EU IV - Leinster will rule the waves.....or die trying

[ProPain]

In my last CK II game I started as Leinster and made Ireland rule Brittania. I didn't play the game out till the end but Leinster rules the Britisch isles, and parts of France, Spain and North Africa. To my horror al my good work was undone in EU IV's 1444. Leinster being a mere one province blotch on the map, waiting to be annexed by england. Obviously we can let this happen.

I play this game in normal, non ironman, mode because I want to test some mechanics. I had a real good run in ironman when I made a stupid mistake and my whole empire collapsed. I wanna have the reload option so this attempt will be normal.

1444 - The Start

The Donchad dynasty still rules Leinster, a quiet Irish province on the east coast.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=538&stc=1&d=1378062797

The plan
King Donnchad MacMurrough Kavanagh is an ambitious man who dreams of ruling the Britisch Isles and discovering what's beyond the western seas. His plan is to quickly take the other independent Irish provinces first. Depending on how England is doing in the 100 year war against France he might try and get Meath and some territory in britain itself. If this is not feasable he'll focus on getting the exploration tech and sail to the west. Rumours are rich indians with just pointy sticks live there. They should be easy targets and can be milked to fund a campaign against England.

So much for ambition[b]
It turns out ambition is not enough to execute a plan, you need survivabilty too. Sadly King Donnchad dies in december 1444 after 2 glorious months. As he dies without an heir, his dynasty dies with him. Thank god we're not playing CK II as this would have meant game over then. But in this game it's a rather fortunate event as the distant relative from the MacMurrough clan that manages to grab the throne is far more competent than Donnchad. On top of being competent his only 18 years old too! The king is dead, long live the king :)

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=539&stc=1&d=1378063498

[b]1444 - what else happened
We plan to conquer but our army is exactly the same size as the other Irish provinces. We build a cavalry unit and get alliances with Tyrone and Scotland. We sent diplomats to fabricate claims on Connaught and Munster. One needs an excuse to annex his neighbours after all.

1446 - A good year
We get a mission to wipe Connaught from the map. We happily take this and sent our troops and in 1446 we get the following message. We immediately start to core the province.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=540&stc=1&d=1378064180

There's also good news from the 100 year war. England is getting slapped around by France and it's allies. Their 24000 soldiers took some heavy hits

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=541&stc=1&d=1378064180

[b]1447 - One happy nation[/]
Core on connaught finishes, we declare war on Munster.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=542&stc=1&d=1378064180

[ProPain]

1448 - A year to remember

After a few months of sieging Munster they concede. A messenger brings us the happy news.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=543&stc=1&d=1378064451

We send them a peace proposal offering them annexation into glorious Leinster and they accept. We start the festivities but in the midst of all the drinking and singing a strange looking man wants to speak to our king. Turns out he's not the new jester, he just wearing the latest fashion by Italian standards. He brings the most unexpected of tidings..

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=544&stc=1&d=1378064451

Turns out Munster was controlling a cardinal, and not just an ordinary one but the one with the most influence in the curia. We are now the papal controller. [party] We tell our advisors not to get used to this luxury as we wont invest in keeping control of the curia. We too small for that, but we'll enjoy it as long as it lasts.

[Shabbaman]

Maybe you could sponsor some revolutionariea in Meath, irish-style.

[ProPain]

I thought of that but I can't afford it atm. Maybe when Munster also cores and I get taxes from them as well

[ProPain]

The light in the sky

- "Chancellor, is that a meteor I see?"
- "No my liege, it's your mountain of debt collapsing on you"
- "Mmm, really? Never knew that my debt could light up the sky"
- "Well, it's not exactly your debt that glows sire, but the fires of dozens of rebel armies funded by Jacob Fugger. He wants his money back."
- "I see, so what do we do now?"
- "it seems the advanced finance tech that allows derivates is still centuries away. I fear we have no choice than to give up."
- "Well we had a good run, I hope we meet again in the near future my friend"
- "But, but, what are you gonna do my liege?"
- "Pray for the english peasants to watch the sky. A lot...."


http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=545&stc=1&d=1378492817

Things went roughly as planned. I conquered some english main land provinces and discovered the Americas somewhere in the 1450's. DoW'ed the Iroquois for a -2 stab hit becuase I didnt have a CB. That was all planned. What wasn't planned was the absolutely sorry financial state the Iroquois nation was in. A meager 500 gold in the coffers was far too little to pay all the debts I made to fund the England campaign.

On top of that Scotland declared war on England and dragged me into their war. This was a mistake, I should have broken the alliance. Now I had to up the army maintenance and start war taxes to pay for it. Turned out I still was losing 3-4 gold a month while war weariness was fueling rebellions all over the place. In the end I was declared bankcrupt while being overrun by rebels......


How now, brown cow?
Not sure how to progress from here. Any strategy will probably start with annexing the other irish OPM's, question is what to do next. Pruning England while they're fighting France seems the best option but it's sooo expensive. Alternatively I could try and attack Scotland once they DoW England but that would leave England really powerfull. The other option is to try and take Meath by 'rebel conversion', leave England alone and focus on the Americas first. Last game would have been ideal for that with the early death of our monarch and his competent replacement, chances are this won't happen again very often.

For now I'll go with "If at first you don't success, try, try again."

[Shabbaman]

STOP STARING AT THE SKY!

[Shabbaman]

The nobility demands an update!

[ProPain]

And the nobility will get one. The game is turning out to be really weird, made a ton of screenies, will update this weekend.

[ProPain]

Leinster - 2nd try

After our disastrous 1st run we embark on our second attempt to change history and turn Leinster in a superpower.

1444 - How it all started

It all starts pretty much the same way as all Leinster games

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=546&stc=1&d=1379153386

First order of business: make allies so England won't crush us from the getgo.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=547&stc=1&d=1379153386

Mm, shouldn't we take this a little slower.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=548&stc=1&d=1379153386

I want allies, not in-laws! I refuse both marriages to avoid a stability hit down the road for attacking a nation you have a royal marriage

Apparantly England thinks they can mingle in our business. Don't you have a 100 year war to fight? Maybe you should concentrate on that because things don't look so hot for you atm.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=549&stc=1&d=1379153386

And then Brittany joins the pow-pow.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=550&stc=1&d=1379153386

All pretty standard so far. I make Munster and Connaught my rivals and start preparing my invasion.

[ProPain]

The Irish wars

We have a rather pathethic monarch with crappy skills. As we can't depose of him we turn him into a military leader and send him of the battlefields. Hopefully he takes an arrow to the knee and dies.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=551&stc=1&d=1379154113

Turns out he is a pretty ok military leader though. He crushes the Munster troops. At least that's some good use for him as he has pretty good survival instincts and he lives a long and happy life as king and commander.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=552&stc=1&d=1379154113

We take munster

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=553&stc=1&d=1379154113

We take Connaught

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=554&stc=1&d=1379154113

[ProPain]

While Leinster is uniting Ireland something disturbing happens across the irish sea. Rebels are picking apart Scotland. This is bad news because a 12 unit rebel army is too much for the Scots to handle and this will keep them from attacking England now they are weak.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=555&stc=1&d=1379154443

England has its own share of rebellions. While this is good, it would have been better when Scotland could have taken this opportunity to slap England around a bit more.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=556&stc=1&d=1379154443

We unite Ireland, apart from Meath. Scotland is still busy with the rebels, with Lothian under rebel control things are looking grim for them. This stinks cause I 'm too weak to take Meath alone and dragging Scotland in a war against England while rebels are burning their countryside will only make them an easy target for england. [:(!]

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=557&d=1379154436

[ProPain]

placeholder - needed cause some VB bug otherwise wont display page 2

[akots]

So you obviously have to sit it out or so it looks from your description. What is there to do in the mean time?

[Shabbaman]

Fast forward!

[ProPain]

So you obviously have to sit it out or so it looks from your description. What is there to do in the mean time?

At the time, there wasn't much I could do against England alone. I was hoping for the scots to break the rebels quickly. My backup plan was : colonise the Americas

[ProPain]

Although Leinster isn't exactly moving forward, England is neither. Rebels are popping up and France is occupying england's overseas provinces. At least that buys me time.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=558&stc=1&d=1379277517

And then my good friends Brittany decide to join the war. At first I think this is good news.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=559&stc=1&d=1379277517

At first I thought I could wait for England to weaken and declare war or maybe get a lucky rebel defection in Meath. I was already supporting some the Meath rebels and I though I could wait for England to be really down to hardly any army before I'd declare war. Mostly hoping that Scotland would have it's rebel problem solved by that time so they could join in and keep england busy on it's home grounds. Then suddenly Brittany lands troops in Meath and my agent gets discovered to booth.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=560&stc=1&d=1379277517


The agent being discovered is no biggie, Brittany besieging Meath is. If they occupy Meath I cannot occopy it any more unless I declare war on Brittany and England. That's not an option, Brittany is one of my few good friends and I need it to stay that way to deter England. After a few months the inevitable happens.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=561&stc=1&d=1379277517

Brittany occupies Meath. I can forget about an Ireland united under Leinster rule for a while now. Time to focus on colonial expansion.

The Scots still have their rebel trouble. Only good news is the rebels wandered over to england now.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=562&stc=1&d=1379277517

[ProPain]

In the year 1451 a new heir is born. His stats aren't stellar but he'll do. Seems scotland has given in to rebel demands cause all the rebel occupancy suddenly disappears.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=563&stc=1&d=1379278538

It seems the Scots are hellbent on joining the war against England and they declare war in april 1451. I;m not to happy with it. Scotland only has 6 stacks of units and so does Leinster. Rebels in england are marching around with stacks of 12 and they'll be hostile to us as well. Otoh, I have no other choice than to honour my alliance with the scots.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=564&stc=1&d=1379278538

I can't take Meath, Brittany still occupies it, so I send my troops to England to try and take a province. It's a nervous affair, I'm breaking off sieges often to run from the rebels. England is building up in the meantime. Not good, not good at all.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=565&stc=1&d=1379278538

Then my king dies in 1452 and we get a regency council. With our heir still wearing nappies this will be our last war for a while. Forget Meath, hope that this war with England ends quickly without any permanent damage to Leinster and totally focus on colonising.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=566&stc=1&d=1379278538

And a lucky break. Scotland is war leader and they settle for a white peace with England in 1453

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=567&stc=1&d=1379278538

[ProPain]

The new Leinster plan is

- Make friends to scare England
- Colonise America

While we're accumulating point for the Quest for the New World idea (needed for colonisation) we try and make some friends.

We ally Castille and Burgundy, two big nations with big armies.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=568&stc=1&d=1379279170

Turns our Brittany doesn't like Burgundy so they cancel their alliance with us. That's fine, their army is puny compared to Burgundy's and Brittany is more likely to become an English target, dragging me into a war at a possibly inconvenient time.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=571&stc=1&d=1379279170

Finally in october 1457 we get the quest for the new world!

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=572&stc=1&d=1379279170

Good news, we now can get conquistador and explorers that are necessary to push back the 'undiscovered land fog'. Leinster won't bother itself with petty European wars anymore, we're going to become a colonial superpower.

...well at least that is the plan......

[Shabbaman]

Any progress? I'm not having much fun with the endgame.