Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
Update 1702: And it is, it is a glorious thing//To be a Pirate King!
Non Military
The Priest King of Acolhua was found poisoned in his bedroom, and brief succession dispute leaves over a hundred dead, and the empires elite in no shape to attack Tarascan Michoacan this year (-2 Confidence)
The Ajaw of T’ho is once more attempting to expand his realm (see military events), the reasoning on the direction of this growth is once again being questioned by other high ranking Mayans and the populace itself – why go to these swampy pest holes far from any civilized or profitable presence when the wide rolling plains of Cubanacon lie open? (-1 Confidence). The Ajaw’s ideas for “economic specialization also meet with some confusion – specialize in what exactly? At least his plans to improve the merchant fleet met with approval.
Under T’ho influence, and the trade route to the Chibcha, a number of cities accrete in the southern Mayan lands, the foremost of them being the city of Tumben Zima [1].
The Emerald Empire stirred this year, as the Chibcha continued their military recruitment drive and began to strike at the Carib tribes that occupied the lowlands. In an echo of their southern neighbours, a grand road system for connecting the highland cities with the coastal ports was begun.
Sapa Inca Cupayuc continued his slow program of reconstruction this year, swiftly restoring the road system to how they were before the week of storms that occurred last year. This allowed him to reconnect his new bureaucracy, and once again impose a work tax on the people of the north and the east, who had been most isolated during the year. The northerners, who had grown used to following their own rules, were not all together pleased with this state of affairs…
The Iberian occupation forces install the brother of the dead King of Navarre as King Sancho XV, but with no indications that the Iberians are leaving, or relinquishing any power to the monarchy, this new king is seen as a farce at best and a puppet at worst by the Navarrese. Resistance to the Iberians continues, but the shear numbers of Iberian troops deployed prevent any successes…on land at least (see military events).
A number of years of peace in the Mediterranean see a, possibly short lived, rise in Aragonese commerce with the east occur (+Messina Economy centre).
The Holy Roman empire continues its Gleichschaltung reforms, and although the reforms themselves have met with great approval, the new forums for the people to voice their problems have revealed a groundswell of dissent over the mismanagement of the war in France, the lack of soldiers on the Russian and Turkish borders, and the abandonment of the Courlanders and Lithuanians when they rose in revolt in Russia (see military events) (-3 Confidence).
The Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sees a large rise in number of men enrolling as officers in her navy, the generous pay making a life at sea seem most attractive indeed. The new and improving navy of King Edward is itching to prove itself in some conflict…perhaps against the Kalmarese whose traffic on “Britain’s Sea” is ever increasing.
King Christians radical changes in the Kalmar union seem to be holding for now, especially as he rebuilds his new and well trained army to be the pride of the nation. Speaking of national pride, the king has decided to forge once more out onto the north seas long since abandoned to the Plantagenet successor states of Ireland and Scotland, and now Britain. An expedition to Svalbard went smoothly, though no permanent presence was established, and inspired by this the King sent out a group of his best marines and Arctic explorers to the west. They stayed on Iceland for a while, whilst the British local governors decided what to do with them before traveling on to the frozen hell of Greenland [2] to set up a tiny station on Scoresbysund, explorations up and down the eastern coast discovered nothing of value, and no indigenous population and the explorers returned to Kalmar somewhat dejected, leaving a tiny outpost of the union on the east coast. The continued presence of Kalmar is dependent on the goodwill of the British to allow supply ships to lay in on Iceland, and the British may not look gladly towards those intruding on their domain, especially now that the potentially profitable trade route to Russia has been set up. In fact the British, quick to relegate the Kalmarese accomplishment to a footnote, set up two of their own bases on the east coast of Greenland. Their bases, though suffering from a lack of funding, have the advantage of a much closer base of resupply in Iceland.
The Imperator of Russia was most busy this year on the diplomatic front, signing trade and diplomatic pacts with the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Quqonid Khanate, and the Da Qing Empire. Unfortunately these have not yet borne fruit; the British, though eager and enthusiastic to trade, have been stymied by the lack of capacity at the Arkhangelsk docks, restricting the flow of goods to a thread. However the Russian government is quickly moving to upgrade the docks and things should progress rapidly from the next year onward. The Quqonids however have bestirred themselves very little; a common border was defined with the great steppes of the Kazaks going to the Khanate, but the armies of the great Khan made no effort to protect trade routes in the region or event enforce his rule at all, and the Russian trade caravans were stalled in the rapidly growing outpost of Omsk. The Da Qing have also done little to ease the flow of trade, but luckily the Russians decided to take things into their own hands and established a firm route to northern Mongolia. The first small caravan of this “Northern Silk Road” was skated and rolled along the frozen Irtysh in late December; its cargo light, but its implications to the Ottoman monopoly on goods and information transfer from east to west was very heavy indeed.
At home the Imperator is also busy, his new civilian senate; the Правительствующий Cенат, is nearing completion, and a number of new government agencies were set up. The clearing out of the Kremlin and a program of calendar standardization see his program for consolidating all power to himself entering its final phases. As his forces move closer and closer to eliminating all dissident (or even slightly questioning or individualistic) elements it proves too much for some of his nobility (see military events) (+1 Centralization).
The alliance and friendship between the Russians and the British was met with great disquiet in senior circles of the Hapsburg realms and Christian VI’s new court.
The Ottomans, inspired by the European fad for fortifications, decided to out do them all this year with the construction of a truly enormous series of defenses on all their land borders. Their social engineering is nearly as successful as the physical as numerous religious sects are forced to toe the official line by submitting to the authority of the Caliph, Patriarch, or Bishop of Trezibond (the foremost Genoese religious figure) depending on their creed (+1 Culture), and Turkish colonization of the Hungarian plains begins.
The Da Qing Emperor Kangxi, much like the Russian leader, decided to draw more power to himself and “restructure” the civil service (+1 Centralization, -1 Confidence). When the last official from the restructuring was finished being boiled alive, a new crop of ambitious young men have risen to help govern the empire, though their mettle has not yet been tested. This display of barbarism has made the foreigners of the coastal cities rather hesitant to move inland. A effort to spread schooling to the empire has floundered on a lack of qualified personnel, and some towns resent the fact they have to pay extra taxes when the tried all they could to find a teacher (-1 Confidence, +1 point into education).
Stability, enforced with an iron fist, in the centre of the old kingdom of Ava allows the peasants to once again collect their crops and the merchants to trade, bringing wealth to the city clusters new master; King Mom Pi of Ayutthaya (+Ava Economy centre). In Ayutthaya itself the king rides a wave of popularity as further reforms and spending improve the lot of the lower classes, though the nobles are beginning to worry where this is all leading (+1 Confidence).
In Nan Ming China, agricultural reforms and government bring great profit to the capital city of Nanjing. This, in combination with the Pirate Wars crippling of Nan Ming commerce, brings great power to the Agricultural-Confucianist factions at court, and they use their new power to further weaken the still profitable southern cities of the Merchant fraction to the Merchants anger (-1 Culture)
Attempts by Ayutthaya, White Malaya and Dai Viet to encourage international trade flounder as the Pirate Wars begin (see military events).
Military
Affalon continues spreading across the islands to its south, securing the extreme north and eastern tips of Cape Breton Island and a small settlement on the mainland of Nova Hibernia. The settlement of Cape Breton, or U'namakika in their tongue brought protests from the Mi'kmaq, who see the central lakes there as their spiritual capital, and a delegation of chieftains sailed to Affalon to demand that the king cease the settlements on that island.
T’ho extends its league with fire and bribery, bringing a number of (poor) tribes under its wing in Calusamul and Chitimachamul [3] with little military effort, though persuading settlers to go to these sites was somewhat difficult due to the poor conditions and swampy land. There was also competition for settlers from a consortium of nobles in the outlying cities of the Yucatan coast of the league; who sponsored farms and expansion into Cubanacon, making deals with the local Arawak’s…perhaps a threat to the Ajaw’s power is in the works?
The Chibcha skirmish with a number of Carib tribes occupying the lowland regions of their lands, driving some of them into the sea, and slaughtering others (-1 Chibcha Divisions). The improved security of the coasts is increasing the number of Arawak traders who visit the southern shores with Mayan goods.
In a pale echo of the events in the Far East, Iberian commerce is brutally assaulted this year by remnants of the Navarrese fleet, most of which was never captured last year. The former navy has refused to recognize the ‘puppet’ Sancho XV placed on the Navarre throne, and operating out of some secret location, managed to take advantage of the Iberian preoccupation with blockading the French. By concentrating their forces they were able to destroy the fleet defending Dakar and raided the town, severely damaging its commerce (-Dakar Economy Centre). A large part of the pirate fleet was caught off the coast of Morocco by a strong Iberian response in September, and although most of the Navarrese managed to escape there were no further attacks. The blockage in the flow of materials and slaves to Iberia’s still emerging industries disrupted them significantly, with many investors losing money (-1 Economy).
(-3 Iberian Squadrons)
King Alfonso of Aragon quickly dispatched a force to deal with the Berber invaders of his southern holdings, and with local assistance the desert barbarians were beaten back with ease. The irregular army raised by the charismatic Amazigh leader Ferhat Mehenni is made the 7th Army of Africa by the Aragonese commander, and a number of young men are inspired by this to volunteer for military service (+6 Berber Light Cavalry Divisions, +1 Confidence).
king Askia of Songhay decided to leave his dreams of southern conquests for now, and returned home to brutally crush all opposition to his rule and defeat a major Berber invasion (+1 Confidence). Towards the end of the year he returned to his expansion plans, this time traveling along the Sahel to the west rather than venturing into the southern forests.
(-7 Songhay Divisions)
Attack on Fortress France
The day that King Alexis had long feared has finally come, the Hapsburgs and their allies were finally come, to do away with Plantagenet France once and for all. Early in the year the French intelligence corps noticed vast and complex troop movements on their Aragonese and Imperial borders, and an uncommon number of Iberian vessels in the Bay of Biscay – something was coming, and they must act fast.
Act fast they did, withdrawing their fleet to secure locations and manning their defenses with every available soldier – France would be ready for whatever was thrown at it! Waiting for summer weather, and their new training programs to be completed, the allies did not make their move until early May, but what a move it was…
…For well over half the entire imperial army had boarded the imperial north sea fleet, slipped into la Manche and were sailing for the French port of Le Havre. However, and rather unfortunately for the Imperials, they were expected. Somehow the French had gained knowledge of where the attack was falling, and the Hapsburg fleet was met by a tremendous cannon battery and well prepared shore defenses. Though these took a tremendous toll the imperial fleet was vast, and managed to make a landing at the more poorly defended Honfleur on the other side of the river mouth instead. The ease of their landing here turned out to be something of a trick on behalf of the French, as no sooner had the vanguard of the army began their march for Rouen than three great armies of French men (though numerically inferior to the Imperials) attack them from all sides, and the French fleet, which had been hidden further down the coast mounted a suicide assault on the Imperials at dock. The Imperial fleet managed to defeat the French, despite heavy losses, but when the French manage to retake Honfleur (with the aid of civilian saboteurs) the Imperial fleet had to withdraw to the open sea, past the guns of Le Havre.
The imperial army attempted to march on, but cut off from their supplies in hostile territory, and with French assassins striking down every officer they could find, the situation did not look good. General Von Allendorfer, the highest ranking Imperial remaining, decided that if they continued all his men would die for naught, and thus ordered what would know as the “Bloody March” of the Imperial army in years to come. Striking out from the Seine Von Allendorfer intended to reach Fecamp on the coast, where word could be sent to the fleet for extraction. For four days the Imperials marched, every hour loosing men to the pursuing French, who would not let up, even at night, and Von Allendorfer arrived in Fécamp at the head of a desperate army less than a third of the size of the Imperial force that departed Hamburg in May.
However there the Hapsburg luck let up slightly, for the Imperial fleet (and some English merchantmen they had hired for extra space) was waiting just off the coast, and the Imperial army managed to escape the ravenous French hordes behind.
All in all the war of the north was a stunning victory for the French, sure the Imperial armies in Burgundy used the coastal distraction to over run the fortifications there, and even reach as far as Troyes before they were stopped. But that heavily fortified city held them, and units redeploying from the coast promised to push the Imperials back.
In the south however, the French were doing somewhat less well; what had seemed to the Imperials as omniscient intelligence was blind, and their relentless armies were routed.
For the Aragonese, after putting down some, supposedly French sponsored piracy had stealthy transferred over half their army to stations in the Duchy of Savoy. They used a number of cunning stratagems to disguise this movement, and although the French had noticed troops leaving the Pyrenees, they had not divined where they went. Thus when the Imperials attacked in the north, a combined Savoy-Aragonese force swept over the Rhone with numbers more than six times those of the beleaguered French defenders. The French put up a mighty fight of course, and their well fortified positions allowed them to inflict disproportionate damage on the invaders, but it was not enough and soon foreign troops were marching from Clermont-Ferrand to Beziers.
The attack slowed after this, bogged down by the poor Aragonese supply situation and French partisans, but when the Aragonese troops in the Pyrenees began to move out onto the plains the southern French armies had to withdraw to the west and Bordeaux, or risk being crushed between the two Aragonese armies. The Aragonese quickly reclaimed their old fief of the Languedoc coast to the…well indifference of the southern French. Their movement west and inland was slowed by the aforementioned supply problems and the great fortified city of Toulouse which was still holding out as the year closed, and the French still have a strong presence in the south west. The Duke of Savoy-Province decided to end his advance after hearing of the imperial defeats in the north, digging in near Moulins.
In the west attempts by the Iberians to blockade the French coasts were halted by the various sheltered and heavily defended ports of the French, and the need to halt Navarrese piracy further south.
As the year closed France is on the ropes despite its masterful victory in the north, and how long it can hold on is a question on every Europeans lips. But King Alexis still has more tricks to play, especially when on December 20th he issued a order for general conscription…
(-27 Imperial Divisions, -13 Imperial Squadrons, -19 French Divisions, -2 Royale Garde Divisions, -6 French Squadrons, -9 Aragonese Divisions, -4 Savoy Divisions)
Non Military
The Priest King of Acolhua was found poisoned in his bedroom, and brief succession dispute leaves over a hundred dead, and the empires elite in no shape to attack Tarascan Michoacan this year (-2 Confidence)
The Ajaw of T’ho is once more attempting to expand his realm (see military events), the reasoning on the direction of this growth is once again being questioned by other high ranking Mayans and the populace itself – why go to these swampy pest holes far from any civilized or profitable presence when the wide rolling plains of Cubanacon lie open? (-1 Confidence). The Ajaw’s ideas for “economic specialization also meet with some confusion – specialize in what exactly? At least his plans to improve the merchant fleet met with approval.
Under T’ho influence, and the trade route to the Chibcha, a number of cities accrete in the southern Mayan lands, the foremost of them being the city of Tumben Zima [1].
The Emerald Empire stirred this year, as the Chibcha continued their military recruitment drive and began to strike at the Carib tribes that occupied the lowlands. In an echo of their southern neighbours, a grand road system for connecting the highland cities with the coastal ports was begun.
Sapa Inca Cupayuc continued his slow program of reconstruction this year, swiftly restoring the road system to how they were before the week of storms that occurred last year. This allowed him to reconnect his new bureaucracy, and once again impose a work tax on the people of the north and the east, who had been most isolated during the year. The northerners, who had grown used to following their own rules, were not all together pleased with this state of affairs…
The Iberian occupation forces install the brother of the dead King of Navarre as King Sancho XV, but with no indications that the Iberians are leaving, or relinquishing any power to the monarchy, this new king is seen as a farce at best and a puppet at worst by the Navarrese. Resistance to the Iberians continues, but the shear numbers of Iberian troops deployed prevent any successes…on land at least (see military events).
A number of years of peace in the Mediterranean see a, possibly short lived, rise in Aragonese commerce with the east occur (+Messina Economy centre).
The Holy Roman empire continues its Gleichschaltung reforms, and although the reforms themselves have met with great approval, the new forums for the people to voice their problems have revealed a groundswell of dissent over the mismanagement of the war in France, the lack of soldiers on the Russian and Turkish borders, and the abandonment of the Courlanders and Lithuanians when they rose in revolt in Russia (see military events) (-3 Confidence).
The Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sees a large rise in number of men enrolling as officers in her navy, the generous pay making a life at sea seem most attractive indeed. The new and improving navy of King Edward is itching to prove itself in some conflict…perhaps against the Kalmarese whose traffic on “Britain’s Sea” is ever increasing.
King Christians radical changes in the Kalmar union seem to be holding for now, especially as he rebuilds his new and well trained army to be the pride of the nation. Speaking of national pride, the king has decided to forge once more out onto the north seas long since abandoned to the Plantagenet successor states of Ireland and Scotland, and now Britain. An expedition to Svalbard went smoothly, though no permanent presence was established, and inspired by this the King sent out a group of his best marines and Arctic explorers to the west. They stayed on Iceland for a while, whilst the British local governors decided what to do with them before traveling on to the frozen hell of Greenland [2] to set up a tiny station on Scoresbysund, explorations up and down the eastern coast discovered nothing of value, and no indigenous population and the explorers returned to Kalmar somewhat dejected, leaving a tiny outpost of the union on the east coast. The continued presence of Kalmar is dependent on the goodwill of the British to allow supply ships to lay in on Iceland, and the British may not look gladly towards those intruding on their domain, especially now that the potentially profitable trade route to Russia has been set up. In fact the British, quick to relegate the Kalmarese accomplishment to a footnote, set up two of their own bases on the east coast of Greenland. Their bases, though suffering from a lack of funding, have the advantage of a much closer base of resupply in Iceland.
The Imperator of Russia was most busy this year on the diplomatic front, signing trade and diplomatic pacts with the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Quqonid Khanate, and the Da Qing Empire. Unfortunately these have not yet borne fruit; the British, though eager and enthusiastic to trade, have been stymied by the lack of capacity at the Arkhangelsk docks, restricting the flow of goods to a thread. However the Russian government is quickly moving to upgrade the docks and things should progress rapidly from the next year onward. The Quqonids however have bestirred themselves very little; a common border was defined with the great steppes of the Kazaks going to the Khanate, but the armies of the great Khan made no effort to protect trade routes in the region or event enforce his rule at all, and the Russian trade caravans were stalled in the rapidly growing outpost of Omsk. The Da Qing have also done little to ease the flow of trade, but luckily the Russians decided to take things into their own hands and established a firm route to northern Mongolia. The first small caravan of this “Northern Silk Road” was skated and rolled along the frozen Irtysh in late December; its cargo light, but its implications to the Ottoman monopoly on goods and information transfer from east to west was very heavy indeed.
At home the Imperator is also busy, his new civilian senate; the Правительствующий Cенат, is nearing completion, and a number of new government agencies were set up. The clearing out of the Kremlin and a program of calendar standardization see his program for consolidating all power to himself entering its final phases. As his forces move closer and closer to eliminating all dissident (or even slightly questioning or individualistic) elements it proves too much for some of his nobility (see military events) (+1 Centralization).
The alliance and friendship between the Russians and the British was met with great disquiet in senior circles of the Hapsburg realms and Christian VI’s new court.
The Ottomans, inspired by the European fad for fortifications, decided to out do them all this year with the construction of a truly enormous series of defenses on all their land borders. Their social engineering is nearly as successful as the physical as numerous religious sects are forced to toe the official line by submitting to the authority of the Caliph, Patriarch, or Bishop of Trezibond (the foremost Genoese religious figure) depending on their creed (+1 Culture), and Turkish colonization of the Hungarian plains begins.
The Da Qing Emperor Kangxi, much like the Russian leader, decided to draw more power to himself and “restructure” the civil service (+1 Centralization, -1 Confidence). When the last official from the restructuring was finished being boiled alive, a new crop of ambitious young men have risen to help govern the empire, though their mettle has not yet been tested. This display of barbarism has made the foreigners of the coastal cities rather hesitant to move inland. A effort to spread schooling to the empire has floundered on a lack of qualified personnel, and some towns resent the fact they have to pay extra taxes when the tried all they could to find a teacher (-1 Confidence, +1 point into education).
Stability, enforced with an iron fist, in the centre of the old kingdom of Ava allows the peasants to once again collect their crops and the merchants to trade, bringing wealth to the city clusters new master; King Mom Pi of Ayutthaya (+Ava Economy centre). In Ayutthaya itself the king rides a wave of popularity as further reforms and spending improve the lot of the lower classes, though the nobles are beginning to worry where this is all leading (+1 Confidence).
In Nan Ming China, agricultural reforms and government bring great profit to the capital city of Nanjing. This, in combination with the Pirate Wars crippling of Nan Ming commerce, brings great power to the Agricultural-Confucianist factions at court, and they use their new power to further weaken the still profitable southern cities of the Merchant fraction to the Merchants anger (-1 Culture)
Attempts by Ayutthaya, White Malaya and Dai Viet to encourage international trade flounder as the Pirate Wars begin (see military events).
Military
Affalon continues spreading across the islands to its south, securing the extreme north and eastern tips of Cape Breton Island and a small settlement on the mainland of Nova Hibernia. The settlement of Cape Breton, or U'namakika in their tongue brought protests from the Mi'kmaq, who see the central lakes there as their spiritual capital, and a delegation of chieftains sailed to Affalon to demand that the king cease the settlements on that island.
T’ho extends its league with fire and bribery, bringing a number of (poor) tribes under its wing in Calusamul and Chitimachamul [3] with little military effort, though persuading settlers to go to these sites was somewhat difficult due to the poor conditions and swampy land. There was also competition for settlers from a consortium of nobles in the outlying cities of the Yucatan coast of the league; who sponsored farms and expansion into Cubanacon, making deals with the local Arawak’s…perhaps a threat to the Ajaw’s power is in the works?
The Chibcha skirmish with a number of Carib tribes occupying the lowland regions of their lands, driving some of them into the sea, and slaughtering others (-1 Chibcha Divisions). The improved security of the coasts is increasing the number of Arawak traders who visit the southern shores with Mayan goods.
In a pale echo of the events in the Far East, Iberian commerce is brutally assaulted this year by remnants of the Navarrese fleet, most of which was never captured last year. The former navy has refused to recognize the ‘puppet’ Sancho XV placed on the Navarre throne, and operating out of some secret location, managed to take advantage of the Iberian preoccupation with blockading the French. By concentrating their forces they were able to destroy the fleet defending Dakar and raided the town, severely damaging its commerce (-Dakar Economy Centre). A large part of the pirate fleet was caught off the coast of Morocco by a strong Iberian response in September, and although most of the Navarrese managed to escape there were no further attacks. The blockage in the flow of materials and slaves to Iberia’s still emerging industries disrupted them significantly, with many investors losing money (-1 Economy).
(-3 Iberian Squadrons)
King Alfonso of Aragon quickly dispatched a force to deal with the Berber invaders of his southern holdings, and with local assistance the desert barbarians were beaten back with ease. The irregular army raised by the charismatic Amazigh leader Ferhat Mehenni is made the 7th Army of Africa by the Aragonese commander, and a number of young men are inspired by this to volunteer for military service (+6 Berber Light Cavalry Divisions, +1 Confidence).
king Askia of Songhay decided to leave his dreams of southern conquests for now, and returned home to brutally crush all opposition to his rule and defeat a major Berber invasion (+1 Confidence). Towards the end of the year he returned to his expansion plans, this time traveling along the Sahel to the west rather than venturing into the southern forests.
(-7 Songhay Divisions)
Attack on Fortress France
The day that King Alexis had long feared has finally come, the Hapsburgs and their allies were finally come, to do away with Plantagenet France once and for all. Early in the year the French intelligence corps noticed vast and complex troop movements on their Aragonese and Imperial borders, and an uncommon number of Iberian vessels in the Bay of Biscay – something was coming, and they must act fast.
Act fast they did, withdrawing their fleet to secure locations and manning their defenses with every available soldier – France would be ready for whatever was thrown at it! Waiting for summer weather, and their new training programs to be completed, the allies did not make their move until early May, but what a move it was…
…For well over half the entire imperial army had boarded the imperial north sea fleet, slipped into la Manche and were sailing for the French port of Le Havre. However, and rather unfortunately for the Imperials, they were expected. Somehow the French had gained knowledge of where the attack was falling, and the Hapsburg fleet was met by a tremendous cannon battery and well prepared shore defenses. Though these took a tremendous toll the imperial fleet was vast, and managed to make a landing at the more poorly defended Honfleur on the other side of the river mouth instead. The ease of their landing here turned out to be something of a trick on behalf of the French, as no sooner had the vanguard of the army began their march for Rouen than three great armies of French men (though numerically inferior to the Imperials) attack them from all sides, and the French fleet, which had been hidden further down the coast mounted a suicide assault on the Imperials at dock. The Imperial fleet managed to defeat the French, despite heavy losses, but when the French manage to retake Honfleur (with the aid of civilian saboteurs) the Imperial fleet had to withdraw to the open sea, past the guns of Le Havre.
The imperial army attempted to march on, but cut off from their supplies in hostile territory, and with French assassins striking down every officer they could find, the situation did not look good. General Von Allendorfer, the highest ranking Imperial remaining, decided that if they continued all his men would die for naught, and thus ordered what would know as the “Bloody March” of the Imperial army in years to come. Striking out from the Seine Von Allendorfer intended to reach Fecamp on the coast, where word could be sent to the fleet for extraction. For four days the Imperials marched, every hour loosing men to the pursuing French, who would not let up, even at night, and Von Allendorfer arrived in Fécamp at the head of a desperate army less than a third of the size of the Imperial force that departed Hamburg in May.
However there the Hapsburg luck let up slightly, for the Imperial fleet (and some English merchantmen they had hired for extra space) was waiting just off the coast, and the Imperial army managed to escape the ravenous French hordes behind.
All in all the war of the north was a stunning victory for the French, sure the Imperial armies in Burgundy used the coastal distraction to over run the fortifications there, and even reach as far as Troyes before they were stopped. But that heavily fortified city held them, and units redeploying from the coast promised to push the Imperials back.
In the south however, the French were doing somewhat less well; what had seemed to the Imperials as omniscient intelligence was blind, and their relentless armies were routed.
For the Aragonese, after putting down some, supposedly French sponsored piracy had stealthy transferred over half their army to stations in the Duchy of Savoy. They used a number of cunning stratagems to disguise this movement, and although the French had noticed troops leaving the Pyrenees, they had not divined where they went. Thus when the Imperials attacked in the north, a combined Savoy-Aragonese force swept over the Rhone with numbers more than six times those of the beleaguered French defenders. The French put up a mighty fight of course, and their well fortified positions allowed them to inflict disproportionate damage on the invaders, but it was not enough and soon foreign troops were marching from Clermont-Ferrand to Beziers.
The attack slowed after this, bogged down by the poor Aragonese supply situation and French partisans, but when the Aragonese troops in the Pyrenees began to move out onto the plains the southern French armies had to withdraw to the west and Bordeaux, or risk being crushed between the two Aragonese armies. The Aragonese quickly reclaimed their old fief of the Languedoc coast to the…well indifference of the southern French. Their movement west and inland was slowed by the aforementioned supply problems and the great fortified city of Toulouse which was still holding out as the year closed, and the French still have a strong presence in the south west. The Duke of Savoy-Province decided to end his advance after hearing of the imperial defeats in the north, digging in near Moulins.
In the west attempts by the Iberians to blockade the French coasts were halted by the various sheltered and heavily defended ports of the French, and the need to halt Navarrese piracy further south.
As the year closed France is on the ropes despite its masterful victory in the north, and how long it can hold on is a question on every Europeans lips. But King Alexis still has more tricks to play, especially when on December 20th he issued a order for general conscription…
(-27 Imperial Divisions, -13 Imperial Squadrons, -19 French Divisions, -2 Royale Garde Divisions, -6 French Squadrons, -9 Aragonese Divisions, -4 Savoy Divisions)
(this is a warning to all who don't send orders 
