Lorraine Cooperative Game Thread

[Main_Brain]

One thing i miss out in EU2:
When displaying Borders you cant see the Armys as in Hoi

[Velociryx]

Yeah...that kinna sucks, I agree!

But....I thought we had an exceptionally good run of it last evening! Two wars, solid territorial gains, and France is now reduced to a few scattered estates in our lands, and we are large enough now to be considered more than just a rising regional power....not quite the region's strong man (those honors still go to the mighty English), but we're catching up fast! I think when we see the next man power boost from nationalism dropping in the newly acquired territories, we'll be able to field a positively scary army!

Another good thing is the size of England's army. Huge. Impossibly huge. They're crushing their own economy by maintaining a force that size. I think this, more than anything we can do (aside from grow steadily, which we are!), will be what helps us catch, and then surpass them.

Might play it out a bit further since we're in a "truce lull" and see what other events occur that may need some discussion and debate...for the moment, however, it looks like we're in for a patch of delightfully smooth sailing and relative quiet....

-=Vel=-

[Main_Brain]

Are you kiddin' ?
I dont get that big before 1470 ;=)
And its still a Targetrich Enviroment before picking the Continental Englis Holdings.
And only 2 More vsFrench Wars til you get another CoT.
Its more than impressing I have to say.
I have longer build-Up Phases but then i also seldom demand Money besides the captured Prov's from the Beaten Ones.


Overall Time plays in Lor. Hands :=)

[kkarol]

well done! i guess i was wrong with the guarantees idea as you don't get CB if a country is annexed ;-( what are your general plans for distant future now?
how about letting France exist just to let her build colonies and than attack and grab them?

[ravagon]

Sounds positively enthralling master Vel.
Many many successes.

I agree with leaving France alone for now - not so much for the colonial aspect (do they have any ports left? ) but for the fact that reducing them to a single province minor in the next war would leave them vulnerable to sombody else issuing a DoW and gobbling up their CoT before your 5 year period is up. Better to let someone else reduce them and then make sure you're the one to grab the big prize.

[Edit: Hmmm ... actually that may be a little unnecessary as their capital seems to be rather isolated by ... hmmm? ]

[Agathon]

Are you playing in 800x600 or 1024x768?

Your screen looks kinda small.

[Eli]

The people demand an update.

[Nikolai]

Yes, you be sure!

[Velociryx]

Can and will do! Update is a little behind schedule on account of my continuing job search, but I'll get something up here soon!

-=Vel=-

[ragou]

Is the demand for good EU2 players so low?

[Velociryx]

A long, long overdue update, and a longish segment to boot!

Recap of the situation
We open in January, 1451, with a standing army of 36,032/18,177, broken down thusly:

Artois Regiment (in Flandern): 8000/4544
Flandern Regiment (in Caux): 6360
Lorraine REgiment (in Nivernais): 8102/3506
Maine Regiment (in Maine): 6629
Zeeland Cav Command (in Lyonnais): 6409
Poitou Regiment (in Poitou): 6941/3718

Fleet Max Size: 42 ships. Current fleet size: 0

Military alliance with England, Burgundy, and Gelre

Royal Marriages with Lux, Castile, Aragon, Gelre, England, Burgundy, Savoy, Austria, Milan, and Wurtemburg

Military access thru England, Baden, SAvoy, and Burgundy

Perm CB vs. Austria, Algiers, BAden, Milan, Tunisia, Wurtemburg, Mantua and Fez.

Assets: 137d in our treasury, 6 merchants, 6 settlers, 4 diplomats, and 6 Missionaries

January 18 sees a HUGE boon to our alliance family as England admits Castile! Our relations with Castile are already a warm + 113 and this diffuses a potential problem as well, for if Castile were to head her own alliance family, as Europe's second strongest power, she could easily rival the strength of England's proud alliance, which could lead to much blood-letting in the future. But as it stands, with England and Castile standing shoulder to shoulder, Lorraine has a HUGE shield to hide behind to grow stronger, and grow stronger we are!

Feb27 - Our RM with Lux expires and we do not renew it. We have no particular fear of Lux's far-off allies (Hungary, Siebenburgen, and Croatia), and tho they have an impressive 25k army on our border, our relations are warm enough (+49) that we feel no immediate threat from them.

March - War in Italia shatters the Austrian alliance family (the second strongest alliance group in Europe, behind England!), as Austria and most of her sattelites refuse to fight on the Italian peninsula, leaving Genoa and Milan (former Austrian ally) to duke it out pretty much on their own. With Austria standing alone (at least temporarily), England's alliance family simply dwarfs every other alliance grouping in Europe in terms of overall power. England and Castile maintain Europe's #1 and #2 largest standing armies (Austria is third), and our power as an alliance family is unrivaled!

May sees a 12k revolt in Lyonnais, put down on the 10th by our Zeeland Cav Command with no loss of life to our troops!

June - A flurry of diplomatic activity
Letter to england 35 --> 52
to Gelre 23 --> 32
Burgundy 3 --> 24

This leaves us 82d in our National Treasury

July 10 - The French grow again, absorbing Provence into their holdings and giving them five (5) provinces to our 18. Still a minor threat, but as yet, they have no men at all under arms!

September, RM's expire with Castile and Aragon and we are quick to renew both!
Castile +128
Aragon +67

December 21 - Foriegn Drill Instructor available for 250d. We float a loan to hire the man, and see the Quality of our troops rise by +1, and take a +1 step toward offensive doctrine. All in all a busy year, but much more to come!

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

1452

March sees the Crown of Lorraine pass out of the hands of Rene D'Anjou, and into the hands of Jean II....

[Velociryx]

Economic Data for 1452
Stability +3, Treasury 15/163 (+98 net!), Econ = 31.8, I = 3.5%, Exp = 4.1 (50/yr)

July - Another diplomatic frenzy as letters are sent to our allies

Gelre 32 --> 39
Burg 19 --> 35
England 52 --> 60

Making good, continual use of one of our nation's key strengths, that being, leaders with good diplomatic skills!

Aside from these maneuverings, however, 1452 passes us quietly.

1453
Economic Survey
Stab +3, Treasury 74/222 (net + 98), Econ = 31.6, I = 3.5%, Exp. 4.1 (50/year)

In january, RM's with Gelre and England expire and we renew both (+54 and +75 respectively, after renewal).

Aside from that, the only event of note occurs on St. Valentine's day, when a boundary dispute pops up on our radar with Mantua (odd, since we HAVE no border with them). We press the issue in a bid to preserve our treasury, and suffer a -1 hit to stability.

1454
Economic Survey
S = +2, T = 177/312 (net +85...the effect of lower stab), Econ = 30.4 (also the effect of lower than optimal stab), I = 3.5%, Exp = 4.1 (50/year)

Bailiff promotions in Languedoc and Armor this year, to formally add them to our tax base. 102d spent in this undertaking.

February sees letters to Burgundy (27 --> 29) and Gelre (53 --> 72) and leaves us 189d in Treasury

March, thanks to a focus ON stability, national stability is restored to +3, where we LIKE it (both for the economic boost...an additional 10%, and for the fact that we have LOTS of territories with RR right now...low stability is evil!)

April - June we put ourselves on a letter writing campaign to the Duke of Burgundy, with a singular focus on getting relations up with that nation. By the end of the campaign, relations with Burgundy have warmed to +74, and we have 178d in our treasury. Sadly, in April, a meteor is sighted, and we lose another point of stab (which puts us back to +2, which is still far better than being at +1 (no econo bonus!)).

August, renew RM with Burgundy, and our relations climb to +88.

And then....the calm is shattered from an unexpected direction......

......
...
..
.

September 13 1454.....WAR! (huah! good God, ya'll!...sorry...*G*). Aragon breaks her RM with us and declares against us, bringing their allies, Kleves, Mainz, Hessen, Saxony, and Wurzburg into conflict.

We call upon our allies, and they all rally 'round us. This is a fight we do not particularly want (tempting to snag some german minors, but our BB is quite high at this point, so we must refrain). Thus, this will be a defensive fight!

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

War Preparations:

Military on Full Alert, activating Flandern, Lorraine, and Artois regiments for this war....three of our six regiments.

Analysis: Zeeland and Languedoc are the corridors. Languedoc is the likliest point of invasion in the south from Aragon, and Zeeland is the only way the German minors CAN strike at us, which simplifies defense.

For this war, the plan is to rely on Castile to keep Aragon out of our lands, and bulk up our defenses in Flandres, letting them hit Zeeland if it suits their fancy, and relying on the river bonus on the opposite side of Flandern to repel the invaders (I would have liked to have used Zeeland for these purposes, and gain the marsh bonus AND the river bonus but:

a) our forces are too far from that province to beat the Germans there

and

b) we suffer attrition damage crossing into the province

So Flandern will be our defense point in the north.

To that end, we march our three active regiments toward Flandern and await developments....

1455
Economic Survey
S = +2, T = 144/267 (net +56), E = 29.1, I = 3.6%, Exp = 7.2 (87 per year)

January sees the Flandern Regiment marching to Picardie, from Caux, and in the south, England and Castile are hammering Aragon so completely that they have not been able to set foot inside our borders. This bodes well.

The grim news, however, is that Zeeland has been besieged by nearly 60k Germans, and there are more en route.

February: Flandern Regiment marches from Picardie to Flandern. This gives us two regiments there, 6360 foot (Flandern Light Regiment), and 8000/4544 (Artois Battle Regiment), for a total of 14,360/4544 (18,904 troops in Flandern). Sadly, this army is dwarfed by the forces in Zeeland (now topping 75k!).

March: A banner month! Infrastructure 3 is ours!!! Production effieciency jumps to 21%!

July: Another banner month, as Good Government Policies sees our nation's stability restored (back to +3) and +400d invested in both Trade and Infrastructure!

August - In a bid to fill our coffers with an eye toward building Europe's first Refinery, we raise War Taxes (stab back to +2), all efforts to Stab

November - Stab returns to +3, and we ply all efforts into Infrastructure.

On November 12, with Zeeland's defenses holding firm, and English and Castillian troops raping and pillaging all through Aragon, that nation offers us peace for 48d, and we accept! The war ends, with no loss of life for our troops, mass thousands of Germans killed by attrition in Zeeland, and LOTS of money flowing into our coffers! Military stands down, and the troops return to their normal, defensive positions (Flandern regiment back to Caux).

The rest of the year passes quietly!

-=Vel=-
(no screen shots taken, cos there really wasn't any juicy action for us!)

[Velociryx]

1456-1457

A pair of blessedly quiet years for us. For those interested in the economic side of things, here are the economic snapshots of those two years:

1456 s = +3, t = 289/692 (+353 net this year!), E= 58.0 (the effect of war taxes), I = 3.8%, Exp = 50/yr (4.1)

1457: S= +3, T= 598/765 (net +132), I = 3.8%, Exp = 2.9 (35/yr) (loan repaid)

Diplomatic activities during this two year period were centered around sending letters to our allies in thanks for their assistance against Aragon and the German Princes, and our diplomatic standings WITH those allies at the end of 1457 are:

Gelre: + 93
Burgundy +102
England +92
Castile +168

Also, we renew our RM with Aragon (rel -19 after renewal)

The only other noteworthy action during this two-year period was Freidrich of Austria being elected as Holy Roman Emperor. Not of major concern to us, as Austria's poor alliance at this point consists only of Milan and Wurzburg...hardly a threat to our alliance family.

1458
Economic Survey
S = +3, T= 478/646 (net gain of +133d), E= 33.7, I=3.8%, Exp= 2.9 (35/yr)

This year sees two grim happenings for us. In January, Cities Demand Old Rights, a move which is denied, sending our stability into a tailspin (to zero, all efforts to Stab), and on April 6th, Denmark declares war against us, bringing us into conflict with Pommern, Munster, Hannover, and the Micklens.

As before, we call on our allies and once again, all rally around us.

Military goes to full alert, and as before, Zeeland seems the likely battleground.

As the war opens, we send additional letters of thanks to our allies
Gelre (+96)
England (+101)
Burgundy (+102)
Castile (+167)

August - War Taxes are raised (stab to a dismal -1)

October - Denmark covers Zeeland with 1426 Cavalry and our 8000/4544 in the Artoic Regiment, stationed in Flandern, march to chase them off, while the bulk of the Danish and allied armies are in Gelre (some 60k strong) laying siege there.

November 2nd, Denmark's Cav Command is killed to a man, and the ARtois Regiment is down to 7753/4495 (losses of 247/49 = 296 total, killed 1426...a solid win!)

The Lorraine Regiment is activated, and marches from Nivernais to Champagne. Flandern Regiment marches from Caus to Picardie.

December, Stability increases to zero (0), and sees the Lorraine regiment march from Champagne to Artois, while the Flandern Regiment marches from Picardie to Flandern.

3k Cavalry are raised in Flandern to assist our battle regiments in this embattled region as the year winds down to a close.....

-=Vel=-