#irysaplaylog

I would have said no to this given the 5% tech cost increase is going to really add up over the rest of game but I didn't wanna get sucked into another big internal conflict whilst I'm waiting for Danzig to fire.

Wolgast refuses tor return what territory it took though. In the meantime I had to deal with some rebellions whilst integrating new territory. Lithuania had a rebellion or two as well that I helped put down.

Hungary spurned the Habsburgs and split from them. I was able to capitalise on this and secure and Alliance with Austria. Should be useful vs the Ottomans.

I also allied Venice because they started the renaissance so they might share knowledge with me. And their armies will again, be critical vs the Ottomans.

I got a Cardinal and took the Cardinal related Estate Privilege.

Danzig still hasn't fired. I started annexing my three vassals giving the Estate privilege to avoid the diplorep penalty. At some point I was able to Vassalise Riga (OPM theocracy in the middle of the Livonian Order.

I really wanted to intervene here but I didn't want to get sucked into a huge war with Muscovy and stop the Danzig event going off (sounds familiar right?).

Crimea didn't get vassalised by the Ottomans, which is another huge relief for me.

Danzig finally fires. Odoyev had got annexed at this point.

The Teutonic Order has a REALLY good ally in Denmark, so Norway and Sweden got sucked into this too, which made me pretty worried to start with. I'll spare the play by play but what essentially happened is that both Crusader Knight kingdoms got slammed whilst the Danish navy sat somewhat pointless blockading ports, and just, not showing up at all. The AI seems to be really bad at using transports and didn't want to push through Novgorod (They may have denied them access? Wasn't keeping track)

I took Aristocratic ideas in the meantime to pump my Cavalry.

Frustratingly, Hungary started a war with Wallachia that eventually turned into a full annexation. I was too tied up to commit to helping. If Teutonic Order didn't have such a strong ally it would have been possible to fight two wars so I let this go. Probably a mistake in retrospect, I could have let Venice and Austria do all the heavy lifting here, but I didn't know the AI was going to be so bad at attacking me.

To makes things worse, Novgorod and Muscovy started fighting too. At this point I had the Crusaders on lock and Denmark had yet to do anything so I got cocky and decided to enforce peace (should have really gone for humiliate rival as a seperate war). This may or may not have been a mistake, because Denmark suddenly actually showed up the second I got into that war. I do suspect it had something to do with military access rules.

Basically what happened almost instantly after I got involved in a war with Muscovy. I think if I had just gone for a seperate war the Scandinavians wouldn't have been allowed through Novogrod. Military Access rules are things that do my head in a bit.

Clutch win

This was a huge gamble but it paid off, Lithuania won their battle and were able to reinforce in the nick of time to win the one to the south that I by all rights should have lost. I probably barely won thanks to the 10% morale boost I had from spending Papacy points.

Rip Wallachia. I'll free you eventually.

It was getting way too hard to fight on multiple fronts and Moldovia was about to finish being annexed, which was going to limit my manpower and force limit, so I peaced out with Muscovy, dragging one of their vassals out as well and hoped Novgorod could use the time and damage I'd done to avoid getting totally decimated.

The Livonian's finally peaced out. I sent Lithuania 100 Ducats because honestly they did a lot of heavy lifting with their armies and I was concerned about their econ. I military access'd my way across the HRE to Denmark to siege them to make them fuck off at this point.

Muscovy got attacked by a Khanate from it's backside after it finished annexing one of its largest vassals mid war and that seems to have turned things around for Novgorod.

I am pretty upset at how much Hungary got done whilst I wasn't able to stop them. I'm unsure if I should be trying to dent the Ottomans or cut Hungary down to size first next at this point.

One of Novgorod's allies is also going to get eaten and I can't do much about it. :(

much about it. :(

FINALLY OUT OF THIS WAR.

To begin with, my goals are going to be

Reincorporate the Crusader Knight Kingdoms to the north into Poland and Lithuania, and maintain the Commonwealth as a tolerant and robust state in Europe.

Slow down Muscovy as much as possible and try to stop Imperial Russia forming, because they'll be a permanent headache.

Return the Balkans to native rule, probably by vassal feeding Bulgaria back it's cores in reconquest, ultimately removing the Ottomans from Europe.

Otherwise, try to grow in the way the game's missions encourage.

The usual start, summon diet, claim land. It's always nice to get the free Papal Points demand as your first Agenda.

Poland's Sejm (Parliament) gives the nobility a huge amount of loyalty and influence by default so I don't need any other privileges for them. Burghers I enforced interfaith dialogue, gave orthodox autonomy and took the prestige boosting patronage of the arts.

I allied Lithuania (you get a Personal Union over them very shortly anyway) and guaranteed Odoyev, a small state near enough to Lithuania that I can vassalise, getting to it before Muscovy can.

These are pretty good stats so I took the heir.

After a brief period of not having enough rivals (awkward), getting the Personal Union with Lithuania allowed me to set Muscovy as a rival. My rivals are now Hungary, Muscovy and the Ottomans.

I would like to be on good terms with Austria but they usually end up Allying Hungary. I will probably have to fight them later. So be it.

Bohemia started a war with Brandenburg pretty early on. I decided to ally Brandenburg to get dragged in, since most of Bohemia's territory is in the same cultural group as Poland (West Slavic), and it's vassals are in the Krakow Trading Node. But first I had to build to force limit and restore my army's morale.

The Moldovan Vassalage event fired off successfully whilst I was building up my army. With two vassals, I could pick the strong duchies estate privilege, increasing my diplomatic relation slots.

I just barely beat Muscovy to the punch on securing Odoyev as a Vassal. I had to send them a gift to hit the 190 rep in time.

The war went pretty well and I occupied Bohemia's vassals fully, before peacing out seperately. Unfortunately I didn't have any fabricated claims so it was a bit more expensive than I would have liked it to have been. I don't want to be in a war too long with Bohemia because the Danzig event is going to start being able to fire off soon in Prussia.