Three Crowns To Rule Them All - a Swedish attempt at European domination

[Avelis]

Hi all,

This will be an ironman/hard attempt at the achievement Sweden Is Not Overpowered as well as Agressive (sic! so it is on Steam again) Expander, if things go well. I will be using everything legit in the gameplay except for the exiled units cause they ruin all the fun. I have advanced quite far in the game when I decided it's worth an AAR, but thankfully I've saved some screenshots. Please excuse the gaps from time to time - I can't roll it back and make new ones unfortunately.

So, the year is 1444 and the Danes have ruled over us for far too long. Time for a proper Swede on a throne!

We recall the Purple Phoenix and the battle for Constantinopole and immediately sink all the ships apart from galleys to free the forcelimit

Then we build up the galley fleet and the three infantry units to the forcelimit, and find ourselves a meager 1/1/1 admiral. With that we happily declare and pray for a new monarch to be at least not backward. And - suddenly - wow, this guy is no nonsense at all:

A pity that he will die childless - the genes were great but apparently he preferred horses (given the efficacy of cavalry under his command).
We uneventfully peace out independent some years later. Independence! The Europe is our oyster now, they just don't know it yet...

 

[glennbob]

I look forward to seeing how others have done with Sweden being aggressive and such, as I did something very similar and still have an ongoing game proceeding to conquer down to Constantinople. I stuck my troops in Copenhagen and then DoW'd, I got a -1 stab hit but it meant I didn't need to mess around with my ships and troops. I occupied their capital and peaced out, lovely.

 

[Grundius]

This looks interesting. Subbed.

 

[Avelis]

So far so good. Our king dies childless some three years after, and we get a new one, who is not as stellar, but knows which side of the sword he should hold at least. Time to reclaim our ancestral lands! After much chasing the Norse 'brave berserks' with their 0/1/4/0 general we take our cores back:

Next few years are uneventful. We build an alliance with Hansa and Livonian Order. Then we take Offensive as our first idea group and start waiting for the "Protect Norway" mission to vassalize the fishermen. Haha! It will not fire in the next two hundred years. Instead we keep getting the "Control Estonia" one which is a direct hit against our ally. Tired of waiting we claim Bohuslan and get it after a short war:

The brave fishermen then decide that we are too much for them, and instead of seeking our glorious protection they run and embrace the Muscovites. Bad move. There is a quick war with Novgorod (for which unfortunately there are no screenshots saved; I took Karelia). Muscovites and Norse start insulting us then. We claim two more provinces and kick them both all the way down to Moscow:

Party time! Novgorod is very busy with Muscovy, and we have just completed claiming their Baltic Coast so that we do not have to wrestle it from The Bear later. We declare and smash them really hard with our baby Stack of Doom (I16/C2). Peace with three provinces and a renounced claim:

And now that's interesting. Livonians were overrun by rebels and Riga broke away with two provinces. Do I break the alliance and go for the Reval and Livonia as my mission suggests? I almost did, when they (by now a kingdom) lost their king and were ripe for a union. We claim and declare (which is, as it will turn out later, a mistake - it will take far too long to integrate them). Anyway, we smash them as well and His Majesty Johan III adds the Sword and Cross to his shield.

 

[Avelis]

For the next few years we recover, pay back the loans and forge an alliance with The Hansa and the Livonian Order, and take Offensive as our first idea group. Then our monarch dies childless, leaving the throne to an inferior noble.

Finally we are back to full strength and it's time to strike! After much chasing the Norse 'braves' and their 0/1/4/0 general through the mountains we peace out, taking our cores back:

We settle it and start amassing wealth while waiting for the "Protect Norway" mission. Haha! It will not fire for the next 200 years and instead we keep getting the "Control Estonia" mission against our allies. Tired of that we claim Bohuslan and give the fishermen a good thrashing:

Around this time we take the Exploration idea group with the first idea immediately, and settle Lappland which was burnt during an earlier war with Norway. The fishermen are dead scared of us by now, and instead of embracing our suzerainty they run to the Muscovites. Well, bad call. We claim two more provinces and kick their asses all the way down to Moscow:

 

[Avelis]

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