And the blood flowed in rivers (EU II AAR)

[Bosh]

Chapter 8
Artois - name comes from a tasty brand of brewed beverage
August 1456 - November 1466 (got to get better at actually stopping the game at the proper month)

At first glance things do not appear good for Artois. Our capitol is held by Flanders and we only have 7,000 men to take it back with and no allies. But on the other hand, the last bits of Flander's army is even now being butchered by Orleanais and we own a swath of central France that includes six provinces and reaches as far south as Franche-Comte. We also have refreshingly few neighbors, to the west are the Orleanists while to the south and east is the small nation of Bern and the monstorous Swiss empire. To the north, are our enemies in Flanders while to the north east is the small duchy of Luxemburg and the sizable nation of Wurzburg which, while war-wracked, dominates north Germany.

But enough talk, there are Flanderlings to kill! The seige progresses nicely and as 1457 is ushered in, a new army is recruited to attack Brabant with. The Orleanists are fighting bravely but there is a new and quite sizable Flanderling army that we have just seen wandering the coast that unnerves us greatly. And as some Orleanists retreat from it into Brabant, it gives chase and routs our new army which retreats to Artois to continue to work of reclaiming our capitol, which is completed under the personal leadership of Charles IV, in June and due to his leadership we crush the Flanderling army in Brabant before being driven back to Artois a second time.

And as we buried our dead both Luxemburg and Wurzberg declare war on us. Curse them both! To make matters worse Orleans accepted indemnities from Flanders in January of 1459, leaving their armies free to attack us and their invasion was only headed off by skillful diplomacy that resulted in the signing of a white peace. Deciding the discretion is the fast majority of valor, we bravely turn over Lorraine to the Wurzies in March of 1459 and make up for our loss by annexing Luxembourg immediately afterwards.

As we settled down to at least a few months of peace, we heard rumors of contant war in the east and observed Holstein consolidating its rule over North Germany, to the detriment of Hinterpommern. Then in Febuary of 1461 the Orleanies who had let us down before, invaded us with their superior army. Soon Nivernais, Nivernais and Franche-Comte are all being beseiged by the enemy to make matters worse the monsterously large Swiss Empire followed suit only months afterwards and only days after that the small nation of Bern and its 32,000 soldiers followed suit. In December we handed over Nivernais to the Orleanies, which meant that although the Swiss and Bernies had taken Franche-Comte from us, they could not follow it home since Orlean land now had cut them off from the rest of our nation and the pathetic remant of our army. So we sat back and laughed at the efforts of the Bernies to convince us to sign over Franche-Comte to them.

As the rather rude requests for territory from the Bernies came pouring in, we watched as the Holsteiners (now bigger than ever) becan taking Flanders (especially their Dutch colony for four provinces) apart in detail. It could not have happened to a better nation. By March of 1465 all four of the Flandies Dutch possession were under Holstein control, but their army remained large in their homelands and none of our other neighbors were at war, so our reconstituted army was forced to stand idle. That is, until April when Wurzberg decided that they wanted to take another bite out of us and our poor little army marched again into the breach.

While the Wurzies beseiged Luxemburg we defeated another army invading Champagne and chased them back to our old Lorraine territory, which we beseiged. But a series of attacks drove us off after we were able to score several victories. An attempt to raise a seige on our capitol resulted in the utter annihilation of our army in Febuary of 1466, after which the evil Flandern vultures declared war on us to make up for the three provinces they had recently turned over to the Holsteiners. Soon enough, all of our territory was beseiged by massive enemy armies numbering over 100,000 men in all. In July, we were forced to hand over Luxemburg and Champagne and in the interest of fairness and because we were something of a lost cause we finally turned over Franche-Comte to the drooling Bernies. And as we bowed out, we were in the process of being taken apart by Flandern.

Ouch that really hurt, but it was hard to see what we could have done differently, it seems that Artois had been bankrupted soon before we took over as we could not take out any loans and our BB was high enough that the wars came and wouldn't stop and all of our enemies except the Luxemburgers had much larger armies than us and we had -200 relations with everyone except for some English countries who we had -187 relations with.

Back in the Caucases the Armenians were much as we had left them, except for the loss of the Uralsk colony to Tver who in alliance with Nizhgorod had also wrested all of Sochi's northern territories. However, now Armenia was in the process of winning a war against their Sochin allies so they postion seemed relatively secure. But it was back in Spain that things had really changed. The Andalucian Rereconquista was spreading like wildfire and the entire west coast of Iberia was in their hands and they were in the process of beating the Estremadurans in yet another war.

Starting Territory: 6
Ending Territory: 2 (and about to be 1, so I'll count it as 1)

[Sandman]

Based on this thread, I downloaded the Independent Europe Scenario, and it's a real blast.

The best game I had so far was Sardinia starting in 1559. Fantastic naval hijinks. At one point the Romans had pushed me off Sicily, leaving me with just Sardinia, Malta and two African colonies.

But a series of opportunistic money grabbing wars later, a successful campaign in North Africa, a lucky enthusiasm for the army event, and a 4/4/4/1 leader enabled me to sieze Italy from the Roman hordes.

Now I've crushed Ragusa to a pulp, I've basically won the game. But what a game.

[Bosh]

Sandman: Yeah, this scenario is a blast to play normally, have had great games as Translyvania, the Swiss and Hesse.

No sceen shot this time, forgot to take one

Chapter 9 Asturias
November 1466-November 1476

Centuries ago the Reconquista had begun in Asturias and with Andalucian dominance spreading across the Peninsula that time had come again. We ruled only one province, as did our Aragonese allies, but our Bearnese allies were a great power dominating the north and east. We had only to wrap up the Geronese war and we would be ready to fall on the Moorish invaders while they were still occupied with their latest Estremaduran war, or at least so we hoped.

However, by April of 1468 the Geronese war lingered on and, while the Andalucians had taken Castilla from the Estremadurans and reduced the once-mighty power to its home province. However, in June Catalonia was turned over to our Aragonese allies and it appeared that the time to launch the Reconquista yet again had come, and so war was duly declared and our allies joined us in our holy Crusade against the Moors.

The first battle was fought in August when the Moors invaded Bearnese Leon. The Bearnese crushed the Moors and seeing the coast clear we initiated a seige of Oporto. With the help of some loyal Christians rebelling against their Moorish masters in Tago, we only faced half-hearted attempts to break our seige. Meanwhile, our brave Bearnese friends had subjected Castile to a seige. In Febuary Oportu had falled to us but our capitol was beseiged by a Moorish army of 15,000 men. This seige must be broken, so we ordered our fine General La Romana to lead his 18,000 men against the Moor and our brave soldiers won a great victory, virtually annihilating the enemey, who was then persued to Galicia where a seige was begun in May of 1469. However soon another large Andalucian army appeared and beseiged both Oporto and Asturias. Tragically Oporto fell but not before our brave example had led 15,000 brave knights to rally to the flag of the Reconquista, these brave knights then annihilated a sizable Moorish force beseiging Asturias before laying seige to Oporto yet again while the Bearnese had driven their advance as far as Toledo and Tago.

In July of 1470 Galicia fell to us while Toledo had falled to the Aragonese and it seemed that the bulk of the enemey forces were engaged in the south against our allies, leaving us free to push into Tago, which had been abandoned by the Bearnese. Realizing the desperate straigths they were in the Moors offered to hand over Galicia and Oporto to us, but we would not accept peace until the yoke of Moorish oppression had been lifted from all Christian necks! However, in November of 1470 the Swiss backstabbed our Bearnese ally, which would certainly divide their attention so we decided that we must pick up the pace of the war.

This decision was reinforced when the Bearnese signed a separate peace with the Moors which gave them Castile, the pressure that the Swiss had brought to bear against them must have been great indeed. And so in Junary of 1471 Galicia and Oporto were turned over to us to avoid having to face the Moors without Bearnese assistance. However, we saw that the Guyennese war that the Bearnese had dragged us into which we had thought was so inconsequencial that we did not mention it was anything but, for it had brought the Estreamadurans into a war against us, and so we mobilized our victorius armies against them which lead to rapid annexation of the traitors.

We spent the next several years beating back annoying small-scale Guyennese raids and watching Aragon conquer Gernona, Lyonnaise and Languedoc, until the situation became active again in September of 1465 when Bearn declared war on Andalucia. As the Andalucians were occupied in losing battles against our allies in the east, we swept down Portugal unopposed and were soon rewarded by being granted Tago in a separate peace. This was a third resounding victory for Asturian arms and as Andalucia was slowly being ground down by our alliance, the promise of a lasting Asturian/Aragonese/Bearnese domination of Iberia seemed to be a real posibility.

In the rest of the world Artois is a one-province rump surrounded by Wurzberg and a Flanders who has made a comback from its loss of much of its Dutch territory to Holstein at Orlean's expense. In the east Armenia has lost a war against an Anatolian/Crimean alliance that has stripped it of Sivas, Kouban and Astrakhan.

Starting Territory: 1
Ending Territory: 5

[Asmodean]

Which puts you at +4 for the game.

This is a great thread idea, Boshko

Based on this thread I have downloaded this scenario. Only one thing missing for me now: I have to buy the game, too

I will do so today

Asmodean

[Bosh]

Chapter 10 Bern (not Bearn due to the accent mark putting it at the end of the B's)
November 1477-December 1489 (overstayed two years to finish a war)

As we arrive at Bern, we find ourselves in a rather pathetic situation owning one province and being completely surrounded by the Swiss Empire which, while reduced in the recent Spanish War, still controls a massive swath of territory reaching from Provence to Wurttemberg. Taking them on single-handedly is completely out of the question so we sit back and wait for them to be engaged elsewhere.

As we wait, we notice Guyanne handing Flanders a crushing peace, which in light of events in Artois a decade back, could not have happened to a nicer country. Meanwhile Guyanne continues its rampage, annexing Orleans before butting heads with the Spanish Alliance again. In August the Swiss do indeed finally declare war on somebody: us. We doubted wether we could hold our own against a 10-province super-power for long. While the Swiss throw their soldiers against our fortresses we take Franche Compte in a seige before heading home to attempt to break the seige, which we accomplish in May of 1482. After this we lead our army on a range of campaigns criss-crossing Swiss territory, in which we hand them defeat after defeat until our army in finally annihilated, however it is just at this moment (June 1483) when all looked bleakest, that the Swiss offer us indemnities which we graciously accept from our defeated foe.

In October the Swiss declare war on Wurzberg and we feverously expand our army with borrowed funds in order to take advantage of this occurance. In August of 1484 our army numbers a suitable 16,000 men so we break our treaty with the Swiss and invade Franche Compte yet again, while the bulk of their army is engaged in the seige of Wurzberg. As war rages to the north we take Franche Compte in April of 1484 unopposed and move south. We take Savoy in December and are offered generous indemnities but despite a massive army beseiging our capitol we refuse and instead demand Franche Compte, which to our immense shock, is granted to us. Victory is ours! The Swiss, annoyingly enough, use the end of the Bernese distraction to take Pfalz from the Wurtzies, while to the east the Guyenne/Spanish Alliance war seems to have resulted in Bearn taking Bourgorne from the war-wearly Guyenners.

On the subject of Flanders, we see the entire Swiss army marching north to the corridor that connects them to Flander land to attack Flanders and we smell yet another opportunity and as soon as we can we declare war (July 1487), our war effort is further bolstered by the Rome-Swiss war that has recently broke out. Our seige of Zurich seems to bring half of the Swiss army down on our head but we weather it and it falls to us in June of 1488, but in October of 1488 the Romans drop out of the war with Romagna in their hands, leaving us with that many more Swiss to fight. However, despite a massive Swiss army retaking Zurich and constant small armies being thrown against us, after we take Savoy, Savoy AND Baden are handed over to us, possibly to create a barrier to the Flandies advancing any deeper into Swiss territory.

Meanwhile back in Spain, Bearn has inheirited the throne of Asturias, vassalized the Andalucians and beaten the Andalucians to a bloody pulp leaving them as the unchallenged overlords of Iberia. Meanwhile back east, the Armenians have held up while the Anatolians have consolidated their hold over Asia Minor at Konya's expense while the Crimeans have been badly beaten by the Nizhgorod/Tver alliance that now dominates the NE almost completely.

Starting Territory: 1
Ending Territory: 4 (although I went two years over on the time)

[Bosh]

Chapter 11 Bosnia
December 1489-January 1497

Back as a one province nation again, it will be a very nice change of pace when we get to the end of the B's and can play Bearn. Anyway, to the north and west is the Venetian super-power and its Ragusan vasslas, which dominate the Illyrians region almost completely, to the east are the Translyvanian rulers of Serbia and south Hungary and to the south are the Macedonian lords of the south Balkans. All are engaged in wars but none seem to bee particularly hard-fought so we decide to bide our time while we build up our 6,000 man army.

While we wait for an opportunity and build our first cannons (just hit 7 army tech) the Venetians win yet another victory, leading to the possession of Sudeten, truly they are a behemoth. For a short time Macedonia appeared on the edge of vulnerability, but then Anatolia declares war on the Macedonian's Tauran enemey, a move which caused us great frustration so in an attempt to gain power we ally with the pathetic little nation of Maros, the only nearby nation who does not hate us. Soon afterwards, our window of opportunity to the south closes in July of 1491 when Macedonia take Ionia and Smyrna from the Taurans.

Then, in Febuary of 1493, our opportunity finally came when war breaks out between Venice and Translyvania, as soon as the two nations were engaged we sent our army into Translyvanian Serbia and called on Maros for assistance only to have them duck out of the war for table scraps only months later, but at least they kept some Translyvanian armies engaged, giving us enough time to take Serbia in December. After winning a battle against vastly superior forces at terrible cost, we retreat to Bosnia to regroup only to be attacked by an immense army of 54,000 men that annihilates our army and then offers to pay us 200 florins which we graciously accept and use to rebuild our army.

Then in September of 1495, seeing the Macedonians at war with the Rumelian lords of the west coast of the Black Sea, we send our armies into Macedonian Kosovo. But after winning a victory against great odds our army is annihilated and soon afterwards Bosnia falls to the Macedonians. Me pushed our luck a bit and badly underestimated the number of Macedonians under arms.

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, Bern is still on its feet an at peace and Bearn is now at war with the Bealeric conquerers of Andalucia, in an attempt to completely dominate Iberia. Meanwhile Guyenne is solidifying its dominance of France with only Maine's rule over the NW and Brittany and Flander's solid positions in the Low Countries to give it problems. To the east, Tver and Nizhgorod are no longer allied but they are both as immense as ever while Kurland is moving into a position of contest them for mastery of the east as it begins to unite Poland. Back in the Caucases, Armenia is just as it was before although the continued growth of Anatolian power leaves it somewhat vulnerable.

Starting Territory: 1
Ending Territory: 0

[Asmodean]

Meaning that now you are at +6 for the game

But you really pushed your luck in this last one, eh? But of course it is hard when surrounded by stronger powers.

Asmodean

[Main_Brain]

He tries to strenghten Powers taht come Later in The Alphabet ;=)

[Bosh]

Chapter 12 Bujak
January 1497-April of 1508

And now yet another one-province nation, that's four in a row now. Anyway, to our north is a small outpost of the great nation of Tver while to the west are our old friends the Translyvanians and to the south are the Rumelians who are at war with the beloved Macedonians. As we have extensive personal experience of the might of Macedonian arms, we feel that it is to our benefit to throw in ourselves with them and thus we take our 25,000 soldiers and immediately cross into Rumelian territory. Soon enough, Dubrudja is under seige and while we see no sizable Rumelian forces we see a sizable Macedonian army heading east, fresh from the annexation of Bosnia. Soon Dubrudja and Wallachia are captured at the price of a single large battle and we sit back and watch the Macedonians and the Venetians chip away at the Ragusan's sizable capitol garrison.

Meanwhile to the north, a Great War is brewing with Tver and Nizhgorod each lining up what help it can to hurt at the vast domains of the other. So far it seems to be Tver, Translyvania and Carpathia against Nizhgorod and Moravia with the remants of the Krementjug (which once dominated the Ukraine) being involved in a pre-existing war against the Tver alliance and Sochi joining in the war against Tver once they were fully engaged against Nozhgorod (ie, in December of 1498). The first casualty of the war was Carpathia, which was annexed by Moravia in January of 1499, but the war raged on unabated. The war became even more confusing when Crimea claimed half of Krementjug and then joined in against Tver with its Anatolian ally in July, it seemed that the tables were slowly turning against Tver, certainly they were a powerful nation but they would have their hands full fighting merely Nozhgorod, let alone all the other nations that were piling on them, the only thing that was keeping them on their feet seemed to be their Translyvanian ally.

Meanwhile, in October of 1499, the Macedonians had vacated Rumelian-held Bulgaria and taken the Rumelian capitol. This caused the Rumelian army to vacate Bulgaria in their turn in order to return to their homeland, which provided us with a golden opportunity to beseige a third Rumelian territory. We quickly took Bulgaria but the foolish Rumelians refused to grant us both Wallachia and Bubrudja so were we reduced to chasing their army hither and yon in an attempt to pound sense into them. Meanwhile, the Great War appeared to be largely stalemated, with the exception of the large-scale collapse of Tver's southern dominions at the hands of Sochi. Noting this disaster, Tver attempted to extricate itself from as many wars as possible and succeaded in doing so with Crimea and Krementjug and in both cases Tver was able to extract indemnities which impressed us greaty. Things did not go quite so well for us, for our army was annihilated and we were forced to settle for nothing but Wallachia in December of 1500. As if taking a cue, the Great War ended with a whimper, with the Nizhgorod monarch turning over his pocket change to Tver.

It appeared that the only major result of the Great War as the turning over of Lugansk, Volgagrad and Astrakhan to the Sochis but it seemed that even that gain would not be allowed to stand for before it was even granted the Crimean/Anatolian alliance hit Sochi from both the north and the south. Similarly the Moravians were soon forced to turn over their Carpathian gains Venice's Ragusan vassal.

Then another series of wars broke out, with Nizhgorod and Tver both on the forefront. Nizhgorod annexed the long-suffering nation of Krementjug before using this new territory as the staging ground for an invasion of Crimea, (which incidentally let the Sochins keep their Great War gains, good for them) while Tver in turn gave Tula a thumping, before being attacked by the rising nation of Kurland, which now dominated Poland.

Seeing the Translyvanians engaged in wars in the north with their Tveran ally, we smelt blood in the water and promptly invaded with our reconstituted army of 11,000 men in November of 1502. But despite winning a string of victories, we met greater than expected restance and were forced back to Bujak in October of 1503. We regrouped and took Moldova in July of 1504, but only as the Translyvanians took Wallachia from us in the same month. After fighting another string of scirmishes, while avoiding the main Translyvanian armies, we retook Wallachia and due to the massive Translyvanian armies then beseiging Moldova and Bujak we accepted indemnities in July of 1505.

Then a year later, freed of its war against Macedonia, due to indemnity payments, the Rumelian scum declared war on us in an attempt to reclaim Wallachia. Despite being badly outnumbered we beat back two attempts to invade Wallachia. And then moved in on Bulgaria in Febuary of 1507 where we were finally defeated and beaten back to Wallachia with heavy losses, where we were forced to beat off yet another large Rumelian attack. They then annihilated our army in a final attack before proceeding to take Wallachia and forcing us to hand it back to them in April of 1508, putting us back where we started, another day older and deeper in debt.

Nothing too much has changed back west. Bearn seems to have gained some smalled territories from Guyenne while Aragon has taken Valencia from the Baleares. Bern seems to be holding its own against the Swiss and seems to be doing just fine in their most recent war with them thanks to Holsteiner intervention that as brought much of the Swiss' German provinces under occupation.

map key:
The Red's Rumelia, the orange mass in the north if Nizhgorod, the white is either Tula or Moravia and the scattered bits of light color in Ukraine are the remains of Tver's Ukrainian dominions.

[Bosh]

Chapter 13 Bearn (aaaah, its good to be King)
April 1508 - May 1518

Aaaaah, is it good to be King. All of Iberia decognizes our overlordship (either directly or through our Aragonese vassal) except for the Balaeric outpost in Andalucia) and our alliance holds a considerable steak of south France (Poitiu, Gascogne, Roussillon and Bourgogne for us Languedoc and Lyonnais for the Aragones). Our only real neighbors are Maine and Guyenne which dominate NE and Central France respectively, although our cut-off territory in Bourgogne does border our old friends the Bernese. But we are well prepered for any challenges that might come with our robust navy, loyal ally and massive army which numbers over 100,000 men.

The first order of business is to reorganize our scattered forces. Our fleet rallies in Murcia where a force of 13,000 marine is also sent. The remainder of our forces our divided between an Army of the North under La Bruysre which gathers in Bearn and an Army of the South which is formed in Estremadura under the brave Savoie. By August are forces are in position, while to our north the once-mighty Swiss empire has paid indemnities to Bern and turned over much of what was once their extensive German territories to Holsteiners who are now well on their way to making their hold on Germany absolute. This seemed especially the case when they immediately turn their attention to Flanders, whose Mainer and Bernie allies desert them to the overlords of North Germany. Matters do not improve for the poor embattled Swiss, for Venice then takes their eastern territories in its turn, deducing it to rump of five scattered territories, a mere shadow of its former strength.

Then, in January of the new year of 1509, with our peace treaty with the Balaerics runing out, we order a simultaneous attack on Andalucia and the Balaerics. Andalucia collapses very rapidly, while the Balaerics hold out until March of 1511 at which point all of mainland Iberia recognized our glorious overlordship. It was a good day of Bearn and all of Hispania!

But then in Febuary of 1512 the Guyenners declared war on us and the time had come to test the mettle of united Spain. Our army was somewhat enervated by military cutbacks but we were confident that we could thump the Frenchie nonetheless. We mobilized our armies and beseiged Limosin and Cevennes, winning twin victories over the Frenchies, while the Aragoners attacked Guyenne itself. However all was not good, for the Guyenners were able to capture Bourgorne from us while we were moving our forces into position. By March of 1513 the Aragoners had stolen our Cevennes seige and then existed the war with Cervennes as booty, leaving us to fight the Frenchies and so we did for Limousin was in our hands and our armies rallied to persue further conquests. And the Guyenners fell before us like a farmer cutting down grain and as their southern domains fell before our armies we lost not a single battle until they surrendered Berri and Limosin to us in October of 1513.

Then, for no readily discernable reason both Provencal and Armenia declared war on us. We sent our forces through Aragonese territory to give the silly Provencals a good thumping, but there was little we could do against the silly Armenians. And as the Sardinians joined in the war, we readied the fleet. Soon enough our victories in the field convinced the Provencals and their Bernese allies that a white peace was in their best interest. From then on out we were engulfed in a series of Bad Boy wars that wracked our nation. These were especialy difficult, as after a series of vicious fleet battles with Sardinia and the Balaeres our fleet was annihilated, making it impossible to take the fight to many of the countries that assailed us. The only good that came out of any of this was the snatching of Morbihan from the Mainers.

Meanwhile, in the rest of Europe political consolidation is continueing at a rapid pace. After a vicious series of wars that saw the destruction of the once-powerful Northumberland, the British Isles are now divided between Leinster's Irish Dominions, the Cornish kingdom of West England and Ulster and the Kentish rule over East England and Scotland. France is split bewteen the native kingdoms of Guyenne, Maine and Flanders (all of about equal size nowadays) and the Spanish invaders. In Italy, meanwhile, the Romans have bounced back from their loss of Sicily and have begun expanding their dominions into North Italy, consolidating their near-monopoly of Italian political power. Meanwhile in Germany the North is dominated by the Holsteiners who at now at their most powerful (15 provinces) while a moderately-sized Sachen, the Rumelian outpost in Bayern, the remains of Swiss Imperialism and recent Venetian expansion manage to hold on to the south while Hinterpomern has extended its rule of East Germany down into the general Moravian region. The once-mighty Wurzberg has been completely annihilated. In the Black Sea region little has changed recently while in the North West Kurland and Nizhgorod seem to be slowly expanding their power, but not enough to do any real boat-shaking.

Starting Territory: 18
Ending Territory: 22

[Bosh]

Chapter 14 Corfu
May 1518-August 1530

Our rule begins will some sillyness about Theses and nails and this seems to be a portent of things to come for we are involved in a silly war against the Bearnese, while our maps do not even provide us with an avenue with which we could attack their lands.We immediately sue for a white peace while looking around for a suitable victim and sending our troops from our Cretan and Cyproit island territories home. After much thought, it is decided that Venice is the most likely target, as they are no longer allied with powerful Raguans and are currently occupied with their wars against Translyvania, Sachen and Tver and so the fleet is sent up the Adriatic to Istria. Although a string of futile attacks on our fleet by the Venetians delayed our landing of troops in Venetia, they finally set foot on the land around the Lagoon in summer of 1519.

After we are repulsed from Venetia by a surprise attack launched against us by a tiny band of cavalry, we successfully beseige Steirmark while, after countless victories, our fleet is send to the bottom. Our army, meanwhile, survives and marches on Istria. It is only when our army is annihilated that we are forced to sue for peace in Febuary of 1522. The next years were spent rebuilding our army and navy and soon it was ready again and in Febuary of 1522, we landed troops in Rumelia while the Rumelian armies were off fighting the Anatolians. Despite losing two entire expeditionary forces, the third force we raise finally manages to take Dobrodja in August of 1530 (really long campaign against the Rumelians and I don't want to get into all the battles).

Meanwhile to the north Tver has been brought to the brink of destruction by a series of wars with Kurland, Estland and Nizhgorod this, as well as major victory over Sochi, has left Nizhgorod as a real behemoth well on the way to taking over all of the Russian lands. Farther west less has changed, although Anatolia seems on the brink of winning a major victory over Rumelia while continued Holsteiner expansion as well as a strange northward charge of the Provencals have left Flanders fragmented and weak. The Bearnese, meanwhile, actually managed to weather their badboy wars quite, well even gaining one province more from the Guyenners, although they did lose Castille when it was the Aragonese rather than them who supressed the independence movement there. However a continued war with the Balaeries is resulting in fairly horrific war exhaustion.

Starting Territory: 3
Ending Territory: 4

[Bosh]

Chapter 15 Cornwall

August 1530-June 1541

As Cornwall, we have the unenviable situation of being the only Protestant state in the world, but if no other princes will join us in defying the Pope, then it is necessary to expand Protestant dominion by the sword. We have three basic choices; invading Ireland, attacking Kent to secure rule of England or sending expeditionary forces abroad. After much careful thought, and after noting the paucity of Kentish forces we sink our sizable treasury into a massive program of army expansion are are rewarded with three armies, one of 28,000 and two of 15,000. War is declared in April of 1531 and our smaller armies are sent into North England and Scotland respectively to beseige unguarded Kentish territories while our main force moves to engage the Kentish army. As our seiges begin, a 62,000-man Kentish army, whose appearance we had not previously noted, appears out of nowhere and utterly annihilates our main army. What upset us somewhat.

We were somewhat relieved when the massive Kentish horde proceedes to bloody itself repeatedly on the walls of Portsmouth, and was only able to capture it in January of 1532, the same month in which Lothian fell into our hands. We would now attempt to win the war by out-seiging our enemey and avoiding pitched battles whenever possible. This stategy began to bear fruit as Yorkshire fell to us in Febuary while the massive Kentish army marched north, leaving their English possessions largely-ungaurded. After mauling our northern army, the Kentishmen then marched south again, leaving us quite confused.

However, soon enough we had armies at work in Wessex and Strathclyde while the Kentishmen lurked in Bristol. However, we were not able to reclaim Wessex until the Kentishmen had taken Bristol and Northumberland, leaving Bristol and Northumberland in Kentish hands and Lothian and Yorkshire in ours and everything else even. The ring around the rosy continued with Yorkshire and Bristol both falling back into the hands of their origonal owners soon afterewards. As the war continued badly in the south, Strathclyde finally fell to us in July of 1535, freeing up our northern army while the main Kentish force marched north to supress rebellion in the Highlands. The Kentish army only marched south again a year later, at which point they had retacken Strathclyde and supressed the rebellions while their southern forces had taken Bristol, things were not looking good at all. However it was then that the tide at least made an appearance of turning when our forces captured York and Canturbery itself, all the while avoiding large-scale engagements.

The Kentishmen then gathered all their forces to retake Canturbery, leaving us to work on Bristol and Strathclyde in relative peace. And, indeed, Strathclyde fell to us yet again in April of 1537. The old tradition of province-swapping continued as we retook Bristol as the Kentishmen took back their capitol, however the Kentish propensity to attack fortresses and our strategy of dividing our forces in order the maximize the number of provinces we could seige, was seeming to bear fruit for the frequency with which our enemey raised new troops began to slip.

We were finally brought to battle in the spring of 1538 when the Kentishmen withdrew from Bristol to beat us off from Lincoln with heavy casulties, however despite losing yet again in the field (we had lost all major engagements up to this point) we took the Grampians soon afterwards and got to see the Kentish army marching north back into Scotland and were well cheered that they would have to march through the rebels in Lothian to reach the army that was even then beseiging the Highlands. It was then, in August of 1538, that the Kentishmen offered us the Highlands and the Grampians for peace, but seeing the enemey so obviously weakened we decided to press our advantage. And who wants Scotish land anyway?

We had some reason to regret this move, as the Kentishmen then quickly beat both of our armies and retook Lothian. We met these setbacks by sending the remains of our armies north (Highlands and Northumberland while the foeman concentrated his forces for yet another seige of Wessex). Soon enough Northumberland was back in our hands while, after ruinous casualties, the Kentish army broke off its seige of Wessex to persue one of our armies who had ventured as far south as Lincoln. It was at this point (January of 1540) that the enemey again offered us two Scottish provinces, but we had not shed so much blood to rule over Scots!

After some nasty back and forth fighting in Lincoln, we were again beseiging three Kentish possesions while the enemey battered its head against Wessex yet again. It seemed possible that the Kentishmen had suffered either a bankrupcy or the loss of their leaders, (we had never had any) for now were were finally defeating them in the field for the first time in the war although they still managed to beat our annoyingly-incompetant soldiers quite often. But by December all of Scotland was in our hands and the situation for our enemy was looking bleaker by the day. Finally, after some nasty defeats and with rebels beginning to spring up in large numbers due to enormous war exhaustion we settled for The Grampians, Strathclyde and Lothian in June of 1541. All that blood shed for Scots, bah! But at least it broke Kentish power in the north and set the stage for what we hoped to be eventual Cornish dominion of the Isles.

We were so engrossed in our war against Kent that we paid little attention to the rest of the world during our Cornish stint, however much changed in these years. Those nations that had once been rulers of NW and NE France (Maine and Flanders respectively) had been reduced to pathetic one province remants by Bear and Holstein respectively. This victory over Maine and the lack of Guyennese resurgence (although they were by no means weak) put the Bearnese in the enviable position of being the dominant power in both France and Spain, especially with the loyal Aragonese still by their side. Meanwhile in Germany Holstein had continued to solidify its rule of the north and center while Venice mopped up the south (although Bern was remained a force to recond with). In the east we saw Nizhgorod and Curland as dominant as ever (and at war with each other) while Anatolia, while still the virtually-uncontested ruler of Turkey had only managed to take Bulgaria to add to its European dominions. The other major change was the rise of Ragusa, who had won a whole series of wars in the North Hungary/Rumania/Galicia region while moving into Greece at Macedonian expense, they seemed poised to assert their dominance of SE Europe. And the stage seemed set for some monumental Venice/Holstein vs. Ragusa/Hinterpommern wars which would definately provide us with interesting watching.

And up next is Crimea in which we will finish off a war with Sochi and then attempt to take down the Nizhgorodan behemoth.

Starting Territory: 8
Ending Territory: 11

[Kropotkin]

The Cornwallian adventures remindes me of the old boardgame/Computer game Kingmaker. A lot of landswapping and yeapodies.

[Bosh]

ooops, hit the quote button indead of the edit button.

[Bosh]

Chapter 16 Crimea
August 1540-August 1549

Our ten years open with us losing a battle against Sochi in their capitol. However we are confident that we will win the war as we are engaged in nonetheless, for we have six territories to the Sochie's three and Kalmuk is in our hands while Georgia is on the verge of falling. As our army retreats we get to see the Nizhgorodans desperately attempting to supress the revolts that are raging in their Ukrainian territories.

Then, in December, while finishing the crushing of the Sochies and shipping home our troops in our far-away Turkish territory, the Armenians declare war in a most annoying manner. Then, in April of 1543, we finally take Sochi and Kalmuk and Georgia are duly turned over to us, thus freeing up troops to assist our deleagered army in Daghestan that has beat off countless Armenian attacks after the annihilation of the previous army that was sent against the Caucasians. Then, to make matters worse, Anatolia (soon joined by the Estland/Courland alliance) joined in the war against us, but we would fight on nonetheless!

Soon Daghestan was ours and the Armenians were everywhere in retreat, while our tiny Tauran ally was proving its worth by keeping the Anatolians occupied. However our mood was somewhat spoiled when a Kurland army marched through the thin Ukrainian corridor of territory they had just won from the Nizhgorodans to beseige our capitol. However the Kurland army soon marched off and, after several set-backs, our armies took Trabzon in May of 1534 which brought Trabzon and Daghestan into our realm and allowed our armies to march on Anatolia. Seeing this, the Anatolians wisely agreed to a white peace. Now it was time to deal with the Kurland/Estland alliance.

We won one glorious battle against the Kurland invaders before turning east to deal with rebels, however it was then that Nizhgorod declared war on us, soon to be joined by Translyvania. Curses! However, our great armies then butchered rebels and Nizhgorodans alike and so we launched an invasion of land of the Russians. Due to our superior generalship (Aromat is quite a nice leader) we slaughtered army after army of Nizhgorodans that were thrown against us while sending our men over the flimsy walls of the enemy's defenses in Donetsk and Lugnansk and in August of 1546 they surrendered Lugnansk and Krementjug over to us, leaving us free to deal with our enemies farther west (who now included, bizarrely enough, Provence). The Kurland/Estlanders were beaten again in Krementjug, but only at the cost of the near-annihilation of our army, and as we saw massive Kurlader armies begin to pour across the border we felt obliged to surrender Krementjug to the Estlanders. Curses! But soon enough, white peaces were signed with our silly western enemies and paece reigned again in the greatly-expanded nation of Crimea.

At least until June, 1548 when the Sochis declared war (with Rome, Veneto and Sardinia soon joining in the fun). We soon annexed the silly Sochi, as they had not a single soldier under arms, which resulted in Hinterpommern and Armenia joining in the war against us. But since the only country at war with us that actually borders us is Armenia, and we have Anatolia on our side in that war so its as good as won, but since it broke out at the end of our ten years we decide to move on to the next country (Estland) as we hit the ten year mark in August, before we had time to so much as touch the Armenians.


These last ten years have been comparatively-uneventful in the rest of the World. As previously-noted, the Kurland/Estland alliance managed to strip some of the Nizghgorod's southwestern territory, but despite this the bulk of the Russian hearland remains in Nizhgorodan hands. In Germany the growth of Holstein has continued with the addition of Schywz and Piedmont and the south while our old Bernese friends have consolidated a reputable strip of six provinces in the southern French/German borderlands. In France and Spain, the only real difference is the end of the Bearnese/Aragonese alliance which has allowed Aragon to be smacked around a bit by Provencal and Bern while picking up Normandy. Meanwhile, Ragusa has become marginally more powerful, while Translyvania has won a surprising victory against what seems to be a Venice that is well past its peak, bringing it to the Adriatic. The only major change is the spread of Protestantism, for now Kent, Holstein, Kurland and Translyvania have joined Cornwall in their defiance of the Pope.


Starting Territory: 6
Ending Territory: 11 (and a colony in Orenberg that we got when we annexed Sochi)