The Most Serene Empire - A Venice EU3 AAR



Hey all, figured I'd give a EU3 AAR a try. Once more, as the Serenissima; Venice.

Before we begin, let me say a few things...

First, this is on my new computer, which is why I'm not working on my Civ III stories, which are on my old one. Now that I have EU3, I may not even think about my EU2 stories, sorry. :(

Second, the start date is May 30, 1453. Need as much time as possible to conquer the world!

Thirdly, I'll be tweaking this game a bit. I've reduced the cost to Fabricate Claims to 10 ducats. This can be increased with my empire's size as it grows. The rest of the spy actions remain unchanged, including their discover/failure risk. I've made it so it's near-impossible to lose accepted cultures. Finally, I will add in events where I feel they'd be good, due to how EU3 seems to lack a lot of historical events in Vanilla and is more of a "divergence point" from your start date than a recreation of history. The Holy Roman Emperor now gets 1 extra spy a year(he needs to keep an eye on his "subjects", does he not?) while the Curia Controller gets 1 extra missionary a year(c'mon now, why the hell would a good Catholic ruler not be trying to convert people?). War exhaustion decreases slightly faster as well. The Emperorship has been strengthened a little more as the benefits to stability for each member state have been doubled.

Now, let us begin!




Venice is a city of great beauty. It is one of the largest cities in Italy and all of Europe, with many of it's residents being wealthy merchants. A great trade center formed in the lagoon; Venice dominated the trade between the West and East.

But in the turmoil-filled 1400s, Venice, the most serene Republic, could not sit back idly. To the west, Milan, under the tyrant Francesco Sforza, threatened the Republic, and the Honorable Doge Foscari had engaged the Milanese in combat. We would depose the despot to the west, and restore our freedom-loving brothers, the Ambrosian Republic!

To facilitate the war on Sforza, Venice had many resources. We had colonies and vassals stretching all the way to Crete, and a large tax collection base from our center of trade. Our armies were competent, and our homeland stable. With the right application of our strengths, we would drive the tyrant from Milan and secure our fortunes.

To the east, the Ottoman Turks had captured Constantinople and brought the guillotine down on the ancient Roman Empire. They already hungered for our Christian friends in the Balkans. A close eye would need to be kept on them.





The Reign of Francisco Foscarini ( April 5, 1423 - February 20, 1454 )

1453

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/May1453WarWithMilan.jpg

The Doge saw Sforza has left Milan defended by a mere four regiments, whereas we had seven ready to attack. But wanting to play it safe, he ordered regiments from the East to move to Brescia. A band of mercenaries - one regiment of Medieval Latin Infantry and one regiment of Medieval Latin Cavalry - was commissioned in Brescia. Once the other unit arrived, we would have a solid force of 10,000 troops, and the man to lead this army into battle would be General Gattamaletta.

Within days of our maneuvers, we received news that Sforza himself - being a general - would lead the Milanese Army to defend the capital province. Gattamaletta was promised a handsome bounty if he could bring the head of the tyrant back to Venezia.

The armies engaged in combat in July, and the battle was very bloody. But, Venice's forces were victorious. On July 29, 1453, Sforza fled the battlefield and headed south to Parma, taking his forces with him. Sensing opportunity, Gattamaletta pursued him southwards, while a new mercenary regiment held down the fort in Milan.

Sforza was defeated yet again on August 18, 1453. The Battle of Parma was a great victory, as Venice lost very few troops while the Milanese suffered horrific casualties. Milan's army now had lost nearly 40% of it's strength, while Venice had lost only 10%.

Sforza knew that he could not continue to fight Venice like this, and he ordered a retreat to Modena. Venice, lacking military access, could not follow. But the Doge sent a diplomat to get Modena's favor and earn military access.

A day later, the Modenan King agreed to let the Serenissima's troops enter, knowing such an agreement would protect him from Venice's wrath. The Reaper was coming for Sforza.

Mid-August, Foscari ordered the Venetian Navy's galleys to round the Italian peninsula and attack the Milanese navy, to secure a propoganda victory.

Furthermore in August, the battle of Modena was a minor conflict, as neither side wished to earn the ire of the Modenans for destroying their country.

Shortly after the Battle of Modena, Foscari revealed documents showing that the Parmese desired to join Venice, and thus Venice had legitimate claims to the area:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1453ParmaCore.jpg

September saw the second Battle of Parma, which saw the Milanese suffering another huge blow. Sforza once more retreats into Modena, like it will help him. The Fleet managed to finish half of it's journey, now going through the straits of Messina.

Sforza suffered another defeat in October. As a bonus, the Milanese navy lost a ship in battle.

November brought another huge defeat to Milan.

Reduced to 30% of his original force, Sforza's day were numbered. In a suicidal assault, he dared to move back towards Milan itself. Gattamaletta pursued him, knowing that the Sforzan forces would collapse if they were flanked.

Between the battles, an unknown country managed to fabricate claims in Brescia; we imagined it was Sforza, as he was right next door. Despite the official report saying it was unknown, it was indeed Sforza; reports showed that Milan now considered Brescia a core province.

Sforza's desperate assault failed, and he managed to escape. Gattamaletta pursues him like cat would a mouse.



1454



January and February were tense months.

Sforza fled to Milan, and hardpressed the 1,000 soldiers present. As our general tried to reach Milan, he was assaulted by not one, but two regiments that popped out of nowhere, presumably detachments from Sforza's Army. The dictator had assumed he could hold Gatta back long enough to retake Milan and rebuild his empire from there. He was wrong.

In February, General Gattamaletta finally arrived in Milan. And shortly after...

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1454SforzaDefeated.jpg

The Milanese Army was COMPLETELY destroyed! All Milan could now be freely occupied. Duke Sforza was dead, and general Gatta briefly returned to Venice and showed the head to the Doge. He was promptly invested with a great estate for defeating Public Enemy Number One.

A table of pwnage in relation to General Sforza's forces:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1453VictoriesAgainstMilan.jpg

Duke Ascanio took control of Milan shortly after Sforza was killed, but his reign as Duke was to be shortlived. The Venetian Army split up after Sforza's demise, with most of the cavalry moving southeast to occupy and pillage Parma.

But the Honorable Foscari did not taste victory for long. Soon, he joined Sforza in the next world:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1454FebruaryNewDoge.jpg

It would fall to his successor, Doge Lorenzo Molin, to defeat Milan.

... And something far worse.

The Reign of Lorenzo Molin ( February 21, 1454 - November 21, 1483 )



Doge Molin was sworn in as Doge shortly after Foscari passed away(since Foscari had been in ill health and old age for some time, a successor Doge was elected some time prior to his demise; this was a reform of Foscari's. Lorenzo was approved by plebiscite and by the Council of Ten once Foscari died, reaffirming that he was still legitimate as Foscari's successor.

Now in control of the Venetian Republic, the new Doge knew he had to finish off the last of Sforza's line. General Gattamaletta had returned to the battlefield, and was personally in charge of the siege of Milan, wanting to be the fortunate one to conquer it.

April 18, 1454, the Habsburgs believed the new Doge to be weak, and declared war on the Republic! Venice's flanks had been left exposed by the conflict, but fortunately, Austria lacked allies. The Doge thus made the insane decision to engage in deficit spending by hiring mercenaries to protect Friuli. This army would be led by General Colleoni, who could hopefully keep the renegade Germans back until a peace treaty was negotiated...

Only able to recruit a single regiment, Colleoni was ordered to take shelter in the capital while 3,000 troops were raised.

Our forces didn't report many Austrian soldiers on the borders, but we were sure they have many inside their large archduchy. We had to be prepared while General Gatta did his work. General Gatta assaulted Milan to speed up the conquest.



May, we captured Milan:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1454MayMilanConquered.jpg

Thanks to that, General Gatta's force of about 8,000 infantry was free to move east against the Austrians, who were besieging Friuli with 5 regiments. Tuscany was offering it's help with a mere 2 regiments, but if it helped to stem the flow of the Austrian juggernaut, Venice was happy. Cavalry would continue to besiege Parma until it surrendered.

To prevent incidents like this in the future, we allied ourselves with Genoa, another maritime power in Italy.



August 1, the realm's stability increased. Though Austria's forces invaded Istria and Friuli, we were confident that we could repel them. 9,000 soldiers marched under General Gattamaletta towards Friuli, which was being besieged by 4,000 soldiers under Ferdinand Sulerzycki. Istria was being assaulted by 2,000 soldiers under Ladislas Postumus - the Habsburg Archduke.

September, Parma finally fell:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1454SeptemberParmaFalls.jpg

With that, the Doge sent an emissary to the Sforza Duke, demanding Parma, and the abolition of the Milanese Monarchy and the restoration of the Ambrosian Republic.

As well, the Milanese Republic was to be put under the "protection" (vassalage) of the Venetian Republic.

The Duke naturally rebuffed our offer.

We handed the Austrians their rear ends in the Battle of Friuli, driving them from our land. While the Doge was interested in acquiring Krain to connect Venice to Istria, he didn't want the Austrians as enemies. Accordingly, he issued an edict that all troops stay within Venice's borders and ward off invaders.

The Austrians also lost a naval battle against the combined Florentine and Venetian fleets. Now, the Doge decided that we had to drive Ladislas from our territory.

Shortly after, the Duke of Milan finally conceded defeat, and abdicated:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1454OctoberMilanSurrenders.jpg

He did, however, stipulate that he would not accept the "protection clause" or any of the ducats. Needing to defend against Austria, Doge Molin accepted the offer. As a bonus, the Duke of Milan decides it was best to abandon the claims to Brescia to reduce tension.



With the Ambrosian Republic(Milan's government has changed to Merchant Republic) restored in the West - though strangely, the people "elected" the former Duke as their new Doge - the full attention of Molin could be focused on Austria.

With the Austrian navy reeling from it's last defeat, and the Austrian Army retreating, the opportunity to liberate Istria presented itself. Molin took the opportunity, and dispatched Colleoni with 5,000 soldiers to take out the Habsburg leader. Going back on his previous decree, the Doge ordered Gatta to invade Krain so as to catch Ladislas as he retreated. It was hoped that Ladislas Postumus would be slain, breaking the morale of the Habsburg Armies.

The decision to invade Krain would make the war far bloodier, but far more profitable.



http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1454NovemberBattleofIstris.jpg

Friday, November 12, 1454, Archduke Ladislas was defeated relatively easy by the numerically-superior Venetians.

With the battle of Istria won, the Austrians were already planning a new invasion of Friuli. But we did not need to worry, as once Ladislas was killed, Ferdinand would be next.

In December, it was discovered that in an elaborate ruse, the Austrian general Ferdinand switched with Ladislas, and he invaded Friuli. A clever bastard indeed. But we caught on, and both Colleoni and Gattamaletta attacked Ladislas from two sides. Observers all over the Republic and Archduchy wondered who would win that battle, as it would determine who won the war.

The Austro-Venetian War and the Collapse of Austria



1455



http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1455JanuaryLadislasKilled.jpg

The battle killed Ladislas in the middle, and a new Archduke called Leopold took over Austria. The battle itself greatly hurt Austria, and our two generals pursued the army into Tirol, where Leopold took command. He didn't learn the mistake of his predecessor, did he?

February, that army was crushed just like the last battle, and our forces chased the Austrian Archduke into their homeland. The Austrians offered a white peace after knowing that this war wouldn''t be as easy as they thought, but knowing that Krain could indeed be Venetian territory, the Doge refused to even look at the offer of a white peace.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1455FebruaryClaimsOnKrain.jpg

To make matters worse, Molin revealed documents that showed Krain as a legitimate part of the maritime Republic of Venice's realm. Now, it became apparent that Venice desired Krain as part of it's realm, and the Austrians would happily hand it over if they wanted peace.

The Battle of Krain ended on May 1st, and the Austrian Archduke was humiliated:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1455MayKrainBattle.jpg

Having lost half his army, many Austrians questioned the effectiveness of Leopold as a ruler.

May 27, General Colleoni died of natural causes, leaving General Gattamaletta unopposed in military command.

November, Friuli was occupied by the Austrians. But the Doge did not fear, for General Gatta would soon control Krain and proceed to clean out the Osterreichers.

Krain was occupied in December, balancing out the odds. Gatta was ordered to invade Istria and drive out the Austrian Archduke.



1456



Karnten was occupied by our troops. With both our main forces free, they were ordered to merge under Gatta's command and liberate Istria.

Soon, Karnten was re-occupied by the Austrians after they attacked us while Gatta was away. But Leopold was defeated in Istria, and a new battle for Krain was to begin.

In March, our Florentine allies liberated Friuli, leaving the war with an Italian advantage.

We managed to defeat the Austrian Archduke - and his General Ferdinand - in a battle at Karnten. They retreated deeper into Austria, leaving us with free reign over the regions bordering Italia.

Shortly later, a minor Austrian force was defeated in Krain, and an army under a new general - Luigi Commachio - was ordered to follow the Austrians around and kill them off in their own country.

Luigi managed to humble Archduke Leopold in battle, but JUST BARELY. Both sides suffered enormous casualties, and Luigi's victory was attributed to the Archduke's somewhat-weakened morale.

July, Karnten was once more retaken, reversing all Austrian gains. Gatta ordered half his army to invade Tirol to seal the Western front against Austria. Meanwhile, Gatta and Luigi caught up with eachother, the novice general naturally being removed from active command.

After claiming Stiermark from the Habsburgs, the Bavarians invaded Tirol, and we withdrew rather than help their own war. With Doge Molin noticing only two provinces remain under effective Habsburg control, General Gattamaleta was ordered to depose another monarch; he was ordered to capture Vienna itself.

Leopold's Army in Linz was obliterated, but he escaped to take control of Austria's last army in Vienna. Luigi Commachio was ordered to kill the Austrian Archduke, or at least rebuff his forces from Stiermark, where he was heading.

Stiermark was re-occupied by Austria, but the Archduke was defeated shortly after. We noticed... Pomeranian... and Hungarian armies invading Austria. It seemed Europe saw opportunity in the collapsing Habsburg Reich.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1456MerchantFractures.jpg

October 22nd, traitors within the country thought the crown had more time to focus on their mercantile activities than Austria. To curtail the power of the merchants, the Doge instituted more free trade. This was just a taste of things to come...

November 3rd, Leopold lost yet another army to our forces.

A few battles out of the year 1456:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1456AustriaBattles.jpg

Prior to the New Year, Austria looked like this:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1456AustriaPartitioned.jpg

Split between 5 different countries, the Habsburgs seemed to have lost their touch.



1457



Seeing Archduke Leopold on the run, we managed to get a military access treaty from Salzburg, where the Habsburg Archduke was headed. We hoped to surround and kill King Leopold, marking two kings as being slain by the Venetians in a single war.

The Battle of Salzburg in January destroyed Leopold's Army for the hundred trillionth time. Unfortunately, he was not killed. But his entire country sans it's isolated Alsatian province of Breisgau was completely under foreign occupation.

Said province of Breisgau was opened to Venetian forces when Wurtemberg agreed to give Venice access to their lands. Leopold was cornered, and if he was defeated, it would be the end of his rule for sure.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1457LeopoldPwned.jpg

July 22, following the usual trend, Leopold's Army was obliterated anew. But, the Archduke STILL lived. At the very least, Breisgau now was open to Venetian invasion.

Late September, Tuscany finally dropped out of the war, taking the province of Trent with it. So long as Austria's power was weakened, the Doge was sated.

October, Breisgau finally fell to General Gattamaletta. All of Austria was now under foreign occupation. Rather than end the war then, however, the Doge chose to wait until other countries got their share of the pie, so that he could have whatever they spit back out.

Later in October, Bavaria seized Tirol in the peace accords, and Pommerania released it's occupied territories. Our generals immediately rushed to reclaim Stiermark and the capital.

At the same time, Genoa asked us to declare war on Trebizond and Georgia. We agreed to help, on paper anyway.



1458



Before long, Stiermark was under Venetian occupation.

Now, only Vienna remained.

April, to throw more gears in the Austrian Machine...

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1458CoreonStiermark.jpg

We managed to produce the documents necessary to say that Stiermark was a legitimate part of the Venetian realm. The merchants of Venice worried about how the Republic was moving away from the trade and sea towards might and land... the former being the basis of their oligopoly over the Republic's politics.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1458IstriabecomesHRE.jpg

May, the province of Istria was invited to join the Holy Roman Empire. Having designs on Corfu - the seat of the Holy Roman Emperor - the Doge agreed to let Istria join.

June 1, Vienna fell.. The Habsburg Archduke was arrested, and held captive until he agreed to sign a treaty ceding Stiermark and Krain to the Venetian Republic.

Shortly after, Venice accepted peace with the Georgians, having little interest in a Black Sea War at the time; unless the Turks were defeated and their capital re-possessed by the Republic, Venice would not even consider absorbing territories in the region.

And shortly after that, in Mid-June, the Austrians accepted our demands: 50 ducats, Karnten, Krain, and finally Stiermark:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1458AustriaSurrenders.jpg

At much cost and much turmoil, the Italian Alliance had finally crushed the Habsburgs. Austria had left all it's wars with over half it's territory swallowed by foreigners. The Serenissima's territorial integrity had been guaranteed for the time being.

But that security was gained by showing the Venetians how vulnerable they really were. Venice had only won the war thanks to the timely German and Hungarian invasions, and a little bit of luck. Doge Molin's term would center on building up security for the Venetian Republic.

A Rejuvenated Republic



Europe was shocked when the Habsburg Archduchy and the Duchy of Milan fell apart within six years. While Venice had initially been pinned against the wall, it had managed to quickly end it's war with Milan(which had lasted thirty years actually) while seizing Parma as a prize, and then pushing the Austrians back out in a long, hard, and bloody campaign. Then, it's Florentine allies got involved and drew the fire of the Habsburgs. Then more and more of Europe began to descend on the Habsburgs, sensing a dogpile and opportunities for wealth. The end result was a greatly-reduced Austrian Empire.

The elites of Venice were surprised at the war's result. When they heard the Doge had claims to Krain, they assumed he meant only the coastline. But he went further inland. Then Stiermark was claimed; the Doge justified this by saying it had large supplies of grain needed to feed the people of Venice and it's colonies. Then Karnten was taken, despite not being claimed at all; the Doge said that this province was rich in the gold needed to strengthen Venetian commercial power.

The Republic was rejuvenated with an influx of people and wealth from the many new provinces. Venice was allies now with it's old rival Genoa, and also with the regional power of Tuscany. Northern Italy was more or less Venice's playground, with huge amounts of territory and allies loyal to the Serenissima. But could the elite hold their power base against the Doge's actions that - intentionally or non - were chipping away at it?



With the war's end, the Doge decided it was time for an era of peace. Venice had fought three separate wars, and had managed to end them all at last. The people were war weary, and the new territories had to be consolidated.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1458AustrianCultureAccepted.jpg

And the Doge began to do just that. On August 2, 1458, the Doge issue the Edict of Austro-Venetian Brotherhood, which said that the Austrian Germans were to be accepted as inhabitants of the Republic, with their culture and language preserved in their home regions. This helped to quell dissent and nationalism amongst their ranks.



Tackling the issue of the Republic moving away from the Adriatic in the eyes of the elites, the Doge eyed Corfu, which was located at the southern end of the Adriatic. Expanding there would enable Venice to more easily protect Crete, which could be threatened by the Turks at any time.

First, the Doge needed legitimacy.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1458CoreonCorfu.jpg

He succeeded at that, as documents were unveiled that displayed Corfu as a legitimate part of a Pan-Adriatic Republic.

Second, the people of Corfu had to accept Venetian overlordship. Already our vassals, they soon agreed to join our alliance, raising relations to +200. Now, the Republic just had to annex them.

Balkan Wars and Tartar Wars


1459



May, we finally adopted a National idea: Scientific Revolution. Thanks to this new idea, we would be able to invest more efficiently in research and thus spur the growth of Venetian power.

Shortly after, the Doge stated that Venice had to become more offensive in foreign policy if it was to protect itself from enemies.



1460



1460 was quiet, as the Doge let the war-weary people go about their normal lives. War exhaustion, after all, would easily destroy Venice's fragile new empire.



1461



In April, Genoa asked for Venice's assistance in a war against Crimea. This was because the Crimeans were backing large amounts of raiders than kept crossing the borders into Genoa's colonies and raiding. Religious rhetoric aside, Crimea desired to occupy Kaffa and Azow to build a Black Sea empire.

Venice agreed to help the Genovese, until the Crimeans sent a reasonable peace offer, anyway.

December, the Crimeans had the nerve to ask Venice to release Crete for peace. The Republic naturally rebuffed them.



1462



Mid-year, a band of Crimeans landed on Crete. They would suffer for such an unwise move; Gattamaletta was sent to the island.

October, the "years of peace" - which mainland Venice had felt even as the Eastern War, so far away, raged - fully came to an end when Ragusa requested our assistance at eliminating Bosnia and Montenegro, who were trying to drive the Ragusines into the sea. Sensing a chance to seize Bosnian Albania, and vassalise Montenegro, the Doge consented to warfare. Venice had no interest in the Black Sea war, and preferred to expend men and resources on territories closer to home.

November, as General Gatta disembarked at Montenegro, Venice discovered that Bosnia had been defeated by Hungary. They lost half their homeland and they were forced to grant Albania independence. Reduced to one province, it would be easy to defeat Bosnia, although their vassalage now belonged to Hungary. But the Doge would change that...

Montenegro itself was ruled by a Regency Council, likely because it's king died against the Pikes of Hungary and Ragusa.



1463



February, Montenegro was fully occupied by our armies. The Doge initially desired to vassalise them, given that they were Orthodox, Serbian, and not a core. However...

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1463MontengroCore.jpg

We managed to legitimise a claim to the region as it bordered the Adriatic. Deciding to throw popular opinion to the wind, the Doge decreed that we annex Montengro. It would have been swallowed by the Turks anyway. As well, the Doge entered the war for territory, damnit. Not a bunch of vassals suckling on the Venetian buzzum for protection.

Within months, the Serbians' culture and tongue was given respected status within Montenegro. However, the Serbs were encouraged nonetheless to surrender their faith and embrace Catholicism. Stability mattered the most to Molin.

May 1463, Ragusa was annexed by Bosnia. The Ragusan people wondered why their Venetian allies did not save them from the Orthodox Oppression. This was all part of the Doge's plan to conquer the Adriatic; he would let his enemies and allies do the hard work and then pick up the pieces. With Ragusa one with Bosnia, Gattamaletta would invade Bosnia and demand Ragusa as part of the peace terms. The Dalmatian province would soon stretch all the way to Montenegro and form the backbone of a great Venetian Adriatic Empire.

By November, the Ragusan people were liberated. They happily embraced the Venetians as saviors and forgave the Italians for their earlier mistakes. But Gatta had no time for celebrations; he had to conquer Bosnia's capital and guarantee they remained under Venice's heel.



1464



February, Bosnia proper fell into Venetian hands.

They rejected Venice's original demands: the cession of Ragusa, vassalage, and 50 ducats.

But a month later, in exchange for paying only 25 ducats, the Bosnians surrendered. Ragusa was one with Venice anew. While we had forgotten to forge our claims on it - and thus had to deal with pesky nationalism for twenty-five years - the dream of a greater Dalmatia had been achieved.

Seeking to end the drama in the East, the Doge soon sent his trusty general Gatta to invade Crimea and end the pointless war once and for all.

Upon hearing the infamous Gattamaletta - conqueror of Milan, Austria, Bosnia, and Montenegro - was coming for them, the Crimeans accepted peace days after he was sent to Crimea. The Republic was at peace once more, and now had the wonderful trinkets of Ragusa and Montenegro in it's collection.

May 31, Burgundy annexed tiny Mantua to the south. The Doge now knew who his next target would be. Conquering Mantua would link Parma up with the central territories of Venice.

To facilitate this, documents saying the now-exiled Mantovan ruler desired the Venetian doge to liberate Mantua and put it under the personal protection of the Republic were forged:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1464MantuaCore.jpg

June and July, a Great Balkan War erupted. The Ottomans and Wallachia went up against Athens, Morea, Naxos, Albania, Hungary, and Bohemia. Venice put it's full moral and vocal support behind the Christian Alliance, of course.

December, Siena committed the ultimate blasphemy: it annexed the Papal States!

The Pope and Church remained independent, of course, though the Sienese released a statement expressing their sentiments: "The Pope's authority in earthly matters ends at the gates of the Vatican." In other words, the Pope had no say in secular decisions. The Middle Ages had truly ended.



1465



January, Albania was once more conquered, being absorbed into the Ottoman Empire. The garrison size in Dalmatia was increased in case the Turks became hungry for Venetian territory.

October, Siena found itself at war with Savoy and Naples. Rome would soon be "liberated."



1466



In a twist of irony, the Habsburgs asked Venice for military access. The Doge granted it, wanting to make Austria less capable of waging honorable war on the Republic.

February, General Gattamaletta died. He served the empire well, having conquered four countries for the Serenissima, while fighting in countless other battles and wars.

May, Florence went to war with Siena, and we joined them. The Doge chose to sit back and let Florence do all the fighting, however.

July, Genoa went to war with the Golden Horde and Qara Koyunlu. We agreed to join this war effort, of course... anything had to be done to preserve Genoa's good relations.

September, Florence/Tuscany annexed Siena. Alas, the states of central Italy had collapsed. But this would make Molin's soon-to-be-revealed ambitions that much easier to pursue.

November, after several failed attempts and shrewd negotiation, Venice managed to become the Papal Controller:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1466PapalController.jpg

As Venice's prestige was horribly low, influencing the Pope was expected to raise Venice's standing among nations.



1467



Another Eastern War ended in 1467. The Doge believed the Venetian-Genovese alliance was best ended, but he did not want to anger the Genovese, who were one of the 8 electors of the Holy Roman Empire at the time.

In September, a THIRD great cardinal turned pro-Venice. The Curia was, for the time being, monopolised by Venice.

Venetian-Burgundian War



1468



In July, with war weariness down to a manageable level anew, Doge Molin decided it was time to honor his near-15 years in office by unifying distant Parma with the Venetian heartland. How would he go about this? A quick war with Burgundy.

War was declared in July. Tuscany and Corfu honored Venice's alliance, but Genoa did not. That just freed Venice up to invade them at a later date. Damned fools.

With only 1,000 men with no leadership in Mantua, the conquest of the former city-state would not be too hard.

By September, Mantua was occupied by Venice, and the Burgundians were on the retreat. Now, the Doge just had to keep the Burgundian Army from entering Italy.

October, Genoa had the nerve to offer a new alliance. They never came to Venice's aid, they had territories Venice desired, and Venice didn't want anymore Eastern wars. So, the Doge said, "No. Go *BLEEP* yourselves."

December, Parma was occupied by Burgundy.



1469



Mantua was occupied by Burgundy in February.

With the help of the Florentines, however, the province was re-occupied by Venice shortly later.

By April, the Burgundians in Parma were routing, and Parma was re-occupied by Venice anew. General Luigi Commachio was ordered to chase the Burgundian swine into Milanese territory.

Parma was occupied by Burgundy mid-year, but as always, was retaken.

December, the Genovese annexed Milan as part of a massive war it was fighting against Milan and Tuscany. Italy was a mess of alliances and wars at the time.



1470



The North Italian battles continue to rage and destroy territory all across the northern peninsula. Most importantly, a huge column of Lorraine troops was wiped out with very few losses on Venice's part. So far, Venice was able to use regional superiority - and it's allies' troops - to keep the numerically-superior Burgundian Army at bay. The fact most of Burgundy was so far away helped things as well.

As back and forth warfare continued in Italy, rebels rose up in Ragusa.

In December, a boundary dispute with Croatia caused Venice to gain claims in the region. Venice would take advantage of this later on.



1471



With the coming of spring in March, the Doge believed that to end the war, Venice had to bring it to the Burgundians. The enemy armies had slowed to a trickle, so the Doge assumed that the enemy coalition's coffers were depleted for the time being. General Luigi Commachio was ordered to cross the Swiss Alps and enter Burgundy proper, to take all three provinces there. Once that was done - the capital of the Burgundians was located there - they would hopefully surrender Mantua.

Three regiments of Burgundian forces guarded the Western Alps. They were moving East, but Venice tried to cut them off. We engaged them and acquired a decent victory.

In May, Crete was converted to Catholicism, eliminating one source of Orthodoxy in the Republic.



Later in May, we engaged the Burgundian King in battle anew inside his homeland, barely managing to get him to retreat. The battle had very minimal casualties on both sides. But it left both armies severely demoralised.

Another costly battle came in September. We managed to win, but both sides lost over 1,000 men.

We were attacked mid-siege, but we had enough morale left post-battle to...

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1471FranceComteFalls.jpg

Occupy Franche-Comte! Once our morale was regained, we would attack the Burgundian capital to get our point across.



November, we bribed the defenders of Bourgogne with surprising ease:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1471BourgogneBribed.jpg

By December, both Lorraine and Baden have dropped out of the war, leaving Burgundy to fend for itself. This would enable us to more easily occupy Burgundy; Lorraine's troops had constantly harassed our forces there.



1472



May, Admiral G. Loredan died. Alas, he had given Venice rule over the waves.

July 7, Bourgogne fell, but Venice still lacked the warscore to take Mantua.

July 10, Luigi Commachio died. He served his country well, though he was no Gattamaletta.



1473



http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1473NeversOccupied.jpg

January 11, 1473, the last city of Burgundy proper fell to us. As tempting as it was to attack the Low Countries, Venice dared not imagine what horrors were holed up there.

Two days later, tired of war and fighting other enemies in the north, the Burgundians agreed to part with Mantua when we demanded it's cession:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1473MantuaAcquired.jpg

A New Era for Venice and the Ferraran War



With a new year beginning and the long, drawn out War over Mantua ended, many assumed the Doge would rest; he had now been in power for 20 years, and he had accomplished quite a bit in his time.

But the Doge was not done. He wanted more power for the Serenissima, and he saw opportunities in places such as Morea and Milan.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1473FestivitiesArranged.jpg

In February, to celebrate his 19th year of Dogeship and victory over Burgundy, Lorenzo Molin decreed a national holiday.

As the public masses sucked down the opiate fed to them, Molin planned further expansions. He desired to finish off Corfu, a plan which had been put off for many years. With it's Emperorship over and it's prestige and power waning, Corfu would easily become part of the Republic with enough pressure.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1473Plague.jpg

April 30 of 1473, an epidemic struck the newly-acquired city of Mantua. Wanting to care for his new citizens, the Doge ordered his best healers and physicians into the city to try and help. He also requested all the people of the Republic donate what they could to help Mantua.

The Doge hated how defiant the people of Corfu were to being annexed. That's why he decided to postpone the annexation even further. Instead, more effort was to be put into building an Italian hegemon. And the Doge had just the right target: Modena.



Modena, like Venice, stretched from East to West across Italy, and thus blocked further expansion south. Crushing Modena and seizing the province of Ferrara was considered essential to further Venetian interests in Terraferma.

Modena had two allies: Brandenburg and Naxos. Naxos was a god-forsaken city-state in the seas around Greece, whereas Brandenburg was far away in Northern Germany. Taking over Modena would be easy. Venice just needed to wait until war weariness became more manageable.

October, the former region of Montenegro had it's Orthodox population converted. This increased our stability even more; Venice had rid itself of Orthodox citizens, for now.



1474



As the months went by, war weariness dried up. Venice acquired a third cardinal, securing it's hegemony in the Curia.

By July, Doge Molin decided the time for a war with Modena - which would gain us Ferrara and a vassal in Naxos - had come.

September, our right of passage in Modena was cancelled, a taste of what was to come.

Shortly later, we got our casus belli, when we revealed documents that showed the Adriatic-bordering province of Ferrara as a legitimate part of the Serenessima:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1474CoreonFerrara2.jpg

In October, war was declared. The battle for Ferrara would soon begin.



1475



In January, Ferrara fell to our armies. The Modenese knew what Venice was after, and they offered some ducats and Ferrara. But we refused; we desired their vassalage too. Our troops headed to eject them from Mantua.

Also in January, Hungary annexed Morea and Athens, building a huge Greek Empire.

March 10, the Bavarian Duke became very ambitious:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1475BavariaWarning.jpg

He actually WARNED Venice! What a fool.

May, our Production Level advanced to 1, enabling Venice to build workshops. We could not construct those in many places as nowhere was safe, though we opted to build them in Dalmatia, Austria, and Crete.

June, the army of Modena was completely obliterated.



With Modena taken care of, we could focus on Naxos. Troops were ordered from Crete - led by a new general, of course - to invade the small chain of islands and claim them for Venezia.

In September, within 2 weeks, Naxos was conquered:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1475NaxosConquered.jpg

October, the ruler of Naxos agreed to hand over 50 ducats and acknowledge Venice as the suzerain of Naxos.

November, Modena was conquered as well, acknowledging Venice as it's suzerain and ceding Ferrara. Both the actual threats to the Republic had been eliminated.

December, we obtained government level 2.

The Brandenburgers remained hesitant to sign a peace treaty, of course. Did they not realise Venice and Brandenburg could not touch eachother, short of a massive overland or amphibious invasion?



1476



As we awaited a new proposal from Brandenburg, we noticed Aragon was attacking Modena. They were likely to annex it and form a new East-West bridge against Venice. But would Venice risk a war against Aragon, the Venice - in terms of naval power and influence - of the entire Mediterranean?

Knowing that Aragon would have a powerful fleet, Carracks were commissioned wherever possible. Galleys were disbanded to make room for the new ships.

Plans were made to invade Venice's former ally, Genoa. Venice would seize Corsica and Milan from them. Once Genoa was defeated, Venice would gradually work it's way south and defeat the Italian states one by one.

March, peace was made with Brandenburg at last; they demanded no reparations.

The Genovese-Venetian War of 1477



June, claims were fabricated on the island of Corsica, giving Venice the Casus Belli needed to invade and destroy the Genovese Republic.

September 4, in a show of Italian solidarity, the Modenese Duchy was invited to the Venetian alliance. Venice also wanted to protect them from the likes of Aragon and Tuscany, both of whom were hungry predators in the region.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1476BoundaryDispute.jpg

November, a boundary dispute arose over Florentine Trent. This drove the wedge between Tuscany and Venice deeper.

1476 is notable, as it was the first year in a long time where Venice's coffers were near-depleted. This would be attributed to the massive construction projects undertaken during this year that emptied the 300 or so ducats built up by the Republic since 1453.



1477



With the coffers refilled by tax revenue, the Doge was eager for a war with Genoa. But first, he needed naval superiority, and so he waited for the mass construction of Carracks to finish. Once complete, they would all head for Parma, where they could attack the Genovese homeland.

June, Venice cancelled it's military access in Genoa, while it also fabricated claims on Milan. Venice would be able to gain two jewels - Corsica and Milan - once it crushed Genoa.

In the last days of July, Venice declared war on Genoa. Salzburg came to their defense. A detachment of 8,000 soldiers was sent east under one general to beat back the Genovese and Salzburger forces there, while a main force of 14,000 or so soldiers invaded Genoa proper.

The battle of Liguria was a great victory, as Venice wiped out an entire Genovese regiment without losing any men of it's own. As cavalrymen were worthless in assaults, all the cavalry were ordered to leave the army and pursue the Genovese forces that were moving towards Brescia.

Venice defeated the Genovese attackers of Mantua.

Venice nearly suffered a defeat in Karnten. It lost more of it's own troops than the enemy, but the battle was won regardless.

October, Venice won another battle in Liguria, while it also won a small naval battle. Most of the Genovese navy was holed up in the Adriatic blockading Venetian ports, and the Republic had ships heading there to end that.

November, another battle was won in Karnten.

December, Venice LOST the battle of the Ligurian Sea, which claimed four of it's ships, but a Carrack managed to escape. Venice would have it's revenge.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1477TableofGenovesePwnage.jpg



1478



Venice's revenge came in January:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1478GenoaCaptrued.jpg

Genoa fell to Venice! With Genoa occupied, Venice was free to get rid of those pesky Genovese troops on her eastern border. The Venetian navy would also be able to eject the Genovese from the Adriatic.

February, the Republic lost the Battle of Krain, which claimed nearly 2,000 troops. But the Genoese had similar casualties. Defeat was attributed to how the Genovese Doge was leading their army.

March, Venice managed to force the Genovese out from the waters around Venice. The Republic destroyed their fleet there, while it also captured two galleys. With the Adriatic clear, the fleet - under Admiral D'Alviano - would go back to Genoa and crush the galleys of their navy in retribution for how Venice lost it's own ships a few months earlier.

In March, Stiermark fell to Salzburg, while Krain fell to Genoa.

Venice soon retaliated by killing all 1000 of the Salzburger troops in Karnten.

General Giuseppe Schio led a force of 16,000 men against the Genovese army in Krain, which was about 13,000 soldiers in size. With superiority in numbers and leadership - and cavalry - Venice was sure to win.

May, as the bloody battle of Krain raged, the Genovese dared to attack Crete. They were repulsed, however, and their army destroyed.

June, the Battle of Krain was over:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1478BattleofKrain.jpg

The Genovese Doge fled like a coward, and our generals gave chase after leaving 1,000 cavalry to hold down the fort.

July, Krain was retaken for Venice's forces, reversing enemy advances.

With that, General Schio was ordered to invade Karnten, and after that, to invade Stiermark.

Karnten was a quick battle, with no losses on Venice's side and the complete destruction of 1,000 Salzburger troops. Now, Schio was ordered to attack Stiermark and kill the Genovese Doge.

The battle is Steirmark was bloody, but the Serenissima won:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1478Steiermark.jpg

General Schio was ordered to follow the Duke of Salzburg and Doge of Genoa - who naturally managed to escape - into Salzburg. Once they were defeated there, he would lay siege to the city and get Salzburg out of the war.

Venice defeated them in Salzburg, leaving a unit to maintain the siege. Then, Schio's main force followed the enemy back to Steiermark, delivering another crushing blow.

December, Venice captured Corsica:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1478CorsicaSurrenders.jpg



1479



In January, the main highlight was the massive battle of Karnten, where the armies of Schio and the dual enemy rulers fought to the death.

The foes of Venice were defeated, and they retreated. Oddly, the ruler of Salzburg retreated to Steiermark(probably to prevent the Florentines from liberating it), while the Doge of Genova retreated to Friuli. Venice's forces pursued the Genovese Doge, of course.

The battle of Friuli was quick and had minimal casualties, though most were naturally felt by Genoa. Schio pursued the Doge to Verona.

Also in January, Venice defeated the Genovese navy once more, destroying one ship and stealing another. Venice had rebuilt it lost fleet and redeemed the sailors who gave their lives for the Republic.

Venice defeated the Genovese in Verona, and they began to retreat towards Genoa.

February, the Genovese were defeated in Brescia, and Venetian forces pursued them to Mantua. The Genovese were defeated in Mantua also, and they retreated to Modena. The fools forgot that Venice had access to Modena too.

As well in February, the Archbiship of Salzburg's army was completely destroyed, though he escaped death.

In April, the Genovese Doge lost his sanity and invaded Tuscany, attacking Pisa first, where he was humbled. He retreated towards Florence. He assumed that if he conquered Florence, he would be able to get Tuscany out of the war and thus seal off a huge nuisance.

May, the Genovese Army was obliterated. So much for the glorious Doge's scheme.



With the Doge of Genoa's Army destroyed, many wondered what Venice's next course of action should be. Doge Molin desired to vassalise Genoa, as well as to take Corsica and Milano as prizes; Milan had fallen into Florentine hands, however.

By July, the Salzburger campaign had collapsed. Their army was gone, and their hold on Steiermark had ended. All that remained was Salzburg, which the Venetian military was besieging, and which General Schio was heading towards.



September, despite holding out for nearly a year, Salzburg fell:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1479SalzburgCOnquered.jpg

Though it held out for almost a year, the Archbishopric was now in Venetian hands. The Archbishop got on his hands and knees before the Venetian Doge, begging for mercy. Doge Molin supposedly responded, "That's a good position for you. Perhaps you should be in it more often." What Molin proposed was vassalage. In exchange for this and an indemnity, the Archbishopric would be spared.

The Archbishop kissed the Doge's feet, and accepted submission.



Genoa was now alone. Italy was dominated by the Venetian Alliance, and there were no armed forces to reclaim territory.

But Doge Molin desired more. He ordered soldiers to board ships and head for the Black Sea.

Molin wanted the Black Sea colonies. He angrily commented how Venice had fought in every one of Genoa's petty eastern wars, and even once tried to send troops to help the Genovese. And Genoa spat on Venice when it asked for help in the Mantovan/Burgundian War.

This was codified when the international community accepted this proposal, and Kaffa was henceforth considered a part of the Republic(Fabricated Claims succeeded).

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1479TableofPwnage.jpg



1480



February, the Florentines dropped out of the conflict, carrying off Milan as a prize. It mattered not... for Venice would take it eventually.

By March, the Turks were surprised to find a massive Venetian navy paying their tolls to cross the Dardanelles. Had that Doge said he would not consider Black Sea territory? They supposed every leader went back on their word if personal interest was involved. And dismantling the Genovese Republic was certainly in Venice's.


Later in March, Agosto Foscarini, with 11,000 soldiers at his side, invaded Genovese Crimea. Opposed to him were 4,000 Genovese troops. Agosto was a cousin of the late Doge Foscarini.

Admiral Alvise d'Alviano was awarded a bonus and a medal for his performance in the Battle of the Gulf of Odessa on March 27:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1480Odessa.jpg

April, the Genovese forces were defeated, and while only a fraction were killed, the majority were killed shortly later; they couldn't escape the province without their fleet.

July, Kaffa fell to Agosto's forces. The Venetian fleet had already left, however, having retreated to Naxos for supplies. They went even further to Venice, where they were gathering infantry to support an invasion of the last Genovese territory.

August, taking advantage of the turmoil of war, several mayors went to the Doge and demanded old rights:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1480CitiesDemandOldRights.jpg

The Doge rebuffed them, at the cost of more discontent in the Republic. This was actually a PR move on the part of the Doge to hide his real intentions, as would be shown later on.

November, Venice finally reached the last fortress of Genoa - Azow - and laid siege to it.

Within days, Azow fell:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1480Azow.jpg

With the last fortifications of Genoa flying the flag of Venezia, the Genovese Doge - in chains and peasant garb - was called to the table.

Azow itself was soon recognised as a core of Venice, when the Doge gave a rousing speech about how the two merchant Republics were truly one(yay, more fabricated claims successes).

November 27, the long Genovese-Venetian War finally ended:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1480GenoaSurrenders.jpg

Though they escaped vassalage, the Genovese Republic's pride was greatly hurt when all but Liguria proper was annexed by Venice.



Within days of the Genovese surrender, the Tartar and Mongol cultures were accepted as an integral part of the Republic.

By the time of New Year 1481, the Serenissima was enormously expanded:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1480VenetianEmpire.jpg

In dark blue are the lands that the Republic had when Doge Molin entered the Ducal Palace. In light blue are the territories seized by Doge Molin up to 1480. In aqua-green are territories that were vassalised by the Doge or Foscari(in the case of Corfu). Outlined in black is the combined area of these three entities.

The Demise of the Republic



1481



The year 1481 started as they all do, with fresh tax money being added to the Ducal coffers.

But as the shiny gold flowed into the ducal treasury, dark and sinister plans were unfolding within the Ducal palace.

Doge Molin was a mastermind of politics and diplomacy, with military prowess to boot. His reign had seen many shockers, mainly how Venice managed to repulse - and absorb most of - the Austrians when things looked so bleak for the Republic. He managed to defeat Burgundy and capture countless territories. Venice had more than doubled in size - not including alliances and honors gained - under the wise rule of Lorenzo Molin, and now the expanded Republic was at peace.

The elites of Venice had always feared the Doge's power. They saw numerous campaigns that took Venice away from the sea, the source of trade and thus their power. As more and more money came from gold and other ventures, their power declined. This is why the Doge placated them by focusing on expanding Venice's naval assets, and thus giving them more sway. But still, the elites had wished for Venice to lose a war; a Doge who started a war that Venice lost was to be executed by law. But despite the close calls with the Habsburgs and Burgundians, Venice still stood proud, and the city itself had never been occupied by enemies.

And the elites would have more reason to fear the Doge; he was a schemer. Before the Genovese were crushed, he announced he would be taking a tour of the Republic to examine the many possessions Venice had acquired in the past 3 decades. What the Doge was really doing was hiding as he sent emissaries to all the conquered possessions. There, he worked with the old elites - or crafted new ones - in all these territories, from Parma to Ragusa to Kaffa. He promised them increased autonomy if they gave him full moral, economic and military support. But... for what?

The Doge arrived back in time for New Years festitives, which had expanded to include the victory over Genoa, Venice's age-old foe. The Doge then went up on a podium in front of the Ducal Palace. He naturally did what any leader would, congratulating the commanders of the war, thanking the soldiers, and expressing his sentiments to those who lost loved ones. He praised the great victory and Venice's assured dominance of the merchant arena.

But then his speech shocked people. They turned their heads as he began to go on about how he had singlehandedly transformed Venice into a hegemon in the Adriatic and Northern Italy. How the Ducal position was far too weak to guarantee the stability of the expanded Republic. How that for the sake of stability and prosperity within all the possessions...




He was to become King, and the Republic naturally reorganised into a Kingdom. Many gasped when they heard this, many screaming blasphemy. But the Doge's bodyguards, numerous, stood their guard. Molin announced that just outside Venice's city limits were the armies of many nobles, some from Venice, some from new provinces.

Now with the support of vast armies, all the organs of the Venetian government were abolished as part of the new Kingdom, or greatly curtailed. The Council of Ten became the Chamber of Society, which was formed from the heads of most noble families throughout the Republic. The democracy-esque Major Council remained in place, but it served an advisory role so the King knew what his subjects thought.

As time went by, the monarchy would work to destroy it's noble allies as well, creating a despotic, authoritarian state, governed for the good will of anybody it wished, be it the people or the monarch themselves.

(Venice turns to Feudal Monarchy. It loses 3 stability instead of 4, due to gaining one point of decentralisation thanks to negotiating with the elites to smoothen the transition. Cost to Fabricate Claims increases to 25 ducats)



http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1481VeniceBecomesMonarchy.jpg

Now as King in his castle, Molin - now called Lorenzo I as calling a monarch by their last name is shameful - was free to do as he wished.

Of course, first his realm had to recover from the blows of so much drastic change. Oracles said that he was at something called "Negative two stability."

So, the King naturally needed to tackle this issue. He dispatched missionaries to Azow, to help convert the local Muslims to Christianity. The Muslims not only were harder to keep in line, but they also encouraged the bordering Islamic states to engage in "jihads" against Venice.

February, the King managed to bribe an Aragonian Cardinal to put forward the interests of Venice at the curia, giving Venice 2 Cardinals. However, England, also with 2, remained the controller.

Just a few days later, the Sicilians tried to bind the King of Venice to them with a royal marriage, but he refused.

The King rushed to take care of formalities. As most of the Venetian Republic's land were within the HRE, he could not officially call himself "King" due to the laws of the Empire which stated that that the only King inside the Empire was the Holy Roman Emperor. So Lorenzo I worked out an agreement with the Holy Roman Emperor. De jure, the Venetian Republic would be split. Lands inside the Empire would become a country known as the "Duchy of Northern Italy" where Lorenzo was called Duke. Lands outside the empire would be styled the Kingdom of Venice, where Lorenzo could call himself King. It was all formalities, as both realms were joined in nearly every policy with eachother. But Lorenzo did whatever was necessary to improve his image and consolidate his authority.

Now free to engage the world as King, Lorenzo married a member of his family to the crown of Bohemia, wishing to strengthen his ties with the electors. A few more diplomatic missions made it so that he had the plurality of votes for Holy Roman Emperor once the Hungarian King kicked the bucket.

March brought good news:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1481PapalController.jpg

The death of Cardinal Blake enabled Venice to capture the plurality of the Curia's seats, giving great prestige and power to Venice.

April, the stability of the realm increased to "Negative One."

But April brought bad news; General Giuseppe Schio died.

May, an offer from Lithuania for a royal marriage was accepted.

June, the Swedes were also tied to the Venetian Monarchy.

November, the King finally accomplished his lifelong dream:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1481Corfu.jpg

He finally annexed Corfu! Thanks to Venice's prestige and power, the Corfuites finally agreed to be absorbed into Venice. The route to Crete was now secure at last.

Most importantly, relations with Venice's friends were not impacted by the annexation, meaning the way to the Holy Roman Emperorship was still open.



1482



May brought interesting news: Savoy had allied with Tuscany. This would mean a war against Savoy could translate into a war against Tuscany and Sicily as well.

September, the Florentines were surprised their military access treaty with Venice was revoked. Had the Venetian King lost his mind?! Not only had he destroyed the Republic, but he had also split the Florentine realm into 3 different segments that couldn't interact.

This was actually all part of Lorenzo's new plan. Instead of invading Savoy and risking an assault from Tuscany, he would invade Tuscany itself. This would keep Sicily out of the war, and the two fronts would easily be closed.

October, the Florentine-Venetian Alliance that had held for so long was dissolved. Some Florentines began to put 2 and 2 together...

November, Venice's land technology level increased to 1.



1483



In January, the province of Azow abandoned Islam and converted to Catholicism:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1483AzowConverts.jpg

August, two things occurred. First and most important, Karnten was finally considered to be a core province of the Venetian Kingdom. Second, Avignon sent an offer to become an ally of the Kingdom. Not wanting to fight France, we refused.

Thirdly, Venice lost it's single Cardinal in the Curia, and it's influence there dissipated entirely. But the King made plans to get his power back. Most frightening was this made Hungary the Papal Controller AND Holy Roman Emperor simultaneously.

October, a royal marriage was arranged with Savoy. The purpose of this marriage was to make it that much more painful for Savoy to declare war on the Kingdom when the time to invade Tuscany came.

But...

And... that's all I'll be posting for now. I'll let you guys add some comments to break up the wall of text! :lol:

As well, since we get a new monarch in the next chapter and he hasn't died yet, I can't post the next part since it has to show his death date. Do not worry however, his reign is filled with more massive conquests, against powers such as:

Aragon
Sicily
Savoy
Tuscany
Golden Horde
Hungary
Persia

Neat Story.

:lol:

Thank you Dumanios! I guess that still qualifies as a comment, and this will help break up the wall of doom above our posts...

I was wondering if you were playing with Napoleon's Ambition? I'm guessing you're not playing In Nomine because you started in 1453.

I'm playing Vanilla, unfortunately. :( I do have plans to get NA and IN of course, given the huge amount of bonuses they add(I can probably mod the game too so that the Fabricated Claims still gives a core, the one thing I don't wish to lose).

As always, your trusty foreign minister.

Haahaa, of course! :lol:

We just need to wait a few decades until you're inaugurated! ...Since it's 1510 and such in my latest play, and I'm WTFPWN'ing the Turks. :lol:

The Reign of Francesco I ( November 22, 1483 - February 22, 1504 )



http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1483FrancescoI.jpg

King Lorenzo died in November 1483, before he could see his plans of destroying Tuscany and Savoy realised. He was succeeded by his son Francesco I, and this was quite an oddity for Venice, which was used to elections - or drawing lots, rather - for their ruler. But, most citizens actually were quite happy that the burden of voting was no longer on their heads.

January of 1484, knowledge of the Mauretanian coastline and Rio De Oro was acquired. Given the hostility of the natives and how hard it was to consolidate was Venice already had, however, King Francesco didn't even think of it.

May, the stability of the realm increased to 0. The most difficult times were past.

Also in May, another Cardinal was bribed to the side of Venice. In addition to that, a spy managed to fabricate claims to Pisa. All of Tuscany's cities but Florence itself now were considered integral parts of the Duchy of Northern Italy.

December, our naval technology increased to 1.

In the last days of the year, Savoy and Genoa went to war. King Francesco hoped the Savoyards would annex the Genovese, giving Venice that much more reason to go to war; it would render Genoa capable of being captured.



1484



March, the short war over Genoa ended with Genoa becoming a vassal of Sicily. The King had most advisors who thought Savoy would annex Genoa executed.



1485



A quiet year. Savoy, however, seemed to have chosen Venice as the state worthy of it's electorate vote for Emperor; Venice now had 3 votes.



1486



January, the Savoyards arranged another royal marriage between themselves and Venice. As the relations continued to rise, the more damage Savoy would suffer if it joined Tuscany in battle.

September, Bohemia proposed an alliance to the Italian state of Venice, knowing that Venice might become the Emperor in the future and grant them enormous benefits if the they were on good terms. Naturally, King Francesco accepted. The Bohemian hordes would be able to storm into Italy to help Venice fight it's wars of unification.

November of 1486, with stability ready to jump and all forces and alliances ready, King Francesco declared war on Tuscany, seeking to end the question of who dominated Northern Italy once and for all.

Savoy broke it's royal marriage with the Serenissima and took up arms against Venice, but the King was positive they wouldn't be able to deal much damage. Meanwhile, as units poured across the border into Florentine Trent, troops under Agostine Foscarini invaded Florence itself.

In December, Venice won 3 battles in a row in the Ligurian Sea she sought to cut off Savoyard reinforcements that tried to occupy Corsica. Shortly before New Year, the combined Florentine and Savoyard fleets lost 5 ships in combat, while 2 more were captured by Venice. We suffered no losses in each of these four battles.



1487



http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1487TuscanyPwned.jpg

January 1st, the Battle of Florence ended with a huge Venetian victory.

March 17, the province of Trent fell, closing a front against Tuscany and freeing up thousands of Veneto-Bohemian troops to push west and South.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1487BattleofModenaNLombardy.jpg

In April, Venice won the battle of Modena as brave soldiers fought to the northwest in the epic Battle of Lombardy against the Savoyard King.

May 3, the Battle of Lombardy finally ended with a Pyhrric victory for the Venetians:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1487BattleOfLombardy.jpg

May 29, to keep the Sicilians out of the war, King Francesco agreed to a royal marriage with the Sicilan rulers.

July 7, 1487, the province of Siena fell to the Venetian Army after so long.

August 11, as a band of cavalry was dispatched to Corsica to try and dislodge the Savoyards from the island, the city of Milan fell.

August 29, Florence itself was captured by Venetian forces.

September, the Corsican province was freed from it's Savoyard invaders. Now that Tuscany was for all intents and purposes defeated(albeit, they still had a rogue army running around Modena and Parma that was slowly being whittled down), Savoy could be targeted. But the Savoyards were ambitious, demanding Venice release Ferrara and and renounce claims to Nice. Such an offer was of course, ridiculous. General Mosé Vittorio was ordered to invade the Savoyard homeland and teach the half-breed Francotalians the price of such arrogance.

The Florentine Army that had been harassing our inner provinces also fled towards Piedmont, resulting in both main Venetian Armies joining into one mega Army.

At great loss, the Florentine-Savoyard Army was crushed on November 7:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1487BattleofPiedmont.jpg

Wanting vengeance for all the brave Venetians killed, the King ordered the two armies to pursue the enemy into Nice. He also ordered them to kill anybody who got in their way, civilians included. Francesco was shaping up to be a nice ruler.

The usual back-and-forth battles ensued, this time between Piedmont and Nice. Given time, we would annihilate both armies.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1487Sieges.jpg



1488



By February, several enemy regiments had been destroyed, and the units had retreated to Savoie. Knowing opportunity when he saw it, General Vittorio pursued the Savoyard King and Florentine Doge to the province, leaving some infantry behind to try and take the capital.

Later in February, the capital of Savoy fell. With the Bohemian King arriving soon, General Vittorio abandoned his plans and ordered his Army south to Nice, where they would take what was rightfully Venetian.

March, Nice fell to Vittorio's armies. So much pain and grief had been caused to the Savoyard King by said general, in fact, that the King of Savoy mandated that all people with the last name Vittorio change it to something else.

October of 1468, the realm's stability increased to 0. The worst times were over, and Venice was on the path to victory; only two provinces remained outside of Coalition hands.

November, the last of King Filiberto I of Savoy's Army was completely annihilated. With that done, King Francesco I of Venice's victory was assured. He ordered his men to take the last province of Savoie to end the war once and for all.

The first days of December, the last Florentine city of Pisa fell, as the assault on Savoie's forts began.

2 days before Christmas, the province of Savoie fell. However, Bohemia dropped out of the war shortly before the province was seized by Venice. This left it to Venice to take the last Savoyard province for themselves.



1489



Franche-Comte, the province that once fell to Venice in the Mantovan War, fell to Venice once more in Mid-January. The end result was Savoy and Tuscany were both completely defeated.

January 30, the Savoyards accepted Venice's reasonable demands: Nice and 50 ducats.

February 1, the Florentine Doge accepted Venice's less-reasonable demands: every province but Trent and Florence, AND 50 ducats.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1489VenetianEmpire.jpg

Francesco's reign was glorified in the eyes of many Venetians, as he had conquered most of Northern Italy, finishing what Foscari and Lorenzo I had started. But, just like Lorenzo... he wanted... more.

Italian Domination



With the Savoyards and Florentines crushed, there was no Italian state left in Northern Italy that could threaten Venice. All the north Italian cities together were rich with churches, markets, universities, and workshops, helping to grow the economy of the Kingdom.

But the expanded Duchy wasn't good enough for Francesco. Francesco believed the Venetians had the right to dominate all of Italy. Not just that, but to unify and expand it.

Only two powers remained in Francesco's way: Aragon and Sicily. Allied to eachother, these two powers had a vast amount of energy and resources to draw upon, the former especially. But if Venice was to take over Italy, it would have to face both.

But Francesco was patient and had just finished a war. He knew he would have to do things steadily...



April of 1490, the territory of Ragusa was acknowledged by most as a legitimate part of the Venetian Kingdom. With the last band of nationalists dispersed, the empire's stability and power would increase much more easily.

May, missionaries were dispatched to Corfu to try and convert the local Orthodox population.

August, to improve the stability of the realm, a great artist was hired at the court to commission works that re-assured the people of the power and security offered to them by the Monarchy.



1490



May, after failing to convert one Cardinal, Venice managed to bribe another. Castille retained it's role as Papal Controller, however.

That changed on August 17, 1490:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1490PapalController.jpg

With three cardinals under his wing, King Francesco controlled the Curia, while he had also managed to rebuild relations with Savoy to the point he had three electoral votes in case the Holy Roman Emperor died.

November, the King noticed something...

Genoa was allied with Sicily! While the Sicilians were smart in allying with Savoy, Aragon, AND Genoa to block Venetian ambitions, the fools had conveniently forgotten how bilateral agreements worked. Venice would attack Genoa in a new war, easily crush the Genovese and vassalise them, and then make it's way down the peninsula. The gates of Rome would be Venetian before long.

On November 8, through misinformation and rhetoric, the world was convinced that Genoa was a legitimate part of the North Italian Duchy.

The King now had his casus belli. Now he just needed to get claims on Rome...

December, Rome was considered a legitimate part of the Venetian Kingdom; the King cited control of the Curia mandated that the Pope be personally protected by the Venetians (I like to make fabricated claims more interesting, mm'kay?).



1491



http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1491MilitaryReform.jpg

January 1st, two schools of military thought went to the Monarch, each pleading their case. The nationalist oriented faction wanted a more offensively-themed military to dominate Italy and the surrounding regions, whereas the mercantilists wanted to focus on defensive measures to preserve what the Kingdom already had.

The King sided with the nationalists, of course, wanting to be in his Sunday best when he went to invade Sicily.

March, the Lorenzine province of Corfu was successfully converted to Catholicism, eliminating Orthodoxy from the empire:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1491CorfuConverted.jpg

That left the province of Kaffa as the only non-Catholic region in the empire, and missionaries were shortly dispatched to it.

In April, one of Castile's cardinals died, leaving Venice with 3 cardinals while everyone else had only 1. There were rumors that the cardinal had been assassinated by the Venetians to secure their power base.

May, the stability of the realm increased to +1, while the Government technology reached level 3.

June, war was declared on Genoa. Bohemia and Modena joined our side, while Sicily joined Genoa's. Everything fell right into place.

July, the battle of Rome was fought, and was equally bloody for both sides, with over 4,000 men killed:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1491BattleofRome.jpg

General Vittorio left a small regiment in charge of besieging Rome, while he pursued the King of Sicily back to his capital. And in the north, his counterpart, General Foscarini, was fighting a battle against the Genovese Doge.

August 13, the battle of Naples was won by Venice. Using brilliant tactics, General Vittorio only lost 5 men to Naples' 700 losses. Vittorio left a force to keep the province under control, while he pursued the King to Ancona.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1491GifttoTheState.jpg

September 1491, a band of nobles and businessmen sent a gift of 200 ducats to the King of Venice, desiring new priveleges and lands in newly-acquired territories post-war.

October, Liguria was occupied, but the King discovered that we could not sign a peace with them so long as Sicily remained at war with us. We pursued them into Nice, where their army had retreated to.

Late October, we defeated the Sicilians in combat for the fifth time, and the Sicilian King retreated across the straits of Messina into Aragonese territory.

By December, the straits of Messina were infested by the Venetian navy.



1492



In January, Calabria fell to General Vittorio. The King decided that besides Rome, he also wanted the strategically-located province, in order to more easily ferry ships between the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas. It would also enable Venice to more easily block Aragonese expansion into Italy.

Using Bohemians as meat shields and pawns, the Venetian Army captured Abruzzi. And then Rome itself. This left Apulia and Napoli as the only free provinces of our enemies.

February, Naples collapsed as the Neopolitan King lay helpless across the straits of Messina. The Sicilian Navy was engaged in battle, and if it was destroyed, there'd be no way of getting back into Italy.

Mid-March, 8 Sicilian ships and 1 Venetian vessel went to the bottom of the ocean near Malta. The Sicilian Navy was destroyed, and the Venetian navy sailed back to block the straits of Messina.

April, the last province of Sicily fell into Venice's hands. But the King would not make peace until he was certain his claims on Southern Italy would remain uncontested.

On April 23, he was able to use rhetoric and documents to claim Calabria as a legitimate part of the Venetian Kingdom.

Just a few days after that, the Genovese Army was completely destroyed at Nice. The war was de facto over.

June, Apulia was also considered a legitimate part of the realm. Peace negotiations could then commence.

But just to tease the Neopolitans, however, Venice's navy stopped blocking the straits and retreated into Calabria. At the same time, however, Venice's army was gathered on the opposite side. It just fell to the enemy to take the bait.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1492NaplesPwned.jpg

Within days, however, the Sicilians agreed to our terms, ceding every province they had but their capital. The Sicilian threat was at last eliminated.



Celebrations were held all throughout the Kingdom when it was learned that Sicily had surrendered. While the Genovese vassalage was not obtained as desired, Sicily was nonetheless defeated, and Italy was almost entirely under Venetian rule in some way.

July 3, the Pan-Italian Conference was held in Rome. At the Conference - which all Italian countries were invited to - it was announced that a new era of cooperation should begin between all of the states. Furthermore, the culture, language, and overall diversity of all of Italy's cities and provinces was to be respected. The conference made it's motto, "Unity through Diversity." With that in mind, the Umbrian and Sicilian cultures and languages were fully accepted by the Venetian Kingdom.

As that pretty message was spread, however, the King's soldiers were suppressing revolts in Abruzzi, where Venice's claims had not been legitimised.



1493



In January, the authority of Venice in the Curia was re-asserted when a second Cardinal was bribed to Venice's side. Unfortunately, the French were in control of the Curia, but that wasn't going to last long.

February of 1493, the Muslims of Kaffa were converted to Catholicism, rubbing out the last region of non-Catholics in the Kingdom:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1493KaffaConverted.jpg

Shortly after, one of the Cardinals of France came over to Venice's side of the aisle. This made Venice have three Cardinals, while also making the Kingdom Papal Controller. A fitting position for a country that occupied Rome, no?

February was also the month that King Francesco I put his Pan-Italian Conference's proposals into motion. He began regular shipments of gifts to the Doge of Tuscany, seeking to rebuild them as a friend, and eventually annex them. Once wealthy Tuscany was part of the Duchy of Northern Italy, the greatest specialists of all kinds would serve the King of Venice.

August, as the goodwill missions to Tuscany continued, the Savoyards - reeling from a defeat by the combined forces of Burgundy and Lorraine - asked for an alliance. Citing Italian solidarity, the King agreed to aid the Savoyards in the event of future wars.

Elections and Easterners



1494



January 1, stability increased to +1. As well, a boundary dispute with the Golden Horde ended up giving Venice a core on Georgia in the far east. But that area could be considered another time.

February 1494, the old fart in charge of Hungary finally died, resulting in...

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1494HolyRomanEmperor.jpg

Francesco I of Venice being elected as Holy Roman Emperor. As Emperor and controller of the Curia, the religious and military might of the Venetian Monarch was unquestionable(price to fabricate claims jumps to 50 ducats).



http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1494Ordinances.jpg

Later in 1494, as Holy Roman Emperor, Francesco tried to enforce his will upon the German states, despite how hopeless this was with anyhing short of force.

While the Emperor tried to consolidate his power over Germany, he was more focused on Italy of course. He increasingly saw Tuscany as part of his realm, legitimised by the Holy Roman Emperorship.

September, the Golden Horde declared war on Venice! They also brought in their ally, Persia. The Venetian fleet was armed to the teeth and ordered to transport soldiers East against the enemy. Wanting to transform the Black Sea colonies into a viable territory, the Emperor decided he would conquer both of the Golden Horde's provinces on the Black Sea, linking up the two colonies Venice possessed.

Shortly later, the Nogai Khanate joined the war on the Christians. But the fleets were already loading up with troops, and would soon deposit a hellstorm upon the heathens.



1495



The forces of Nogai had managed to drive the Venetian troops out of the northern colonies, but reinforcements arrived in January just in time for the Battle of Kaffa against the Golden Horde.

April, the Venetian forces - many of them cavalry to offset the strategy of the Eastern barbarians - crushed the enemy at the Battle of Georgia, an epic and bloody battle:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1495BattleofGeorgia.jpg

In May, the province of Georgia collapsed, becoming Venetian-occupied. The army was split; most cavalry would head for the enemy capital, while the infantry would head to invade Kouban.

By July, while Azow lay in the hands of the filthy Nogai, both Georgia and Kouban were controlled by Venice.

On July 12, when the Golden Horde's army was routed, the province of Sarai - lacking a fortress - fell into Venetian hands.

Later in July still, the Nogai Army was routed, allowing the Venetian forces to focus on retaking Azow.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1495Fortification.jpg

August, to show that the war in the East was of no real drain to manpower or finances, the Emperor ordered that the province of Verona - in the middle of northern Italy - get a huge upgrade in fortifications.

October of 1495, Venice mourned when it was learned that Agosto Foscarini - the general who had fought hard against Savoy and Sicily - was dead. But, knowing one man could not slow the war effort, the King soon made plans to hire a new general to replace Foscarini.

As well, the sad news of Foscarini's death was cancelled out a few days later, when Azow was re-captured by the Venetian Army. This was supplemented by the fact that much of Europe believed that Venice's claims to Kouban were solid, just as much as the claim on Georgia.

On October 6, the war with the Golden Horde ended; they ceded Georgia and Kouban rather than fight the superior Italian armies.

November, the Georgian culture was accepted by Imperial Decree.



1496



January of 1496, we discovered that Aragon and it's allies - Navarra and Sicily - were fighting a massive war against the Castilian Empire(which controlled much of northwest Africa) and Tunisia, as well as Bavaria. Once Venice's stability increased and war weariness went to a manageable level, it would consider fighting the Aragonese for control of their Italian land...

February, Venice stole a Cardinal from Bohemia, and thus became the Papal Controller anew. The King of Venice more or less viewed the Holy Roman Throne and the Curia as his hereditary possessions, given his possession of Rome.

July 13, to bring the fight to the Persians, Venice gained Imereti as a core province thanks to some dirty tactics. Once absorbed, the province would help turn the Black Sea into a Venetian Lake.

By September, Imereti and one other Persian province were occupied by the Venetian Army. Until Persia agreed to part with Imereti, there would be no agreements for peace.

November, Nogai managed to retake Imereti, though their army was swifty repulsed and the Venetian Army made plans to occupy it again. At the same time, Venice's army was following the Nogai army back into it's territory, hoping to gain the necessary advantage to pry Imereti from Persia's grasp.



1497



February 28, Crimea declared war on Venice!

However, their only ally was the one-province Karaman. Once Persia surrendered, Crimea would be an easy meal.

In August, after destroying the Crimean Army some months prior, Crimea was captured by Venice. But rather than waste a good opportunity, it was decided that Venice was to launch an assault on Crimea's ally in Turkey as well, so as to secure a new naval base for the Kingdom.

Late August, after a few more battles against the Nogai - who naturally came out of the Terra Incognita like demons out of Hell - we managed to get enough sway to convince Persia to part with Imereti.

In September, a new Cardinal was bribed to Venice's side, but France remained in control of the Curia, if only temporarily.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1497Imereti.jpg

In October, the Persians FINALLY agreed to give up Imereti. This came shortly after we learned Candar had declared war on Persia.



With the war on the Golden Horde finally ended, Venice was free to focus it's full attention on bringing down the guillotine on Karaman and Crimea.

December, the Army of Karaman was destroyed with no casualties. The King of Venice decided it was best that the Muslim states be annexed.



1498



January of 1498, Karaman was captured by the victorious Venetians. With both of the allies defeated, most assumed that Venice would keep it's reputation of vassalising small states rather than annexing them. It was not to be so. The Emperor believed that the Muslim states had to be shown a lesson; so many had attacked Venice in the past few years. Besides, Karaman was liable to be eaten by the Turks at any time.

Karaman, it was decided, would be annexed. Crimea would be spared if it gave up it's sovereignity and claims on all Venetian lands.

When Karaman was considered a legitimate national province of the Venetian Kingdom shortly after it's capture, it's fate was sealed. It was annexed immediately. Currently under a Regency Council, the Karaman state wasn't exactly poised to resist Venice. In fact, many nobles embraced their new way of life as governors and administrators for their Italian overlords.

February, the Turkish language and culture was accepted as an integral part of the Kingdom, especially in the Karaman province. As the Ottomans cast a weary eye on the increasing number of Venetian penetrations into Asia Minor, Crimea was targeted.

Within the first week of February, Crimea accepted vassalage. The Tribal leaders were happy that the Venetians had spared them, and relations somehow increased to +103 from -195. Perhaps mercy was indeed the way to go in international relations...



... Nah.



On February 28, shortly after finishing his Turkish campaign, General Mose Vittorio passed away. The realm mourned his loss.

June of 1498, the Kingdom underwent another fortification effort in Siena to show off the military and fiscal health of the Kingdom(and the Holy Roman "Empire" as well).

Late in June, a Cardinal under French control died, enabling Venice to seize the position of Papal Controller. With the war's end, King Francesco put his full support behind Venetian expansion in the Curia.

July of 1498, stability returned to +2. So long after Molin converted to Monarchy, Venice was returning to prosperity... a trend which her enemies dangerously noticed.

September, a band of rebels from Ancona attacked the Venetian garrison in Rome. Venice's last great general was put in charge of a unit that was given the task of crushing the rebels.

By November, the long Aragonese-Castilian War had ended, leaving Aragon damaged and it's people very war-weary. As Venice's own war exhaustion was quite low, it's easy to assume what immediately went through the mind of the Venetian King...

(Before we begin, I apparently forgot to take pictures here... sorry! >.< I blame the fact I stayed up for so long playing EU3)

Onward to Aragon



The Aragonese navy was definitely larger than Venice's, even with all it's defeats. However, Venice had capable admirals and many of it's ships were carracks to Aragon's galleys. This would help balance the scales, and leave the land forces to determine the fate of the Aragonese Empire.

The Aragonese and Venetians were on a collision course since Day One. Like the Carthaginians and Romans, each continued to build up power and influence in and around Italy, so it was natural that conflict would occur eventually. While Venice had focused on the Adriatic and conquered much of the peninsula - as Rome had done - Aragon had built up a vast empire in the Western Mediterranean, as Carthage had done. By the time of the Aragonese-Venetian War, the Aragonese had one of Europe's largest fleets, with control of the islands of Sicily, Sardinia and the Baleares. Aragon proper was large enough, while Switzerland and Tirol had also been acquired north of Italy as a bit of "insurance" against Venetian expansion. Furthermore, Aragon had acquired colonies from Castile after their war ended. And to add to that, Aragon had an ally in Naples, which now ruled Genoa.

It was to be an epic battle between two titans...



December of 1498, with a core on Ancona, the Venetian King made his decision. After acquiring a third cardinal from Bohemia, the King delivered a declaration of war to Aragon.

All the blocks fell into place, though Bohemia dishonored it's alliance with Venice. But the Emperor was confident his forces could handle themselves, and began rebuilding relations with Bohemia anyway.



1499



January 1st of 1499, the Government technology level of Venice increased to 4.

By mid-January, Bohemia had offered to ally with Venice again, and the offer was taken.

A few days later, Aragon had landed a medium-sized force - headed by no one other than the Aragonese King himself - in Nice. For the time being, the Emperor chose to let them remain there so as to let attrition do it's damage; troops could also attack Liguria.

Late January, the Aragonese fleet had a small detachment in the Gulf of Venice that landed troops in Romagna. It was destroyed, causing the Aragonese to lose three vessels.

Liguria fell shortly after the first naval battle of the War.

February, the province of Romagna fell as well.

In March, a battle over Ancona erupted. The Anconites were surprised to find the Venetians - who they had attacked in Rome - had finally returned for vengeance. And what made matters worse was the fact that the Venetians brought CANNONS, or their predecessors anyway.

Within 5 days, the cannons and small garrison combined to make the city fall. Aragon was evicted from Italy proper, and Venice would not settle for peace until that was made permanent.

As March went by, the Aragonese played right into Venice's hands; they sent their ships in separately, and suffered 3 vessels sunk. Each individual vessel sunk to Venice's single, huge fleet, meant that Venice would be able to rule the waves.

Late March, the city of Naples fell. With Sicily defeated, Aragon itself could be dealt with. Troops from Naples were sent towards the island of Sicily, while troops from Liguria were sent to help the Savoyards deflect the Aragonese invasion, which they had bore the brunt of.

April, General Francesco Brasano managed to drive out the Aragonese King from Nice, but just barely. He suffered many troops lost and a greatly depleted morale amongst his troops. To make matters worse, the cowardly King fled into France. But at least Venice was secure for the time being.

May, as the Aragonese fought to retake Liguria after crossing through Savoy, the Neopolitans were brought to the table. May 3, the Neopolitans agreed to Venice's terms. They would abandon all claims to mainland Italy, while they would also cede Liguria.



With Naples out of the war and the legendary trade center of Genoa finally under Venetian domination, Venice was more flexible with it's movements. As troops neared the straits of Messina and the Venetian Navy prepared to harass the Aragonese coastline, troops in Northwestern Italy were fighting to keep the Aragonese Army back. It kept crossing through France.

Mid-May, shortly before a battle in Liguria was won by the Venetian Army, Tuscany - now a feudal monarchy like Venice - offerred a royal marriage, which Venice agreed to. The King would do anything to secure Florence as a part of the Kingdom or it's Duchy.

June, Luneburg offered Venice a white peace, which was accepted. Aragon was left alone.

July 28, Kouban was converted to Catholicism, as the gradual Catholicisation of the Black Sea took place.

Also on July 28, a great Battle occurred in the seas outside Barcelona, and the result was a narrow Venetian victory. Ships were sunk on both sides, and Venice captured a few vessels. Given the sorry state of the surviving ships, however, the fleet had to retreat to Nice for repairs.

August 11, Messina and all of Eastern Sicily fell to the Venetian forces. The Savoyards cowardly made a white peace with the Aragonese, but we were confident we could hold our own.

September 12, Palermo and Western Sicily fell to our armies. But that wasn't enough to get the two Italian provinces we sought. So, the King ordered an invasion of Aragonese Switzerland.

By mid-November, the Aragonese forces in Switzerland had been routed, with the King moving east and his generals moving west towards the center. It was hoped that the Venetian Army could sandwich the King and possibly kill him to leave a lasting mark on Aragon.



1500



Ah, the start of the 16th century CE!

January, the province of Tirol, rich in gold, fell to Venice's forces. Meanwhile, to draw Venice's attention away, the Aragonese had split up and assaulted Brescia and Lombardia. The latter being where the King was located, that's where the main Venetian force went.

March, the Government Level of Venice increased to 5, enabling a new national idea.

April, a godsend arrived.

A war of succession over Foix erupted between France and Luneburg. Luneburg being allied to Aragon, the result was a Franco-Aragonese War. The Aragonese would find their hands full and their armies depleted before long.



June, we learned Savoy had converted to the Protestant Faith. Fearing the spread of this new, unstable faith, the National Idea of Deus Vult was adopted by the Venetian Kingdom. The Venetian King viewed himself as the protector of Catholicism, ruling over the Holy Roman Empire and the Curia.

September, Schwyz fell to Venice.

As well, Aragon demonstrated willingness to cede Ancona and Romagna. But until Romagna was a core of Venice, the King would not accept the agreement.

October 1500, the Government Level of Venice increased to 6, which would enable the construction of Temples to comfort the people and reduce the costs of stability.



1501



January, Aragon strangely chose to try and improve relations with the Holy Roman Emperor rather than have a province leave the empire. Like it would do them any good.

February, the GOLDEN HORDE DECLARED WAR AGAIN! The bastards didn't seem to be easily sated. Fortunately, only Nogai remained allied to it.

Later in February, the last region of Switzerland fell to Venice. Once a core was established on Romagna, the Aragonese War could finally end.

Said core was created in March.

Aragon capitulated, ceding Romagna and Ancona, while also paying 50 ducats. The Aragonese had been evicted from continental Italia.

(Once more... no pictures. x__x ¡Lo siento! (Español for "I'm sorry", at least colloquially))

The Second Tartar War and the Last Years of King Francesco



Aragon was defeated, after a long, drawn-out battle. The prize was two wealthy provinces that supplied temples and universities to the empire's inventory.

As the Aragonese fought off the French beast that desired to feed upon them, Venice would once more send troops East to fend off the Golden Horde.

July, the province of Georgia was converted to Catholicism. The great fortune with conversions was attributed to the great men employed by the ruler, and Francesco's own charisma and wit.

December, the Land Technology level of Venice increased to 2, enabling more diverse options with recruitment.

As well, the Turks started the Third Turko-Magyar War with Hungary. The King of Venice expected the Turks to gobble up even more land. But a weaker Hungary would be a blessing; Venice had claims on Croatia still.



1502



By February, the King had urged the need for a more offensive strategy once more when the two camps of military policy once more bickered in his court. A defensive strategy would not defeat the bloodthirsty savages on the empire's eastern borders; exterminating them would.

May, the stability of the realm increased to +2.

June, one of Nogai's provinces fell into Venetian hands.



--- Retribution ---

King Francesco wanted to get his point across that the Easterners had to make peace or suffer destruction. He ordered his soldiers to massacre half of the people in the captured territories(half the captured territories' population is removed in the save game file). Over 10,000 people were slaughtered within a month by the Venetian Army, to the horror the Mongolic hordes. But after all, wasn't massacring your enemies part of their own code?

Francesco wanted to teach the Muslims - particularly the insane steppe-dwellers - a lesson by making their pitiful roads greasy with human fat. But he was also experimenting with how to more effectively dispose of undesirable people within his empire. He brought in many of those on death row for murder and torture, or those who already worked for the state, and had them work with countless other experts to devise cheap, quick ways to massacre vast numbers of people. They used the 10,000 people as guinea pigs, using them to test the methods.

King Francesco I's use of the term "undesirable" needs clarification. He did not kill the Turkics merely for their race or religion. He killed them for their constant treachery and hindrance to Venetian prosperity. Above all, Francesco wanted loyalty, submission. He pointed to the Crimeans as an example of "Good Tartars" and "Good Muslims." No doubt because the Crimeans had eagerly accepted Venetian overlordship. By contrast, the defiant Nogai and Golden Hordesmen were referred to as "Bad Tartars" and "Bad Muslims."

Above all, Francesco wanted servitude and submission, as those created stability and thus enabled prosperity to continue. And he had developed a disgustingly efficient way to get this point across.


---



July, Admiral D'Alviano died after a long career of service. Alas, another brave man had met his end while serving the country he loved.

July 10, the war with the Golden Horde ended. The barbarians agreed to pay 50 ducats and relinquish their claims to Georgia. This was a measure to try and prevent a Third Golden Horde War.



Now that the eastern neighbors had been defeated again, it was time for the Venetian soldiers to head home. However, even more troops were left in the Eastern provinces this time around - 5,000 more than before - to facilitate easy defense in case the barbarians attacked again.



1503



January, as Venice embraced a new year of peace, the King accepted offers from Sweden and Denmark for royal marriages, wanting to be tied with the great houses of Europe. If he was lucky, one of them might lose their king and be ruled in personal union with Venice.

But true to his nature, King Francesco was scheming and plotting. He hungrily eyed the Ottoman and Hungarian empires. Hungary was reeling from it's defeat in it's last war with the Turks, having lost it's Greek territories as well as more of it's homeland. Croatia, a national province of the Venetian Kingdom, was disconnected from Hungary proper by the engorged Turkish empire.

The King had plans, of course. He knew Hungary could be taken one segment at a time, being spread throughout Europe. The Ottomans would be a different matter. Allied with Candar, they ruled most of Anatolia. But most fatally, the Ottomans were split into three segments themselves: Northern Hungary, Europe, and Asia Minor. If Venice ruled the waves, it could block the straits the Ottomans would use to invade Venetian territory, while it could also block the Dardanelles themselves and split the empire in two.

Regarding the Turks, Venice had already drawn up battle plans in case of a theoretical Ottoman War. The expanded Black Sea colonies would field troops to invade Turkey from the East, working with Karaman. They could be reinforced by ships provided Venice controlled the seas and blocked Ottoman movements. Regardless of which segment held the bulk of Turkish forces, one half would be cut off from supplies. And judging by how tens of thousands of troops descended on Hungary from the gates of Hell, Europe - where most of Venice's army was - would be the location of the main Ottoman forces.

Already having a strategy to defeat the Turks, Venice needed expanded capabilities to do so. The alliance with Bohemia would facilitate easier conquest once the Bohemian King managed to reach the Turkish border; Bohemia itself usually had large armies. Venice would need allies if it wanted to defeat the Turks, and countries such as Poland would be excellent in this regard.

Venice also needed naval bases close to the enemy if it's ships were to remain well-supplied. It was decided that Naxos, a vassal of Venice, would serve this role excellently. But in it's current state, the small island state did not contribute much to the Kingdom. So it was decided that they would follow Corfu and be annexed, ending the last Greek state.



Preparing for war even as peace reigned, the King ordered a great military reform. First, he declared that Men At Arms would take the place of the Medieval Infantrymen as Venice's preferred unit to send into combat.

Second, he wanted to improve the loyalty and finances of his army. To do this, he dismissed mercenaries empire wide and commissioned state-raised legions in their place.

In February, the budget was about 22 ducats monthly just to maintain Venice's army at full readiness. That dropped to 20 when 5,000 mercenaries were fired and 5,000 soldiers took their place.

March of 1503, the Venetian government level rose to 7.

4,000 cavalry mercenaries and 1,000 Medieval Infantry mercenaries were discarded. They were replaced with the same amount of domestic troops.

May, Venice's production technology increased to 2.

August, Aragon chose to have the province of Schwyz leave the Holy Roman Empire, possibly to spite the King of Venice.

September, the last of the troops commissioned as part of the Reform of 1503 were trained, a band of Muslim cavalry in the former country of Karaman. Venice now paid 19.1 ducats monthly to maintain it's army, a savings of more than 10%. With that, plans were made to disband more mercenaries and replace them with cheaper, better soldiers.

Also in September, 5,000 mercenary Medieval Infantry and 2,000 mercenary cavalry were dismissed and replaced accordingly.

November, Burgundy and France went to war over who was the rightful ruler of Lorraine.

December was a very expensive year thanks to the military reform; Venice's treasury was left at 1 ducat by the end of the year.



1504:


February 22...

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1504MarcoITakesOver.jpg

King Francesco I died. He was succeeded by Marco I, who was also elected Holy Roman Emperor by merit of the many monopolised Italian votes.

King Francesco was an effective leader, and his reign left Venice doubled in size just like his predecessor. Francesco had grown bitter in his old age, however, having developed the murderers of Sarai into the "National Census Agency." Merging the formerly tax-related office with the mass murderers, it became possible to inflict terror on the people and, through use of numbers, make them "disappear." Francesco died before he could use his agency to it's fullest extent, but would Marco I, his son and successor, suffer the same fate?

The Venetian Kingdom and the North Italian Duchy at the end of Francesco's reign:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1504FrancescoIsEmpire.jpg

In Dark Blue, the Venetian Kingdom. Outlined in dark blue are areas added to the Kingdom during the Francescan Era.

In normal Blue, the North Italian Duchy. Outlined in normal blue, are areas added to the Duchy during the Francescan Era.

Bohemia, ally of the Venetian King at the time of Francesco's death, is outlined in red.

Finally, outlined in purple, are Venice's vassals - Modena, Salzburg, Naxos, Crimea, and Bosnia - at the time of Francesco's demise.

Together, all of these territories comprised the Venetian Empire and it's sphere of influence.

Random question for you all.

Since Marco I hasn't died yet, I may or may not start posting his updates. But let me get to the question...

So far into the Honorable Marco's reign, the Curia has more or less remained Venetian, while Hungary has been humbled in a massive conflict that saw Bessarabia, Pecs, Croatia and one other province conquered by Venice.

Right now, Venice is fighting an epic war with the Turks. The Turkish Army was about half the size of ours at the start. I attribute this to fact they were hammered by Poland, Sweden, Lithuania and their allies shortly before we invaded.

Now, I control nearly every Turkish province, and WALLACHIA has a larger army than the Turks from what I can see; they actually keep trying to liberate Albania and control one of my provinces. The Ottomans are hurting so bad that Poland and Sweden managed to get Albania and the Duchy of Athens set free after so long.

So the question is... should I act gamey or historical? I've left the Turkish capital alone on purpose - though I kill any soldiers there, of course - in the hopes it will be conquered by rebels, allowing me to turbo-annex(turbo-annexing is where you control all of the enemy's provinces except one, which is controlled by rebels. This causes a government collapse, and all the territories you occupy become yours) the Turks.

For a more historical feel however - not to mention to avoid a massive surge of badboy - should I simply accept peace terms from the Ottomans, such as Greece and parts of Turkey?

Yes, historically please. I mean they were your repeat enemies last time around.

Very well then! Deja vu it will be!

The Reign of Marco I (February 23, 1504 - ) and the Will of Francesco



March, Marco decided it was time to eliminate Karaman's Islamic population, and dispatched missionaries.

April 9 of 1504, the Turks went to war with the Persian Empire.

May of 1504, Marco unveiled his father's will...



Besides the obvious inheritance of power shown in it, the document also had another section attached to it. If Francesco's successor became Holy Roman Emperor, then the position was to be used to benefit the Empire. Romagna, Ancona, and Roma were to be put back inside the Empire, as they had been in ancient times. By enlarging the Empire, the will decreed, the mutual interests of Venice and the Empire would be guaranteed, as Venice would have more of an obligation in Holy Roman affairs.

(Three aforementioned provinces are edited so that they are part of the HRE)



Also in May, a French-dominated Cardinal passed away, being replaced by a Venetian from Nice.

June 26, the last of the units commissioned by Francesco's military reforms were trained. Venice now spent 17.7 ducats a month to maintain it's ground forces, saving nearly 60 ducats a year thanks to the elimination of mercenaries.

August, with nearly 30,000 troops on the border with Hungary, Marco delivered a declaration of war to the Hungarian Queen. Croatia was to be the jewel of this conflict.

The Alliances unfolded as predicted, with Bohemia and Modena joining Venice, while Masovia and the Knights joined Hungary. With weak, distant allies, Hungary was to be an easy conquest for the Venetian Alliance.

By September, the city of Sopron fell, and soldiers were en route to the Hungarian capital. What was surprising was how few Hungarian troops were seen. Had the Ottomans really done that much damage?

October, Venice's trade level increased to 3, while a huge amount of territories in the "Caribbean" were discovered.

Christmas Day, like a great present, the capital province of Hungary fell into Venetian hands, and the Venetian forces moved further east to conquer Hungarian Romania. At the same time, Bohemia was occupying the distant Hungarian possessions in Germany.



1505



January, rebels from Savoy attacked Nice. An army was promptly sent westwards to deal with them, while the bulk of the Venetian army was carving up Hungary.

January 10, the coveted province of Croatia soon fell into Venetian hands as well.

May, stability returned to +2, while the rebels in Nice were crushed.

June, the cowardly Masovians offered to drop out of the war, leaving the Knights of Rhodes and Hungary to fend for themselves. Venice naturally accepted.

July, the Habsburgs declared war on Hungary, wanting a piece of the action once the Bohemian and Venetian lions were done eating it.

August, Rhodes, which had managed to hold back the Turks for so long, collapsed and fell into Venetian hands. Seeing the Knights as fellow Catholics, King Marco agreed to spare them in exchange for ducats and vassalage.

They graciously accepted the offer of course, and relations did a complete 180, turning the Knights into one of Venice's closest friends.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1505HolySee4Cardinals.jpg

August 26, Lorraine's Cardinal in the Curia died, leaving Venice with FOUR cardinals thanks to the successor of Lorraine. The Papacy was little more than an organ of the Venetian Empire.

August also brought the Agricultural Revolution to Venice:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1505Agriculture.jpg

Being greedy and moneygrubbing, King Marco raised taxes even more.

October, Bessarabia fell to Venetian might. This left only northern Romania as a province of Hungary proper.

October also had one of Venice's cardinals die, ending the brief quadruple domination.

November, the last city of Hungary proper fell to the Venetians, while in the West, the Hungarian Army was being whittled down. A core was also created on Sopron by bribing the big whigs of Central Europe. This was due to how the Hungarians constantly offerred Sopron to the King for peace.

December, another core was created on Bessarabia, which the Hungarians had also offerred up in a deal.



1506



January, the coffers were filled with more wealth, and a missionary was dispatched to the East to convert a province to Catholic.

January was very strange for the sake of the fact that the Turks asked the Venetian King for military access. Though Venice had designs on Ottoman Morea, the King agreed, shocking all of the Christian world. It was hoped that the Turks would go so far north they wouldn't be able to protect their country in case of an invasion.

To make things worse for Hungary, the province of Pecs soon was considered a national territory of the Venetian Kingdom. As well, their last province, in Western Germany, was being besieged by the Bohemian Army.

February 22, the province of Karaman was converted to Catholicism:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1506KaramanConverted.jpg

Christianity was beginning to re-assert itself in the Near East...

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1506HungarySurrenders.jpg

March 13, the Hungarian-Venetian War ended with a complete Venetian victory as the Magyars begged for mercy. Bessarabia, Sopron, Croatia, and Pecs were all ceded to the Venetian Kingdom. Meanwhile, Pfalz was given to Bohemia. On top of all that, Hungary was forced to pay 50 ducats to cover the expenses associated with war.

The Venetian Crusade... Is Derailed



Now that Hungary had had it's ass handed to it and the claims on Croatia were secured, Venice was able to turn it's attention to another area that lay just outside Venice's sphere of influence: Morea. Venice's legitimacy there was due to fade away in 1519, so the Kingdom had 13 years to gain the core or lose it. The only problem was this meant going to war against the vast Ottoman Empire and it's allies.

But first, Venice had to secure alliances before it did anything insane. Later in March, the Florentines finally capitulated into becoming Venetian allies, opening the door for vassalisation.

Mere days later, the Florentines demanded Venice declare war on Aragon. Venice followed the alliance call, wanting to get a Florentine vassal at some point. Besides, if the war effort went well, Venice probably would get it's paws on Sicily, Sardinia or even Switzerland - in particular, gold rich Tirol. Bavaria, a two-province state split down the middle by Salzburg, joined the war on Venice.

On closer inspection, it was revealed Aragon no longer had access through France, probably a consequence of the Franco-Aragonese War that broke out during the Ferraran War. This would make the seas the only lane of transportation between the two powers, greatly hampering Aragon's advantages.

By April, the Battle of Linz was won for the Kingdom, and one-half of Bavaria was immediately under siege.

May, the straits of Messina were blocked by a massive Venetian fleet. Aragon's army was faring far worse during the second war against Venice, probably due to how the Aragonese troops could not reinforce and resupply via France. As a testament to this, Aragon was humbled in Lombardia and pushed back to Switzerland, where Tirol had fallen to Tuscany.

Later still in May, 1 Aragonese vessel had the courage to go against 36 Venetian vessels. The Aragonese vessel of course sank without firing a shot against Venice.

In late June, the Bavarian province of Linz fell to Venice, and the Venetian Army headed for Bohemian territory to restock and regroup. Once that happened, the army would invade Bavaria proper full force and crush the south Germans once and for all.

October of 1506, Venice's government level increased to 8, allowing the construction of better universities to further finance Venetian government efficiency.

Shortly later in the month, the province of Schwyz fell into Venice's hands:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1506Schwyz.jpg

Later still in October, the Ottomans declared war on Poland.

The Lithuanians requested military access through Venice in November, probably to cross Bessarabia into the Ottoman Balkans. Wanting the Ottomans to be weakened as much as possible in the coming years, the King agreed. He hoped to see Ottoman Hungary fall apart in the face of Teutonic, Swedish, Masovian, Polish and Lithuanian hordes.

Also in November, the capital of Bavaria was invaded by Venice. The Bavarian King was defeated in combat, and retreated to Bohemia. But a cavalry force more than twice the size of his own army broke off from the Venetian force, chasing him down.

December, at the cost of nearly 2,000 lives, the fortress of Bern collapsed, kicking Aragon out of the Alps. With Venice's army there freed and Bavaria collapsing, all troops were ordered to march south to the coasts, where they would be loaded onto transports and then invade the Aragonese Mediterranean.

Also in December, the city of Munich fell to Venice's superior forces. The Bavarian Duke, however, was unable to come to the table, being a puppet of Aragon.



1507



February, as the Bavarian and Aragonese forces faced more defeats, a fortification effort was undergone in Pecs in preparation for a war with the Turks:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1507FortificationEffort.jpg

April of 1507 brought excellent news:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1507DelawareCOlonised.jpg

The Delaware region had been reached by Venetian settlers, giving Venice a small foothold in the New World that the English, Portuguese and French had discovered and already seized quite a bit of.

May, an army managed to cross the Straits of Messina, using numerical superiority to rout the King of Aragon's personal force there.

July, Aragon had Schwyz re-enter the Holy Roman Empire, as a PR move towards the Emperor. The effort was futile.

By September, troops had landed in Sardinia, while Eastern Sicily fell to the victorious Venetian Armies.

By December, the Bavarians had briefly re-occupied Linz, whereas the natives of Imereti were converted to Catholicism on December 25th of 1507.



1508



January, Linz was easily retaken with minimal losses, and the quest to kill the Bavarian Duke continued.

As well, one of the pro-Venetian cardinals passed away in 1508, though he was replaced by a new pro-Venetian from Roma.

February, the King changed his goals for the Aragonese war. Rather than help out Tuscany and making them that much harder to absorb by targeting the Swiss provinces(the King wanted Schwyz to re-enter the HRE, but since Aragon had done this itself, the whole reasoning was defunct) he shifted his attention to snatching the entire island of Sicily into the Venetian Kingdom.

He started by bribing higher ups to get western Sicily as a national province of Venice. And Eastern Sicily followed right after, leaving the whole of Sicily as a core province of the Venetian Kingdom, which was more or less considered a Pan-Italian state.

Soon, the goals were extended to include Sardinia. Plans were made to invade Malta and the Baleares, the other two bases of the Aragonese realm. If war called for it, Aragon itself would be invaded to facilitate the transfer of Sicily and Sardinia.

Mid-February saw the last of the Aragonese Army in Sicily wiped out. This freed up the local divisons to invade Malta, while the Sardinians would be ferried to the Baleares. The Aragonese Kindgom had collapsed.

The Maltese Campaign was thwarted by the fact that Sicily - the country - had already invaded it. As such, the full effort of Venice's military was to be placed on the Baleares and later the Aragonese homeland.

June of 1508 brought the second expansion of the Delaware Colony.

Later in June, as troops arrived on the Baleares, it was discovered rebels had already taken up positions there and were trying to take over the island. The Venetians put a quick end to that, needing the island themselves to bribe Aragon.

By July, the Baleares were occupied by Venice. The once-tiny Serenissima had come a long way; it could now challenge Aragon, the supposed hegemon of the Western Mediterranean!

Facing massive war rebellions and the threat of a Venetian invasion of the homeland, Aragon capitulated immediately:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1508AragoneseSurrender.jpg

While the Sicilians were happy to embrace Venice as their new rulers, nationalists still prevailed in Sardinia, where they would remain a thorn in Venice's side for the next two decades.

And so, a second Aragonese War had come to an end, far easier than the first, a sign of Venice's growth as a power. And now, the defeat hit home, as the Aragonese were forced to surrender provinces they had possessed forever. With the other great power of the Mediterranean humbled, Venice only had one more threat to take care of: the Ottomans.

Just for everyone's information, where that chapter ends is where the Ottoman war begins... don't worry though, the war's almost over!

...It actually didn't take very long and was quite boring. Most of the Turkish armies had been wiped out it seems, as my force was twice the size of theirs from everything I could count, plus I had Bohemia's hordes, and a little extra Florentine/Modenese troops. In fact, more troops were lost in assaults and sieges than battle.

It did take a bit due to the fact the Turks had like 5 or so level 2 fort provinces. But I usually had enough numbers and leadership to beat back their armies, even if they had a nasty habit of sending troops to attack my flanks - where 1,000 troops held each province as the main forces moved inwards - with slightly larger forces. But the defeats were outweighed by the gains, I tell you!

...I'm still crying over losing half my navy, though.

How long until you form Italy....or New Rome, whichever you're going for =P

How long until you form Italy....or New Rome, whichever you're going for =P
I believe he needs to have Firenze and have a core on it (among other things; Ancona, Roma, and Siena are the other provinces that need to be both owned and cored), which the latest screenshot indicates is not the case. So, could be fifty years from now, unless he either already has the core or gets a lucky claims event.

What Dachs said. :) I need to own and have cores on all the four provinces he mentions, hence why vassalising Tuscany was such a victory for me(as once I absorb them, I get Firenze and can form Italia at last).

However, as I'm playing Vanilla - don't worry, I'm going to get the expansions real soon - I only have to wait 25 years to get a core. Or, I could just fabricate claims. :lol:

The Venetian Crusade... the Actual One



With the war with Aragon over and Tuscany still sated, Venice was free to do as it wished.

August, a new colony was formed, called Fiumi di Agosto; the area was called Rio De Janeiro by the Portuguese, who had discovered it:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1508RioDeJaneiro.jpg

November, Castille, Burgundy and Foix all went to war with Aragon, seeking to partition it while it was weak.

The rest of 1508 passed by with the Venetian Kingdom sacking one advisor and replacing him with a diplomat who would improve Venice's reputation within Europe. If Venice was to continue starting wars and forging good alliances, it had to keep it's head low.



1509



In February, Bohemia went to war with Austria, seeking to prevent it's expansion. Venice naturally backed the war on the tiny German minor.

Throughout the year, several minor battles were fought with the Austrians, who seemed hellbent on acquiring the formerly Hungarian lands.

July, a fortification effort took place in Crete, also on the front lines in the event of an Ottoman war.

By August, Venice had completely destroyed the Habsburg army. Bohemia just had to finish it's capture of Vienna.

November 20, the brief Austro-Bohemian War ended, with Bohemia claiming half of Austria's new territory and Austria paying 50 ducats to Venice.



1510



January 13, the Florentines accepted Venice's offer of vassalisation, and became an integral part of the Venetian realm:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1510TuscanyVassal.jpg

By February of 1510, war exhaustion had vanished from Venice's provinces.

It was soon noticed that the Ottomans had high war exhaustion, and many of their armies were far in the north fighting Poland... a line of sight check showed that they were actually LOSING against the Poles and their allies! With that in mind, it was decided that war would commence before the Ottomans had time to regroup.

An agent soon entered Thessalonica, one of the richer provinces of the European segment of the Ottoman realm. He convinced the locals that Venice would liberate the Greek peoples from Ottoman aggression, and peaceful protests began that cheered for Venetian intervention. Citing this, the Venetian Kingdom declared war, invading from multiple fronts.

To avoid fighting the full brunt of the Ottoman alliance, however, war was declared on tiny, isolated Wallachia. This kept Candar, a potential threat to Venice's victory in Turkey, out of the war.

All of the allies on both sides got involved, and Bohemia's intervention would help tip the scales in favor of Venice.


Within the first few days of March, several Ottoman provinces had been invaded, while near Angora, armies engaged in combat to the death. Fleets blocked the Dardanelles, and the Ottomans lost 2 ships from the start. Soon, 4 more Ottoman vessels were sunk without Venice losing any.


The months dragged by with the Ottomans falling into Venetian traps. Near the borders, small Venetian armies maintained sieges as larger armies headed by generals moved inwards. The Ottomans sent most of their homeland forces in small amounts of 1,000 men a piece, often resulting in their complete annihilation. Divide and conquer was proving to be an effective strategy against the Turkish bastards.


Mid-April, the Polish Alliance made peace with the Ottomans, on the condition that tiny Albania was given independence anew after so many decades. While it freed up the Turks to fight Venice, it did weaken them a bit more and meant less territory for the Venetians to cover. As well, Bohemia would eagerly fill the hole left by Poland and Lithuania.

May, an advisor who had been in Venice's service for over 50 years and gave +12 to all missionary chances died. His loss was mourned greatly by the King, who wanted his assistance in converting all the heathens and heretics that would soon be absorbed once the Ottomans fell apart.

Later in May, Venice won it's first province from the Ottomans, Eserum in the far east of the Turkish Empire. May also saw two whole Ottoman regiments obliterated.

June, Smyrna fell to Venice's armies.

July saw the epic Battle of the Ionian Sea, where the huge Ottoman fleet of galleys and Venetian fleet clashed:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1510IonianSea.jpg


August, the province of Bulgaria was captured, while the Ottomans temporarily repulsed the Venetian military from Wallachia.

Also in August, Venice fled the Battle of the Ionian Sea after losing all it's galleys. Nettunio was captured as a result. However, the remaining offensive fleets of Venice were to regroup at Naxos, where they would unite and then crush the Ottoman fleet in a second battle. Nonetheless, the Ionian Sea remained a crushing defeat that reminded the Venetians they were by no means unchallenged on the seas.

As battles - both wins and losses - raged across the Ottoman realm, Macedonia fell in September.

Van and Janina fell in September as well, and the noose around the Sultan's neck began to tighten. The last conquest in September was that of Morea.


October, Salonika fell, leaving Athens as the only free Greek province.

Also in October, the Ottomans were forced to set Athens free, meaning all Greece was cleansed of Ottoman domination. This allowed all of Venice's remaining troops to head north... once the Slavic territories collapsed, it would be a massive march to Istanbul. Sivas fell later in the month.

Even later in October, Angora and Anatolia fell to the Venetians, making it a great month in terms of gains.

November 1, Silistria, on the Bulgarian coast, fell to the Venetian forces.

December brought the end of the Battle of the Aegean Sea, and the defeat at the Ionian Sea was avenged:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1510AegeanSea.jpg

In the last days of the year, Venice gained a huge victory over the Turks at their own capital, destroying 1/4 of the army stationed there. The troops were given the order to pursue the Turks across the Dardanelles and to destroy them in Turkey.



1511



Entering January, the Turks kept sending bands of infantry across the Dardanelles to attack Thrace. Each band was repelled, usually with moderate casualties.

By March, battles were being fought on both sides of the Dardanelles, as the "Noose Maneuver" of the Venetian forces centered on the Turkish capital, trying to squeeze the Turks in and destroy them.

By April, Banat in the former Hungarian territories had fallen. The Turks were running out of provinces, with only a handful left in friendly hands. Then, Mus in Eastern Turkey fell.

June 1511, as Wallachia and the Ottomans engaged in back-and-forth warfare with Venice, a boundary dispute occurred. The result was Venice gaining a core on Naples.

...And just a month later, in July, another Boundary dispute erupted:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1511BoundaryDispute.jpg

This time, Venice gained a core on Ottoman Slavonia, which would make the war that much more profitable to win.

September 12, the province of Hum fell at last, meaning all of Ottoman Europe sans Thrace was under Venetian occupation.

December, the Siege of Adana ended. All of the Eastern front was sealed, enabling troops to move west to crush the last pockets of Ottoman resistance.



1512



January, Bithynia fell to the Venetians. This left only Thrace and a tiny Ottoman coastal province as independent. As the Turks reeled from one defeat after another, forces were assigned to eliminate the Wallachians.

As well, troops were ordered to attack the capital of the Ottoman Empire itself, the former city of Constantinople.

January 5, a boundary dispute erupted with Kazan in the northeast:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1512BoundaryDispute.jpg

January 12, the Battle of the Aegean Sea ended with a Venetian victory, as 4 Ottoman vessels were sunk without any Venetian losses. While the Turks had inflicted heavy losses on the Venetian fleet's galleys and heavily damaged the Carracks, the Carracks had managed to turn the tide of war by working together and winning one battle at a time.

More naval battles ensued throughout January, and while some Venetian vessels suffered heavy damage, none were sunk. There were also several battles in Silistria, Bessarabia, Edirne, and Thrace. The Venetians won all four, dealing heavy damage to the enemy forces, who continued to dwindle in size and power. Furthermore, the Wallachian Army was finally evicted from Bessarabia, enabling Venice to try and retake it.

During February, more Ottoman ships were sunk, and a galley was captured. 2 Ottoman galleys helped to mitigate the loss of Venice's own fleet. And to show defiance, Venice began to rebuild it's galleys in the East.

March, claims were fabricated to Edrine, citing it as a Greek province needing Venetian protection. And Silistria was afterwards, being considered an essential part of Venice's Black Sea provinces.

March 24, the province of Bessarabia was reclaimed for Venice. Now boasting a 99% warscore, the King dispatched envoys to the Sultan, and had a list of demands.

King Marco demanded Silistria, Salonika, Edirne, and Morea. As well as 50 ducats for damages.

When the diplomat arrived on April 1, the Ottoman armies in Thrace and Silistria had both been fully destroyed by the Venetian forces there, eliminating the whole Ottoman army - from what Venice could see, anyway - besides the 4,000 soldiers fighting to take Venetian Kouban across the Black Sea.

The Sultan naturally rebuffed that offer on April 2, instead making a counter-proposal that offered mostly-worthless provinces to Venice, even though Silistria and Morea were offered. But the King refused to accept the Sultan's terms.

By April 30, however, another of the Turks' provinces had fallen to Venice.

So in May, the King sent the same offer as last time, but halved the amount of ducats demanded.

...The Sultan rejected that too. It was decided to not settle for cash.



June 7, with Constantinople in serious danger and the worry of state bankruptcy no longer applying, the Sultan accepted Venice's offer:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1512OttomanSurrender.jpg

The Sultan was confident that he had a good deal. He made off with most of his empire, despite Venice's domination of his territory.

...But his advisors had not fully translated the fine print into Turkish. When the Sultan read "Silistria" and "Edrine", he assumed it would primarily be the coastline and strategic city areas, not a whole region. He found out that wasn't true when he personally tried to travel overland west to negotiate with the Bohemians and Wallachians to tell them the war was over. He could not cross, as a large overland area was now Venetian territory. The Sultan screamed in his carriage, as he realised that the Venetians had acquired a huge tract of land separating Constantinople from the whole of Ottoman Europe. Arming himself with a scimitar, he personally executed all those who translated the peace documents.


But alas, Marco slept very good that night, and his dreams of conquest were fueled by his victory.

The next chapter will feature a war on Candar. :D Let's just say that my evil plan to invade them(in the hopes that their Ottoman allies would join in again while they were weak, thus getting a -5 stability hit for breaking at ruce) backfired. Ah well, victory is victory!

... Furthermore, the war gave me a new general who's apparently Alexander reincarnated.

Well then I fully expect you to reach India and will accept nothing less! =P

...

...

...I could try... :mischief:

There is no try. =P

Also, interesting naming choice for the new colony. :mischief:

There is no try. =P

Also, interesting naming choice for the new colony. :mischief:


Unfortunately, I do not speak Italian - or Venetian for that matter - so I can't really come up with a more original name. :lol: Since I speak a bit of Spanish however, I must make my next AAR Iberian! :mischief:

Well not just the language, but also the fact you reached it in August. XD

Fiume di Agosto would be better. =)

Edited! :mischief:

Do you happen to know some Italian? :confused:

The Candarian War and the Ottoman Empire Strikes Back... or Not.



With the Turks dealt with and weak, the King hatched an evil plan. His soldiers were already on Turkish soil, bordering the tiny Turkish state of Candar. He ordered all his troops to "retreat" back to Venetian soil by crossing Turkey back to the Black Sea provinces. The Sultan didn't give a damn, so long as the Italian bastards left his empire.

July 1, the stability of the Venetian realm went to +2. With peace and prosperity returning to the Kingdom, King Marco was free to pursue foreign policy as he saw fit.

October 1, a declaration of war was sent to the Bey of Candar. The King then realised that the Turks and Candar were allied...

But of course, he figured the Turks would not break their truce with Venice.

...He was wrong. The Turks declared war and bloodshed began anew, just a few months after it had ended. The Sultan decided he should try and avenge the last Ottoman defeat and try to reconnect the Western provinces to Constantinople.

The King made plans to make the Turks pay. But as Venice had become so powerful, the world would be hesitant to accept any drastic changes in the balance of power. (Cost to Fabricate Claims now jumps to 70 ducats)

In the last days of October, Athens joined the Second Ottoman War as a third party, attacking the Ottomans while they were weak. They naturally went for Janina, the isolated Greek province of the Empire. King Marco did not mind Greek intervention, desiring his flanks to be protected.

November saw the Candarian fleet COMPLETELY destroyed by Venice's carracks, giving Venice a huge victory for the last war's naval disaster.

December 13, Venice lost the battle of Imereti against Candar's forces due to having such a small number of troops. Alas, the Kingdom made plans to recruit more.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1512NativesColonies.jpg

December 16, Natives encountered the Venetian colonies. King Marco ordered the natives to be repelled, not desiring damage to the fragile Rio De Janeiro colony.



1513



January 20, Venice won the Battle of Bursa, wiping out an Ottoman Army.

As the months went by, Venice had mixed results. While the Turks were beaten a lot in Asia Minor, they often suffered far fewer casualties, likely do to their higher land technology. In Europe, Venice lost several battles, as Turkish armies appeared out of thin air, likely mercenaries.

March 7, the General Constanto Dolfin was commissioned to lead 12,000 troops into battle. Having learned the secrets of Venice's extremely high military tradition, Dofin was skilled. He had +5 fire, +5 Shock and +5 Maneuver.

By April, Bursa and Smyrna were Venetian again.

Late April, Venice faced a horrific defeat in Banat; an entire force of 3,000 soldiers was wiped out. But General Constanz would change the course of the war.

As was shown at the epic battle of Trabzon on April 23:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1513BattleofTrabzon.jpg

After detaching a unit to besiege the last Candari province, Constanz was ordered to prove his worth by slaying a force of 5,000 Turks to the South, who had been harassing the Turkish campaign.

May 31, the region of Angora fell to Venice. While the Turks were making victories in the West, they were losing horribly in the East.

July, the central territory of Candar, Sinope, fell to Venetian might.

At the same time, Montenegro fell to the Ottoman armies.

But on July 21, Thrace itself - which had remained outside Venice's reach in the last war - was conquered. The Sultan had already fled westwards to Serbia.

July 26, a Cardinal from Brescia was appointed in the Curia, leaving Venice with FIVE out of the 7 Cardinals under it's wing.

July 28, Venice won the great victory of Van.

August saw the Battle of Edirne, where the Ottoman force of 1,000 men was completely wiped out by General Giuseppe Pezzini's forces. He was ordered to move to attack the Ottoman attackers in Europe from behind. Once the Turks were sandwiched and on the run in the Balkans, there'd be no hope for them.

There was also the battle of Ragusa, where the combined forces of Tuscany and Venice exterminated a band of Ottoman soldiers. With that, the force moved south to kick the Turks out of Montenegro.

August then saw a boundary dispute between Venice and Bavaria:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1513BoundaryDispute.jpg

September was a month with two great victories. First, Montenegro was liberated from the Turkish occupation. Next, was the Battle of Imereti:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1513ImeretiBattle.jpg

General Constanz had done his job well; he had exterminated two huge enemy armies and eliminated all Turkish forces east of Constantinople.

Furthermore in August, the one-province Austrians had the nerve to ask Venice for an alliance and they were immediately rebuffed.

October, another Turkish province fell to Venetian troops, while General Pezzini pursued the fleeing Turks to Dalmatia, the site of the last Turkish siege of Venetian territory. If the Turks were beat there, their main fighting force of 4,000 soldiers would be broken.

November, Konya and Anatolia fell, while the Venetian army routed the Turks from Dalmatia. The Ottomans had been poised for victory in Europe, but they had lost their momentum and were now being routed by Venice and her allies.

December, General Constanz led a brave assault on Trebizond with minimal casualties on Venice's side, a true mark of his great leadership.

By December 27, the last city of Candar fell, and the initial goal of the war was complete.

...Or not, as it turned out. The Candarians actually controlled the island of Cyprus, which was to become the jewel of the conflict.



1514



January 10, Bithynia fell to the Venetian Army.

March 2, government technology increased to 9, allowing a third National Idea. The King decreed that every citizen attend Church or otherwise engage in religious activity. This would serve to lower the costs of stabilising the realm; by 33%, actually.

April, the Turks captured Montenegro.

May 5, General Constanz invaded Cyprus with a force of 12,000+ soldiers. The Candarian King was on the island, heading a force of a mere 1,000.

May also had the fall of Macedonia into Venetian hands. At the same time, Constanz obliterated the Candarian Army the moment he encountered them, exterminating the Candarian King with them.

June, Bessarabia was converted to Catholicism.

July, the last city of Candar fell. It was followed by Van in August, meaning most of Turkey itself was under Venetian control.

September, General Constanz was on board transports headed for Thrace. He was ordered to kill the remaining Ottoman generals.

By October, another Venetian general had torn apart an entire Ottoman Army, eliminating the Turks from their own homeland.

October also heralded the province of Mus, which left only 2 provinces in Asia Minor free from Venice's grasp.

October, furthermore, had Venice lose the Battle of Serbia. However, new generals were on the way to avenge the defeat, and General Constanz was soon to arrive in Thrace and begin a cleansing of the Turkish elite.

November, Adana fell, leaving the Turks with one province in all of Asia Minor.

December, Transylvania and it's junior partner in personal Union - Hungary - declared war on the Ottomans. While both were one-province states, they would be able to eat quite a bit of Ottoman territory once the Venetians left.

December 18, the Kingdom levied war taxes for the first time since the Lombard War. The King said that the Kingdom was experiencing growing pains fighting the Turks and administering the new territories, and with a little extra revenue, he would be able to fix the problem.

Also during 1514, Avignon annexed Savoy. The Frenchies had finally arrived on the border of Venice.



1515



The King's war taxation plan greatly strengthened the Venetian treasury, with 560+ ducats entering it on New Years.

January, in a matter of days, Constanz took the province of Bulgaria in an assault with minimal casualties.

By January 12, 1515, claims had been fabricated on Cyprus. The decision was made to make Candar submit.

To receive peace, the High Chief of Candar was required to cede Cyprus and Trebizon, his two Orthodox provinces. At the cost of 70 more ducats, claims were fabricated on Trebizon through extensive bribery of the nobles.

January 16, the Candarians capitulated:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1515Candar.jpg

March 1, a boundary dispute with England caused the English colony northeast of Delaware to be considered Venetian territory.

April 1, shortly after the colonies of Delaware and Rio De Janeiro expanded, the province of Janina fell into Venetian hands.

April 11, 1515, fortifications were erected in Ferrara, as a propoganda move meant to show how strong the Venetian economy remained despite the war.

With August, the province of Serbia fell, giving the Venetian forces 99% warscore. The Ottoman Sultan - who was captured in Serbia - was brought to the table and a list of demands read.

The Turks would pay 50 ducats. They would cede Bursa and Bithynia. And furthermore, they would release the state of Dulkadir in the East of Anatolia.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1515OttomanSurrender.jpg

The Sultan accepted, knowing that once Venice was out of the way, he would be able to absorb Hungary and Transylvania with ease. However, with the provinces of Bursa and Bithynia gone, the capital was isolated from the Ottoman territories. This would increase the autonomy and corruption of local governors, and thus hurt the wealth the Sultan could draw on.

While the people of Bithynia welcomed the Venetians, nationalism remained strong in Bursa. But regardless, Venice had won a second Ottoman War and gained a friend in the East. The Christian "Crusader Kingdom" of Dulkadir would help Venice fight it's wars against the heathens.

--- The Kingdom of Dulkadir Restored and Renovated ---

Europe was surprised when Venice demanded Dulkadir be restored, rather than any of the Christian states of the Balkans. This outraged Venice's rivals such as France, England and Aragon. But King Marco did not care, doing as he wished. With the Bey of Dulkadir placed on a throne after so long, Marco took care to reconstruct the state.

First, he had to make sure Dulkadir remained loyal to the West. This was done by placing a Catholic convert on the throne. Said convert - Budaq Rahim - sucked up to Marco, being just as much a servant as a friend and ally.

Then, King Marco had to make sure his new "allies" remained strong. He did this by guaranteeing their independence through a formal alliance. This would protect Dulkadir from predators such as the Turks or Mamluks. As well, Dulkadir's government - with Venetian help - began to execute nobles all over the country, transforming Dulkadir from a tribal entity to a powerful monarchy.

Finally, King Marco wanted Dulkadir to be stable. He issued an edict to Bey Budaq to eliminate Islam from Dulkadir by any means necessary. Budaq agreed, and set out to do his lord's bidding... combined with the mass elimination of the nobility, large amounts of people fled or were executed by the Bey so as to facilitate Catholicism. Only time would tell if the loss of many people by the state was worth the benefits.

The Venetian-Dulkadiri relationship would be an interesting - and rewarding - one.

(Dulkadir's religion becomes Catholic. Dulkadir's capital loses 2100 population and converts to Catholicism; Dulkadir's narrowminded meter goes up by 2. Dulkadir's other city loses 500 population. Dulkadir's government turns into Despotic Monarchy. Dulkadir's Centralisation goes to left by 3.)

The Post-Bellum



August 21, the Colony of Cape Verde was acquired:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1515CapeVerde.jpg

Free of natives and strategically located, the King had chosen to settle the island so as to facilitate Venetian ambitions outside the Mediterranean.

August 22, the King of Dulkadir's family was married into Venice's. The bond between the Crusader State and Italy was to remain strong.

It also soon became apparent that a sound toll was in place near the Bosphorus, increasing Venice's annual trade income by 15%.

November 1 of 1515, stability increased to +3 after so long. Venice was able to put it's full efforts into researching new technology.

December 3 of 1515, France conquered Avignon. Savoy was seized as part of the peace deal, while Avignon became a vassal. With the French encroaching on Italian lands, Venice cast a weary eye on them.



1516



February 2nd, a massive war broke out. France declared war on England. The result was Avignon, Lorraine, and Scotland joining France, while Aragon and Portugal rushed to England's aid.

The King thought of attacking Aragon - or possibly Bavaria to bypass the Aragonese alliance with England - but decided not to, feeling he needed to keep an eye on the Turks in case they decided to be like the Golden Horde and wage jihad for their former territories. However, he did hope the English positions in North America would be cut down.

February 17, the province of Salonika, after enough intimidation, rhetoric, and bribery, was converted to Catholicism:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1516SalonicaConverted.jpg

It was a great victory for Catholicism; the center of Orthodoxy had been penetrated, and the authority of the Patriarch in Constantinople - an Ottoman puppet - greatly weakened with the loss of so many believers.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1516BoundaryDispute.jpg

Later in February, a boundary dispute erupted between Venice and the Timurid Empire.

July, as a band of colonists were about to arrive at Delaware, the King dispatched new colonists to settle the island of Bermuda. If Bermuda was settled, it would be easier for ships to reach the New World from the Venetian territories. Also supplementing the trans-Atlantic route was a military access treaty with Castile.

July 12, 1516, colonists successful settled both Manhattan and Delaware. The natives of Delaware gave up their way of life, assimilating into the Venetian colony and doubling it's population. The Venetian Empire in America, was officially created.

August of 1516, a man named Cristoforo Alvise arrived in Venetian territory. Offering extra investments in government technology, the King wasn't really persuaded. He found it odd that Mr. Alvise had the exact same name as Cristoforo Alvise, a Venetian General. It was soon discovered he was a cousin of the general, as the Alvise family was quite great; one of Venice's best generals was a man named Pietro Alvise.

September, the Kingdom of Venice acquired claims to Smyrna.

October, the Land Technology of Venice increased to 3. Bands of infantry called the Galloglaigh could now be recruited to serve in the Venetian forces. The Galloglaigh forces were known for being far better on the offense than the Man-of-Arms.



1517



January, the Aragonese dropped out of the war with France, leaving England and Portugal to tango with the blue giant and her allies.

January 31 was the day that the Venetian colony of Bermuda was founded. Once relations improved with Portugal, a treaty of military access would enable the Venetian forces to make a secure journey all the way west to the colonies.

June 1517, with the truce with Wallachia over, the King declared war on the Wallachians, and the Ottomans joined the party as usual. King Marco I, in a statement, decreed:

"As Protector of the Pope, Duke of Italy, King of Venice, and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, it is my sworn duty to protect Christians everywhere - Catholic, Orthodox, Reformists or otehrwise - from the evils of the Islamic Sultanate. I have therefore invaded Wallachia not to oppress the Wallachians, but to liberate them from the iron-fisted tyrant who runs Constantinople. May God show us his favor in preserving Christendom!"

And so, a third war on the Turks began.

Can I ask how you paid for all those troops without letting inflation go out of control?

Great Thread so far, you usually dont see Italy being chosen to be the main Character.

Do you happen to know some Italian?

Babelfish happens to not be that horrible when translating something simple like River of August. =P

Also Cape Verde is an anglicized version of the Portuguese name...but whatever just keep the names XD

Can I ask how you paid for all those troops without letting inflation go out of control?

Great Thread so far, you usually dont see Italy being chosen to be the main Character.

If you mean how come minting hasn't caused inflation to go insane, there is two reasons:

I started on Very Easy, but I've changed the difficulty to easy and I'm considering moving it up another level. Very Easy automatically removes .5 inflation each year, and Very easy removes .25. This means you can mint 1/2 to 1/4 of the bar, respectively. As well, as I'm HRE and boast a large empire, I can support a MASSIVE amount of troops, plus Feudal Monarchy gives +15% to your support limit. I employ nearly 70,000 soldiers at my last count, and I can support 100,000+ thanks to my Emperor and Monarchy benefits. Of course, as the amount of members in the empire keeps shrinking(thus reducing the number of added troops) and I intend to change to another form of Monarchy, I can't go much higher.

Furthermore, I have a lot of cores, and thus a lot of money added to the treasury each year to pay for the troops. This is because the cost to create cores was originally a mere 10 ducats(though it's up to 90 now) thanks to my modifications, so I was easily able to acquire a lot of cores. My next AAR, I think I'll leave the cost to create cores a flat 50 ducats or so, so it's a tad more difficult to expand.

Thank you! I hope you'll keep following! ...And I dunno why so few would want to try and create Italy, given the ENORMOUS wealth of the North, and the fact it enables you to claim the mantle of the New Roman Empire. :mischief:

Babelfish happens to not be that horrible when translating something simple like River of August. =P

Also Cape Verde is an anglicized version of the Portuguese name...but whatever just keep the names XD

Ah yes! I suppose that makes sense... very easy left-to-right English-esque construction similar to Spanish... /nerd moment

I imagined it would be Iberian, given the "verde" part. =P I'll be sure to use better naming conventions whenever I do another AAR as Castille or something... until then, I shall continue to use Spanish/Portuguese names for areas they never even settled/discovered! :lol:

Look forward to updates soon. Let's just say the Ottoman Empire is... kind of... epic fail now.

The Third Turkish War



But King Marco did not choose to invade the Turks merely because the truce with Wallachia had expired, however. People were flooding across the border, dissidents and refugees alike, screaming tales of atrocities and terror. The economic destabilisation prompted the King to send agents to investigate the Balkans, where it was discovered a massive uprising was taking place:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1517RebelsinBalkans.jpg

The Black Hand and Red Hand, a Serbian and Bulgarian nationalist group, respectively, had risen up in the Balkans, greatly harming the Ottoman Empire there. A radical wing, the Gray Hand, a pan-Slavic nationalist group, had invaded and occupied Macedonia, where all non-Slavs and non-Orthodoxists were being exterminated, imprisoned and exiled. As the selfish Sultan didn't seem to care - or be able - to stop the rebels, it fell to the King to stabilise the region. Or at least that's what he said on paper. In reality, he desired to end all Ottoman naval power once and for all, and thus fully destroy their realm.

By July, the whole Ottoman fleet was destroyed futilely trying to dislodge the huge Venetian navy from the Dardanelles.

Late August, the city of Banat was captured by Venice. Being occupied by the Italian Alliance was becoming an increasingly-common routine for Ottoman residents.

October, rebels from Savoy - which was occupied - invaded Nice, seeking to have the Savoyard Kingdom be reborn. On the horizon, more rebels were seen, eating away at the corners of the French Empire.

November 4, the Ottoman capital of Thrace fell to Venice.

December saw the growth of Rio De Janeiro. The natives abandoned their ways just like the ones in Delaware, submitting to the authority of King Marco I.



1518



February, Constanzo Dolfin killed a large amount of Turks in battle. He was killed in after finishing Thrace because the generals already present in Asia Minor didn't seem to have the ability to win a decisive victory over the Turkish general, Huseyin Ishak.

February 11, a force of 14,000 soldiers was assembled in Liguria, led by a newly-appointed general, Simone Viniero. He was one of the three "Turkish generals", leaders that reached national prominence and power due to their performance in the Turkish Wars. Accordingly, as a veteran, Viniero was extremely skilled in combat. He was ordered West, to destroy the rebels in Nice. He was to remain in Italy to prevent any further incursions from wartorn France.

March 1, as Constanzo Dolfin continued to pursue his Turkish enemy, Venice's naval technology rose to 3, allowing Caravels:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1518NavalTech3.jpg

March 17, General Viniero proved his worth and exterminated the whole 10,000+ rebels that had attacked Nice. The Kingdom of Savoy would not be resurrected anytime soon under Venice's watch.

Also in March, Albania, Athens, and Masovia all declared war on the Turks, though most of the gains had already been taken.

March 27, Venice lost the minor battle of Angora due to lacking cavalry against a cavalry Army. However, a huge army soon swept in from the east to attack the Muslim forces.

The battle of Anatolia in April avenged Venice's losses; Huseyin Ishak's entire army was wiped out.

April also saw the main forces of the Serbian and Bulgarian nationalists wiped out when they tried to expand into Bosnia and Silistria, respectively.

June 16, 1518, colonists failed to establish a viable base in St. Helena. The island, being strategically located down the coast of Africa, had been selected by the King as a base of operations for the Venetian navy once it's European objectives - i.e. the destruction of the Turks - were accomplished.

July, an advisor who had helped reduce Venice's bad reputation died. He was immediately replaced, of course.

July 20, the city of Smyrna collapsed after it was assaulted by Venice's troops. The Ottoman Empire was once more crumbling, and the King had the clear objective of liberating the Turks of all their Aegean possessions.

July 28, the resilient Bosnian region of Hum fell to Venetian forces. The Turks had been fully evicted from Europe for the course of the war.

July 31, Angora fell.

November, the King levied war taxes, seeking to use the war to increase the treasury and resources available to the crown for infrastructure spending.

By Christmas Day, the Turks had lost yet another province to General Constanzo Dolfin. Dolfin had proven himself as the greatest Venetian commander since Gattamalleta decades before.



1519



January 2, the Third Turkish War ended:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1519OttomanPeace.jpg

To more genuinely appear as a Christian Crusader, the King shifted his goals to kicking the Turks out of Europe, and so three of the provinces he gained were in Europe. Marco I's gains in the Third Turkish War can be seen outlined in dark blue. Marco I put his full support behind the Slavic secessionists to the north, hoping to see the Turkish European empire dissolve. But that, would be another story.

The Year-Long Interbellum



While some scholars refer to the end of the Third Turkish War as the Postbellum - after the war - period, many more prefer the term "Interbellum" - or between the wars. The reason was the King had made it very clear he hated the Turks and would fight them to the day he died. It was only a matter of time before he would attack them anew.

Wednesday, March 1 of 1519, St. Helena was successfully colonised by the Venetians on their second attempt. The remote island would serve as an excellent naval station for the Venetian realm.

Later on March 23, the Portuguese Empire agreed to let Venice's ships use her territory:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1519PortugalAccess.jpg

By combining Venice's naval stations and colonies with the Castilian and Portuguese territories, Venice now had a viable naval route to the New World.

A fleet of 5 Carracks was organised and sent West to protect Venice's interests in Delaware and Manhattan, as piracy had become quite commonplace further south in the Caribbean. 4 Cogs were sent with them, loaded up with 4,000 troops meant to protect the Delaware colony from the local English presence.

September of 1519, the Carrack fleet had reached Bermuda, where it stopped for repairs. The colony of Manhattan had 100 more inhabitants added, while in the East, the Persians decided to press their claims to Turkish territory and invade.

September, it was also decided that as Venice monopolised the Imperial Electoral College by a great degree, it was no longer necessary to keep the Duchy of Modena around. Foreign policy efforts converted towards turning Modena into a Venetian territory.

Accordingly, in October, the Duchy of Modena was considered a legitimate Venetian territory thanks to King Marco's bribes, speeches and propoganda.

In November, King Marco noticed that the Aragonese had subtly annexed Bavaria, enlarging their central European possessions further.

December, as the first year of the postbellum was about to end, King Budaq of Dulkadir was swept up in religious fervor:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1519WaronCandar.jpg

King Budaq declared war on Candar, hoping that the Venetians would join a Fourth Crusade. King Marco agreed to help his Turkish friend, starting the Fourth Turkish War by invading the Ottoman Empire.



1520



By January, troops had finally arrived to protect the New World colony of Delaware, which was enormously valuable to Liguria's survival as a trade center and thus a beacon of Venetian hegemony. As well, Generals Pietro Alvise and Constanzo Dolfin - Venice's best generals, products of the earlier Turkish wars - besieged Thrace and eastern Candar simultaneously. The Candari Navy was destroyed with ease, leaving the Venetians to their historical domination of the seas.

March 18, Pietro Alvise was somewhat disturbed by the knowledge that his cousin Cristoforo Alvise - another Venetian general of the great Alvise family - had died. However, it made him all the more determined to capture Constantinople.

April of 1520 saw a momentous occassion:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1520MacedoniatoAlbania.jpg

After so many years or horrific genocide and ethnic civil wars, leading Greek and Slavic(the two main ethnic groups fighting in the Macedonian Civil War) elites combined their possessions and turned it over to the third party of Albania, which had much less ethnic interest in the region. The Albanian Crown accepted, and began purging Macedonia of the radicals on both sides of the aisle. In the bigger picture, the defection of Macedonia symbolised the fall of the Turks in Europe.

April 6, the city of Constantinople was captured by the Christians for the FOURTH time. But still disturbed by the death of his cousin, General Pietro decided to take his excesses out on the local Muslim population. But that's a story for another time... before Pietro could do much damage, he was relocated northwards to protect against an Ottoman force approaching Bessarabia - 3,000 soldiers strong.

April 9, Sinope in Candar fell to General Constanzo Dolfin. The General was ordered to move west and end the Candari resistance once and for all. By April 24, Angora in the center of Anatolia had fallen as well.

May had a horrible plague break out in Silistria, likely spread by the Turks:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1520Plague.jpg

King Marco opted to help the Bulgarian people, of course.

Mid-May, as General Pietro Alvise moved to bang heads with the Turkish forces in Slovakia, the province of Banat fell:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1520Banat.jpg

May had even more victories, as the last province of Candar fell, while the Dulkadiri forces further east captured a province themselves.

May 27, the High Chief of Candar agreed to surrender to Venice's terms:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1520CandarSurrenders.jpg

The Candari High Chief's country remained the same for all intents and purposes, but that would soon change. But Candar's claims to future Venetian-Dulkadiri territory had been renounced to protect the Venetians and their allies. As well, the only reason no territory was demanded was because King Marco didn't wish to take more Muslims into his empire until he eliminated the ones he already had.



Now that Candar - the de jure center of the war - had been defeated, it fell to the Venetians to once more humble the Turks. The decision was made to take parts of Western Turkey, while the Dulkadiri would get their captured province of Sivas.

June 5, the colony of Manhattan was expanded anew, and more colonists were sent.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1520Lenape.jpg

June 9, the new colony of Lenape was founded, contributing to King Marco I's strategy of "encircling" the British colonies in Delaware's area.

August of 1520, Konya fell.

But even more important was the fact Bursa was converted, eliminating another source of instability in the empire:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1520BursaConverted.jpg

As August finished up, two things happened. First and most importantly, General Constanzo Dolfin managed to seize Konya from the Turks.

Second... Burgundy, reeling from so many defeats and desiring to crush Brandenburg, converted to Protestantism as radicals took over the government thanks to Protestantism's domination of the Western HRE's border regions and the fact the people lost confidence in the Catholic administration. But it was predicted that, just like Savoy, the Burgundian Protestants wouldn't last long once the devout Catholic forces pounced on them.

September 26, General Dolfin boldly attack Antalya - a level 2 fortress with 2,000 soldiers guarding it - with a force of 20,000 soldiers and nearly 1,000 cannons.

By October 1, General Dolfin had succeeded, losing just short of 1,000 soldiers. He truly was a great conqueror. His victory was followed by one further east which left the Turks with only ONE Turkish province free. And October 25, Van fell. The Turks had been removed from all Turkish territories.

November 16, General Pietro Alvise managed to exterminate the entire Ottoman force in the Balkans, leaving the Turks without an army.

The rest of 1520 passed by uneventfully. But it had become apparent that the Ottoman Empire's status as a major power was about to end...



1521



January 30, the Bohemians declared war upon the heretic Burgundians. Venice honored the call to arms of course, though it planned to end the war as soon as possible as there was little to gain. That said, the German Burgundian provinces looked appetising...

March 1 was a day of great celebration and disentigration:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1521BulgariaSerbiaFree.jpg

Bulgaria and Serbia declared their independence! And accordingly, the Serbs and Bulgars had to fight the Turks to prove their right to remain free. But with so few provinces remaining in the region, would the Ottomans have a chance?

To protect the Orthodoxist Rebels, King Marco fabricated claims on Banat, the only Turkish province bordering the newly-independent states. He then went to the Sultan and demanded Banat, Antalya, and Sivas for his forces.

Mere days later, the Sultan accepted Venice's terms:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1521OttomanDefeat.jpg

Dulkadir was engorged with the influx of new territory, and the Turks had lost a total of 3 provinces to the Balkan states in addition to what was taken by the Catholic alliance.

But not all was good...

--- The Ottomans' Fall from Grace ---

When the Turks surrendered on March 7 as the sun began to set, soldiers and citizens alike broke out in celebration throughout the Venetian territories. The Turkish backbone had officially been shattered, with a lack of a navy and ports to build one. The Turkish Sultan was humiliated, while even the tiny Balkan states managed to repel any punitive expeditions the Sultanate managed to scrap together. The Turkish possessions were cut off from the sea and split down the middle, Thrace had been penetrated a fourth time, and the remaining possessions in Hungary and Slovakia were ready to revolt as the Hungarians and Transylvanians eyed them. The last Turkish possessions in Mesopotamia had been occupied by the Persian military, meaning the Sultan was powerless, even post-war.

With the Sultan weakened, forces both inside and outside the country went to work dismantling the Turks. The Mameluks claimed the title of the Caliphate. Though the Mamluks had held it for centuries, the role was ceremonial. With the fall of the Turks, however, more Muslims viewed the Mamluk Caliph as needing more power to keep the Crusaders back. The Ottomans were in no position to maintain the title(which the arrogant Sultan had done in 1517).

The nobles openly began to rebel against the Sultan, and demanded more priveleges and autonomy if they were to remain under Turkish control. The Sultan's authority weakened and weakened as the nobles raised private armies even as the Sultan agreed to their demands. While the Turks had been an early form of absolute monarchy in Europe, their collapse made them just as feudal and noble-dependent as the Europeans they strived to conquer.

And King Marco ordered the Venetian Army to use force to deal a blow to the heathens that they would not forget. The "National Census Agency" massacred Orthodox and Muslim believers alike throughout the recently-occupied territories of Banat and Antalya. The Venetian Army retreated from the Turkish territories, but killed countless amounts of people as they went, stealing what they could. In Constantinople alone, 30,000+ people were murdered, while 5,000 - mostly Catholics - were kidnapped to resettle in the Venetian territories. Some of those kidnapped were shipped off in small amounts to the New World, though the majority were sent to the Greek provinces of Bursa and Salonica.

With the nobles in revolt, foreigners planning assaults, the army gone or in mutiny, and the cities on fire, the Turks had fully lost it's image as the Islamic foe...


Cost to Fabricate Claims increases to 90 - Europe fears the imbalance of power.
Mamluks become Sole Defender of the Islamic faith(resembles the title of Caliph).
Mamluks Stability +3(prestige of becoming Caliph).
Ottomans turn into Feudal Monarchy(nobles in revolt).
Venice loses 500 people in Banat, 27000 in Antalya.
Ottoman Empire loses 200 people in Carpathia, 3300 people in Konya, 36000 in Thrace, 1000 in Van and 1000 in Erserum.
Bursa gains 2000 people; Salonica gains 2100 people; Crete gains 700; Lenape gains 50; Cape Verde gains 50; Bermuda gains 50; St. Helena gains 50(Catholics and Greeks kidnapped from Thrace and resettled)
Venice loses 100 ducats(costs of murdering/resettling people)

---

Even as the Turks collapsed, a new enemy had risen in the south to replace them, one which controlled most of the Red Sea, Egypt, Libya, and huge parts of the Near East and Arabia. A crusade against the Mamluks would be necessary to truly slay the Islamic beast.

To show the epic WTFpwnage, I've made two maps for you all.

First, is the extent of the Ottoman Empire and it's allies - outlined in green - when Venice invaded in the First Crusade.

Then, the Ottoman Empire after the Fourth Crusade, outlined in black. Wallachia, the Turks' female dog, is included. Candar, as readers will know, is no longer part of the empire as it is now a Venetian vassal.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/TurkishCollapse.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/TurkishCollapse2.jpg

Now that the men with funny hats have been knocked off their high camel, my advisors, what direction should the Great King Marco take now?

First and foremost, you should know that we must fight Burgundy first before we do anything else. King Marco doesn't see much fruits in the conflict, but given the access to Iberian ports and the friendly relations of Britanny... it's easy to see one potential gain of the war - the Low Countries. They seem worthless due to their small size, but they hold impressive wealth and would be an excellent forward base to keep an eye on the Anglo-French positions. In the event of a future war with the French, it would be very good to be able to hit them from two sides.

---

Once the Burgundian War ends, however, Venice's direction could go either way. Here are some examples:

Franco-Venetian relations: France is an interesting country. Now on the Venetian border and threatening to burst into the empire and New World, it could be quite a threat to Venice's interests. Currently, it is mildly hostile, usually dipping between -50 and +50 at random times. Venice could a) make plans to invade them or b) bribe them into being friends. Both are equally expensive, as plan A will require a lot of time, money and troops lost, while friendship packages are massive at 40+ ducats a piece thanks to France's size. Either way in the relationship can be rewarding. However, France must be approached cautiously; it is a counterweight to the English presence, which could harm our colonial ambitions.

Anglo-Venetian relations: England, like France, is a tough decision. Their isolated island makes any military campaign out of the question, as it would be prohibitively expensive. In addition, within months the English would rule over Venice's New World territories, most of which are below 1,000 people and thus can be annexed instantly. But making friends with the English could be rewarding. Their massive New World territories would shelter us from the Natives in the event we go to war; this is important as the three southernmost tribes are allied to eachother. A friend in England also would greatly strengthen our ability to fight France if we could get them as allies. Once more, we must approach English cautiously; they are a counterweight to France. As well, they are allied to Aragon, meaning that friendly relations with England means no wars can be made upon the Aragonese.

More Crusades: With the collapse of the Ottoman threat and massive stability and prestige engorgements, the Mamluk Sultanate has become far more powerful(they were formerly at -2 stability, but now they are at 1 thanks to my fake event). We could consider to wage a Fifth Crusade against them, with the ultimate goal of taking things such as Catholic Lebanon, the Holy Land, and finally the wealthy trade center of Alexandria(...which has become quite worthless actually, as the Mamluks strangely have a second center in Cairo, which now has most of the wealth in the realm). It would of course, be a very dangerous war, given the size of the Mamluk regime and the armies they can probably field.

Outside of foreign relations, we have domestic issues:

Government changes:

Now fully stable, Venice could consider a slider move(a bit too costly for the benefit in my opinion), or a change in government(much more sane). So far, we can choose to go to Despotic Monarchy for 1 stability point. This makes our reputation limit 10 points higher. But given that badboy's reduced slightly quicker thanks to my modifications and that I control the Curia(thus reducing it even faster), would this be a wise investment of money? It takes about 5000 ducats to go to another stability level. Administrative Monarchy comes with the next gov't technology we're researching, and while that adds +10% to production efficiency, it costs 2 stability points. However, the only other way to reach it is to go to Despotic Monarchy first and then to it, each of which costs a stability point. So the costs of stability here are null.

Conversions:

Venice has inherited a large amount of heathens and heretics after crushing the Turkish swine. Should we put our full postbellum effort into disposing of them?

Annexations:

Venice has a large range of vassals under it's foot. These are: Bosnia, Modena, Tuscany, Bosnia, Candar, Naxos and the Knights of Rhodes. Most of these can be diplo-annexed now. King Marco wishes to target Modena due to no longer needing it's electoral vote(4 more electors support Venice), while Tuscany should be considered so as to unite the Italian peoples.

Feel free to offer suggestions, however.

Colonialism:

We have colonies that require tending. Colonies currently under 1000 population are Lenape, Bermuda, Manhattan, Cape Verde, and St. Helena. Lenape and Manhattan are due to be full cities in a few years as colonists rush to them, but it will take a bit of time. Should any areas besides the islands be considered for colonisation, considering the islands have little to offer besides naval stations? (Though growing them to 1000 people would protect them from seizure)

As well, nearby powers have appetising, yet small, colonial assets. Denmark rules 2/3 of Cuba and a tiny colony northeast of Manhattan. As the Danes are rather small and only have Norway as an ally, they'd be helpless to attack us so long as we kept our colonies protected well. All of Denmark's colonies are below 1000 people as of this repot. Mecklenburg has a vast range of colonies as well, stretching from Quebec to central Africa. However, all of them are tiny. They could be easily absorbed. Burgundy has a tiny Caribbean outpost, and that will be targeted as part of the war effort against them.

The Native tribes are still too hidden to completely target and thus annex in one swoop. Their time will come, of course.

---

Those are just some ideas, advisors. Feel free to add more.

Also, feel free to request pictures to see the situation at hand, or just to see something.

Protesting Protestantism



The War in the East was over, but a war in the west needed taking care of. With the heretical sects in control of Burgundy, it was a scramble for territory, wealth and glory that all the European Catholics could take part in.

Fortunately, Burgundy was not whole. It was split into 5 sections. First, there was South Burgundy, composed of two provinces. Sandwiched between the large Duchy of Lorraine and French Kingdom, this region was not capable of fielding troops against Venice easily. Then there was North Burgundy, composed of the Low Countries; this region also had Burgundy's coveted center of trade. Third, there was the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. Fourth and fifth were tiny provinces in the Rhineland which were isolated and under attack from Bohemia.

Crippling Burgundy further was the fact their sudden change of religious adherence had caused their allies to disown them.

The decision was made to seize the tiny colony, and troops were dispatched from the Delaware colony to fulfill that decision. Meanwhile, in Europe, troops were assembled to protect Italy itself under General Viniero. He commanded 15,000 of Venice's 81,000 soldiers. His orders were immediately switched to invading the Burgundian territories; Venice could reach them thanks to having the Holy Roman Emperor on it's throne.

Cogs were sent east to ferry more and more of the Venetian military westwards. To where, however? Iberia. Troops would gather in Castille and Portugal. And from there, a massive invasion would be launched through Britanny to the Low Countries. Burgundy would be struck by forces at all of it's vital points, destroying it.

March 13, the Transylvanians and their allies once more attacked the Turks. Whether they would gain anything, only time would tell.

April, King Marco granted an audience to the tiny Serbian Kingdom. The end result of the meeting was the Serbs being granted access to Venetian territory, allowing them to strike at the heart of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople. Bulgaria soon had the same priveleges as well.

June 24, after a short battle against the Native armies, Guadeloupe was seized by Venice:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1521Guadeloupe.jpg

July, General Veniero had arrived in Bourgogne, and began to move West to attack and kill the Burgundian ruler's personal army of 1,000 troops. Meanwhile, over 10,000 soldiers were moving across Germany to the Low Countries. King Marco reflected that maybe the military access treaty with Burgundy wasn't needed at the time. Though it would certainly be useful in the event of an Anglo-Venetian conflict.

July 21, Veniero won the Battle of Nevers. The casualties on both sides were roughly the same, though proportionately, the Burgundians suffered far greater losses. General Veniero was ordered to give chase until the army had been obliterated, allowing Venice's troops to secure the southern Burgundian territories.

August 18, at the second Battle of Nevers, the Duke of Burgundy's army was completely wiped out.

September 11, the heathens of Smyrna were eliminated as Catholicism's growth in Turkey continued:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1521SmyrnaConverted.jpg

October 1521, the Battle of Liege saw another army led by the Burgundian King - the Duke, citing himself as no longer Catholic, had declared himself a King within the Holy Roman Empire - being completely obliterated in a single battle.

In December, Breisgau was captured by the Venetians. The former Austrian territory had remained Catholic, and thus was given priority in any peace negotiations.

Mid-December, Dulkadir declared war on the Mameluks. The suicidal Crusaders had forgotten Venice was already focusing it's efforts on Burgundy. But alas, Venice still had troops left over from the Turkish Wars. A Fifth Crusade was made official, with the goal being conquest of Lebanon and Judea, the Holy Land.

General Dolfin, who was going to be sent west, was immediately recalled east to fight the Muslims. The plan was to camp out near the borders and wipe out each enemy army as they came in. While that went on, the Venetian navy would patrol the shores of the Mediterranean, blockading ports and destroying the Mamluk fleet.



1522



And by February, the fleets had collided. 3 Venetian Carracks were lost to 6 Mamluk galleys. The losses were attributed to how the Venetian navy lacked a commander.

March 9, the province of Liege fell to the combined might of Bohemian and Venetian armies.

May, Bourgogne was captured by Venice's forces. In the Near East, forces were reorganising as part of Operation: Dulkadiri Freedom to liberate Dulkadir from the invading armies of the Mamluks, who were besieging 2/3 of the country.

In June, Foix declared war on Burgundy. What made this declaration important was that Castille was allied to Foix, leading to Spanish planners designing a possible province called the "Spanish Netherlands."

By June 26, Pietro Alvise had launched a successful offensive that brought Brabant under Venetian control.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1522BattleofAdana.jpg

July 23, General Constanzo Dolfin had managed to defeat the Mamluk general Ali Zangi in battle. Dolfin followed the demoralised Mamluks to their territory, where he intended to humble Zangi once more, plus another Mamluk general, Ghayth Baibars.

August, Hainaut joined the crusade against Burgundy.

Late August, General Dolfin demonstrated that he was a new Alexander once again, crushing the Mamluks with a great victory in Aleppo:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1522BattleofAleppo.jpg

Dolfin continued with the usual strategy of following a fleeing enemy and cutting down stragglers until the unit caught up with the main army.

August 31, Gelre fell to Venice's armies. Burgundy was increasingly under Venetian occupation.

September, Dolfin dealt another blow to the Mamluk armies, wiping out 1/5 of the force he was pursuing with minimal casualties to his own.

October, Cleves declared war on Burgundy. Zeeland was occupied by Venetian troops shortly after.

November saw a HUGE victory by Venice at Aleppo:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1522BattleofAleppo2.jpg

When the last Burgundian city fell a few days later, the decision was made to make peace with the Burgundians.

November 19, the War on Burgundy ended with victory:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1522BurgundySurrenders.jpg

Besides the huge 100 ducat bounty Venice carried off, Venice acquired the wealthy trading center of Flanders, while Rhenish Bohemia doubled in size with the addition of Alsace. Burgundy, which had once been a horrific foe to the Venetians, had been easily crushed in the newest war.

The Fifth Crusade



With the heretics of the west down for the moment, King Marco I was able to focus his full attention on the heathens in the east. And with the money from the city of 222,000+ people added to the coffers every year, it would be much easier for Venice to beat back the Muslims.

November 22, Brandenburg - one of the regional powers of Germany along with Mecklenburg, Ansbach, and Hesse - declared war on Hesse. Ansbach rushed to Hesse's aid, and the same was true of Pommerania. But unfortunately for Brandenburg, Mecklenburg did not want to risk any serious losses and dishonored it's alliance. The result was Brandenburg fighting a massive two-front war.

December of 1522, France and Venice entered a royal marriage after several years of bribery and rhetoric improving ties between the two. With France effectively a friend of Venice, England soon was singled out.



1523



January, General Dolfin won the epic battle of Judea:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1523JudeaBattle.jpg

February 1, the Trade Technology of Venice increased to 4.

March, Venice's production technology level increased to 3.

March also saw another huge battle of Judea with equally-devestating results for the Mamluks:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1523JudeaBattle2.jpg

April, another naval battle at Alexandria had a Venetian victory. However, the Battle of Adana saw nearly 2,000 losses on both the Venetian and Mamluk sides, with Venice losing the battle. Defeat was attributed to a lack of cavalry.

But that defeat was replaced by a larger victory at the Curia:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1523CuriaMonopoly.jpg

The death of a Lithuanian Cardinal caused Venice to hold all the spots in the Curia.

June 10, as new battle raged in Adana, Bithynia was converted to Catholicism.

August, Venice lost another battle at Adana. But the King actually desired his nation to appear weak to the Egyptians to embolden them. While Generals such as Dolfin and Pezzini drew enemy fire in the East, General Veniero had assembled a massive force of 15,000 soldiers that would invade Libya and work east from there. The Mamluks would be flanked and not even know what hit them.

September, the Holy Land was captured by Venice's soldiers:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1523JudeaCaptured.jpg

December, Venice's government technology increased to 10.

The last battle of the year occurred in Judea, where a whole Mamluk force was destroyed.



1524



January, another battle was won at Adana thanks to Venice's new weapon - the Sipahi. With the loss of any real benefit in the Turkish armies, many of the Sipahi offerred themselves as soldiers to Venice, much like the Byzantine soldiers had done after the fall of Constantinople. The employment of those deadly and effective Sipahi helped turn the tide at Adana, and it was hoped that the rest of the war would follow the same course.

General Veniero's forces arrived in Libya in late January, and began their move East, leaving small amounts of troops in each region they went through to besiege cities and bring the downfall of the Mamluk regime.

By Mid-February, General Dolfin had arrived in Cairo. He was not there to do much for the Kingdom, but merely to intimate the Mamluks. General Pezzini further north was driving the Mamluks out of Dulkadir, and once he succeeded, he would move south to cover the ground Dolfin had left behind.

March 14, Antalya was converted to Catholicism.

By May, several entire Mamluk regiments had been wiped out as part of the genius strategy devised by Marco. General Veniero's troops easily held Libya and everything West of it against Mamluk aggression, while General Dolfin's troops in Cairo killed any would-be liberators. Furthermore, General Pezzini further north did an excellent job of pursuing and killing Mamluk armies.

June 13, shortly after winning the Battle of Judea, General Pezzini died. While not a great general like Dolfin, he nonetheless had proved his worth as a supporter of campaigns. Without the lesser generals, one could argue, the greater generals could not accomplish anything. To replace Pezzini, a new general, Agostini Veniero was hired. Veniero was a cousin of the other general of the same surname.

June 16, the city of Sirt fell.

June 18...


...The Bohemians declared war on the Ottomans. Being dragged into yet another war, King Marco agreed to a crusade against the Turks as well. All spare troops were ordered to the Balkans.

August 10, Cairo fell to General Constanzo Dolfin. Accordingly, he was styled, "Conqueror of Two Caliphates."

August 26, Manhattan finally reached 1000 citizens, and the natives of the region converted to Catholicism and joined the mainstream Italian community. With Manhattan's full development, plans were made to finish up the island colonies and Lenape.

October saw another victory at Aleppo, while the Ottoman fleet was completely wiped out anew.

October 4, the Dulkadiri King made peace with the Mamluks, earning him the ire of the Venetian monarch.

December saw the province of Hawran captured, as Venetian soldiers under the Great Generals continued to slaughter Mamluk divisions. Sipahi in the north began to lay siege to Western Turkey.



1525



January was a month of many occurances. Venice won a great battle at Damascus, while the people of Edirne were converted to Catholicism. The province of Libya fell into Venetian hands.

With Libya occupied, General Simone Veniero was able to move east to the Nile and hunt down the Mamluk armies. The only regions of the Mamluk realm spared the carnage of the Fifth Crusade were the Hedjaz and Mamluk East Africa.

In February, the Turks lost Thrace to Venice yet again.

By April, Tripolitania had fallen to Venice, leaving only Cyrenaica as a free Libyan province. And that ended a few days later as well. This left all of Libya under Venetian occupation, while Simone Veniero assaulted and looted the Nile provinces.

May 1, Venice's land technology increased to 4, enabling cannons to be produced everywhere in the empire.

May 22, the Ottoman Sultan, Murad III, was humbled in the battle of Imereti. His tiny army of 1,000 soldiers could not stand up to Venice's own army of 3,000, which was led by another great Crusader General.

Just 2 days later, Burgundy surrendered to Castille. The Castilian Netherlands were officially created when Reformist Zeeland was ceded to the Castillian crown in the treaty. Burgundy was officially being dismantled... only Brabant remained in the Lowlands; Lithuania had taken Gelre and Liege. Sensing opportunity, King Marco made plans to invade Burgundy again once the situation in the Near East had stabilised.

May 28, the long Mamluk War ended:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1525MamluksSurrender.jpg

Though the Egyptian foe had been driven back to their precious river, the war with the Turks still continued. Thus, the war with the Turks was still considered part of the Fifth Crusade.

But the Fifth Crusade's main component had been a smashing success. First and foremost, the Holy Land of Israel was finally retaken by Christianity after the last set of crusades lost it. On top of all that, Gaza and Sinai's acquisition split the Mamluk regime down the middle, decreasing the efficiency of Mamluk officials in Asia. Taxes weren't cut however, as the Mamluks controlled the straits at the south end of the Red Sea, enabling their territories to remain connected. However, the defense of the Mamluk realm was greatly impacted.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1525ConquestofJerusalem.jpg

Control of Jerusalem yielded great prestige to Venice, while missionary zeal engulfed many who desired to travel to the Holy Land and eliminate the Islamic majority. But the results of these missionaries is another story...

August, Partium in Ottoman Hungary finally fell to Venetian armies.

September, the two Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Turks fell to Venice.

November brought excellent news:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1525ModenaAnnexed.jpg

After so long, the Duchy of Modena chose to be annexed! Venice now completely encircled the city of Florence, and once they were annexed, Italy would be almost completely unified. The addition of wealthy Modena strengthened Venice's empire even further.

Also in November, the Polish Kingdom declared war on the Ottomans. As usual, people would jump on the bandwagon when Venice had already seized most of the spoils...

November 3, the Ottoman Empire's dissolution continued:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1525OttomanSurrender.jpg

The Turks were forced to release the tiny state of Ak Koyunlu in the east, and cede the provinces of Anatolia and Konya. Though Venice had cores on neither, it was decided to take them anyway. Left with only 3 provinces in Europe and 4 in Asia, all of which were scattered into 5 regions, the Turks had become an extremely weak state.

Just like last time, of course, the Fifth Crusade had civilian costs as well as military...

--- The Fifth Crusade's Conclusion ---

The Fifth Crusade refers to the wars Venice fought from December 1521 to November 1525 against the Mamluk Caliphate and the Ottoman "Empire." It sometimes also includes the war against Protestant Burgundy that happened simulatenously, though the term Crusade is generally reserved for the anti-Islam conflicts King Marco I of Venice had a fetish for.

In the Fifth Crusade - sometimes called the Fourteenth, implying Venice's wars were a continuation of the Nine crusades centuries prior - Venice managed to strategically defeat both the Turks - for the fifth time in Marco I's reign - and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. The end result was the conquest of the Holy Land by Catholicism after so long, and the further disentigration of the Turkish realm.

When the Crusade ended, Venice stood unopposed in the Eastern Mediterranean, with allies in Dulkadir and Ak Koyunlu and vassals in Candar. As most of the powers on Venice's western borders were friendly - Bohemia, Castille, Portugal, France - or weak, Venice finally had a period of peace to consolidate and build up it's civilian sectors.

But as cheery as the atmosphere may have sounded, the cheer was limited to the western half of the Venetian possessions. In the Near East and Asia Minor, Muslims were terrorised just like in the Fourth Venetian Crusade. Entire villages and towns were sacked, looted, and burned, killing tens of thousands. Only children - and their mothers if they were lucky - were spared the carnage.

In the newly-acquired territories of the Kingdom, massacres took place under the guidance of the National Census Agency, which had demonstrated great efficiency at mass murder using tactics that dated back to the wars on the Golden Horde. In the occupied regions, people were killed systematically with similar tactics but far less caution and coverups. Such was the orgy of victory that Marco had trademarked as a sign that Venice had invaded a heathen country.

To say the Venetians were the only perpetrators of atrocities, however, would be blatantly false. The Turks had killed countless numbers of people during their brief campaigns, wanting retribution. They killed 5,000 of Imereti's 7,000+ people, while the Wallachians were ordered by the Turkish Sultan to execute 15,000 of Bessarabia's 50,000 people. 10,000 more - all children - were kidnapped and taken to Constantinople, to be trained into more Janissaries and administrators. When the Mamluks occupied Mus and Adana, they killed all the Catholics they could find, or just anyone that displeased them.

But even as the Turks tried to get some sort of closure for the loss of their own people, Venice still won the battle for bodycounts. People were also kidnapped - or "evacuated", though consent was not necessary - to resettle in the Venetian Empire; approximately 2000 people were abducted from the enemy territories. Many of those who left were usually of Catholic practice, or desired to take advantage of Venice's opportunities. Either way, a huge chunk of population was taken from the Islamic countries, and the Mamluks would not forget the blasphemies committed upon them any time soon...



Venice loses 150 ducats.
Venice loses 5000 people in Anatolia, 4000 in Konya, 5000 in Imereti, 25,000 in Bessarabia, 1000 in Sinai, 1000 in Gaza, 2000 in Judea.
Venice gains 100 people in Cape Verde, 50 in St. Helena, 250 in Guadeloupe, 100 in Lenape, 400 in Delaware, 600 in Manhattan, 100 in Bermuda, 200 in Venezia, 200 in Liguria.
Dulkadir loses 500 people in Adana, 1500 people in Mus.
Ak Koyunlu loses 5000 people in Van.

Ottomans lose 19000 in Thrace, 2000 in Angora, 4000 in Erserum.
Mamluks lose 2000 in Aleppo, 1000 in Beirut, 5000 in Damascus, 23000 in Cairo, 3000 in Tripolitania, 1000 in Sirt, 2000 in Cyrenaica, 1500 in Libya.

Combined totals - Venice and allies lose 48000, Muslims lose 63500.

---

Now that so many wars had finally ended, plans were made to bring prosperity and power to Venice through diplomacy rather than war.

The rest of 1525 was quiet.

I suggest you ally with the Brits and conquer those pathetic French!

But I'm already friends with the French! :lol: (+ royal marriage)

...I also don't know if I can load up the save game anymore, since it seems that In Nomine overwrote all the files. D:

Allies Are Always Aggressive When You Don't Need Them To Be



1526



March of 1526, Dulkadir declared war on the Turks. Grumbling to himself, King Marco agreed to start the Fifteenth Crusade. He was beginning to consider letting Dulkadir go.

Like a blessing that the Crusade was divinely-sanctioned, the province of Janina in Greece was converted to Catholicism mere days after the war had broken out.

May, after a mere 32 days of siege, General Veniero managed to successfully capture Thrace.

June 1526, the province of Erserum fell to Venice's soldiers.

The Battle of Oltenia in July destroyed the Wallachian Army entirely. Yet the Venetians desired to be liberators and not conquerors - at least, that's what they said - and they made plans to have Wallachia released from Ottoman hegemony at the war's end.

September 7, Eastern Wallachia fell to Venice's forces as fortifications were destroyed and captured.

September 11, Ak Koyunlu joined the party and declared war on the Turks. As did Transylvania-Hungary in October.



1527



January 1, Venice's Land Technology increased to 5.

March, King Marco sent an envoy to the Sultan, demanding Erserum, the renouncement of several claims, 50 ducats, and most importantly the end of Wallachia's vassalage.

When that failed, King Marco decided to try another method.

The next offer succeeded:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1527OttomanSurrender.jpg

The Fifteenth Crusade lasted just over a year. In celebration, no large amounts of civilians were massacred by the Venetian military. All of Turkey now was under Venetian hegemony, now it just had to be Christianised.

Pax At Last...



Late April, Guadeloupe developed enough that the aggressive natives on the island decided to give up their guerilla warfare and join the Venetian Kingdom. This left with Venice with one less island to tend to.

In May, Lorraine converted to Protestantism, due to how most of the territories it owned had converted to the heretical faith. This left Venice with a plan of action.

June 1527, Bulgaria declared an Orthodox Crusade, uniting Muscovy and Serbia behind it as it invaded Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire.

July, to prevent intra-Turkish wars, the King of Dulkadir was vassalised:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1527DulkadirVassalised.jpg

October of 1527, Venice's land technology increased to 6. It was rapidly catching up to it's rivals.

November, the Turks ceded their last Turkish-cultured possession in Asia, Erserum, to Ak Koyunlu.

December saw the Turks suffer another defeat, as they were forced to cede Partium in Hungary to Lithuania.

December 19, a boundary dispute emerged with Austria, giving Venice a core on Vienna.

December 20, the sparsely-populated territory of Gaza was converted to Catholicism:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1527ConversionofGaza.jpg

Earlier in December, the Mamluks had failed to convert the Catholics in Beirut, a propoganda victory for the West.



1528



January, a massive amount of ducats - about 580 - was added to the treasury, showing just how large Venice's tax and trading income had become ever since Doge Molin had embarked on his epic campaigns of expansion.

Bad news everybody.

Yesterday, I updated to Napoleon's Ambition + In Nomine. It seems to have overwritten the base files of the game, and unless it's possible to play a Vanilla savegame on the expansion packs, I may have to end this AAR here after so long and just as it was getting good. :(

I do, however, have a teaser. Not exactly an epilogue, but...

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h50/Taniciusfox/1528TuscanyAnnexed.jpg

Wow! How are you keeping all those territories together without a rebellion?!!

I spammed the Fabricate Claims spy action. :lol: I also made it so cultures are VERY easy to accept and very hard to lose, so the lack of nationalism in most areas + tolerance of cultures makes it quite easy. I was also playing on Very Easy (and later Easy) in Vanilla EU3, meaning most of the religious rebellion would be taken care of... that and tolerance.

I'm already working on a new story since I can't seem to get to this one anymore. :( Let's just say Magna Mundi is much much much more challenging than this...

Sweet! I should move on from EU2 to EU3 eventually, I suppose. Seems to be a lot more flexible.

It is. :) Plus you can take world map screenshots in the newest expansion!

You can make national decisions and provincial decisions, religious decisions... you no longer hit-or-miss with missioarnies(you have to maintain them until they successfully convert a region), replay value is greatly enhanced as all the advisors/major powers/rulers are randomly generated... tons of new features! Plus, in the newest expansion, you get to play from 1399 to 1828 or something like that... so an even larger timeline. :D

If you want to tempt me, do another update ;)

Sadly he can't, and I had such a great plan for a 16th century 7 years war too....

Indeed... it seems all the original files were overwritten by the accursed In Nomine. Being able to keep the normal files separate from the expansion files is one area where Civilization III is FAR more win. But alas... I am already working on a new one.

¿Can someone say, Viva España? :D