Let's Play Europa Universalis III

[Lord Herman]

For general discussion on Europa Universalis III, see this thread.



Let's Play
Europa Universalis III
Heir to the Throne

To celebrate the fact that I figured out how to play Europa Universalis, I shall, in this thread, narrate the game as I play it. From time to time, I will consult you, the reader, on an important decision. Don't worry if you don't know how the game works - they'll be questions of a non-game mechanics kind, like "Should we go to war with France?" or "Who should we excommunicate next?".

The Game Dammit, MC!
Europa Universalis is the grand strategy game to end all grand strategy games. In it, you lead just about any country that existed between 1399 and 1822. You manage... well, just about anything that a government manages about a country. You wage wars, enact political and economic reform, oppress the peasantry, and keep your royal dynasty in power.

It's very much a game of planning. For example, you can't just declare war on anyone - you need a Casus Belli, also known as an Excuse. If you don't, you'll risk revolt in your own country, and you'll gain an infamous reputation among other countries. A Casus Belli can be anything from the reconquest of lost territory, holy war against the infidel, or revenge after your ally refused to help you when you were attacked.

I could go on describing the game, but it might be better if I just explain certain things as I play the game. Feel free to ask questions.

To Begin
First, I'll need to know which country I will be playing as! I can't begin to list the options available - there are over 250 countries in the game. I will be playing as a European country, so that narrows it down a bit, and I've already played as England, Scotland, Venice and Castille, so I'd rather not play them again. Larger countries like France are easier to run, as are geographically isolated ones like Denmark. It might also be fun to play a country that's part of the Holy Roman Empire, as that opens up all kinds of diplomatic options.

So go ahead and suggest a country! If you're not sure if they country exists in the game, just post it, and I'll check if it's there or not.

List of reports

Introducing the King of Austria (October 14, 1399 AD) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8653696&postcount=36)
The Peasants Rise! (October 1399 to November 1400) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8669998&postcount=46)
The Peasants' War (March 1401 to December 1401) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8677292&postcount=52)
Diplomacy, Not Bribery (April 1402 to November 1403) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8685281&postcount=54)
The Burghers' Rebellion (January 1404 to October 1408) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8693872&postcount=57)
Popes and Emperors (December 1408 to December 1411) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8723002&postcount=61)
War with Venice (December 1411 to July 1413) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8737361&postcount=65)
Holy Roman Emperor (October 1413 to March 1415) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8781255&postcount=69)
Victory! (April 1415 to December 1417) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8859655&postcount=80)

[Eloel]

Sounds like fun!
Ottoman Empire?

[Cespenar]

Teutonic Order or Order of St. John. I'll highly suggest against choosing a superpower, by the way. Becoming a superpower is way much fun than actually commanding one, in my opinion.

[Dallas-Dakota]

The Netherlands, ofcourse!

Loads of fun to play, speaking from experience.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Play as the Teutonic Order --> Prussian --> Germany --> European Union

Keep lots of Roman Empire vassals to make sure the Emperor Bonuses will stick high. Stay catholic, and you will have the chance to present yourself as the Emperor-Pope of Europe :smallbiggrin:

[Rustic Dude]

Spain, Castille, or whatever is spanish kingdom in the game. :smallbiggrin:

[Lord Herman]

Playing the Ottomans should be interesting. They don't have the Holy Roman Empire or the Papacy to worry about, and they have plenty of room for expansion. They do have to worry about the Mongol horde to the east and the Mamluks to the south, but the Byzantine empire and the balkan kingdoms should be easy pickings.

The Teutons could be fun too. They have some interesting neighbours. Muscovy, Sweden, and Lithuania are probably the most dangerous.

The Netherlands, at the beginning of the game, are divided into Holland, Gelre, Frisia, Utrecht and Brabant, which are all part of the Holy Roman Empire. I believe you can later leave the empire and form the Dutch Republic. In my games, I've often seen the Netherlands overrun by Burgundy, but its German neighbours shouldn't pose too much of a threat.

Castille and Aragón are both in the game. You can try to unify Spain as either of these kingdoms. If you start in a later year, you can start as Spain instead. Castille is fun to play, with the Reconquista and the Spanish unification and all, and then colonising the Americas (while holding off the Ottomans who keep calling a Jihad on Spain). I've just been playing a rather long game as Castille, though, so I'd rather not play the same country again.

[Flickerdart]

Play as Muscovy. See how much better you can do if you expand to the West instead of the East. :smallbiggrin:

[Kzickas]

Naples! best mix of size and challenge

[doliest]

It's a bad situation, but I'd suggest Ming.

Edit: By bad situation, I meant the horrific tech growth of Asian countries, but it does have large amounts of land, weak countries you can absorb, and you won't really have army problems, at all if I remember.

[SolkaTruesilver]

By the way, I suggest you download the Whole World Mod. It reveals every single province of the map, increases the timeline up to 1918.

The provinces that were Permanent Terra Incognita are still harder than usual to reach and colonise.

[Lord Herman]

Muscovy could be interesting. I just checked the 1399 map, though, and it turns out they start out quite small, with a much larger Novgorod directly to the north. It seems that Muscovy ate Novgorod in my game, and then went on to take over the Teutonic Order and a large chunk of Scandinavia.

Naples seems like a safe place to start, although there is a risk of the Papal States walling you in, and I don't know what attacking the Pope does to your standing among the Christian nations. Then again, it seems to have happened often enough in those days.

Maybe I'll try Ming some day, but I'm playing a European country for this LP. I don't know much about Chinese history, and I do plan to RP a bit.

I have been looking at the various mods available for the game. Magna Mundi looks interesting - it too extends the time line to 1918, and it also adds a ginormous amount of other content. I'm sticking with vanilla for this LP, though.

[doliest]

Ah, then, if only because you have a good belt of expierence, I'd suggest Austria. It's very rewarding to pull Austria successfully, if only due to the odds against you. :smallamused:

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I have been looking at the various mods available for the game. Magna Mundi looks interesting - it too extends the time line to 1918, and it also adds a ginormous amount of other content. I'm sticking with vanilla for this LP, though.

Last I checked Magna Mundi didn't go up to 1918... you still don't want to try MM until you're really really good at the game though. It's REALLY hard.

[Ellye]

I suggest:

If you want something in Europe: Novgorod. It's quite interesting to play with it.
If you don't mind playing outside Europe, though, than I suggest Vijayanagar.

Among the suggestions already made, I've played the majority of them and my favorite one was Naples. And it was an extremely easy game.

Also, I personally prefer playing without mods, but Magna Mundi is interesting too. When I do play with a mod, that's the one I play.
But for the Let's Play, I'd recommend you to play it without mods.

[Lord Herman]

Austria would be very interesting, but I don't want to make things too difficult on myself - I want the LP to last longer than one in-game year. Still, Austria always seems to do well in my games, so it might be worth considering.

I just checked, and Gwyn is right. Magna Mundi doesn't extend the timeline. Must have assumed it did because so many other mods do.

Novgorod starts out with a large patch of territory, but it got completely taken over by Muscovy in my Castille game. Might have been poor luck on Novgorod's part, though. I do think playing one of the Russian countries would be a nice change from the western and southern europeans I've played so far.


I think I'll wait another day or so for suggestions to come in, and then make a choice. Don't know how I'll choose yet. Maybe there'll be a vote. Maybe I'll roll randomly among the suggestions. Or maybe I'll just pick one myself.

[Eldan]

I assume the Old Confederacy (i.e. Switzerland) is in? I'd love to see those, just because the thought of a swiss empire is hilarious.

[Deliverance]

Hmm, hard to advise you on what to pick without knowing your level of competence, Lord Herman. You sound as if you have primarily played majors and, while that can be fun, it is hardly challenging and could lead to information overload for the non-EU players amongst the GitP readers.

For an possibly excessively short "Let's play", I guess you could play Orlean. For a trivial exercise in growth to superpowerhood Burgundy can be amazing fun. With regards to minors, if we stay away from the one-province minor challenges, Bavaria has a very central position in Germany and Lorraine has somewhat the same issues in France. One advantage of starting landlocked is that you can introduce a lot of concepts gradually in your "Let's play" since you will have absolutely no need to explain the substantial naval and overseas aspect of the game for a long time.

If you feel you are up to playing one-province minors, Mantua is always a nice choice for beginners in the art while the Palatinate has a kick-arse flag, which makes up for its substantially increased difficulty due to poverty. Speaking of poverty, Trebizond makes for quite an interesting one-province-minor start but for many players also a short one.

[Deliverance]

Austria would be very interesting, but I don't want to make things too difficult on myself - I want the LP to last longer than one in-game year. Still, Austria always seems to do well in my games, so it might be worth considering.

Like the other major nations, Austria is trivial to do well with. If you can do well with a big minor/semi-major like Scotland, you can certainly do well as Austria.

[Selrahc]

Go for one of the Irish minors then unite Ireland and become a colonial superpower.

[Deliverance]

Go for one of the Irish minors then unite Ireland and become a colonial superpower.
That will allow him to avoid most European conflict, which is tempting but usually somewhat boring in AARs. Stick him in the thick of things, where the HttT additions really come into play and where conflict with well armed nations is practically guaranteed. :smallsmile:

[Ellye]

Austria is always an interesting choice for an After Action-Replay or Let's Play, because there's a lot of decisions and potential for action.
You can focus on the Holy Roman Empire, becoming Emperor and strengthening it's influence, you can focus on battling the heathens that would threat Europe, like the Ottoman Empire and the Golden Horde, you can take part in the Seven Years war against Prussia, etc. And, of course, you can decide to aggressively conquest Europe - or the whole known world - if you want to. Austria is one of the easiest nations for that.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Spain, Castille, or whatever is spanish kingdom in the game. :smallbiggrin:

Castille has been nixed on the grounds of 'been there, done that'. Reino de Aragon, maybe? :smallbiggrin:

[Lord Herman]

As for my skill level, I've only been playing for about a week, but I'm a quick study when it comes to games. I know how the game mechanics work, and I did quite well with Castille - up until the point where my whole empire went up in revolt for no apparent reason. Well, I might have oppressed the Malinese natives a bit. And forced the Morrocans to convert to christianity. And systematically eradicated the natives of the Amazon. And used Aragón as a meat shield in my war against the English.

Not sure how I'd do with a more difficult country, but with the lessons learned from playing Castille, I'm sure I'll manage. And if worst should come to worst, I can always start a new game when I've irreparably wrecked my country.


I just remembered I've also played Leinster. It was my first game of EU3, in fact. Things went quite well. Then I provoked England. The end.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I just remembered I've also played Leinster. It was my first game of EU3, in fact. Things went quite well. Then I provoked England. The end.

But you had FUN, right?

I remember one of my England game. I kept hitting the same mission of "creating the world's best navy", which I had. So I got the same mission about 300 times in a row, all giving me +2 navy tradition.

I ended up with 20x 5-stars Admirals.

[Kzickas]

As for my skill level, I've only been playing for about a week, but I'm a quick study when it comes to games. I know how the game mechanics work, and I did quite well with Castille - up until the point where my whole empire went up in revolt for no apparent reason. Well, I might have oppressed the Malinese natives a bit. And forced the Morrocans to convert to christianity. And systematically eradicated the natives of the Amazon. And used Aragón as a meat shield in my war against the English.

Not sure how I'd do with a more difficult country, but with the lessons learned from playing Castille, I'm sure I'll manage. And if worst should come to worst, I can always start a new game when I've irreparably wrecked my country.


I just remembered I've also played Leinster. It was my first game of EU3, in fact. Things went quite well. Then I provoked England. The end.

That sounds like War Exhaustion. People, for strange reasons, don't like getting sent of to die. WE is usually going to be your biggest source of revolt risk. And it's insanely easy to gain alot of it by putting some unit in a jungle or desert province where people die like flies and forgetting about them

[Cespenar]

Go for one of the Irish minors then unite Ireland and become a colonial superpower.

Hah, I did that exact thing back in EU2. It was a lot of fun, though England can be a pain if they decide to go all out against you. But making the Eastern States Irish was worth it, I think.

[Selrahc]

That will allow him to avoid most European conflict, which is tempting but usually somewhat boring in AARs. Stick him in the thick of things, where the HttT additions really come into play and where conflict with well armed nations is practically guaranteed. :smallsmile:

Well... I guess. I always liked the uniting Ireland game though. It plays a lot like the English one, but at a more challenging level of difficulty.

How about uniting Scandinavia? That sounds fun and I've never attempted it since I don't have In Nomine.

[Kurgan]

One of my favorite factions to play is the Byzantine Empire. Harsh starting position, right next to Venice and the Ottomans, but with the right strategy, you pretty much balloon outwards across the Balkans and Asia Minor in no time.

[doliest]

I myself started in Castille, doing very well....for the most part. Africa was such a nightmare that I gave up on ruling it and just created a super-puppet. The highlight was the forming of what I nicknamed the 'Entente' of Milan, Austria, France, and Spain(by this point). We ended up in war with a Portugal-England alliance. My fleet managed to beat a numerically superior English fleet and land a small invasion force that took Edinburough and from there we were able to kill any mainland power that England had at this point.

[DBear]

I'll cast another vote for the Knights. Denmark also looks interesting, you can pull off the Scandinavian Union with them. I'm even more of a EU3C+HTTT noob than you.:smallredface:

[skb]

Question: what will your goal be? Is this going to be a "conquer the world" empire, or is this a "role playing" empire, aka given our policies and/or ruler personality, how would the real monarch have dealt?


I vote for one of the potential Russian states. Novgorod or one of it's neighbours.

[Ellye]

Here's all the nations that I can remember that I've played at least for a fair while (~200+ years), perhaps it may give you some inspiration:

-Poland: Turned it into a major colonial power, really weird game, that one.
-Qara Koyunlu: Formed Persia, crushed the Ottoman Empire, fought many hard wars against the HRE.
-Ottoman Empire: Stood against the European powers while expanding to the East.
-Naples: Quickly unified Italy, conquered whole Europe and a good portion of Asia.
-Novgorod: Crushed the Golden Horde, became best buddies with the HRE nations.
-Vijayanagar: Conquered the India region, stood against Ming and the Timurids.
-Leinster: Became a colonial power.
-Austria: Stayed as the Emperor of the HRE for the majority of the game.
-Hungary: Crushed the Golden Horde and the Ottoman Empire.
-Japan: Became a colonial power, fought many wars against Ming.

Note that many of those were before HttT, IN or even NA.

[Lord Herman]

Question: what will your goal be? Is this going to be a "conquer the world" empire, or is this a "role playing" empire, aka given our policies and/or ruler personality, how would the real monarch have dealt?

Mostly the latter. I plan to narrate the game from the ruler's perspective, so the things I do should make a certain amount of sense to the ruler.

Edit:
Alright, I've put the suggesting from this thread into my Rube Goldberg machine. It told me to play Austria. That should be fun. Expect an opening post later today.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Shhh, it's ok.

We all know you decide stuff like this with a Rubix cube.

[Lord Herman]

1. Introducing the King of Austria

King Albrecht IV
It is the year of our lord 1399, four years since we succeeded our father to the throne of Austria. Today we have decided that we should be King. It sounds much grander than Duke, don't you think? Of course, we shall need to make Austria somewhat larger to fit our new title.

I will, from time to time, make comments about game mechanics or comment on my actions from an OOC perspective in italic text. For example, the game seems to have decided that all monarchies have kings, while Austria was ruled by a Duke. We'll just have to change the facts to fit the game.

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/830/13991014a.th.png (http://img32.imageshack.us/i/13991014a.png/)
A map of Europe. I added the names of neighbouring countries myself. The little flags are armies.

We have plenty of neighbours, but most of them are fellow members of the Holy Roman Empire. It would be dishonourable to attack them. The fact that the Holy Roman Emperor, the King of Bohemia, would come to their aid and crush us has nothing to with it. Neither does the fact that we need their votes in the next Imperial election, in which we stand a good chance to become Emperor.

The Holy Roman Empire is a loose alliance consisting of the German kingdoms, the Netherlands, and parts of Italy and France. It is ruled by the Emperor, who is chosen from among the rulers of the member states by six Prince-Electors. The Emperor can enact reforms that affect the entire Empire, but he is also expected to defend the member states from internal and external aggression.

Unfortunately, all our other neighbours are part of the Venetian trade league, of which we are also a member.

One other option is to negotiate passage through Hungary, and attack the Turk and his vassals. We could heroically save the Bosnians and Serbs from their Ottoman oppressors. And then graciously allow them to become our vassals instead.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/6121/13991014b.th.png (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/13991014b.png/)

Our army in Vienna numbers a thousand mounted knights and four thousand men on foot. Salzburg and Aquileia each have a thousand men on foot. Bavaria has two thousand. Bohemia as six thousand knights and sixteen thousand men on foot. We do not know the size of Hungary's army.

As for internal matters, we have chosen three advisors for our court. Judge Benno Meinl will make the peasantry think twice before rebelling against our right and just rule. Reiner Boroewitsch, a philosopher of some renown, will make us more respected in the eyes of the world. And Cristoph von Oberg, a statesman, will help us improve the way the kingdom is run.

Great Men offer bonuses depending on their type. Their skill determines how high the bonus will be. Benno Meinl and Reiner Boroewitsch both have two stars, while Cristoph von Oberg has one. The maximum is six stars. We can replace our less skilled advisors when a better one comes along (or when they kick the bucket).

We have also made some changes in how we spend our tax income. We have reduced our spending on naval research. We are a landlocked kingdom, so why would we need better boats? Instead, we shall invest more in new weaponry for our army. We have also started recruiting in every province.

As for diplomacy, we have sent ambassadors to Bavaria, Bohemia, Wurttemberg, Milan and Naples with offers of betrothals between members of our royal families. Switzerland and Venice have no monarchy, and Aquileia and Salzburg are Archbishoprics. Good thing our advisors remembered that.

I will leave the Kingdom at that, and wait for some suggestions on how to proceed. I was hoping I could get a war with the Ottoman Empire, but I don't seem to have a Casus Belli on them yet. Maybe later. If you have questions, ask away!

Oh, and should I use thumbnails for my screenshots, or shrink the actual screenshots and put them in spoilers? I'm afraid the game's small text could become illegible if I shrink the screenshots too much.

[Eldan]

Weird how some place names are left in german and some are anglicized.

Anyway: attacking the turks sounds... unwise, no?

[Dragor]

Looks like this LP is going to be interesting! It's making me consider a purchase of EUIII on Steam along with its expansions, too.

[Caewil]

Establish a Republic! Sorry, I just hate kings in any form...

[Ilena]

I agree, and i like the idea of marching on turks or someone outside your surrounding border, would be very amusing indeed! I push for a march to somewhere and establish a foothold!

[Flickerdart]

I say you unite the German kingdoms after you become Emperor. That should keep you busy for the next few hundred years.

[Ellye]

Don't forget to try to get Military Access across most of your neighbors as soon as possible, unless you intend to fight them. Nothing worst than getting into a war and not being able to reach your opponent. Try to have Military Access treats and/or Alliances with Hungary, Bosnia, Serbia, Poland and Lithuania. This will give you access to both the Ottomans and the Golden Horde, in case you want to fight them.
Also, watch out for Crusade calls. They're a great opportunity for war.

Now, personally, I wouldn't bother going after those lands. They'll be more trouble than they're worth. Not because they would be hard to conquest, but because they'll have unaccepted culture and religion, so they'll have a ton of negative modifiers and revolts will occur constantly.
Fighting them every once in a while to keep them away might be worth it, though.

[Cespenar]

Also, be in constant lookout for better advisors. Ones that reduce inflation, for example (bankers?) are very useful so that you may allocate some of the gold into treasury without increasing inflation.

[DBear]

Improve stability, send out merchants, make more money, hire more troops.

[Folytopo]

I say take northern Italy so that you can grab all those juicy universities. It will help you get that cultural tradition going as well as help you get both national bank to reduce inflation and the army tradition one. Those are both very handy. Also try and get a master of the mint to reduce inflation as well. Minimizing inflation is key. That way after awhile you will still be paying base rates for units while everybody else isn't and you will have a huge advantage.

[Lord Herman]

2. The Peasants Rise!

October 16, 1399
Tonight we had a dream in which God revealed to us his will that we be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The German nations would prosper under our rule, and we would become obscenely rich. Then we were set upon by a multitude of ducks clad in knights' armour who demanded we surrender our teeth for them to build a castle out of, but we are reasonably sure that was not part of the vision.

Later today an envoy from Savoy arrived with an offer of alliance. We saw no reason to decline.

November 28, 1399
In the last month we have received a great many envoys with offers of royal marriage. We agreed to have the more annoying of our nephews and nieces married off. It is a good thing our brother has so many mistresses.

http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/5522/13991203.th.png (http://img815.imageshack.us/i/13991203.png/)
Green is us. Blue are countries we have royal marriages with. The greenish-blueish country is Savoy, our ally.

March 22, 1400
We have now allied ourselves with Milan. It seems most of our neighbours are already entangled in a web of alliances, so it felt prudent to establish some of our own. We have also received reports that the King of Bohemia dislikes us for some reason. Our army now numbers three thousand knights and ten thousand footmen; we will be ready if he decides to attack us. Still, we shall need more if we are to invade Bohemia ourselves.

October 9, 1400
Our advisors tell us the rabble have become somewhat restless. While our army, which now numbers seven thousand knights and thirteen thousand footmen, should have no trouble suppressing the unrest, tax collectors and administrators are now using the so-called 'murderous mob', which they claim numbers in the thousands, as an excuse to not do their work properly. We shall have to ask the axeman if he offers a group discount.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8657/14001009.th.png (http://img707.imageshack.us/i/14001009.png/)

This was an event that reduced our Stability. Stability ranges from -3 to +3, and imposes penalties or gives bonuses accordingly. It was reduced to -1, which means we have increased chance of armed revolt in all our provinces, penalties to trade, less tax income, and a few other negative effects. Luckily, other factors compensate for the increase in revolt chance, which remains zero for all provinces. We can increase our Stability by diverting part of our income to it in the same way research is funded. Other random events could also increase (or decrease) our Stability, and some actions on our part, like declaring a war without a Casus Belli, can decrease our Stability as well.

The event also reduced our Prestige. Prestige ranges from -100 to 100, and increases or decreases our diplomatic standing, the morale of our armies, and our chance of inheriting countries we have a royal marriage with or being taken over ourselves. Many random events increase or decrease Prestige, and it can also be increased by winning wars and doing other things that demonstrate our greatness to the world.

November 5, 1400
It turns out the uprisings are worse than we thought. The axeman has been working round the clock, but the revolts only seem to be getting worse.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/791/14001105.th.png (http://img820.imageshack.us/i/14001105.png/)
This is the revolt overlay. Green is good, red is bad. The worst affected provinces, Lienz and Kärnten, still only have a 4% revolt risk even with the +10% revolt risk of this new event. That means those provinces each have a 4% chance each month of a rebel army appearing there. The stability cost modifier means it'll cost 10% more money to increase our Stability.

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/6905/14001119.th.png (http://img683.imageshack.us/i/14001119.png/)
I've moved the sliders in the economy screen around so it will take less time to increase our Stability. It still takes quite a while, but increasing it to +0 will reduce the chance of revolt by 2%.


So much for this installment. I don't seem to have done much yet other than recruiting armies and doing some diplomacy. I've never had this Peasant's War event before, so I don't know how bad it will get, but I can only hope it won't be nearly as bad as the historical Peasant's War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant%27s_war).

[Folytopo]

Seems like it will be internal troubles for a while now. How does one go about becoming emperor? High prestige and low bb points plus bribes?

Just a quick question to people in the thread, how much of an impact does discipline have on the army. Is it worth hiring advisors to raise discipline in HTT?

[Ellye]

Just a quick question to people in the thread, how much of an impact does discipline have on the army. Is it worth hiring advisors to raise discipline in HTT?Discipline applies a modifier to all damage dealt by your troops. So, basically, the highest your Discipline, the more causalities you inflict on the enemy.
If you have 120% Discipline, your troops inflict 20% more damage. If you have 90% Discipline, you inflict 10% less damage.

Not as crucial as Morale for an efficient army, but still a decent bonus to have.

[DBear]

Well, I did mention you should improve stability.:smallfrown:
Looks like you're ok economically, tho :smallsmile:

[SolkaTruesilver]

Discipline applies a modifier to all damage dealt by your troops. So, basically, the highest your Discipline, the more causalities you inflict on the enemy.
If you have 120% Discipline, your troops inflict 20% more damage. If you have 90% Discipline, you inflict 10% less damage.

Not as crucial as Morale for an efficient army, but still a decent bonus to have.

In theory, it's more important than Morale.

After all, Morale gets your troops stay there and get killed. Discipline make sure you kill the other side. An army with low moral, high discipline would run a lot, but make the ennemy pay for every engagement.

If you want, try to form Prussia, and adopt the military reforms. That's +20% discipline. Extremely hard to achieve, however.

[Kzickas]

Put everything into stability! Peasants war is nasty and it won't go away until you have +1 stability (and no living rebels)

[Lord Herman]

3. The Peasants' War

March 14, 1401
Despite another row of executions, the peasants are still in revolt. They have even presumed to present us with a list of demands! The insolence! We shall have to teach them a lesson they will not soon forget. We have dispatched the army to Trent to enforce the peasants' obedience.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/1795/14010314.th.png (http://img822.imageshack.us/i/14010314.png/)
I enforce serfdom, so a peasant army appears in Trent, and revolt risk increases across the country. But at least the King feels better now.

This is also a good moment to introduce the domestic policy sliders, which you can see in the top left window. The positions of the sliders determine different aspects of our policy. But we can't just change them whenever we want - depending on our form of government, we can change one slider by one step (which range from -5 to +5) about every ten years. This also carries the risk of something bad happening - for instance, changing the slider to Plutocracy may cause the Nobles to raise an army against us. There's also a small chance of something good happening, like getting a free general when moving the slider to Land.

http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/4223/14010402.th.png (http://img815.imageshack.us/i/14010402.png/)
Enforcing Serfdom has made the revolt map a bit redder. Trent, Lienz and Kärnten now have a 6% revolt risk. Ther is also an army of 3000 peasants besieging Trent. The lower left window shows the siege. Trent should be able to hold out until the army arrives.

May 17, 1401
Good news from Trent! The peasants were besieging the town and our knights were still a week away, but our Milanese allies came to our aid. Their army made quick work of the rabble. The knights were a bit disappointed, though.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/8818/14010517.th.png (http://img820.imageshack.us/i/14010517.png/)
A Milanese army of 6000 knights and 5000 footmen unexpectedly helped us with our peasant problem. We'll station the knights in Lienz for the time being, so the Milanese won't be able to steal our kills next time. Winning battles gives us Army Tradition, which determines how good our generals will be.

I've moved the knights to a separate army, by the way. Knights move faster on their own, so I can use them to get to trouble spots quickly. I do need infantry for sieges, though, should the peasants take control of a town.

July 26, 1401
Our ally, Savoy, has declared war on Provence, and they are asking for our help. We also have good relations with Provence's allies, Ferrara and Naples, but we will honour our alliance. We shall send our army of footmen to Ferrara.

http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/8467/14010726.th.png (http://img816.imageshack.us/i/14010726.png/)
I plan to take Ferrara and then negotiate a separate peace, claiming Ferrara for my own. That way we'll have access to the sea, which is always a good thing. Meanwhile, our Stability has improved by one step.

September 27, 1401
Now the peasants have risen in revolt in the Ostmarch, demanding church reform! These peasants are not only traitors, but also heretics! Our knights have been dispatched to deal with them.

http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/4459/14010927.th.png (http://img816.imageshack.us/i/14010927.png/)
9 regiments is a lot, but I'll risk it. If I do what the peasants want, I'll ruin my relationship with Rome. Besides, no one pushes this king around!

December 22, 1401
The peasants have been crushed! Our brave knights made a magnificent charge and slaughtered the lot of them. Their captain tells me it was jolly fun. Meanwhile, our army in Italy tried to take Ferrara, but the Bretons got there first. We've now sent the army to Provence. Let's hope we can at least conquer something in this war.

Our stability has now increased to +1, so our troubles with the peasantry should be over.

[Ilena]

I dare say its a good thing those peasants are gone now, but it would be nice if we could get that extra land there :P I say crack the whips and get those soldiers movin!

[Lord Herman]

4. Diplomacy, Not Bribery

February 22, 1402
Today we made the burghers of Vienna aware of the importance of proper fire safety. It would, after all, be a shame if their homes and shops were to burn down because a soldier, not necessarily in our employ, accidentally threw a burning torch onto their thatched roof. After receiving a generous donation of one hundred ducats from the burghers for our fire safety project, we reminded our soldiers not to accidentally throw burning torches onto the burghers' roofs.

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/6717/14020222.th.png (http://img534.imageshack.us/i/14020222.png/)
The other choice would give me a few points of Prestige, but I decided I needed the money more. 100 ducats is quite a lot of money in this stage of the game.

February 28, 1402
We were made aware of an absurd rumour that has been going around. It is claimed that our righteous and honourable war on Provence is nothing but a grab for power, that we unjustly put thousands of peasants to death in last year's uprising, and that we eat babies. Fortunately, we have apprehended the villain who spread these rumours, and had his head lopped off. I am told his last words were "See? I told you!".

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5752/14020228.th.png (http://img708.imageshack.us/i/14020228.png/)
I chose to execute someone, which cost me 1 Stability. The Infamy gain would have been better for the kingdom, but the King will not put up with rumours like that.

April 10, 1402
After a two months' march, the army arrived in Provence only to discover the damn Frenchies had already taken it. We could march on Naples, but that would take another six months and we would have to negotiate passage through at least three Italian kingdoms. We instead demanded peace of the Neapolitans, which they accepted with much groveling.

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/1900/14020410.th.png (http://img708.imageshack.us/i/14020410.png/)
I think the French had already taken Provence before I sent my army there, and I just hadn't noticed it. I'm not going after Naples right now - I was looking for an easy conquest, and war with Naples would end up being long and messy.

October 17, 1402
Because we care for our friends in the Empire, we have sent some gifts to several princes of the realm. My advisors tell me they all happened to be Princes-Elector, and that these gifts could be seen as an attempt to bribe them to vote for us as the new Holy Roman Emperor. We would, of course, never do such a thing. That would be wrong.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8647/14021017.th.png (http://img707.imageshack.us/i/14021017.png/)
As you can see, it never hurts to bribe a few Princes-Elector. The electors are the seven shields in the middle of the screen - in order, Brandenburg, Cleves, Cologne, Mainz, the Palatinate, Saxony and Trier. The numbers under the shields are our relations with them (which go from -200 to 200), and the little shields next to them are who'll they vote for in the next election. Cologne and Mainz will already vote for us, but we'll need to steal another vote from Saxony (or two from Bohemia) if we are to become emperor.

January 28, 1403
Shortly after declaring war on France, England's pompous king has, in a display of baffling arrogance, proclaimed himself Papal Controller - as if the holy father, Pope Whatshisname, would ever let himself be manipulated by an worldly prince. That has has, however, brought a worrying matter to our attention. None of the cardinals of the Papal Curia is Austrian. And if even Utrecht, of all places, has a cardinal, we should have one too. To remind the holy father that our country even exists, we have sent one of our best choirs to entertain him. They will sing to him a song of our own composition, titled "Appoint An Austrian Cardinal (Or Else)".

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/1205/14030128.th.png (http://img697.imageshack.us/i/14030128.png/)
Being the Papal Controller is very useful. Not only does it give stability bonuses and the like, but it also lets you excommunicate another Catholic ruler, which gives all other Catholic countries a Casus Belli against him, and declare a Crusade against a heathen nation. To become Papal Controller you need to have the largest number of cardinals of any single country - England is the only one with two, so they get to control the Curia. Currently our chance of having an Austrian appointed as cardinal is only 2%. We can impove our chances by bribing the pope improving our relations with the Papal States, moving the Innovative-Narrowminded slider more towards Narrowminded, and having more Catholic provinces.

November 20, 1403
To show how much we care about the welfare of our Hungarian friends, we have sent someone to talk to some people at court, maybe listen in on some conversations, or read some documents people may have left lying about. Unfortunately, the Hungarians thought he was spying on them, which is of course ridiculous. He tried to explain he took their chancellor's ledger with the best of intentions, but they threw him out of the country.

Luckily, he did manage to find out a few things. The Hungarians have two armies, both guarding the border with Poland, with a total of seven thousand knights and twelve thousand men on foot. The south of the country is completely undefended, and we could take half their country before their armies get there. If we wanted to, of course. Which we don't, because the Hungarians are our friends.

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/3048/14031120.th.png (http://img534.imageshack.us/i/14031120.png/)
It seems the Hungarians recently had a war with Poland and Lithuania, which explains why they're guarding their northern border. War with Hungary isn't an option for us right now - with the treaties we have with them now, our Stability would instantly be reduced to -3 if we declared war. Still, it's good to know our neighbour has so few troops.

[Eldan]

Yes, Hahaha. Why would you ever invade Hungary. The idea of an Austrian-Hungarian empire is just preposterous. :smalltongue:

[Selrahc]

Yes, Hahaha. Why would you ever invade Hungary. The idea of an Austrian-Hungarian empire is just preposterous. :smalltongue:

Remember that you don't necessarily have to invade to take over. Diplo-annex is an option.

[Lord Herman]

5. The Burghers' Rebellion

January 15, 1404
As if claiming to be Papal Controller wasn't enough, the English King has shamelessly named himself Fidei Defensor - Defender of the Faith. Austrians have to shed their blood to defend Christendom from the Turk, but the King of England gets to call himself Defender of the Faith for defending us from what? Heathen fish?

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9608/14040115.th.png (http://img692.imageshack.us/i/14040115.png/)
This is the religion screen. You can see a list of the effects of being Catholic. Behind it are a number of acts I can pass, like supporting the Counter-Reformation or becoming Protestant. Tolerances modify revolt risk and population growth in my provinces depending on their religion. The wooden cross is the for our religion (Catholicism, until the King says otherwise), the orthodox cross represents the other branches of Christianity, the crescent is for non-Christian faiths. These tolerances change during the game - for example, during the Reformation, tolerance for heresy will drop if I declare for the Pope.

Right now, the important thing is the little shield under the tolerances. It shows who is the Defender of the Faith. England just claimed that title. It costs a lot of cash - about 500 ducats - to claim the title. Its most important effect is that you get a Casus Belli against any country that declares war on a Catholic country. If you ever lose a war as Defender of the Faith, you lose the title and someone else can claim it.

May 15, 1404
We have negotiated royal marriages with Poland and Lithuania. Shame on anyone who thinks we are taking advantage of the weak position of their royal dynasties in order to inherit their thrones ourselves! We just thought our nephew Franz would make a good match for the Polish princess whose name we forgot.

Forgot, or never bothered to find out. Poland and Lithuania both have very low Prestige, which means there's a good chance someone who has a royal marriage with them will inherit their throne when their current ruler dies.

October 28, 1404
We have always said serfdom was a good idea, and it seems the nobles agree with us. They have been oppressing the peasantry admirably, forcing them to work harder than ever before.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/3228/14041028.th.png (http://img13.imageshack.us/i/14041028.png/)
More production means more goods produced, which increases our trade income.

November 23, 1404
We visited the Archbishop of Salzburg today. After presenting him with a gift of five casks of sacramental wine, of which we -or rather, he - drank one, we proposed an alliance between our two countries. He accepted, told us we were his bestest friend in the whole world, signed the treaty, and passed out. We then returned to Vienna.

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/3673/14041123s.th.png (http://img823.imageshack.us/i/14041123s.png/)
I realised I had forgotten to point out the little faces in the status bar. They represent Merchants, Colonists, Diplomats, Missionaries, Spies, and Magistrates. We get a number of these per year, and they are used up in various ways. For every diplomatic action I take, be it declaring war, sending a gift, or signing a trade agreement, I use up one diplomat. So I can't just go around signing treaties with everyone - I have to pick and choose which ones I find important.

May 17, 1405
The last months have been uneventful. We continue sending tokens of friendship to our fellow princes of the Empire. In a completely unrelated matter, due to the unscrupulous bribing of Princes-Elector by Bohemia and Saxony, we now have only one vote in the Imperial election, and they each have three. We cannot allow such dishonest princes to succeed to the Imperial throne - for the sake of the Empire's future, we shall have to continue sending gifts to our good friends who may or may not be Princes-Elector. We shall pray for the Emperor's health - let us hope God can keep the old bastard from kicking the bucket until we have enough votes.

August 23, 1405
The Archbishop of Cologne took some persuading. With good and honest arguments, of course, because we made it very clear that the illuminated manuscripts we gave him were not a bribe but simply a gift to a good friend. But in the end, he agreed that we would make a much better Emperor than that idiot, the king of Saxony.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/5822/14050823.th.png (http://img28.imageshack.us/i/14050823.png/)
That's two votes for us, two for Bohemia, and three for Saxony. We'll try to steal Brandenburg's vote next, which will put is in the lead, and then secure Trier's vote just to be on the safe side.

January 24, 1407
After a year of negotiations with Brandenburg, it became clear to us they will not change their vote. That means we shall have to obtain both Trier's and Mainz' vote - the other two electors are openly hostile to us.

We had some good laughs this morning. A statesman from Lienz suggested we allow the province to govern itself to stimulate the economy. The whole court roared with laughter - even more so when it turned out the man was serious. We had his head lopped off and sent the taxman to Lienz to collect our newly instated Insolence Tax.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/7855/14070124.th.png (http://img638.imageshack.us/i/14070124.png/)
A +10% tax modifier is nice, but the other option gives us 100 ducats right now. Ka-ching!

January 27, 1407
The Duke of Milan introduced us to a very novel idea. He said that if we were to make a record of everyone who lives in a city, noting their trade, their monthly income, and their favourite colour, it would be easier to tax them all. We have ordered our magistrates to start conducting this 'Census' in Vienna right away. It turns out 17,560 people live in the city, and over 40% of them like the colour blue.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/6916/14070127.th.png (http://img687.imageshack.us/i/14070127.png/)
50% more tax income in Vienna? Yes please! This is the main use of Magistrates (the rightmost head in the status bar) - provincial decisions cost a number of Magistrates and sometimes a small amount of money, and give the province certain bonuses and penalties. Right now we get only one magistrate every four years, but there aren't that many decisions to choose from this early in the game anyway.

June 27, 1407
We have received complaints from a number of burghers that the nobility has more rights than they do, even though the burghers are often more wealthy. We acknowledged the problem, and remedied the situation by taking the money away from the burghers and giving it to some of our noble friends. To prevent this sort of situation from arising in the future, we have further restricted the rights of burghers in favour of the aristocracy.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/6527/14070627a.th.png (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/14070627a.png/)
Let's move a slider! I've been short on diplomats, and moving the Aristocracy-Plutocracy slider more towards the left, I'll get more. There is a chance something bad will happen, though. Loss of stability would be the worst. We have enough soldiers to crush a burgher uprising. I don't know what 'More Nobility in the Army' does, but I'm sure it's something positive.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/4299/14070627b.th.png (http://img13.imageshack.us/i/14070627b.png/)
Oh well, it's only seven regiments against our fourteen.

August 12, 1407
Cowards! Cowards all! Our army marched on the rebels, but when the rebel cavalry charged into their lines, they broke and fled the field! Not to worry, though. Let us see the cretins stand up to our knights!

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/1757/14070812.th.png (http://img692.imageshack.us/i/14070812.png/)
I should probably recruit a general before I attack the rebels again. I wanted to wait for some more Army Tradition to accumulate so I'd get a better general, but it seems having a general at all can make all the difference.

April 11, 1408
This rebellion is taking much too long. Don't these burghers understand we have better things to do than dealing with them?

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/1633/14080411.th.png (http://img823.imageshack.us/i/14080411.png/)
The real reason this war has taken so long is that I forgot to pause the game while writing the last entry, in which time my knights were routed and the rebels took over half the country. I don't trust my troops to survive a direct assault on the rebels, so I'm trying to provoke them into saving their stronghold of Linz.

August 2, 1408
Huzzah! The knights were triumphant! The rebels tried to take Vienna, but the knights arrived a day before they did, and defeated them in a battle worthy of song. Maybe some kind of drinking song. The rebels are retreating to Steiermark, and the infantry, who have recaptured Linz, are now marching there to finish the rebels off. Let us see if they can make up for their embarrassing failure that started this whole mess. They should do better this time, as we have assigned as their general Stefan Hagedorn, a man with a good sense of humour and fine table manners. He told us he has some experience in war. He had seen battle before - or at least, heard it described to him in great detail. Well, detail... The point is, he knows which end of a sword to hold, and we can be reasonably sure he won't oversleep and miss the battle.

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/2162/14080802.th.png (http://img706.imageshack.us/i/14080802.png/)
Finally some victory. The rebels will arrive first in Steiermark, so they'll have defensive advantages, but their morale is low.

August 26, 1408
To make sure Stefan did his job, we sent the knights to assist him. With the combined might of our infantry and cavalry, the burghers were utterly crushed. Our knights told us with great enthausiasm how they slew the enemy commander. In short, sharp objects went in, blood and innards came out. There are still a few rebels holed up in Graz, but they will not last long.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/1014/14080826.th.png (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/14080826.png/)
That is what I call a victory. No significant losses - that is, not a single knight was killed - and the rebel army was wiped out.

October 30, 1408
Graz has been retaken. We had the instigators of the rebellion taken to Vienna, and in a great show of kingly magnanimity, had their traitorous heads lopped off. The people loved it.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/6917/14081030.th.png (http://img28.imageshack.us/i/14081030.png/)
That last line is a lie. We killed the lot of them.

[The_JJ]

Excellent LP my friend.

Now kill them all... bwahahahaha!

[Flickerdart]

Who's rebelling next, the nobility? The clergy? The king against himself?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Who's rebelling next, the nobility? The clergy? The king against himself?

Just thought I would say, that the worse rebellion is the livestock. You're attrition goes out the roof when that happens...

[Lord Herman]

6. Popes and Emperors

December 12, 1408
Today our advisors told us about something called 'inflation'. It seems that the more money we have minted, the less the money will be worth. This sounds like silly superstition to us, but as finance is of little interest to us, we shall leave the matter to the chancellor. He has the minting of new coins stopped. We were rather worried when he told us we were now losing money each month, but he assured us our end-of-year taxes and fees would make up for it. He also greatly reduced army maintenance, because apparently our soldiers do not need a constant supply of gunpowder and ball when they aren't shooting at anything. In fact, having a constant supply of gunpowder and ball causes them to shoot at things they aren't supposed to.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/5262/14081212.th.png (http://img638.imageshack.us/i/14081212.png/)
The Treasury slider turns part of my income into cold hard cash. Unfortunately, doing so increases inflation. Inflation makes everything more expensive by a certain percentage - right now, inflation is at 2.4%, so everything costs 2.4% more. Some things, like having a national bank or having certain advisors, reduce inflation, which means I'd be able to set the Treasury slider higher without an increase in inflation. But for now, I'll have to leave it at zero. My annual balance is still positive, and it also means I invest more in new technologies (which is what the other sliders are for). I've also set the military mainenance slider (on another tab) to its minimum value, giving me a bit more money. Armies will have lower morale and won't be reinforced, but that's no problem as long as there's no rebellion and I'm not at war.

January 30, 1409
Huzzah! After long and tedious negotiation with Mainz, we have secured their vote for the Imperial election. We are now tied with Saxony. Now we shall have to attempt to win one more vote. Brandenburg and Trier will not change their votes, no matter how much they like us. Saxony will vote for itself, of course, and the King of the Palatinate seems to hate us for some reason. Possibly because we set fire to his grandmother. Long story.

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/9123/14090130.th.png (http://img717.imageshack.us/i/14090130.png/)
It will be hard to get that last vote. Brandenburg and Trier probably also have a relationship of 200 with the countries they're voting for. Unless I can somehow change that with the cunning use of spies, I'll have to make friends with the Palatinate, which will be difficult.

February 10, 1409
Today the Hungarian ambassador was bragging about his master having annexed Transylvania. We congratulated him on his completely pointless conquest of a country that has nothing but sheep and well-timed lightning. It would be an excellent place to perform one of Mr. Hammer's plays, if it weren't for the fact that no one in their right mind goes all the way to Transylvania to see a play.

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/4715/14090210.th.png (http://img821.imageshack.us/i/14090210.png/)
Hungary looks a lot bigger now. Transylvania and Banat, the two provinces that used to be the Kingdom of Transylvania, have wool as their export, which isn't worth much. Still, this might mean that Hungary is trying to expand further into the Balkans.

April 18, 1410
The Pope has kicked the bucket! Good thing we didn't spend too much on those bribes gifts for the old Pope, because now we have to start all over again. The new Pope is called Xystus IV. We would not be surprised to receive a Papal decree that changes the rules of Scrabble to allow proper names.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/3630/14100418.th.png (http://img638.imageshack.us/i/14100418.png/)
A new Pope means everyone's Papal Influence is reset to 0%. We had a rather high Papal Influence, but since we never had enough provinces to have a good chance to get a cardinal, it's not that much of a problem.

February 04, 1411
After a reign of less than a year, Pope Xyxqwz had died of Mysterious Circumstances. His Scrabble reforms were never very popular, but we had not expected someone would mysteriously circumstance him over them. The new pope, Leo X, has promised to return the Scrabble rules to the way they were when our Lord walked the Earth.

February 23, 1411
We have received a request for financial support from a group of Hungarian dissidents who call themselves the Committee for Assisting Seperatism in Hungary, or CASH in short. They are obviously frauds - we even seem to remember having one of them arrested just the other day for begging in front of the palace, pretending to be blind and lame. It seems putting out his eyes and breaking his legs hasn't taught him anything. We would have simply lopped their heads off and sent them to King Sigismund as a birthday present, but word has gotten out to the populace, who have taken to the streets, demanding we support these charlatans. My advisors tell us it would be wise to pay the cretins to prevent another revolt. We have therefore decided not to send the heads to King Sigismund, but instead stick them on pikes in front of our palace.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9855/14110223.th.png (http://img692.imageshack.us/i/14110223.png/)
I wouldn't mind a hit to our relationship with Hungary - it's at -42 already, and it'll probably come to war anyway. I'm less enthausiastic about losing 50 ducats this early in the year. Still, the other option is to lose 2 Stability, which would be very bad. But the King will not be intimidated with reasonable requests! Off with their heads!

March 12, 1411
It would seem CASH has some support in Hungary after all. A peasant army is laying siege to Sopron, and the Hungarians don't seem to have enough troops ready to deal with them. If the opportunity presents itself, we shall send them some financial aid. The Hungarian army, that is. Not the peasant army. That would be wrong.

April 22, 1411
The power-mad King of Bohemia has annexed Silesia! The province of Ratibor, which produces good wine, though not as good as ours of course, is now part of his realm.

We have also received word from the Pope. He has excommunicated the King of Provence. Why the French King would... erm... persuade the Pope to do this after he's already annexed Provence a year ago is beyond us. We have heard the King of Provence has been playing Scrabble with the King of France while in captivity, so perhaps it has something to do with that.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/2373/14110422.th.png (http://img692.imageshack.us/i/14110422.png/)
I'm quite sure Provence doesn't exist anymore, so I'm not sure how their King can have been excommunicated. A bug, or a sinister French plot?

May 19, 1411
With all the religious upheaval lately, nobles have been stabbing each other left and right. This is, of course, unacceptable. Having people killed is our job. We have therefore enacted a new law, making stabbing a fellow noble punishable by having one's head lopped off.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/3230/14110519.th.png (http://img638.imageshack.us/i/14110519.png/)
It's either +1 Plutocracy, effectively losing some benefits of the +1 Aristocracy we just fought the Burghers over, or -1 Stability, which we don't want. Both are bad, but the King will, of course, choose for more control.

July 20, 1411
Trier has suddenly and inexplicably changed its vote to us, giving us a majority of the votes to become Holy Roman Emperor! Now let's hope the Emperor kicks the bucket soon, so we can become Emperor instead of the Emperor!

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1921/14110720.th.png (http://img94.imageshack.us/i/14110720.png/)
I don't know what happened, but Trier changed its vote. So I should become Holy Roman Emperor as long as I don't do anything incredibly silly. That might be a problem.

September 10, 1411
Another conquest for the King of Hungary! He has attacked Ragusa with no provocation, and fully annexed it. Perhaps it is time we annexed a few puny little countries ourselves before they run out.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/434/14110910.th.png (http://img692.imageshack.us/i/14110910.png/)
Hungary completely crushed Ragusa's army (if the even had one), so they could demand peace with Full Annexation as one of the terms. This makes Ragusa part of Hungary, and gives Hungary some prestige. But because Hungary had no Casus Belli in this war, they also accrue quite a lot of infamy, which will at best damage their diplomatic relations, and at worst give everyone a Casus Belli on them.

November 29, 1411
It seems our friends in Anhalt have been very helpful to us. They have conquered Saxony, which was our main rival in the Imperial election. We suddenly have six votes. Mantua replaces Saxony as Prince-Elector. They are, of course, voting for Bohemia.

We are now almost certain of victory in the Imperial election. It would be such a shame if the Emperor were to have an unfortunate accident now.

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7302/14111129.th.png (http://img717.imageshack.us/i/14111129.png/)
I hadn't even noticed Saxony was taken over by Anhalt. The Imperial throne is ours!

December 8, 1411
Milan has requested our aid in their war against the Swiss! This is very good news indeed. We now have an excuse just cause to declare war on the Swiss, and their rich villainous allies, the Venetians. Now let's hope we can beat Milan's army to Venice. We want that port!

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/4733/14111208.th.png (http://img717.imageshack.us/i/14111208.png/)
Awesome! I've been waiting for a casus belli on Venice, and Milan has handed it to me. Now I can take their port and their Centre of Trade. This means money. Lots of it.

[Flickerdart]

Wait, shouldn't a country conquering one of the Holy Roman states provoke war from all the other ones?

[Lord Herman]

Wait, shouldn't a country conquering one of the Holy Roman states provoke war from all the other ones?

Not quite. The Emperor does get a Casus Belli (and I think also a Call to Arms) on whoever attacks a member state. If I'm not mistaken, the Emperor can then call upon other member states to help him in the war. The Emperor doesn't always act on the Casus Belli, though. In this case, Bohemia seems to have decided to stay out of Milan's war with Switzerland.

[Ilena]

I dare say get that army moving on venice!!!

[Lord Herman]

7. War with Venice

December 27, 1411
Those double-crossing Venetian cowards! Despite their alliance with Switzerland, they haven't joined the war! Now we can't attack pacify them without drawing their allies into the war, which is something we don't want. Not, like one of our late advisors claimed, because we daren't face Bohemia's armies, but because we wouldn't want to unnecessarily destabilise the Empire.

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/3168/14120919.th.png (http://img824.imageshack.us/i/14120919.png/)
This is the war screen. It shows all the combatants, some statistics that give some indication as to who's winning, a list of battles, and the war score meter (the colourful bar just above 'Battles'. Winning battles and holding enemy territory increases our war score, while losing battles and territory decreases it. The higher our war score, the more favourable the terms of an eventual peace treaty can be. War capacity also plays a role in this - if the enemy has lost some battles and territory, but they still feel they can take them back, they won't sign an unfavourable peace treaty.

June 9, 1412
Because the Venetians will not fight, we have sent our armies to assist our Milanese allies in their conquest of Switzerland. We had already taken Zürich, and Bern was close to surrendering, when a Swiss envoy rode out with an offer of peace. When we read the terms they were offering, we had his head lopped off and stuck on a pike. A white peace? Laughable! They are soundly beaten, and they know it!

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/1755/14121102.th.png (http://img534.imageshack.us/i/14121102.png/)
Switzerland has no more armies to save them. Maybe they were expecting their ally, Tuscany, to come to their aid? Tuscany, which is under siege from a large Milanese force? When Bern and Tuscany are taken, they'll probably offer more reasonable terms.

September 19, 1412
Milan has signed a peace with Switzerland. The Swiss ceded the province of Schwyz to Milan, and return Milan promised not to kill them all. And as Milan is our ally and the leader in the war, we are forced to make peace as well.

However, we have discovered something interesting. Because Venice didn't join in the war, most of their military alliances are now in tatters. This makes them ripe for conquest! We couldn't think of a Casus Belli, but the axeman is standing by in case someone has anything to say on the matter.

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/3726/14121126.th.png (http://img690.imageshack.us/i/14121126.png/)
Venice has Wurttemberg, Ferrara and Naxos as allies. Wurttemberg is tied up in a war, Ferrara hasn't yet recovered from the last war, and Naxos is in Greece.

September 21, 1412
Bah, none of our allies is willing to help us in our right and just war on the Venetians. Like we needed their help. Naxos has joined the war on Venice's side. We are very interested in finding out what Naxos expects to be able to do to help Venice.

It seems Milan, Salzburg and Savoy aren't willing to join in a war without a Casus Belli. Understandable - they'd lose 2 stability if they did. That does mean those alliances are now broken. Let's hope we can at least sign a new alliance with Milan when this war is over.

November 2, 1412
Our troops have arrived in Treviso, and are laying siege to the city. They tried to storm the castle, but chickened out at the last moment. The defenders of Treviso now number only eight men, who have taken to taunting our troops from the city walls.

Venice raised a small army in a feeble attempt to relieve Treviso, but Hagedorn's army killed the lot of them.

We also received an offer of alliance from Poland. We decided to accept - we can always break it if Poland should be attacked by a much superior force. As usual.

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/3726/14121126.th.png (http://img690.imageshack.us/i/14121126.png/)
The army's morale broke at the last moment, leaving eight defenders alive. Oh well, it's not as if Venice is going anywhere.

November 26, 1412
It turns out the cowardly Venetians had another trick up their sleeves. To get to the city of Venice, we need to cross a narrow strait - a strait patrolled by Venetian war ships. And as we have no port ourselves, we cannot build ships to take on this fleet.

Meanwhile, the chancellor reminded us that we had loaned some money a few years ago, the repayment of which is coming due. We have instructed the chancellor to start minting again so we'll be able to pay off the loan. We would not normally bother, but we borrowed it from a Sicilian 'businessman' called Antonio Grosso, or Big Tony in our tongue. And we all know what happened to the last Duke of Milan when he couldn't repay his debt to that very same Sicilian.

Venice is separated from the mainland by a narrow strait. That means we can get our soldiers there without transport ships, but not if there are enemy ships nearby.

April 11, 1413
We have sent some of our people to Athens. They will convince the Greeks to rise up against their Venetian oppressors, with the help of some mercenaries we hired. With any luck, the rebellion will make the Venetians willing to sign our very reasonable peace treaty.

In truth, we're kind of stuck. We can't attack the city of Venice because of the naval blockade. Maybe this rebellion will at least make them willing to cede Treviso to us.

April 14, 1413
It seems the Genoese really like our wine. They have asked for exclusive trade rights on the wine we produce in Wien and the Ostmarch. According to the chancellor, we should accept their offer. We haven't been making much money through trade ourselves since the Venetians kicked us out of their trade league anyway, and through some economic thingmajabber, wine production will increase because of the agreement. The chancellor is a clever man, so we can only assume he knows what he is talking about.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6622/14130414.th.png (http://img13.imageshack.us/i/14130414.png/)
Don't let the Trade Value in the city overview fool you - that's the amount of money contributed to Venice's centre of trade, which is then distributed among everyone who has merchants there.

July 4, 1413
To strengthen our position in Italy, we have made an alliance with Ferrara. We have also negotiated a royal marriage with Mantua. Because we like Mantua. Not because Mantua is the only Prince-Elector not voting for us.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1559/14130704.th.png (http://img13.imageshack.us/i/14130704.png/)
The diplomatic map as it stands now. Again, green is us, blue are royal marriages, and blueish-greenish is our ally. Red is our enemy, Venice. Note that Aquileia and Salzburg are grey not because they don't like us, but because archbishoprics can't form royal marriages (for obvious reasons).

[Murska]

This LP is both a nice story and helps me learn about the game itself. That's double the awesome in one!

[Flickerdart]

Why aren't you King of Europe yet? Chop chop, etc.

[Caewil]

This thread convinced me to get EU3 Complete on Steam. Unfortunately, the Macintosh version for HTT isn't out yet. :(

Currently playing Holland and after hours of plotting and restarting, I finally managed to hold off the blue blob of death with around a sixth their number of provinces. Managed to use naval superiority for a 100% blockade. Then split my army into 3 mixed inf+cav armies to cover my border provinces and one reserve cav army of 22k.

Every time they attacked, my cavalry army reinforded the province and shocked them into retreat even though I took more losses. I had to hold the line for over a year in-game, without attacking at all. I attacked when their RR was 16% and they had to retreat from losing battles straight into rebel armies. :smallsmile:

I took one province in peace and demanded the release of a couple of nations. Several years later, they broke because rebel armies had occupied the entire country.

[Lord Herman]

8. Holy Roman Emperor

October 1, 1413
Glorious news! The King of Bohemia is dead, and we have been elected as Holy Roman Emperor! We shall travel to Bohemia to fetch our new crown, and if time permits, dance on the old bastard's grave. Then we shall go to Rome to be formally crowned by Pope Whatshisface. Possibly Boniface.

Last night, we had another vision from God. He made it clear to us that he wishes us to secure our western border with the Frenchies by strengthening ties with Burgundy. We thought the Burgundians were also Frenchies, but we weren't about to argue with the almighty.

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/6030/14131001.th.png (http://img24.imageshack.us/i/14131001.png/)
And just like that, we have the Imperial throne. That also means we've completed the mission we had, so we get 10 prestige. Now we have a new mission. We have to increase our relation with Burgundy to 100, and have a royal marriage with them. Our relation is now -10, but it shouldn't be too hard to increase it. The reward is a reduction in infamy.

The map is now set to the Imperial mapmode. The dark bits are the provinces of the Holy Roman Empire - note that they don't always correspond with national borders. Provices can be individually added or removed from the Empire. The ligher green bits are the Electors, and the lightest green is us, the Emperor.

November 14, 1413
Not again! The peasants are revolting in Linz, and at the same time, the Lombards have risen up in Treviso. We think 'Lombard' must be the Italian word for peasant - this rabble looks quite the same as our peasants. We shall send our knights to deal with the peasants, while our infantry defends Treviso.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2268/14131114.th.png (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/14131114.png/)
Two revolts at the same time! They're both quite sizeable - 7000 infantry in Linz, and 7000 infantry and 1000 cavalry in Treviso. The revolt in Treviso should be easily crushed, as we outnumber them 2 to 1 and we have the defensive advantage. Linz will be more difficult, as the enemy infantry's defensive advantage is doubled against cavalry.

December 28, 1413
The Lombard rabble has been routed. They fled into Milan's territory, where they proceeded to lay siege to Verona. We would help, but alas, we have no alliance with Milan anymore. Because they broke it. Because they didn't want to attack their Venetian friends. Who are now attacking them.

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/3865/14131228.th.png (http://img697.imageshack.us/i/14131228.png/)
As I expected, the Lombard rebels were easily defeated. I did not expect they'd retreat into Milanese lands, though. The battle of Linz is going well. The peasants outnumber our knights, but our morale is better.

January 2, 1414
We have decided to establish a national bank. According to our chancellor, this will help us combat the inflation thing he talked about earlier. In simple terms, it will allow us to make more money. Which is good.

The battle in Linz drags on. The peasants are losing, but it is taking far too much time for our liking. We are itching to try the new Swiss pikes Milan sent us.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/108/14140102.th.png (http://img822.imageshack.us/i/14140102.png/)
We've just reached Government Tech Level 4, which allows us to pick a new National Idea. These Ideas give significant bonuses. The one I picked, National Bank, reduces Inflation by 0.10, which is quite a lot. We'll get to pick more ideas as our Goverment Tech increases.

February 5, 1414
The Milanese have defeated the rebel army at Verona, which then fled into Brescia to cause more trouble. We are most entertained. Meanwhile, our knights have finally crushed the peasant army in Linz, but at a cost of 3000 knights. We have recalled the knights to Vienna to reinforce.

April 27, 1414
We have received word that the Pope has excommunicated King Edward IV of England. The Curia, who are completely trustworthy and not at all on Portugal's payroll, have discovered from reliable sources that King Edward burns curches, loots monasteries, and eats babies. If you remember, this is the same king who only recently claimed the title of Defender of the Faith. How the mighty have fallen. We have proclaimed an official day of schadenfreude throughout the Empire.

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/2764/14140427.th.png (http://img121.imageshack.us/i/14140427.png/)
This is what happens if the papal controller doesn't like you. He has you excommunicated, and then every Catholic country has a Casus Belli against you.

July 31, 1414
Gelre has cowardly attacked a fellow Imperial kingdom! As Holy Roman Emperor, it is our duty to teach them a lesson. Poland and Ferrara have honoured their alliance, and join us in the war. England and Holland have entered the war on Gelre's side. We do not know what Holland expects to gain from this war other than utter, crushing defeat. The baby-eating King of England thinks he is safe on his island. He is probably right, as we have no boats.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/7977/14140731.th.png (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/14140731.png/)
We gain Imperial Authority by going to war with anyone who attacks an Imperial province, and this seems like a safe war. None of our enemies can reach Austria with their armies, and only one of them, England, could stand a chance of defeating us.

December 18, 1414
While our knights are fighting in Gelre, Milan has decided to declare war on Venice. They have boats, so with any luck, they'll decide to break the naval blockade in Venice, allowing us to take the city.

However, England has also sent its fleet to the Gulf of Venice. They haven't brought any troops, but their fleet numbers 35 carracks. The number of ships hardly matters, though - we have no port, so we cannot do anything about them. Let us hope we can bring this war with England to a swift conclusion, so we can go back to our conquest of Venice.

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/7616/14141218.th.png (http://img24.imageshack.us/i/14141218.png/)
Holy carp, 35 carracks! That is an awful lot of ships. Still, Milan's war with Venice is good news.

January 27, 1415
Now the manure has really hit the windmill, diplomatically speaking. Burgundy has declared war on England. This might work in our favour, though. England might need those boats they're using to blockade Venice to fight Burgundy.

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/9363/14150127.th.png (http://img717.imageshack.us/i/14150127.png/)
The major European powers are going to war.

February 12, 1415
It turns out the English have landed troops in Italy after all. A sizeable English army is laying siege to Ferrara. We have sent our troops to intervene. Let's see the baby eater's troops stand up to our army of fourteen thousand!

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3083/14150212.th.png (http://img717.imageshack.us/i/14150212.png/)
Not good! NOT GOOD!

March 20, 1415
For no apparent reason, the Pope has declared war on Ferrara. We have ordered our army to defeat the English as quickly as possible, and then return to Treviso. We will not have war with Rome.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/734/14150320.th.png (http://img822.imageshack.us/i/14150320.png/)
Why, Pope? Why?

March 31, 1415
Finally some good news. The English have been routed from Ferrara, and we have restored our old alliance with Milan. We can now pursue the English into Verona, where we will crush them.

Ferrara sent an envoy to demand we join their evil war against the holy father, Pope Somethingorother. We had the envoy's heretical head lopped off and sent back to Ferrara in a basket.

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/2568/14150331.th.png (http://img717.imageshack.us/i/14150331.png/)
Our relations with Milan weren't too good, but it seems they needed this alliance as much as we do. The alliance with Ferrara is less important than our relations with Rome, so I broke that alliance.

[Flickerdart]

How long do you get to be Emperor?

[Lord Herman]

How long do you get to be Emperor?

For as long as the current king lives. No telling how long he will live, though. In my Castille game, I've seen reigns that last 60 years, but some monarchs died less than a year after their coronation.

[Flickerdart]

That sounds very suspicious indeed. :smallamused: Try not to get assassinated.

[Deme]

Please, one is not assassinated! It is so common! One is Mysterious Circumstance'd. Which, of course, the Holy Roman Emperor should avoid.

[Caewil]

You should invade the Pope - taking Rome gives you as much prestige/year as being the curia controller and an extra 0.5 missionaries (for non catholics). I had to take both Judea and Rome to get positive missionary generation but you probably don't have that problem.

[tarbrush]

Love the LP :) EU complete is only £12.49 on steam atm as well.

[Lord Herman]

Love the LP :) EU complete is only £12.49 on steam atm as well.

Is even cheaper today. 66% off for all EU games, including EU3 Complete, Heir to the Throne, and EU: Rome Gold.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Don't forget Mecca. Mecca gives Prestige and Missionnary bonuses to non-Muslim factions.

Bonus points for converting it to Catholiscism :smallbiggrin:

Try to capture all the relevant capitals of the Europe and have the European Unions. Don't over-extend, just have lots of vassals. You'd be surprise of the effectiveness of Vassals in time of war.

[Caewil]

Take all three. Rome, Judea and Mecca. That alone will keep you at 60 prestige permanently. A couple of decisions also give prestige, so you can max it out permanently as well.

[Lord Herman]

Sorry for the lack of updates - It's been very hot here lately, so I've been busy complaining about the heat instead of playing EU3. But fear not! I'm working on an update at this very moment. Stay tuned!

[Lord Herman]

9. Victory!

April 1, 1415
Today, like every first day of the month since we took Treviso, a Venetian envoy rode into our war camp. This one was cleverer than the rest, though. Instead of offering a white peace like all the others, he decided to... erm, amend the treaty, offering to cede Treviso and pay us 20 ducats. The document bears the Doge's seal, so it is a binding agreement, even with the envoy's corrections. We immediately accepted, and rewarded the envoy by not lopping his head off.

We still want Venice, of course, so if we ever find ourselves in the position to take the city, we'll just claim the treaty was an April Fools joke.

http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/8848/14150401.th.png (http://img816.imageshack.us/i/14150401.png/)
Finally a reasonable offer! We can't expect to get much more out of this war, so I accepted.

April 22, 1415
Another English army landed in Ferrara, and was soundly beaten by our army. They now flee into Verona. We will be there first, however, so we can destroy them there. We will then send our army to Treviso, to deal with any rebellions that might spring up there.

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/1039/14150422.th.png (http://img704.imageshack.us/i/14150422.png/)
That army caught me by surprise, and did quite well in the battle. They were too badly outnumbered to win, though.

June 18, 1415
The English cowards eluded our army by fleeing into Mantua, and then attempted another assault on Ferrara. We sent in our army, which is massacring the English as we write. Meanwhile, Trier has pulled out of the war. We didn't need their help, of course, but we find it puzzling that they would sign such an unfavourable treaty with a country that has no army.

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/2474/14150618.th.png (http://img690.imageshack.us/i/14150618.png/)
Oh well, it's not like we can't win the war without Trier.

June 23, 1415
We formally brought Treviso into the Holy Roman Empire. There was much rejoicing, if at swordpoint. But the people of Treviso will soon see the benefits of being part of the Empire. They will have the privilege of paying us Imperial taxes, their streets will be kept safe from evil dissenters and unlucky peasants by Imperial troops, and they will enjoy the protection of the Imperial law, which will ensure the people of Treviso will not be bothered by people saying unpleasant things about their Emperor, and at the same time will provide entertainment in the form of public executions.

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/946/14150623.th.png (http://img710.imageshack.us/i/14150623.png/)
There are other benefits of adding a province to the Empire. Most bonuses you get from being Emperor are proportional to the number of provinces in the Empire.

September 18, 1415
With the English army beaten again and driven into Milan's lands, we returned our army to Treviso. Then we received word from Tirol that an army from Gelre was attacking them. We dispatched our army immediately to crush them.

Meanwhile, some idiot has been stirring up trouble back in Vienna. This philosopher claims he has proof that the Earth is round. The clergy is calling for us to lop off his head, because they have always said the world is flat. We are inclined to side with the clergy on this matter. If the world were round, how could Austria be at its centre? It would have to be somewhere in an underground cave, which clearly isn't the case. We therefore had the philosopher's head lopped off, as he clearly wasn't using it anyway.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/2873/14150918.th.png (http://img819.imageshack.us/i/14150918.png/)
Ow, a Stability hit. That's not good. A move toward Narrowmindedness is good, however. It gives all kinds of stability bonuses, spy defence, and religious bonuses.

January 3, 1416
After receiving numerous offers of peace from Gelre and Holland, all of which absurd, we were attacked in the province of Linz. We sent our army, and kicked Gelre's troops out. We then sent England a peace offer of our own, demanding they concede defeat and stop bothering us. The baby eating king refused.

I knew they were going to refuse, but refusing a reasonable offer of peace can cost a county some Stability.

April 18, 1416
An envoy from Gelre came groveling to us after our last victory, begging for peace. We felt magnanimous, and agreed to a white peace. That will keep Gelre off our back while we deal with the English, who are once again attacking Ferrara.

July 21, 1416
Our army crushed the combined English and Dutch army in Ferrara, and drove the cowards into Modena. Meanwhile, another army from Holland is laying siege to Trent, so we sent the army to relieve our province. Our knights are laying siege to Amsterdam, which is expected to surrender soon. Despite being built on a river, they seem to have run out of water.

http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/7905/14160721.th.png (http://img816.imageshack.us/i/14160721.png/)
This was quite the battle, and it gave us a nice boost to prestige and army tradition (the P and T at the top of the battle overview - WE means War Exhaustion).

September 30, 1416
Our army utterly crushed the Dutch in Treviso! A few more victories like this, and the English and the Dutch will come begging for peace.

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/337/14160930.th.png (http://img717.imageshack.us/i/14160930.png/)
So much for the Dutch army that was bothering us. The English are probably still out there somewhere, but they're not much of a threat on their own.

October 24, 1416
Milan is becoming quite the power in Italy. They brought Savoy to their knees, annexing Nice and making the rest of Savoy their vassal. They are also laying siege to Liguria, which should also be theirs soon.

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/3853/14161024.th.png (http://img641.imageshack.us/i/14161024.png/)
They are our ally, but as Machiavelli said, you don't want your allies to become too powerful. Too bad Machiavelli wasn't born yet in 1416.

January 2, 1417
The English are at it again. We've had to dispatch the army to Ferrara again to defend Italy against the English menace. We have decided to raise another three regiments of knights, as we have seen combined knights and infantry used to great effect by our enemies.

Meanwhile in Holland, our knights have taken Amsterdam. Huzzah!

Milan has made peace with Venice, with whom they were apparently still at war. Venice had to give up their control of Naxos, and paid a large sum of money to Milan.

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/5209/14170102.th.png (http://img710.imageshack.us/i/14170102.png/)
Milan is doing very well indeed. Let's hope they won't suddenly turn on us. They have accrued quite a lot of infamy from their wars, which indicates they don't really care about having a proper casus belli.

January 16, 1417
Holland is ours! The leaders of Amsterdam agreed to a full annexation, in return for us not lopping their heads off. This means we now have a sea port! We have also signed a peace with England. We had to pay the baby eating king 21 ducats, but at least they will stop bothering us.

http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/5047/14170116.th.png (http://img816.imageshack.us/i/14170116.png/)
We gained some infamy, but Holland is ours! We can now build ships, and if we have enough money, we can even make it a centre of trade.

December 10, 1417
To spare our good friend, the Doge of Venice, the embarrassment of groveling for us to rejoin the Venetian Trade League, we have asked to rejoin the league ourselves. Now that Austria is part of the League again, it will once again be a universally respected and admired institution.

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/8591/14171210.th.png (http://img704.imageshack.us/i/14171210.png/)
Our relation with Venice is still poor, but it seems they did want us back in the League.

[Flickerdart]

I say you vassalize Milan if they ever try to pull anything. Also, conquer France.

[yermajesty]

now that you have a sea port, invade england using the unfair treaty you signed as your excuse