non-sequitur. Also, fantastic work with backstabbing France - an essential part of every non-French playthrough of EU3. You receive more nations' war subsidies in that conflict than I usually receive, on average, per game of EU3 (i.e. less than one in 400 years).

I also read the rewritten passage about Louis and Guillaume. Well, I don't know if it's better since the tone is completely different, but overall my comment is the same, that you need to work harder to add more emotion to get the reader more concerned about the fate of characters - so do I, for that matter. The changed passage also has the effect of changing Louis from a cold-blooded killer into a relatively decent sort of chap ... that's quite drastic for a retcon.

 

[Webstantine]

I like the letters and how they're written in different fonts - it's always funny to make a joke out of international diplomacy =D That sounds like the kind of time I'd be rolling in my seat to see something bizarre, confusing, and non-sequitur. Also, fantastic work with backstabbing France - an essential part of every non-French playthrough of EU3. You receive more nations' war subsidies in that conflict than I usually receive, on average, per game of EU3 (i.e. less than one in 400 years).

I also read the rewritten passage about Louis and Guillaume. Well, I don't know if it's better since the tone is completely different, but overall my comment is the same, that you need to work harder to add more emotion to get the reader more concerned about the fate of characters - so do I, for that matter. The changed passage also has the effect of changing Louis from a cold-blooded killer into a relatively decent sort of chap ... that's quite drastic for a retcon.

I was mainly just trying to make the death different because they both deaths were the same. I always get loads of war subsidies when against France or another strong nation. France was mainly luck though, I'm generally quite lucky in my AARs.

 

[Webstantine]

This AAR is broken along with Lorraine, I haven't played ahead very much on this one so I can't give the same option. For those that don't know my laptop decided I didn't need my saves.