Bay 12 Games Forum

Free money will help us with the loans, yey!

There's something that I wanted to show, however:



The Electoral Council is very divided at the moment.  Bavaria's sole vote comes from the fact they rule Brandenburg in personal union.

Our two votes come from our vassals, Mainz and Munster. Bohemia votes for itself (of course), and has chummied it up with Saxony and Cologne quite well to get their votes, too...

...and those were taken from Austria which has diplomatically-shitty king at the moment. We ourselves are only few points away from swaying Saxony and/or Palatinate, though.

Considering that I see gifts being sent by Austria and Bohemia around quite often, I can say that next elections will be very heated.



Dangit, we are unable to repay the third loan we've taken during war against the Hansa. We must extend it.

Unfortunately, a slip in my accounting causes us to take another loan on 1st December.



Despite being tied with us and Bohemia at 2 votes each, the Council awarded the Emperorship to Austria, which I believe is tied to total diplomatic skill of a ruler rather than prestige.

Grumble grumble... we were near greatness! We were so close! *this* close!



Cologne, which we were working hard on to vote for us, was annexed by Hesse! This is greatly temporary, for Hesse is suffering war against Trier, Bavaria and others, as well as having a revolt.

But with loss of an Elector, another must take it place. I wonder whom will Austria choose, and I won't be surprised if-



Ferrara? A minor italian kingdom? For reals??

As you can see from the breakdown of electoral points, we're very close to outdo Milan and grab a third vote! Quick, send ALL the gifts!



Third idea time and we will take National Bank; we can now lower amount of money we mint and the Bank will ensure our inflation will *slowly* drip to nothing.



Finally, young Otto ascends to the throne, and his cousin, Bernard, just three years younger than him, is the next heir. Policy of centralization sparked a revolt, but it was easily crushed.

We're doing great, folks. What's the next calamity that will befall von Mecklenburg family of Lippe?



I would say this counts. His service to Lippe will never be forgotten, Requeiscat in Pacem!

The curse continues. For fuk's sake, WHY!?

I even stopped using them as military leaders! Why the Mecklenburgs keep dying in their late twenties?? A medieval 27's club or something??



While this is certainly a very interesting thing to happen, I fail to understand how. This game has secrets and refuses to tell me.

Can't wait for incoming Austria vs Ottomans matches, for Byzantium had only Thrace left and its surrounded by everyone's favorite mint blob.

In the meanwhile:



Hochmeister Ulrich, please explain.



Fine with me!

And I just realized something; we're at Government Tech 10, which means we can pass the decision Formalize Scales and Weights. It improves trade and production efficiency, and slightly increases tax.

We just need to accumulate 5 magistrates for that, and we're golden.



Alright! Pomerania calls for help! Time to have some action and score some-



Uh-oh. The Hansa joined the war to protect Mecklenburg in the last moment. After losing the main battle and winning few skirmishes, we retreat to Hesse to build our forces and prepare to relieve the siege of Westfalen.

Unfortunately, for that we have to take 2 loans.



And a third loan to afford services of this guy. He popped up when we pushed the policy slider toward Quality.

12% extra damage this early is nothing to scoff at.



We continue to win the small battles against Hanseatic reinforcements but Siege of Westfalen continues, and we fail two times more. As we await reinforcements of our own, the siege counter ticks up.

We cannot wait any longer and those extra Knights will have to miss on the battle.

Onwards, to save our capital!!



Yes! Victory! Can you hear the chimes of bells of glory? And no, that's not my economy groaning in pain, you're hearing things!

After the Hansa grubs, we will eradicate them at Osnabruck!

There, we defeat them again, and with help of Munster, we drive them to Bremen, Stade and then finally eradicate their forces at Hamburg (who graciously granted us passage rights).



Mecklenburgian forces have been decimated also. Ernst Kasimir decided to split forces across all belligerent territories, to hold them for ransom, and to break apart Hanseatic hold over coastal cities.



After their provinces began to surrender one by one, we disbanded several of our troop, as Hansa is broken; while Verden and Bremen aren't that useful of an ally, we will keep with Holstein. Royal marriages with them all, however!

Mecklenburg was given a relatively free pass; they had to give up their claims to Vorpommern, which was the whole cause for this war.



Look at this man. This is the man that is badass. He and Ernst Kasimir Eder made our victory against Hansa possible.

Now we need to wait few months to deal with our losses and recover our manpower reserves.



...This, however, might take a while longer to recover from.

As you can see on the image above, a very important event has occured.

What, the war? No, it's not about Brunswick and friends getting their asses kicked by someo ther states. I'm talking about our Shield!

It has been pointed to Simon that he is mistakenly using the field flag of Lippe instead of its princely Coat of Arms, so that has been rectified. Look on those nine fields, full of symbolism and national pride!



FINALLY, the most important of Production technologies ticked in, allowing us to build Workshops; they increase base tax of the province by 1.

Base tax influences two important things; money you get from 'taxing' cities, as well as increasing the maximum of troops that can be supported without incurring additional costs. Workshops are thus important to both economy and military of a nation.

Unfortunately we're a bit short on cash, but the moment we fix that, we will be building Workshops in our provinces asap. MEANWHILE:



The Mecklenburgs cannot simply ignore the opportunity that is the Brunswickian moment of crisis and weakness; whilst the turncoat Saxony has declared war to support Brunswick, we are relatively safe from assault.

So we will be taking the City of Braunschweig for ourselves, thank you very muchly!



Archbishop of Wurzburg has asked for alliance; he has two provinces and therefore is good enough to help. Unfortunately we discover that he has trouble with some rebels.

We pull some of the forces besieging lands of Brunswick to deal with Wurzburgian pretender. Which we do...



But then Simon makes a potential mistake and invites Wurzburg to the war - which allows the neighbouring Ansbach and Mainz, allies of Brunswick, to have a pretext to attack Wurzburg and, by proxy, us!

We deal with forces of Ansbach, but instead of having it besieged and forced to sign peace, Simon has a better idea:



Conquer and vassalize Mainz. Its Archbishop is an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, meaning Lippe will have 2 votes!



On 6th December 1455, we do just that, and Mainz immediately agrees to support Simon von Mecklenburg in his bid for the Imperial throne.



Less than half a year later, the King of Brunswick sends a peace treaty that is suitable to our needs; city of Braunschweig and some ducats.

Fifty years of stagnation, five years of glory, and look how (relatively) big Lippe has become; with two vassals and two votes in Electoral Council, it can be now considered an important political player in the HRE.



Requiescat in Pacem, Herr Armin; he led us through all the recent wars and if not him, we wouldn't be a smol blob as we are today. However, his successor, Ernst Kasimir Eder, is a beast with 6 Movement and 4 Shock, meaning that anyone trying to outrun him might as well as give up already, hahahah.

Few years of peace and richness later, Hansa puts trade embargo on us; we promptly leave Hanseatic League, we're not trading anyways.



This prompts Genoa to ask for exclusive rights for our Salt production, and we will comply. More money for us!

And finally, on 1st April 1460, a momentous occassion:



For first time since before 1399, King of Lippe has an adult heir. Rejoice!



REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE