Okay, I feel like I should explain the relative uh, paucity of updates since the last one (jesus christ it was last month), but basically while I do have the material for a new update, I made the mistake of well, using the eurocentric institutions mod which, as I found out, does quite a few things I don't actually want it to, most importantly it makes it so developing institutions outside of Europe (rather than just spawning them) is really hard and frustrating (I've developed Sari to 52 development and it still doesn't have Rennaisance), so I've been somewhat stuck thinking over what to do next, because I can't say it's very enjoyable currently. So well, any suggestions?
It's been a while since i mucked around with EU4 mods, and i've never done anything fancy, just some personal tweaks and combining parts of existing mods for my own use, but if i remember how it works correctly, its probably relatively simple to change the mod so that developing institutions is closer to vanilla? Skimming through defines and...potentially an old copy of the mod (not sure if i just found the wrong item on the workshop but it says its last update was in 2018?), at least *part* of the change is a single line in defines.lua, "INSTITUTION_BONUS_FROM_IMP_DEVELOPMENT", from 5 to 2
Okay, I feel like I should explain the relative uh, paucity of updates since the last one (jesus christ it was last month), but basically while I do have the material for a new update, I made the mistake of well, using the eurocentric institutions mod which, as I found out, does quite a few things I don't actually want it to, most importantly it makes it so developing institutions outside of Europe (rather than just spawning them) is really hard and frustrating (I've developed Sari to 52 development and it still doesn't have Rennaisance), so I've been somewhat stuck thinking over what to do next, because I can't say it's very enjoyable currently. So well, any suggestions?
swear to god the emperor update is giving dithmarschen a focus tree and when i saw it i wanted to fucking shoot myself, dithmarschen will have more of a focus tree than denmark, which annexed it
Regardless, I'll try to mess around a bit and if I can find a working solution with the current game, I'll work with that and if I can't, I'll do a reset and play until the current date and then give you a recap update on what happened in that time.
Okay, after having thought about this for a while and tried my hand at a bunch of things (Think I have 5 different 1444-1464 Mazandaran saves lol) what I will do is that I will restart this when Emperor is released. I don't think there should be any conflicts with the mod for making Zoroastrianism not suck and it will probably be more stable than currently lol.
After conferring with @horngeek it has been decided that this will updated again by Sunday - the game will be played on Saturday that is - with a whole new beginning. @horngeek will be playing the Kingdom of Denmark and I will be playing the Kingdom of Norway and you will get to see our fumbling and bumbling attempts to keep the Kalmar Union and the dreams of Margrethe I alive, while maintaining the relevance of Denmark in Europe and the New World. This is something of a departure, but I realized that the concept of playing everything I did again in a new update not focusing on the area I'm playing in would bring me to a fucking depression, and in addition having a mate I'm playing with will probably lead to more regular and expected updates!
ok LADIES AND GENTLEMEN @ManusDomini might have his own pictures but I'm going to have my own set of like
Things
to say
(Also Manus will likely give the historical account, you guys get the player perspective from me)
So. Denmark in 1444 is in a position that's precarious, but potentially incredibly strong. You start with a personal union over both Norway and Sweden, a trio with combined armies at least the equal of many other Christian powers at the start. You're almost at the end of the North American trade routes (at certain updates, I distinctly remember Denmark was actually in the terminus trade node, but that's not the case as of 1.30), and your overall realm has provinces that position you ideally to colonise North America...
And very little of it is directly controlled by you.
Your base for colonising North America is controlled by Norway, and therefore can't be used for exploration. Huge swathes of the territory your king rules are actually controlled by Norway- which is a relatively quiet vassal in the AI hands- and Sweden, which is distinctly not. One disaster of a war could send Sweden spiralling into breaking away, or even a particularly bad rebellion, and Denmark *starts* with a rebellion going on. Some guy from Pomerania wants the crown of Denmark and has already taken Gotland.
And, of course, there's the other issue. Sweden and Norway's militaries are controlled by the AI. And as you're going to see a few times, Vassal AI is not
it's not smart ok
it's really not smart
however
I have a secret weapon, for Norway is not controlled by the AI in this game, but instead @ManusDomini. And this is something that I put to use more or less immediately- I ask him to siege down Gotland once the rebels have moved off it, as I'm concerned about an early-game event. This is somewhat fortuitous, because the event fired before he even had the chance to move his guys fully to Gotland. I didn't get a screenshot, but you've basically got the option of taking crown land off the Nobility Estate by triggering a rebellion, or you give the Nobility some extra influence. I took the former, because Denmark starts with really low Crown Land. We're able to handle all of this together, and then I can really take stock of my international situation (well, I say that but I took these screenshots before we unpaused).
It's uh, not great. There are three nations rivalling us. Now, in EUIV, which nations start out rivalling you determines a lot of your early policies to be honest- a game as Savoy where France starts out rivalling you is oh god why, while a game where France *doesn't* do this allows you to ally them and secure that flank for enough time to build up. And in this game...
England rivalling Denmark isn't exactly extraordinary, to be honest. It happens in more games than not in my experience, and it's *also* nothing to be concerned about. It cuts off alliance potential with England while- if you return the rivalry- gives you some potential alliance with France, although in 1.30 that's a lot more difficult. Scotland also rivalled me fairly early on, which again, I basically shrugged over for reasons you will see soon. Those of you who are wary will have noticed my actual area of concern, however.
Poland and Lithuania have both declared rivalry against me. This is, uh, of rather more considerable concern. Poland and Lithuania alone are already pretty strong, but together they're bluntly speaking the powerhouse of eastern Europe. And, about as often as not, they will unite because Poland gets an event fairly early which can give it a PU over Lithuania - and the AI chooses this option fairly often. But both of them rivalling me means that the presence of a PU doesn't matter because both are enemies regardless (the AI doesn't re-evaluate rivalries unless it's forced to in EUIV).
Economy-wise, Denmark isn't in a great position, but it's not awful. I forget at first that I can mothball forts, but once I do my economy picks up a fair bit. And I start eyeing targets. Which, to be frank, there's only one option. The event giving Poland a PU over Lithuania fires, I build my fleet up to the limit causing me to fulfil a mission and get some early claims off that- namely, on the Livonian order, on the provinces which *more or less* cover modern-day Estonia. It takes a little bit, because the Livonian Order and Teutonic Order together aren't something to take lightly... but then Poland declares war on the Teutons.
It wasn't even over Danzig, they just had a claim and declared war. Well, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. It's at this point, however, that I look at Bavaria (which either formed early or because of a gaffe I'm about to mention was together from the start, I'm not sure which) and notice that they have no heir. And if the duke dies, there's a PU war between me and Austria. Concerning, since I'm trying to get an Alliance with Austria. But I continue on. Manus mostly acts as a 'siege down stuff while I do the fighting' force in this war. And soon enough...
The Livonians didn't have Teutonic help, because they were already fighting Poland and Lithuania. Whoops lol thanks for the land. And even better, Poland doesn't take any land off the Livonians in the peace deal they make soon afterwards. I start the process of coring, and save up my power, trying to get to a point where I can up my admin tech and start building up temples for more money.
Manus is, as I do this, bitching because the Norwegian economy starts in the negative income good god. Mothballed forts are his salvation here as well, though. Both Denmark and Norway can largely afford to keep their forts mothballed even during war because very few opponents can actually *get* to their lands effectively- even if someone gets onto the Jutland peninsula, it's rather trivial to block them from coming any further by parking a fleet on the sea zone bordering my capital.
It's *around* this point
That Manus realises we don't have Emperor enabled.
So, we enable Emperor and get back to it and realise that Bohemia has gone Hussite.
ok lol
It's a few years after this that Manus points out to me that Novgorod has no allies.
And I have the Danish Trade mission active, so I have a claim on their port in the Baltic. So, obviously, we declare war lol. There's two things of note. Firstly, remember this?
Me said:
It's at this point, however, that I look at Bavaria (which either formed early or because of a gaffe I'm about to mention was together from the start, I'm not sure which) and notice that they have no heir. And if the duke dies, there's a PU war between me and Austria. Concerning, since I'm trying to get an Alliance with Austria. But I continue on.
So yeah that happens during this war. I panic, forget to take any screenshots of it as I hurriedly search for a deal the Austrians will accept (yes- they accept a peace deal with them getting Bavarian PU), and get a rushed peace deal through.
The second thing.
That fucking Swedish army, while I had Sweden set on Defensive, completely ignored the army sieging down one of their forts and just sat there. And then. When I set the Swedes to aggressive in hopes the army might do something...
Starts fucking marching towards Russia. The AI of this game I swear to god. It doesn't end up mattering much, because at this point I had enough to get Neva and Ingermanland, which connects my Baltic provinces in Estonia to Sweden and means I can march troops throughout all my mainland territory. I also give Kola to Manus. And then.
And then. We realise that Scotland no longer has any diplomatic ties with France. Well, first we notice that England got into a war with Scotland (due to alliances with an Irish minor, which is why France didn't get involved in that one) and then we notice that as part of the peace deal, Scotland was forced to break alliance with France.
William Wallace dislikes this
We're also slowly building up technological prowess. Manus and I both unlock our first idea groups a bit before this. Normally, I'd take Exploration at this point and probably seize land from Norway to get bases for exploration and colonisation, but instead I take Innovative and Manus takes Exploration- which is, technically, redundant due to Norway's own ideas, but does provide him with faster colonial growth and more colonists. The last twenty years of this session actually go by fairly smoothly, with Manus and I enjoying the world and some of the...
Oddities. NGL I couldn't stop laughing at seeing this, partially because @ManusDomini was horrified lol.
As pretty much the final event of note in this session, there were two more wars- one, which I didn't screenshot, was us taking the remaining Livonian provinces and also vassalising Riga, which I haven't annexed yet but am improving relations so I can do so. The second war, after England reduced Scotland to an OPM, was basically me declaring war so Manus could take the last Scottish province.
Our plans for future episodes are more or less to try taking the rest of the British Isles- which is more long-term and probably for once I've integrated Sweden, because England is going to be a challenging foe which we'll probably have to take over the course of several wars. My plan is to force them to release nations as much as possible. The *other* thing I want to try over the next forty years- or whenever Austria's occupied with another war tbh- is to take some of the small German states immediately south of Denmark, because they provide some useful trading ports.
Not seen, Manus' exploration. I don't actually know if he's started colonisation but you'll have to wait for his update before we learn that.
Our plans for future episodes are more or less to try taking the rest of the British Isles- which is more long-term and probably for once I've integrated Sweden, because England is going to be a challenging foe which we'll probably have to take over the course of several wars. My plan is to force them to release nations as much as possible. The *other* thing I want to try over the next forty years- or whenever Austria's occupied with another war tbh- is to take some of the small German states immediately south of Denmark, because they provide some useful trading ports.
My experience with England is that they tend to fold like a house of cards quite quickly once you actually get a significant force onto the island. As long as you don't lose any battles, you can easily chase down and crush their retreating armies due to the lack of room and then murder their economy by overrunning everything because their manpower pool has just evaporated. And uh, you already ate Scotland so you don't even need to worry about landing troops. Just need to make sure you have enough of them to outnumber the English or failing that, have some botes to help your soldiers run away if it becomes necessary.
Of course you'd need to get naval superiority to block them from retreating across the channel to Ireland (or to instead trap them there if they do that), but the naval AI is fucking terrible in this game, unless that changed since the last time I played (granted it's been a year+).
My experience with England is that they tend to fold like a house of cards quite quickly once you actually get a significant force onto the island. As long as you don't lose any battles, you can easily chase down and crush their retreating armies due to the lack of room and then murder their economy by overrunning everything because their manpower pool has just evaporated. And uh, you already ate Scotland so you don't even need to worry about landing troops. Just need to make sure you have enough of them to outnumber the English or failing that, have some botes to help your soldiers run away if it becomes necessary.
Of course you'd need to get naval superiority to block them from retreating across the channel to Ireland (or to instead trap them there if they do that), but the naval AI is fucking terrible in this game, unless that changed since the last time I played (granted it's been a year+).
Kongurinn lettur snekkju smíða
har á sløttum sandi;
"Ormurinn Langi" størstur var,
bygdur á Noregis landi.
Glymur dansur í høll,
dans slaið i ring:
Glaðir riða Noregsmenn
til Hildarting.
-The Saga of Olav Tryggvason
More than five hundred years old, the Kingdom of Norway was unified by Harald Fairhair in 872 but only accepted the Baptism of the Lord under Olav Trygvasson long after Fairhair's own days. Despite the enormous growth of Norway's population following its unification from petty pagan kingdoms, the Black Plague reaped a bloody toll in the valleys of the North-Way and concessions to the German Hansas impoverished kings, nobles and peasants alike; a monopolistic colossus strangling all of Norway. In 1380, the Kingdom of Norway fell under the sway of its small southern neighbour, itself a true northern giant possessed of a population to outsize all of Norway and Sweden combined and in 1397, the Lady King Margrethe I came to rule all the North under her Sway as Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Sovereign Lady and Protector of the Entire Realm of Denmark.
Since then, Norway has steadily faded and fallen into the background in comparison for this land of ancient valleys and tall mountains that pierce the clouds is poor and little cultivated and the royal court in Copenhagen call themselves rulers of the entire north and have little time for rebellious Sweden and poor Norway. But Norway is not all stone and poverty, for Norway has inherited from past kings a realm that stretches far beyond merely the Mare Balticum but across the isles of the Mare Atlanticum from the Faroes and Orkneys all the way to Iceland and once even further. With a new Arch-King on the throne of the Kalmar Union, it may be that Noregsmenn shall once again brave the rough waves of the Great Western Sea in search of new lands beyond the blue.
In 1444, Norway was a poor kingdom. Large areas were under the control of a powerful Church capable of challenging the King in their own right or a largely independent nobility with little time for the pretensions of an impoverished king. Those parts not so controlled were either the sparse patches of still extant crown land or more likely; the property of Hanseatic traders from Germany who barely lived in Norway themselves. To the west lay Norway's Atlantic possessions; the Faroe Isles, the Orkneys and Shetland as well as the westernmost land of Iceland. These had little real use for Norway and with most likelihood most Icelanders barely knew of the distant Arch-King who didn't even live in Oslo anyways. To the east lay the extremely expansive and equally extremely decentralized Kingdom of Sweden, stretching across almost comically large regions of territory, most of which it had little to no ability to control in any real sense. Further south and east yet lay the Balticum and Prussia, controlled by the Livonian and Teutonic knightly orders and beyond those, the lands of the Rus'.
Unlike rebellious Sweden, the Norwegian aristocracy largely benefited greatly from cooperation with their Danish cousins and had adopted Danish court protocols and manners for a long time. It came as little surprise then, that when Eric of Pomerania - the old king of Denmark - seized control of the island of Gotland and fermented revolt, the viceroy of Norway sent forth a band of eight thousand strong to meet the rebels in Gønge. With a combined force of twenty two thousand, the Dano-Norwegian army scattered the forces of the Pomeranian and the Norwegians assaulted his fortress on Gotland, taking it after a siege of five months.
In 1450, the King of Denmark disputed the validity of the Livonian claim to Estonia and eventually delivered the Grandmaster of the Livonian Order his declaration of war, which the Councils of Sweden and Norway countersigned and approved. Following this, a state of war existed between the knights and the Union of Kalmar. The war was a multi-pronged approach, beginning with a Danish invasion into Øsel from sea and a Norwegian invasion into Narwa, also from sea. The Swedes would eventually reinforce them, but only after the usual grumbling about the realm's independence and similar. By 1453, all of Estonia and Øsel had fallen under command of Denmark and Riga lay under siege from a Danish host. Following surrender, the Hanseatic city was made to bow to the Arch-King but permitted to keep their privileges while the Duchy of Estonia was once again added to the Danish court, liberated from the Teutons who had seized it.
In 1451, the Norwegian clergy approached the Danehof in Copenhagen and requested to have their old privileges confirmed, among others the position of the Archbishop of Nidaros in the Norwegian Council of State. Eager to curry favour with the powerful Archdiocese and the broader Church in his northern lands, Christopher III von Wittelsbach confirmed this right in a special edict by håndfæstning. From this point on, the viceroy of Norway ruled with the consent of the clergy and as part of the edict had to confirm a number of holdings as the property of the Church. This reduced the already sparse crown land of Norway even further, concentrating it into effectively a disparate series of landholdings scattered around the south.
Following a number of tensions between the Grand Duchy of Muscovy and the Veche Republic of Novgorod, the Republic was left without major allies. The malfeasance of the small Hanseatic town of Oreshek had challenged the Kalmar Union's Dominium Maris Baltici one time too many and by 1459, the declaration of war was delivered in the Hanseatic kontor with a copy for the prince. There was little serious fighting in this war. The Kalmar Monarchy was at its zenith and the Norwegian navy was far its Russian equivalent far superior and following the war's swift conclusion, the remainder of Lappland was given to the Norwegians following the successful conquest of Oreshek and Ingermanland. The republic was permitted to remain in existence as effectively a rump state following successive Muscovite wars, which had seen it lose even its capital.
During the war with Novgorod followed a dispute over the inheritance of the Bavarian lands. His Majesty Christopher III von Wittelsbach was himself a prince of Bavaria and following the unexpected death of the Duke of Bavaria was next in line to inherit the throne. However, so was the Habsburg Emperor and King of the Romans. A brief dispute broke out, but was swiftly solved by the Arch-King surrendering his claims to Bavaria, choosing not to contest the inheritance by force of arms and instead remaining amicably allied with his forever august Imperial Majesty and King of the Romans.
Two years later, one of the common disputes between the (viceroyal) Kingdom of Norway and the Kingdom of Scotland over the Orkney Islands became a war. It started simple of course. The King of Scotland had just lost a war against the English, ceding some border territories and returning to Edinburgh humiliated. Meanwhile, the Norwegian viceroy had only two years later enjoyed the crushing victory over Novgorod that saw his own claim to the Lappland confirmed by the Arch-King decisively over the Swedish claim and was in no haste to surrender anything. Following a local noble's posturing over the Orkneys and the viceroy's hasty-handed posting of a Norwegian host in the garrison, a number of back-and-forth border skirmishes and eventually a warning delivered to the King of Scotland, the war was in action before anyone really knew it had begun in the first place.
The war lasted for about three years. While Norway was poorer in men and resources than its counterparts in Denmark and Sweden, there was one thing the Kingdom of Norway had which neither of the other Kingdoms of the Union could say they had; its fleet. While every member of the Union had a navy - as was par the course for the old Scandinavian naval tradition - the Norwegian fleet was a truly mighty one and the pearl in the viceroy of Norway's eye, who had inherited it himself from his royal predecessors. While the Scottish navy was skilled and had fought against the English, it was weakened from successive wars as it had mostly been held in reserve so that the English Royal Navy should not strike it into timber. For these regions, it was of little use against the Norwegians who, themselves, had sailed the White Sea and the dangerous waters of the Mare Atlanticum.
The forces of the Kalmar Union largely swept away the Scots and with the combined navies of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, could easily access the otherwise-inaccessible islands surrounding the fractured Scottish coastline. Normally, the Scots would have the advantage of fighting in the hilly and mountainous terrain of the Scottish Highland, but the Norwegians were themselves experienced in fighting in such terrain from the similar Norwegian environs in their northern home and the Scottish gallowglasses were made short work of. Following the conclusion of the war, which had begun as a small territorial dispute over the Orkneys, the entirety of the Highlands were ceded to the Kingdom of Norway. In a twist of fate, a Dane with a Norwegian army had once again returned to harry the British Isles.
Not many years after, a man named Ludvig Eriksson approached the Arch-King with a proposal: He would sponsor the construction of a ship of suitable construction to sail the Mare Atlanticum and in return the man would attempt to find the location of nigh-mythical Vinland to see if its location corresponded with the directions of the sagas, in which case it would legally remain the domain of the Norwegian king and its subjects should pay him taxes. Convinced, the Arch-King outfitted the man with a ship and loaned him two from the Norwegian fleet, sending him forth on a truly transatlantic voyage. The voyage did not return much of any use for the first few months, but after a year at sea, the crew of the Heljarskinn reported land sighted.
The land sighted here was not fertile and green as Vinland was reported to be but craggy and frozen, surrounded by glacial ice and harsh waves that could smash a ship to splinters. It did not take long for Ludvig Eriksson to figure out that the land he had found was not Vinland but that of Greenland, which had also been described in both the sagas and corroborated in Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum. Disappointed, Eriksson turned the fleet around and returned to a port in Reykjavik, after which he reported his discoveries to the Arch-King, of course doing his best to impress upon his Majesty that with further funding he may still make an expedition for Vinland which should lay further beyond Greenland proper.
Little happened in the following decades. The political status of the Kalmar Union solidified as the Arch-King steadily brought Sweden further into the Union, conquering the lands of the Livonian Order and the Balticum fully. In these decades, Denmark steadily established itself as the holder of the Dominium Maris Baltici and it was increasingly clear that the Union would remain the dominant trading power in the north; the Hansa in terminal decline and Novgorod broken permanently. For a while, Denmark could even be considered as one of the great powers of the European concert, although the internally fraught status of the Union prevented this state of affairs from remaining the case for long. It would require not a Union, but an entirely different kind of state for the kingdom of Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth to truly place its mark upon the world.
As of the year 1484, the Kalmar Union stood stronger than it had ever been. With the Scottish Highland and Balticum under its control, its influence reached from the easternmost lands of the Baltic Sea to the westernmost Icelandic ports. With power over all the north and enjoying a degree of internal internal stability that had been a rare commodity for decades in the politically fraught Union that Lady King Margrethe had established, it was becoming increasingly clear that the battle for control over the north had only just begun. In the west lay England ready to pounce on the Scottish Highlands as had no doubt been the plan already, having already laid all of Ireland under her rule. In the east, the Muscovites lay in wait with a hunger to gobble up all the north and take the steppes as dessert for the main course. Only the presence of a strong power in the Baltic Sea could prevent scheming London and gluttonous Moscow from tearing the world apart.
Should be noted- normally, the plan as Denmark is to integrate Norway first and then Sweden. Since I have Manus controlling Norway, however, this plan is essentially reversed. And, with the Livonian provinces completely controlled, I also have the provinces to integrate Sweden, although that process will overlap the Protestant Reformation and can't be started for another ten years.
I don't, as of yet, have my army at force limit. Once I hit military tech 7 and CANNON, my plan is to build up to force limit then attack England. Unlike the north, which I gave to Manus, Denmark will be taking England itself.
Should be noted- normally, the plan as Denmark is to integrate Norway first and then Sweden. Since I have Manus controlling Norway, however, this plan is essentially reversed. And, with the Livonian provinces completely controlled, I also have the provinces to integrate Sweden, although that process will overlap the Protestant Reformation and can't be started for another ten years.
Although strictly speaking, in retrospect I wouldn't mind getting a third player for Sweden on the implicit knowledge that this person could match the schedule, doesn't lag us (more than the amazing Denmark-Australia match already does anyways) and would be okay playing a colony eventually. It'd get really crowded but it'd also be wacky as hell. I feel like a three-player cooperative would be fun. But as of now, this is pretty fun yeah and Sweden likely will get annexed first anyways due to being the guys who uh, don't colonize.
I don't, as of yet, have my army at force limit. Once I hit military tech 7 and CANNON, my plan is to build up to force limit then attack England. Unlike the north, which I gave to Manus, Denmark will be taking England itself.
Yeah, I think I have military tech 5 right now (I can't actually remember) but hopefully I should get the colonial range to start colonizing Greenland in a few decades. Portugal most likely already has a few colonies down on Brazil and I know Castille already took Exploration but last I looked it was at like 1.
We're actually not planning to. We're planning to do this co-op, with Manus moving to control one of the American colonies when I finally annex Norway- which won't be for a while.
