My Son's Holstein Game

jwolf · 18-01-2004, 04:22

As I wrote in my Burnt Siena AAR, my inspiration to play a one-province country was largely in response to my son's challenge, as he had already completed a very successful game as Holstein. I promised my son (Scott -- a good name for conquerors, right Amric?) that I would write up his Holstein game as an AAR after I finished the Siena story. So I took a few days to catch my breath, and now here we are.

Scott is now 8 years old; he just had his birthday this month. At the time of his Holstein game last Fall he was just 7, making him perhaps the youngest player on record, or at least close to it. Scott played the game almost entirely on his own. I offered general advice on occasion, such as placing more merchants. There was one critical time later on when I gave him a very large hint (we'll come to that later). But other than that, Scott handled the whole thing by himself, and quite frankly in many ways he did better than I would have done! Time after time when he told me of his progress, I would ask something along the lines of "Didn't X cause a lot of trouble for you?" and his response would be simply "It wasn't really a problem, I just did Y."

So what follows is an AAR of Holstein in the Grand Campaign. We play version 1.05 with both difficulty and aggressiveness normal. The AAR will be based primarily on my reading of the history log, along with Scott's explanations as to who was doing what when, and what he was trying to do at any given time.

First question: why did he pick Holstein in the first place? When I asked him this, he said he wanted to try the challenge of a one-province country. OK, but why Holstein in particular? I didn't get a clear answer out of him. I think he wanted something in Germany that would be protected, at least initially, by a good alliance.

Second question: what were his goals? At the start, this was easy. His goal was to form Germany. Within Europe, he stuck to this reasonably well, although he did branch out a bit. Much later, he began a colonial empire after a very clever move with Hessen, but that's for a later part of the tale...

jwolf · 18-01-2004, 04:32

We'll begin by taking a look at Holstein and its neighbors as the GC opens. Holstein is a member of the Hanse alliance along with Bremen, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Prussia, and the Teutonic Order. They are pretty much guaranteed an early war with Poland-Lithuania, and often from the Scandinavian bloc as well, although only the former happened in this game.

Holstein begins with an army of 15K infantry and 5K cavalry. However, their support limit is only 9K, so army maintenance costs 1.4 of their 2.1 ducats in monthly income. They start with no navy, probably just as well. Here is a picture showing the starting configuration. Note the 25K friendly Danish neighbors just to the North.

jwolf · 18-01-2004, 05:11

The year 1419 opened with three peaceful months, during which Scott sent several merchants to Mecklenburg. This peaceful period ended in April with Poland's DOW against Prussia, putting the Hanse alliance up against Poland and Lithuania. Holstein wasn't really in danger from these two, although Prussia and the TO both were hammered.

The political situation became more interesting in July 1420 when Brandenburg declared war on Pommern. Magdeburg joined on Brandenburg's side two months later. If these two aggressors thought the Hanse was completely occupied by the war against Poland and Lithuania, they soon learned otherwise.

By October 1420 Scott had moved his army to Berlin inflicting a defeat upon Brandenburg. Incidentally, he was offered and accepted white peace with both Poland and Lithuania. By March 1421 Brandenburg's army had been defeated repeatedly, but he moved his army to Magdeburg, a convenient "target of opportunity." Magdeburg was defeated and annexed by Holstein in September.

Holstein's army successfully defeated Brandenburg's several more times. Berlin fell in October 1422, and Kustrin in July 1423. Scott took Kustrin for Holstein and made Brandenburg his vassal. However, Bremen finished this war a few years later by annexing Brandenburg.

Holstein remained at peace for several years. In 1428 Scott attempted to vassalize Bremen but they declined. Norway issued a stern warning to Holstein later that year. Early in 1429 Scott got hit by the nasty corruption event, forcing him to take a loan. On the other hand, Bremen accepted his next vassalization invitation. A letter and a gift were sent to Mecklenburg, bringing their relationship to the "closest of friends." Finally, in December 1431 Scott got the Unexpected Invention event, which more than made up for the corruption earlier.

Scott ended the peace by declaring war on Hannover in April 1432. I couldn't tell from the log if he had a CB or not, and Scott was hazy about it. But he said his reputation was only tarnished after this war so I think he must have had a CB for some reason.

Since Hannover had only the one province, Scott didn't call his allies for help. But Hannover did, so Holstein was also fighting against Oldenburg, Munster, Gelre, and Friesland. I would have been a bit nervous about this but Scott didn't seem to think it was a problem.

His first attack in Hannover was repulsed, but he regrouped and beat them in September. By then he had accepted WP offers from Friesland and Oldenburg, but Gelre was besieging his capital. Scott broke their siege with another army in October and defeated several more attacks by Gelre in the next months. He got a WP with Munster at this time. Hannover was captured and annexed in January 1433 but Gelre persisted, rejecting several WP offers until finally they offered to pay 107 ducats for all the trouble they caused, in May 1431.

Scott now had a few years of peace. The loan came due in 1434, but he wasn't able to save up enough money to pay it back. So he took another loan to pay the first one (and the same thing would happen in 1439). His diplomatic offensive with Mecklenburg bore fruit when they accepted vassalization in 1436.

However, in August 1436 Poland again declared war on Prussia. The PL alliance now had Bohemia as well, and this is a very potent group in the early stages of the game. But the Golden Horde declared war on Lithuania in October, and that likely took some of the pressure off of the Hanse countries.

Scott operated from Kustrin, attacking Poznan which he captured in May 1438. This got him a WP with Lithuania, but Poland wouldn't deal yet. During the second half of 1438, Holstein attacked Wielkopolska while the Poles attempted to recover Poznan. In June 1439 Wielkopolska fell and Bohemia offered a WP. For several months there followed seesaw fighting in Poznan with wins and losses for both sides. All the while Poland repeatedly rejected Scott's peace offers, until February 1440 when they finally conceded and Scott won Poznan for Holstein.

Summary: Starting from just the one province of Holstein, Scott added the provinces of Magdeburg, Kustrin, Hannover, and Poznan. In addition, Holstein had the vassals Bremen and Mecklenburg. A pretty good start, but with the two force annexations his reputation had attracted the notice of angry and/or opportunistic neighbors. Soon the **** hit the fan...

*coz1* · 18-01-2004, 05:18

Quote:

perhaps the youngest player on record

And thus would be the youngest game ever chronicled. Very interesting game and you are quite the dutiful father to assist!

Very nice, indeed. I will be watching to see how he does. Looks good so far!

Anibal · 18-01-2004, 05:40

Gotta keep an eye on this!

Farquharson · 18-01-2004, 06:16

Yay! The long-awaited "Scott's Holstein Game"! And with a name like Scott, we expect to see great things, of course

. Oh, and Happy Eighth Birthday, Scott

AmbassadeBelgie · 18-01-2004, 06:47

Well, I must simply say, genius Scott... that if I had a father who was as crazy about this game as I am, I would have been in Heaven, where you are now situated you lucky boy!

I admire you, Jwolf, for a) enjoying EUII [not that hard, is it?

]and b) actually introducing the game to your son, and supporting him.

Man, if this game existed when I was seven, I would have been playing it non-stop for eight years! Of course, it is now only two years, but it IS straight-forward pure playing of EUII without other games! You remind me of me.

Hope you turn out a grand AARer as your father was [oops!... sorry

IS!!!

]

Th

Machiavellian · 18-01-2004, 07:18

Very impressive. I shall continue to check up on this AAR in the future and I am certain in good time Holstein under the guidence of Scott will be dominating germany proper.

VPeric · 18-01-2004, 11:13

This seems interasting. I'll be reading it any time I find my way to the new location of the AAR forums.

HJ Tulp · 18-01-2004, 11:19

Beam me up Scotty! Nice work and good luck!

Van Engel · 18-01-2004, 11:50

the problem is he might dtart to show the rest of us up (of just me!)
but sice i am only 6 years older than him i wouldnt be to imbaresed...

AmbassadeBelgie · 18-01-2004, 18:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Van Engel

the problem is he might dtart to show the rest of us up (of just me!)
but sice i am only 6 years older than him i wouldnt be to imbaresed...

Yeah, Im also six years older.
Van Engel, hopelijk doen ze ons niets kwaads
If VEngel n me get pummeled by Scotty, I'm calling my lawyer!!! (wait...I don't HAVE one! Oops!)

Th

Syt · 18-01-2004, 18:30

I say one is never too young or old to play EU2, leave alone discovering one's love for Holstein and its rightful place among the Great Powers.

jwolf · 18-01-2004, 20:51

Thanks to all for your comments. Scott is thrilled to see his story in the forum here. Here's the next installment.

Scott concluded his war with Poland by taking Poznan in 1440. The next year, he began a diplomatic campaign with Pommern, eventually getting a Royal Marriage and military access. Things remained peaceful for a few years, until the end of 1445, when Bohemia declared war on Holstein. So once again the Hanse alliance was up against Bohemia, Poland, and Lithuania.

Bohemia successfully negotiated military access with Saxony in January 1446, so they had easy routes to attack almost all of Holstein's territory (at that time, Holstein, Hannover, Magdeburg, Kustrin, and Poznan). However, the first battles were won by Holstein, against Poland in Wielkopolska and Bohemia in Poznan.

Denmark at that time was allied to Kleves, Cologne, Strassburg, and France, and the Danes declared war on Holstein in February. However, the French dishonored the alliance so this wasn't as bad as it might have been. From that time on, Scott did fight a few more battles against Bohemia and Poland but this was not the main part of the wars. Eventually Bohemia accepted a WP (April 1447).

The war against Denmark lasted for three years and appears to have been a tough fight for both sides. The Danes began to attack Holstein but Scott drove them off in May 1446. Scott continued on to Jylland and began a siege there, but the Danes regrouped and counterattacked at Holstein, this time successfully. Denmark captured Holstein in October, but then all of their allies made WP offers.

The war then turned around. Denmark attacked Mecklenburg twice, but Holstein's armies successfully defended their ally and vassal. Meanwhile, Mecklenburg was besieging Jylland and Scott had an army recovering his capital, which he did in May 1447. After several more months, Scott reformed his army and attacked Copenhagen itself, capturing the Danish capital in August 1448. In November the last Danish attack, at Hannover, was defeated. After the Danes rejected several demands of ceding Jylland (Holstein has a CB shield on it) or cash, finally Scott persuaded them to pay 150 ducats for peace early in 1449.

Meanwhile, the Polish alliance had fallen apart when Ukraine revolted from Lithuania in 1447. Poland honored the alliance but Bohemia did not, and in fact the Czechs went so far as to declare war against Poland just a few months later. It's always good news to see one's enemies fighting amongst each other.

The Hanse alliance also fell apart, in 1449, when Brandenburg revolted from Bremen. Holstein was the only one to stand with Bremen at this time.

The year 1450 began with a political crisis, sensible enough in view of the collapsed Hanse alliance. Bremen couldn't really do anything about Brandenburg but Holstein certainly could. Scott captured Berlin in February 1450 and once again made Brandenburg his vassal.

News from the West made its way to Holstein in 1451 when Aragon conquered and annexed Scotland! But other nations quickly reacted angrily and soon a huge war erupted between Castile, Portugal, England, and France against Aragon, Naples, Albania, and Eire. (I've never seen England and France allied in this era. I thought this was very surprising. And it looked as though Aragon was in some very richly deserved deep trouble.)

After the conclusion of the Danish war, Holstein was at peace for many years. During this time Scott worked hard on the diplomatic front, attempting to diploannex his three vassals (Bremen, Mecklenburg, and Brandenburg). The first big move was late in 1452 when Scott left his alliance with Bremen and then reformed it so that Holstein was the alliance leader. He quickly got Mecklenburg in as well, and Brandenburg, too, a few months later.

Attempts to diploannex Bremen and Mecklenburg both failed in 1453. Mecklenburg declined again in 1455. But early in 1456 Scott had his first success, annexing Bremen. This got him a land connection from Holstein to Hannover and Magdeburg.

After several letters and gifts to patch up relations, Scott attempted again with Mecklenburg but they declined three invitations during 1458 and 1459. But he did successfully bring Pommern into his alliance.

Brandenburg declined to be annexed in 1460, but Pommern accepted vassalization in 1461. In 1462, Scott finally got the key diplomatic victory by annexing Mecklenburg.

The remaining fragments of the old Hanse alliance fell apart in June 1462 when Poland conquered and annexed Prussia. The TO, left without an ally, gladly joined Holstein's alliance.

Occasional revolts caused setbacks. Usually these were just a nuisance, but Scott was hit by a really nasty one in May 1463. A powerful group of rebels took the fort in Mecklenburg without a fight and defeated the Holstein army there to boot. Retreating to Holstein itself, the rebels followed and defeated the main army again. By September the Holstein forces had recovered and defeated the rebels, but it took a full year after the initial revolt before Mecklenburg was recovered.

Aside from Scott's alliance of Holstein, Brandenburg, Pommern, and the TO, other local alliances included Poland-Lithuania, with Bohemia having rejoined them; Burgundy, Helvetia, Cologne, Bavaria, and Saxony; and Friesland, Gelre, Munster, Brittany, Novgorod, and Kleves. The latter two alliances got into a big war in 1466. By 1470 Burgundy had gained the upper hand, annexing both Munster and Friesland.

In 1471 Denmark declared war on Gelre, and Kleves dishonored their alliance. Having seen which way the wind was blowing, they quickly joined Burgundy's alliance and began to fight against their former allies! Finally, in 1472 Burgundy finished with Gelre and took Zeeland from them. This was a partial revenge from very early in the campaign when Burgundy lost both Zeeland and Flandern to Gelre.

Back to the Teutonic Order, although they were in Holstein's alliance, they were still at war with Poland. The Poles inflicted a decisive defeat upon them and forced them to bow as vassals in July 1466.

Brandenburg declined another annexation invitation at the end of 1466, but Scott persuaded them to join just a few months later. Finally, all of his territory was connected.

In 1471 Holstein got another Unexpected Invention. Late in the year, Pommern declined to be annexed. But they changed their minds at the next invitation, in February 1472. The year 1472 ended with Holstein having achieved land tech 5.

By 1474 Scott was ready to strike, and Holstein declared war on Saxony, apparently without a CB (I saw no evidence of a CB in the log, and Scott said his reputation was reasonably good by then). Scott didn't call his only ally (the TO, now vassals to Poland). Holstein owned all of North Germany from Bremen to Poznan and Holstein to Hinterpommern (10 provinces). Opposing them were Saxony, Burgundy, Helvetia, Cologne, Bavaria, and Kleves. It was time to see if Holstein could take its place at the seat of destiny...

HJ Tulp · 18-01-2004, 20:57

Wow! Good show! Any screenies?

jwolf · 18-01-2004, 22:17

Unfortunately I deleted the intermediate saves from this game (we have to do this housecleaning regularly or else the hard drive would get completely overrun by all the EU2 saves!). We still have the final save (Dec 1819) and one other, from the very late 1500s. So I can post more pictures when we get to those two points. Otherwise, sorry, can't do it.

*coz1* · 18-01-2004, 23:14

He shows some pretty smart gameplay. Is he building tax collectors at all? Nice going Scott!

Amric · 18-01-2004, 23:24

Very impressive job by your son....but then he is a Scott...so it shouldn't be all that surprising...

*stnylan* · 19-01-2004, 00:39

Very well done Scott, both for your progress thus far and for getting your father to write his Siena game.

Jwolf (not to forget you

) all credit for the family gaming!

Fitch · 19-01-2004, 02:55

wow this is a great AAR..........and I found myself angered when I realized there weren't more to it yet.........

PLEASE HURRY AND POST MORE.

18-01-2004, 04:22	#1
jwolf Field Marshal Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Illinois, USA Posts: 3,407	My Son's Holstein Game As I wrote in my Burnt Siena AAR, my inspiration to play a one-province country was largely in response to my son's challenge, as he had already completed a very successful game as Holstein. I promised my son (Scott -- a good name for conquerors, right Amric?) that I would write up his Holstein game as an AAR after I finished the Siena story. So I took a few days to catch my breath, and now here we are. Scott is now 8 years old; he just had his birthday this month. At the time of his Holstein game last Fall he was just 7, making him perhaps the youngest player on record, or at least close to it. Scott played the game almost entirely on his own. I offered general advice on occasion, such as placing more merchants. There was one critical time later on when I gave him a very large hint (we'll come to that later). But other than that, Scott handled the whole thing by himself, and quite frankly in many ways he did better than I would have done! Time after time when he told me of his progress, I would ask something along the lines of "Didn't X cause a lot of trouble for you?" and his response would be simply "It wasn't really a problem, I just did Y." So what follows is an AAR of Holstein in the Grand Campaign. We play version 1.05 with both difficulty and aggressiveness normal. The AAR will be based primarily on my reading of the history log, along with Scott's explanations as to who was doing what when, and what he was trying to do at any given time. First question: why did he pick Holstein in the first place? When I asked him this, he said he wanted to try the challenge of a one-province country. OK, but why Holstein in particular? I didn't get a clear answer out of him. I think he wanted something in Germany that would be protected, at least initially, by a good alliance. Second question: what were his goals? At the start, this was easy. His goal was to form Germany. Within Europe, he stuck to this reasonably well, although he did branch out a bit. Much later, he began a colonial empire after a very clever move with Hessen, but that's for a later part of the tale...

18-01-2004, 05:11	#3
jwolf Field Marshal Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Illinois, USA Posts: 3,407	Chapter 1 1419-1440 The year 1419 opened with three peaceful months, during which Scott sent several merchants to Mecklenburg. This peaceful period ended in April with Poland's DOW against Prussia, putting the Hanse alliance up against Poland and Lithuania. Holstein wasn't really in danger from these two, although Prussia and the TO both were hammered. The political situation became more interesting in July 1420 when Brandenburg declared war on Pommern. Magdeburg joined on Brandenburg's side two months later. If these two aggressors thought the Hanse was completely occupied by the war against Poland and Lithuania, they soon learned otherwise. By October 1420 Scott had moved his army to Berlin inflicting a defeat upon Brandenburg. Incidentally, he was offered and accepted white peace with both Poland and Lithuania. By March 1421 Brandenburg's army had been defeated repeatedly, but he moved his army to Magdeburg, a convenient "target of opportunity." Magdeburg was defeated and annexed by Holstein in September. Holstein's army successfully defeated Brandenburg's several more times. Berlin fell in October 1422, and Kustrin in July 1423. Scott took Kustrin for Holstein and made Brandenburg his vassal. However, Bremen finished this war a few years later by annexing Brandenburg. Holstein remained at peace for several years. In 1428 Scott attempted to vassalize Bremen but they declined. Norway issued a stern warning to Holstein later that year. Early in 1429 Scott got hit by the nasty corruption event, forcing him to take a loan. On the other hand, Bremen accepted his next vassalization invitation. A letter and a gift were sent to Mecklenburg, bringing their relationship to the "closest of friends." Finally, in December 1431 Scott got the Unexpected Invention event, which more than made up for the corruption earlier. Scott ended the peace by declaring war on Hannover in April 1432. I couldn't tell from the log if he had a CB or not, and Scott was hazy about it. But he said his reputation was only tarnished after this war so I think he must have had a CB for some reason. Since Hannover had only the one province, Scott didn't call his allies for help. But Hannover did, so Holstein was also fighting against Oldenburg, Munster, Gelre, and Friesland. I would have been a bit nervous about this but Scott didn't seem to think it was a problem. His first attack in Hannover was repulsed, but he regrouped and beat them in September. By then he had accepted WP offers from Friesland and Oldenburg, but Gelre was besieging his capital. Scott broke their siege with another army in October and defeated several more attacks by Gelre in the next months. He got a WP with Munster at this time. Hannover was captured and annexed in January 1433 but Gelre persisted, rejecting several WP offers until finally they offered to pay 107 ducats for all the trouble they caused, in May 1431. Scott now had a few years of peace. The loan came due in 1434, but he wasn't able to save up enough money to pay it back. So he took another loan to pay the first one (and the same thing would happen in 1439). His diplomatic offensive with Mecklenburg bore fruit when they accepted vassalization in 1436. However, in August 1436 Poland again declared war on Prussia. The PL alliance now had Bohemia as well, and this is a very potent group in the early stages of the game. But the Golden Horde declared war on Lithuania in October, and that likely took some of the pressure off of the Hanse countries. Scott operated from Kustrin, attacking Poznan which he captured in May 1438. This got him a WP with Lithuania, but Poland wouldn't deal yet. During the second half of 1438, Holstein attacked Wielkopolska while the Poles attempted to recover Poznan. In June 1439 Wielkopolska fell and Bohemia offered a WP. For several months there followed seesaw fighting in Poznan with wins and losses for both sides. All the while Poland repeatedly rejected Scott's peace offers, until February 1440 when they finally conceded and Scott won Poznan for Holstein. Summary: Starting from just the one province of Holstein, Scott added the provinces of Magdeburg, Kustrin, Hannover, and Poznan. In addition, Holstein had the vassals Bremen and Mecklenburg. A pretty good start, but with the two force annexations his reputation had attracted the notice of angry and/or opportunistic neighbors. Soon the **** hit the fan...

18-01-2004, 05:40	#5
Anibal Not so idle Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Campinas - SP - Brazil Posts: 3,716	Gotta keep an eye on this! __________________ Member of the International Native Speaker Resistance Proud owner of 50 2Coaties

18-01-2004, 06:47	#7
AmbassadeBelgie EVIL DICTATOR! Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: In the best propaganda! Posts: 1,017	Well, I must simply say, genius Scott... that if I had a father who was as crazy about this game as I am, I would have been in Heaven, where you are now situated you lucky boy! I admire you, Jwolf, for a) enjoying EUII [not that hard, is it? ]and b) actually introducing the game to your son, and supporting him. Man, if this game existed when I was seven, I would have been playing it non-stop for eight years! Of course, it is now only two years, but it IS straight-forward pure playing of EUII without other games! You remind me of me. Hope you turn out a grand AARer as your father was [oops!... sorry IS!!! ] Th __________________ Big-ass mofo of the - Orange Defense Network Dictatorship & Co. - One man's madness versus the world! (Victoria. Completed) ESPERA MUMDI - A Fantasia-Mod AAR (EU2) Beginning Book II...on hold. ---------------------------------------------------- I want my copy of EUIII to be here, waaah! - Member of the Ahistoric Association - Member of the GtA Revival Club! ---------------------------------------------------- Official bestower of the Peanut • Last edited by AmbassadeBelgie; 18-01-2004 at 06:49. Reason: gran AARer is different from granD AARer, thus, to avoid misunderstandings...

18-01-2004, 07:18	#8
Machiavellian Alternate Historian Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The endless maze of my own imagination. Posts: 1,868	Very impressive. I shall continue to check up on this AAR in the future and I am certain in good time Holstein under the guidence of Scott will be dominating germany proper. __________________ "When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer..." 54-40' or... A counter-factual history of the Oregon Territory and the birth of Columbia. The Double Cross and The Golden Bull A tale of the 'new' history of the Kingdom of Hungary Royalist Roast: A Puritan AAR The adventures of the second puritan revolution Upon the desert sands: A Mongol Empire Scenario Dynasties in conflict with Outremer

18-01-2004, 04:32	#2
jwolf Field Marshal Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Illinois, USA Posts: 3,407	We'll begin by taking a look at Holstein and its neighbors as the GC opens. Holstein is a member of the Hanse alliance along with Bremen, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Prussia, and the Teutonic Order. They are pretty much guaranteed an early war with Poland-Lithuania, and often from the Scandinavian bloc as well, although only the former happened in this game. Holstein begins with an army of 15K infantry and 5K cavalry. However, their support limit is only 9K, so army maintenance costs 1.4 of their 2.1 ducats in monthly income. They start with no navy, probably just as well. Here is a picture showing the starting configuration. Note the 25K friendly Danish neighbors just to the North.

18-01-2004, 06:16	#6
Farquharson Mad Clansman Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Marseille, France Posts: 1,539	Yay! The long-awaited "Scott's Holstein Game"! And with a name like Scott, we expect to see great things, of course . Oh, and Happy Eighth Birthday, Scott

18-01-2004, 11:13	#9
VPeric Major Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sm. Palanka, Serbia Posts: 642	This seems interasting. I'll be reading it any time I find my way to the new location of the AAR forums.

18-01-2004, 11:19	#10
HJ Tulp Veteran Forumist Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Amsterdam, the netherlands Posts: 1,925	Beam me up Scotty! Nice work and good luck! __________________ Barney is like the kool version of you~ Elidioemperor on Alexander Seil Almost sinking in a Pre WWI Frigate: Admiral Henry Jan Tulp of the EUtopian Navy HJ Tulp - just a little better than his opponent. Always.~Edzako

18-01-2004, 11:50	#11
Van Engel Buitenlander Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Tilburg Posts: 2,720	the problem is he might dtart to show the rest of us up (of just me!) but sice i am only 6 years older than him i wouldnt be to imbaresed... __________________ Dutch AAR \|\| Danish AAR \|\| Portuguese AAR WritAAr of the Week! - Week of Oct. 31, 2004 What am I listening to?

18-01-2004, 18:30	#13
Syt Lewwer duad üs slaav! Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Vienna, Austria. Posts: 6,550	I say one is never too young or old to play EU2, leave alone discovering one's love for Holstein and its rightful place among the Great Powers. __________________ Many people think of changing the world, but few think of changing themselves. Leo Tolstoy

18-01-2004, 20:51	#14
jwolf Field Marshal Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Illinois, USA Posts: 3,407	Chapter 2 1441-1474 Thanks to all for your comments. Scott is thrilled to see his story in the forum here. Here's the next installment. Scott concluded his war with Poland by taking Poznan in 1440. The next year, he began a diplomatic campaign with Pommern, eventually getting a Royal Marriage and military access. Things remained peaceful for a few years, until the end of 1445, when Bohemia declared war on Holstein. So once again the Hanse alliance was up against Bohemia, Poland, and Lithuania. Bohemia successfully negotiated military access with Saxony in January 1446, so they had easy routes to attack almost all of Holstein's territory (at that time, Holstein, Hannover, Magdeburg, Kustrin, and Poznan). However, the first battles were won by Holstein, against Poland in Wielkopolska and Bohemia in Poznan. Denmark at that time was allied to Kleves, Cologne, Strassburg, and France, and the Danes declared war on Holstein in February. However, the French dishonored the alliance so this wasn't as bad as it might have been. From that time on, Scott did fight a few more battles against Bohemia and Poland but this was not the main part of the wars. Eventually Bohemia accepted a WP (April 1447). The war against Denmark lasted for three years and appears to have been a tough fight for both sides. The Danes began to attack Holstein but Scott drove them off in May 1446. Scott continued on to Jylland and began a siege there, but the Danes regrouped and counterattacked at Holstein, this time successfully. Denmark captured Holstein in October, but then all of their allies made WP offers. The war then turned around. Denmark attacked Mecklenburg twice, but Holstein's armies successfully defended their ally and vassal. Meanwhile, Mecklenburg was besieging Jylland and Scott had an army recovering his capital, which he did in May 1447. After several more months, Scott reformed his army and attacked Copenhagen itself, capturing the Danish capital in August 1448. In November the last Danish attack, at Hannover, was defeated. After the Danes rejected several demands of ceding Jylland (Holstein has a CB shield on it) or cash, finally Scott persuaded them to pay 150 ducats for peace early in 1449. Meanwhile, the Polish alliance had fallen apart when Ukraine revolted from Lithuania in 1447. Poland honored the alliance but Bohemia did not, and in fact the Czechs went so far as to declare war against Poland just a few months later. It's always good news to see one's enemies fighting amongst each other. The Hanse alliance also fell apart, in 1449, when Brandenburg revolted from Bremen. Holstein was the only one to stand with Bremen at this time. The year 1450 began with a political crisis, sensible enough in view of the collapsed Hanse alliance. Bremen couldn't really do anything about Brandenburg but Holstein certainly could. Scott captured Berlin in February 1450 and once again made Brandenburg his vassal. News from the West made its way to Holstein in 1451 when Aragon conquered and annexed Scotland! But other nations quickly reacted angrily and soon a huge war erupted between Castile, Portugal, England, and France against Aragon, Naples, Albania, and Eire. (I've never seen England and France allied in this era. I thought this was very surprising. And it looked as though Aragon was in some very richly deserved deep trouble.) After the conclusion of the Danish war, Holstein was at peace for many years. During this time Scott worked hard on the diplomatic front, attempting to diploannex his three vassals (Bremen, Mecklenburg, and Brandenburg). The first big move was late in 1452 when Scott left his alliance with Bremen and then reformed it so that Holstein was the alliance leader. He quickly got Mecklenburg in as well, and Brandenburg, too, a few months later. Attempts to diploannex Bremen and Mecklenburg both failed in 1453. Mecklenburg declined again in 1455. But early in 1456 Scott had his first success, annexing Bremen. This got him a land connection from Holstein to Hannover and Magdeburg. After several letters and gifts to patch up relations, Scott attempted again with Mecklenburg but they declined three invitations during 1458 and 1459. But he did successfully bring Pommern into his alliance. Brandenburg declined to be annexed in 1460, but Pommern accepted vassalization in 1461. In 1462, Scott finally got the key diplomatic victory by annexing Mecklenburg. The remaining fragments of the old Hanse alliance fell apart in June 1462 when Poland conquered and annexed Prussia. The TO, left without an ally, gladly joined Holstein's alliance. Occasional revolts caused setbacks. Usually these were just a nuisance, but Scott was hit by a really nasty one in May 1463. A powerful group of rebels took the fort in Mecklenburg without a fight and defeated the Holstein army there to boot. Retreating to Holstein itself, the rebels followed and defeated the main army again. By September the Holstein forces had recovered and defeated the rebels, but it took a full year after the initial revolt before Mecklenburg was recovered. Aside from Scott's alliance of Holstein, Brandenburg, Pommern, and the TO, other local alliances included Poland-Lithuania, with Bohemia having rejoined them; Burgundy, Helvetia, Cologne, Bavaria, and Saxony; and Friesland, Gelre, Munster, Brittany, Novgorod, and Kleves. The latter two alliances got into a big war in 1466. By 1470 Burgundy had gained the upper hand, annexing both Munster and Friesland. In 1471 Denmark declared war on Gelre, and Kleves dishonored their alliance. Having seen which way the wind was blowing, they quickly joined Burgundy's alliance and began to fight against their former allies! Finally, in 1472 Burgundy finished with Gelre and took Zeeland from them. This was a partial revenge from very early in the campaign when Burgundy lost both Zeeland and Flandern to Gelre. Back to the Teutonic Order, although they were in Holstein's alliance, they were still at war with Poland. The Poles inflicted a decisive defeat upon them and forced them to bow as vassals in July 1466. Brandenburg declined another annexation invitation at the end of 1466, but Scott persuaded them to join just a few months later. Finally, all of his territory was connected. In 1471 Holstein got another Unexpected Invention. Late in the year, Pommern declined to be annexed. But they changed their minds at the next invitation, in February 1472. The year 1472 ended with Holstein having achieved land tech 5. By 1474 Scott was ready to strike, and Holstein declared war on Saxony, apparently without a CB (I saw no evidence of a CB in the log, and Scott said his reputation was reasonably good by then). Scott didn't call his only ally (the TO, now vassals to Poland). Holstein owned all of North Germany from Bremen to Poznan and Holstein to Hinterpommern (10 provinces). Opposing them were Saxony, Burgundy, Helvetia, Cologne, Bavaria, and Kleves. It was time to see if Holstein could take its place at the seat of destiny...

18-01-2004, 20:57	#15
HJ Tulp Veteran Forumist Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Amsterdam, the netherlands Posts: 1,925	Wow! Good show! Any screenies? __________________ Barney is like the kool version of you~ Elidioemperor on Alexander Seil Almost sinking in a Pre WWI Frigate: Admiral Henry Jan Tulp of the EUtopian Navy HJ Tulp - just a little better than his opponent. Always.~Edzako

18-01-2004, 22:17	#16
jwolf Field Marshal Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Illinois, USA Posts: 3,407	Unfortunately I deleted the intermediate saves from this game (we have to do this housecleaning regularly or else the hard drive would get completely overrun by all the EU2 saves!). We still have the final save (Dec 1819) and one other, from the very late 1500s. So I can post more pictures when we get to those two points. Otherwise, sorry, can't do it.

18-01-2004, 23:14	#17
coz1 GunslingAAR Moderator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Around... Posts: 10,551 Blog Entries: 10	He shows some pretty smart gameplay. Is he building tax collectors at all? Nice going Scott! __________________ The fAARq & Forum Rules For the Glory of Scotland Forever - A For the Glory AAR Find all my AARs listed in The Ink Well Visit my blog at Hear the Hurd and my Paradox blog Number One With A Bullet

18-01-2004, 23:24	#18
Amric Hurricane Sergeant of Arms Join Date: May 2003 Location: Indiana, United States Posts: 5,603	Very impressive job by your son....but then he is a Scott...so it shouldn't be all that surprising... __________________ Guardian of Truth, Defender of Justice, Harbinger of Light! Known as the Hurricane! My Latest Efforts! Byzantine’s Khan: EU2 AAR Find a Complete listing of my AARs at the Ink Well! "You can rest assured, sir, that I will do everything in my power to make sure it isn't my fault!" --Dr. Grant If I am writing in this color I am speaking as a Demi-Moderator, so pay attention!

19-01-2004, 00:39	#19
stnylan Compulsive CommentatAAR Moderator Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Taunton, UK Posts: 17,025 Blog Entries: 7	Very well done Scott, both for your progress thus far and for getting your father to write his Siena game. Jwolf (not to forget you ) all credit for the family gaming! __________________ To view is human, to comment is divine. "Be not afraid" - John Paul II "The Christian way has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found to be hard and left untried" - GK Chesterton. Completed AAR: In Memory of France EU2 View my full AAR list at The Inkwell My blog From Across the Pond and My library, and my Paradox blog Ask not what AARland can do for you, but what you can do for AARland. If you are writing a HoI3 AAR, remember to report it in the LibrAARy update thread for inclusion in the HoI3 LibrAARy.

19-01-2004, 02:55	#20
Fitch Second Lieutenant Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Brazil, Indiana Posts: 102	wow this is a great AAR..........and I found myself angered when I realized there weren't more to it yet......... PLEASE HURRY AND POST MORE. __________________ Darling:I'm as English as Queen Victoria!! Blackadder: So your father was a German, you're half German and you're married to a German?