Semi-related: The FLAC versions of the EU4 and other Paradox game songs from the Humble Bundle this week is nice. With some good headphones and a quiet room, there are some nice extra details versus the OGG version that ships with the game. Now I'm wondering if it's possible to get more complete versions of the soundtracks as FLAC - the main themes are great, but a lot of the other pieces are, too.
Pics, pics, pics!
Okay, here are some pics!
To start with, here's my progress in 1480... nothing too remarkable, but a decent start. Being allied with Bohemia, the Emperor, proved to be a liability, as their wars drained my manpower. As can be seen, they didn't do so well from them, either.
Next stop is 1500. As mentioned, Brandenburg struck at me, and cut me down to a mere two provinces - thankfully, including Danzig, by far my richest province over the whole game so far.
The Palatinate looks like they're doing well here, but they were quickly coalitioned down to size.
Around 1520, our kingdom stuck back, and it continued to do well in the decades that followed. By 1555, we'd re-established ourselves. The map here also shows other nearby happenings, notably Burgundy's success at France's expense, Lithuania doing well for themselves, and the Ottomans on the rise. Georgia had also carved out a niche.
Moderate expansion, as well as consolidation, followed, such that by 1601 our territory had expanded somewhat, but not drastically. The Ottomans had expanded significantly, however, and the Timurids had made it all the way to Tibet.
In the New World, colonization was underway. Not pictured is Spanish Brazil, which is massive. England, Portugal, and France also had a head start, but there was still plenty of land.
By 1620 or so I would also have Slesvig and Sjaelland from Denmark, as well as expanded colonies. However, the good times were not to last forever. By about that times, the Ottomans had imploded - 1600 was their peak. At that time, they were westernizing, which proved to be a major mistake. The Timurids declared war while they were putting down rebels, and soon were occupying lands. Next thing I knew, everyone and their best friend was declaring war on the Ottomans - Spain, Naples, Lithuania. Then smaller countries, such as Georgia. Then countries that had no business declaring war on someone like the Ottomans - Hungary, Serbia, and even Naxos of all nations. And they
all won. Nations were freed left and right - Bulgaria, Syria, Mamluks, Greece, and so forth. The Ottomans went bankrupt time and time again, and even after the truces, they had rebel issues with no money nor manpower for troops... so after the truces expired, their enemies declared war for another round. They
did complete westernization, but by the time they finished it was pretty clear it hadn't been worth it.
And soon after their Internal Struggles? I got Internal Struggles as well. It started out innocently enough - 30,000 or so Danish Nationalists. I confined them to Sjaelland before too long, and reckoned I'd be able to hire some mercenaries to deal with it before it became a big deal. But then Internal Struggles fired, and the peasants got uppity. And the nobles in Nova Scotia rose up. Still, I had military points to suppress uprisings. Things were tenuous, but probably sustainable, and once my new king (5/3/5) came to power, the rough times could be put behind us.
And so he came to power. And things did improve... for awhile. The peasants were put down. The Danish Nationalists were stalled, if not defeated. Nova Scotia was ignored, because it had become the backwater part of the empire anyway. And to celebrate the apparent return of stability - if not quite yet the end of the Internal Struggles - a campaign was launched against the Maya, with the aim of jump-starting our soon-to-be-colonial nation in Mexico.
And the Maya were vanquished. New Pommerania, in eastern North America, even helped. All was well. All provinces, save one, were annexed, along with a large sum of gold.
But Pommeranian Mexico did not come to be. See, a colonial nation forms not when you have 5 full-size cities in a colonial area, but when you have five
cored full-size cities in a colonial area. We had four. So instead, we had almost 100% overextension from the Maya, plus another 50-some from Sjaelland, which had still not been cored due to the nationalists.
And that's when things got really bad. More nobles. More nationalists, particularly Danish but also Saxon. Multiple pretenders to the throne. And the peasants! When there were over 60,000 peasants in revolt at once, not to mention a good 30,000+ Danish nationalists and at least 20,000 pretenders, the writing was on the wall. Even in the New World, things were bad - tens of thousands of nationalists in the former Mayan lands. The Danes dispatched an entire allied Burgundian army of nearly 30,000, and a mercenary Pomeranian army failed to defeat a large peasant mob. Nothing could be done; no deal struck to avoid disaster. Monarch points were depleted; manpower was nonexistant, all the mercenaries in the area hired and defeated.
And so it was that Pomerania imploded, collapsing into a shadow of its former self, in 1641.
Four provinces were left. Denmark - who thanks in part to Sweden, had been vanquished - returned. Anhalt gained 4 provinces, Danzig our most wealthy province. Poland took one, Bohemia another. And in the New World, though our colonies had gained much since 1601, Maya and Itza broke free. The only redeeming factor was that a single province had been saved and cored, allowing Pomeranian Mexico to form.
But the Internal Struggles had definitely lived up to their Disaster moniker. Ota Szczecin may have won the throne, but he'd lost nearly everything else. There was hardly even an army in the Old World. Task One was building transports to ferry the New World troops home to replenish the Old. There was no manpower to build troops in Europe.
And the icing on the cake? New Pomerania's liberty desire had shot over 80%, and Pomeranian Colombia's to around 93%, as they were now both a fair amount more powerful than Pomerania itself. The immediate loss of tariff revenue also was a significant hit to the treasury (along with the loss of Danzig and other cities back home), meaning that mercenaries were no longer affordable. Brand-new Pomeranian Mexico was still loyal, but poor. A plan was seriously considered to finish establishing California, the next new colony being built, and to then release the colonies and play as California. With lots of room to expand, California would stand a decent chance of controlling its own destiny, quite possibly more than Pomerania itself from the vantage point of 1641.
However, there were 5 years of truces to rebuild. First, alliances that Burgundy and Lithuania had broken during the Internal Struggles (when prioritizing domestic affairs and the Maya incident had caused diplomatic reputation to plummet) were re-established. Then, we struck quickly with our 10,000 troops and allies to re-take first Danzig, and then in a war with Anhalt, Poznan from Poland. Most of Anhalt will be re-taken shortly. So it is that, in 1652, the situation is looking, if not great, at least a lot better than a decade ago:
Tariffs have also been lowered, and while Colombia and New Pomerania remain unhappy, at least they're no longer at the threshold of declaring independence with one bad event. As Pomerania's homeland is re-established and Pomerania's strength improves, there's hope that they'll begin paying (reduced) tariffs again, and colonization will again be profitable rather than a money pit.
Colonial investment is currently all on California; I'm somewhat afraid of investing too much in New Pomerania lest they do declare independence. Portugal, meanwhile, has a major problem on its hands, as Portuguese Mexico has a liberty desire of 100%. Once Portugal ends their war with Morocco, I fully expect a war of independence to occur.
After the Anhalt war, re-claiming cores will have to pause due to manpower issues, but I'm cautiously optimistic that a nearly-full recovery can be made in a few decades, allies willing (The Hansa receives credit for being the only ally not to break their alliance during the turmoil). Pomerania was shaken to its core, but unlike the Ottomans was at least able to re-establish alliances and keep the colonies.
