Eire - An Aberration EU2 AAR

[Jonny]

So, I'm not doing much over this Spring Break, so I thought I'd take my first stab at AAR writing. (Well, it's not really my first, but my first was years ago and was quickly abandoned.) I'm starting it here, but may eventually put it up at Paradox too later on.

There's not going to be too much of a storyline, but I'll also try to make it more interesting than just a listing of events by writing it from more personal viewpoints...

I'm using the Aberration mod, which (if you don't know) is a sort of alternate history mod, in which the traditonal powers have been mothballed in favor of other, ahistorical medium-strong to strong states. I've never played it before, so the events and nations will be a suprise for me as I go along.

The Nation: Eire
The Game: EU v1.08, 2 February 2005 Beta; Aberration mod v1.06b
Settings: Normal/Normal

First chapter in a little while...

[Jonny]

Chapter 1: The First Scottish War, and The Arrival from Portugal

The following is a collection of important historical dates and entries from the journal of His Royal Highness King Eóghan I mac Néill Óg of Eire:


The state of Eire as of 1 January 1419. All that decentrialization is horrible, but it will be changed over time... At least we have a ton of ducats!

1 January 1419: Clearly, there must have been something in the wine at the New Year’s parties yesterday. It seems that all Europe’s gone crazy, with people creating alliances and declaring wars all over the place. We’ll probably get ourselves involved too in a matter of just a few days…

6 January 1419: Sure enough, we get involved with the diplomatic wheeling and dealing, as we are invited to enter a military alliance with our Gaelic brothers in Brittany, along with their vassals in Normandy. We are happy at the prospect of joining an alliance with our brothers in Normandy, although joining the alliance would force us to join their war on Scotland (and their allies in Norway across the Baltic Sea) which they started the day before. The prospect of war with the nation just across the straits soon is overshadowed by the prospect of a Greater Gaelic Kingdom with me as its head, so we join the alliance and the war. At this moment, we also begin building armies, as we only have 15 000 men, but the economy can easily support 25 000.

7 January 1419: I send of one of my daughters across the Channel to Brittany to marry a most charming prince; this royal marriage should help to cement the strong relations between our two nations.

1 February 1419: An advisor reminded me that I should consider implementing a policy change to guide the nation in whatever direction I want it to go; I tell him to form a program to make the royal bureaucracy stronger. (Centralization slider +1)

27 February 1419: A representative from the royal family of the kingdom of Porto in Iberia as come to us begging for aid against the infidel Moors of southern Iberia. We immediately do whatever we can to help our Catholic brothers, and send them a couple thousand men and some money to help them fight off the enemy. A few days later in return, a certain Henry, often called “Henry the Navigator”, shows up in Dublin to express his gratitude for our support. I immediately take a liking to the young man, and within a few days I make him my personal advisor. Some people are unhappy at the prospect of giving such a high spot in the government to a foreigner, but I see great potential in this Iberian.


Henry the Navigator at the time of his arrival from Portugal.

2 March 1419: The first of our armies have crossed the straits from Eire into the Strathclyde province of Scotland; I order that the army of about 10 000 men continue eastwards to lay siege to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh in Lothian province.

3 April 1419: The army has now reached Lothian, and has begun a siege of the city of Edinburgh.

19 April 1419: Our second army, of about 15 000 men, has set siege to Strathclyde province, where the other army left off.

5 May 1419: A large Scottish army has attacked our army in Strathclyde. The “battle” really consisted of on and off skirmishes for a period of an entire month, until 5 June, at which point our army was totally demoralized and retreated back across the straits to Eire. This is a disappointment to me, of course, but this loss will only increase my people’s will to fight. The Scottish may be winning the battles now, but they are only living on borrowed time.

2 June 1419: While the battle in Strathclyde continues, a small army of fresh Scottish recruits have attacked our army in Lothian. They are able to kill some of our men, but the tide of the battle quickly turns, and by the 11th we have dismissed the enemy army.

16 June 1419: A small Scottish fleet has encountered our large 50-ship fleet in the Irish Sea. They are no match for our superior ships, and the three-ship fleet of Scotland is quickly annihilated.

18 September 1419: A large Scottish army attacks our army in Lothian, which has been greatly diminished by a series of two or three skirmishes with Scottish armies. Our armies there are slaughtered and its leaders hung, and by 9 October every man of ours there is killed. Scotland will pay for this travesty…

16 October 1419: It has been a very unfortunate month for the armies of Eire; not long after our army in Lothian has been destroyed, our army in Strathclyde is attacked, and within 10 days they are forced to retreat across the sea back into Eire. Luckily, we have been training new recruits for the armies, and they are nearly ready.

2 February 1420: Our armies have regrouped, and about 20 000 men have crossed into Scotland once again and war with a small Scottish army in Strathclyde. The army of only a few thousand is immediately forced to retreat, and by the following day the siege of Strathclyde began.

...

The remainder of the year is relatively quiet, except for a failed attack on a Scottish army laying siege to our province of Wales in September. The Scottish army there is too large to force them to lift the siege without diverting a large number of troops from Strathclyde, so for the time being we will allow them to focus on Wales while we continue to attack the Scottish homeland.

...

3 February 1421: Exactly one year after the siege of Strathclyde began, the defenders of the Glasgow garrison surrender and give us the keys to the castle. With both sides of the Irish Sea straits under our control, it should be little time until the other Provinces of Scotland start falling to us. After all, their power has been severely diminished already, as the Scottish possessions in England (Midlands, Lincoln, Lancashire, and Yorkshire) have already fallen to the forces of our ally Brittany. The army in Strathclyde is split in two to reduce attrition and to expedite the end of the war: half of the army is sent to Lothian, while the other half is sent southeast to Northumberland.

1 March 1421: Our province of Wales has fallen to the Scots. That is of little consequence now, though, as we still own the upper hand in the war, as the Scots will soon see.

2 March 1421: The first half of our army from Strathclyde has arrived in Lothian and has defeated a small Scottish army there. The army immediately sets siege to Edinburgh. On the following day, another small Scottish army engages our forces there, but within a single day they are soundly defeated.

9 April 1421: The other army from Strathclyde arrives in Northumberland and immediately starts a siege of the city there. Armies from our ally Brittany arrive soon thereafter to help us in the siege. In May, a small Scottish army attacks the invading army, but it is quickly repelled.

7 July 1421: Edinburgh in Lothian falls to our armies. We have secured the Scottish capital; surely the defeat of Scotland is not too far away in the future. The army in Lothian immediately heads north to The Grampians, but there is a large Scottish army there…

3 August 1421: We engage the large Scottish army in the Grampians, but we are quickly repelled. The army retreats to Strathclyde.

6 November 1421: We try again in the Grampians. Again, we are repelled. Why won’t these Scots die???

6 February 1422: Now the Scots have followed our retreating army south, and have engaged them in Strathclyde. However, we are able to defeat them, as they sent only a small portion of their army. But perhaps it is a sign of changing fortunes? The army pursues the retreating Scots back into The Grampians.

20 March 1422: We engage the Scots in The Grampians; this time we are successful after a long and drawn out battle (it lasted 20 days). We set siege to the city, while the Scots retreat into the Highlands at the very top of Britain.

28 March 1422: I have sad news to report today, as our Catholic friends in Porto in Iberia have been conquered by the infidels of Granada. However, some people were able to flee the invading armies there, and decided to come here due to the strong relations between our countries. This has provided a population and tax base boost for the country, but some people are concerned by the influx of foreigners into the local population.

16 July 1422: Northumberland finally falls after a siege lasting more than a whole year. This is the third province we have captured from the Scots. Our army there heads south through Brittany-controlled territory to try and defeat the Scottish armies stationed in Wales.

18 September 1422: Our army engages the Scots in Wales, but we are quickly defeated. The territory in Wales simply gives too much advantage to the defenders, it seems, so we decide to simply keep that army near Wales, so that they may try and capture the territory if the Scottish armies ever decide to pull out to try to free their homelands.

18 November 1422: Scottish armies from The Highlands move southward to try and lift our siege of The Grampians, but we repel them. And that’s good, because our siege there should be coming to an end soon.

...

The next four to five months are another quiet period, except for two small naval skirmishes against scattered Scottish fleets which we easily win.

...

29 March 1423: Our enemy Scotland has made their ally Norway a vassal. (By event) Why the Norwegians would be foolish enough to subjugate themselves to such a weakling, I don’t know. But it really doesn’t help the Scots anyways, as most of Norway’s territory is currently occupied by the Finns. Apparently, no one told Scotland and Norway that they were going to be the Axis of Mediocrity.

10 June 1423: Our armies finally secure the province of The Grampians, as the garrison there surrenders. The Scots only have two provinces in their control: The Highlands and Wales, which they continue to hold from us.

7 July 1423: We sign peace with the Scots, taking the provinces of Strathclyde, Northumberland, and The Grampians from them.

...

The rest of 1423 is rather quiet. We promote new tax collectors in our new provinces, and we rebuild our armies up to the maximum that we can support, but other than that we do nothing, particularly on the foreign affairs front.

...

10 January 1424: Brittany has made peace with Scotland, taking Midlands, Lincoln, Lancashire, and Yorkshire from them. Scotland is now left with only 2 provinces, and they have been totally decimated by our war. But at least the Isles are now at peace. Things may be quiet for now, but I have a feeling that big things will soon begin to happen…


The British Isles after Brittany's January 1424 peace treaty. Scotland has been reduced severely. (The yellow in the southeast belongs to the Hanseatic League.)