Scotland cooperative game thread

[ravagon]

to everything so far.

3 Q's for your consideration my liege.


(1) The, er, soothsayer of the Northern highlands has had a revelation that a vast trading, erm, centre, will open soon (read sometime in the next century or so - I think she was using a haggis that'd passed its used-by date ) in the province of Anglia but she is unsure whether or not this will happen if Anglia is under the Scottish/British banner as opposed to the English.
[In other words I haven't read the exact wording of the events file. ]

(2) If you do become Britain won't your capital move to Anglia (thereby wasting half of the added income you get from the fine arts academy in Lothian)?
Our deepest regrets at not bringing this to your attention sooner - more haggis-related problems no doubt.

(3) At a point, far in the distant future, the vastness of the Portugese wealth is destined to fall under the British Banner. It will not do so for the Scotts.


Tis thy destiny to become something greater but the question of whether the time is right - uncertain this is.

[Velociryx]

Hiya Rav! I am uncertain as to whether or not the Scots can become England (I have not peeked into the event file), so I'm playing it safe and plan to "cheat" a bit (knowing what the future holds in-game), and wait till they get the CoT and Royal Shipyard before approaching them re: Annexation. The good thing about that is we keep the full measure of the income of the Fine Arts Center, and will (eventually) get the CoT and free ShipYard....the bad thing of course, is we are denied all of England's (considerable) leadership and talent....

What say you, regarding Scotland's future directions? And thoughts on how we can keep mighty France from simply devouring us whole?

I'm off to do a bit more playing, and will report back with an update!

-=Vel=-
PS: And keep those soothsayers well supplied with Haggis-past-its-prime....it spawns extremely good advice!

[ravagon]

Mmmmm... I was under the impression that any of England, Scotland or Ireland could become GB after uniting England with at least one of the others?
Can't quite think where this came from though so it may not be entirely correct.

A bit of an aside; I had a rather nasty introduction into the perils of having vassals a couple of nights ago.
Playing as the Lion of Venice I vassalised Tuscanny and the Papal States during a war and then had several allies declare war on one of them just as I was about to click on another popup event.
Ended up accidentally joining Austria in a war against a vassal. A -6 stability hit for that one. Reload time.

Re: France - I doubt its quite as bad as you think just yet. They generally seem to be at war with somebody more often than not and as long as you can keep your allies on side and a good few attack groups ready to invade several French provinces at once (and stay away from their heavy armies!) you should be safe enough.
One thing though, relationships just seem to keep going down (the CB shield provinces?).
I formed an alliance with Austria at the beginning of the game and it just kept going south no matter what.
Its been on -200 for almost a century now.

[Velociryx]

The outcome of this latest war with once-mighty England was never in doubt. Totally defenseless when we declared against them, we swept across the border so quickly that they barely had time to react. Only 1,000 English Infantry were recruited to stand against us during the war, and these were killed without a single loss of Scottish life.

In the meantime, our Iberian allies crossed the border into Aragon and kept them so completely overwhelmed that they could not even think to send any troops to attempt a landing in Scotland in defense of their English friends.

In short, it was a complete and utter route, and when we had conquered all three English territories, we demanded the full measure of their treasury and their subjugation.

This peace was signed April 17, 1468, and immediately thereafter, our immensely gifted leader set about the business of repairing relations with both Ireland and England.

Once we had convinced them that it was in their own best interests to serve as junior members of the Commonwealth of Greater Scotland, we said friendly goodbyes to our ever-faithful Iberian allies and forged a new alliance with Ireland and England....(stab dropped one point for leaving the Portugese alliance, but with our relations with both nations hovering in the 190's, there was never any concern that they would attack us for breaking our bond with them).

And so, the stage was set to leave the Iberians, but before we could accomplish that goal in fact...before we could turn it into more than a lofty ideal, we had a truly daunting diplomatic task ahead of us. More than a century's worth of hate existed between our three nations, and it would not be easily undone.

Further, although we were a rising star of a nation, we were a long way from the vast riches of France or Castile...a long way indeed....

1469

An important year for one reason...that being that our good King James took action against the power of the nobles, and giving more rights to the common man (aristoc -1) - this saw solid gains for us in economic terms (both production and trade effie rise to 41%)

Some military re-organization as well, as we divide our military into three battle-ready regiments, posted thusly:

Wessex: 6k/4k
Bretagne: 6k/5k
Armor: 6k/5k

(infantry/cav)

(we stripped out all the weak elements and rounded the numbers exactly thus)

The only other noteworthy event was the establishment of Cantonments in Munster (manpower +1)

1470
Our economy is bustling, and we see a net gain of 63d for the year (income - one year's expenses)

Our stability opens at +1, rising to +2 during the second half of the year, and by June, we have increased relations with our two vassals to the point where we feel it is time to say goodbye to the Iberians formally, forging our own alliance with England and Eire.

It begins!

If there is a low-point to the year, it comes in November, with the revelation of corruption amongst some high ranking members of the King's Court, and we are forced to spend heavily for information vital to rooting out the corrupt members of the King's Council. (stab back to zero)

1471

Our economy gives us a healthy 26.7d per month --> 16.3 from taxation and 10.4 from the production of goods. Sadly, our focus on back-to-back wars with Brittany, Eire, and England have caused a total reversal of fortune for us in Europe's thriving marketplaces and all our merchants were run out of business. We shall have to begin the daunting task of building a global (or at least regional) trade network anew.

Further, we do more to streamline our three battle-ready garrisons, reducing their force totals to 5k/4k each, bringing us to a standing army of exactly 27k, which is our maximum normal support amount. This drops monthly military expenditures from 4.2 to 2.5, which is quite a boon! (so long as we remain at peace)

In September, our most important Royal Marriage (France) expires, and we are quick to renew it. With a RM in place, and a treaty of military access, they will have to eat an extra -2 stability hit if they attack us, which might make them think twice about the matter.

What we need now, is a reciprocal arrangement that would allow Scottish troops to cross through their territory...oh the vistas that might open up! Nonetheless, it is seen as too expensive a proposition to attempt, as our relations are none-too-good with the French, even now.

1472

A relatively quiet year, marked most notably by continued Good Government Policies, a return of national stability (+3), and sufficient gifts to our allies and vassals that they are both regarded as the closest of friends (+200). At this point, a letter a year should be sufficient to maintain steadfastly good relations with both! And further, our allies are putting the money we've been showering them with to good use! The Army of Ulster is rebuilt, and England is covered with more than 40k troops! Just LET the French try to eat through THAT! We might not have many forces of our own, but with strong allies and a relatively confined area to defend, methinks that even mighty France would have difficulty challenging us on our island home!

Ahhh, the perfection of our plan! Security thanks to our new vassals and allies....'tis a beautiful sight.

July - renew the Royal Marriage with Austria, to keep abrest of the comings and goings in Central Europe.

1473

Another splendid year for us! Our economy grows to a robust 29.3 per month, with 18.8 from taxation and 10.5 in goods production! Net yearly gain is 118d added to our treasury, and we feel wealthy indeed! Scotland has never HAD it so good, and we owe it all to King James!

In March, despite the good economic climate, the finicky merchants express their displeasure (trade investment -600! OUCH), but this is at least somewhat countered by the fact that in November, the King signs papers allowing for the creation of a Monopoly Company, which adds another 100d to our treasury....sorely needed, having spent vast sums to improve relations with our vassals.

1474

Ever-mindful of our future position on the world stage, our King gives us a new goal, that each year, one new warship be commissioned until we have a fleet worthy of our nation. No one thinks to ask our King exactly what number that might be, but it does not matter, for all the good that has flowed Scotland's way since his corronation, his plan recieves near-unanimous support...if the King wants a navy, he shall have it, and so, a new warship is commissioned in Armor.

October - the King ignores the pleas of unhappy clergy, denting our otherwise rock-steady stabilty.

1475
Stability at +2, and 274d in our national treasury, and we now fall into a comfortable pattern....

Letters to our vassals each January, a new warship, and the rest of our funds used to send additional colonists to our Irish holdings, increasing their population bases (with a focus on sparsely populated Meath).

We also begin using some of our annual income to send merchants out tentatively to test the waters and see if we can re-establish the beginnings of a trade network.

This basic pattern continues on for the next several years, until 1479, which opens to find us at +3 stability, 181d in our treasury, and a monthly income of 30.8 --> 19.0 in taxation, 10.5 in goods production, and 1.3 in monthly trade balances. Our efforts might not be growing us to gargantuan proportions, but we ARE seeing steady gains, and that is the important thing!

During this year, the King orders what will be our last warship for the time being (upon its completion, this will give us 10 warships and 5 galleys....not a huge fleet, but a solid one, well-capable of defending itself).

The King also take the opportunity in 1479 to take further power from the Aristocracy (slider adj: Aristoc -1), which sees further gains for us, economically (production effie 42%, trade effie, 43%)

1479 would, however, be the last truly good year that graced Scotland for quite some time, for in 1480 (October 8th, to be precise), Duke Charles of Burgundy levied a diplomatic insult straight at our noble King! Given that Charles had something we wanted (the Gaelic land of Morbihan), this was seen as the perfect opportunity to take it from him.

Little did we know how truly daunting that task would be.....

[Velociryx]

Indeed...if you control a province that they have a CB shield on, there's no combination of diplomatic niceties that will prevent the relationship from deteriorating...as I discovered with Ireland and England! They both just kept dropping (cos I had land they had shields on)...which of course required CONSTANT attention! ARGH!!!!!

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

Our plan for Burgundy is relatively simple and straightforward. Having heard about the size and emminance of the Burgundian army (ie - having played Lorraine a bunch, I freakin' KNOW how they build troops!), we opt to keep this battle primarily relagated to the high seas, in the hope that our own fleet is comparably sized or larger to the Burgundians....if we can win a sufficient number of naval battles against them (and capture Morbihan), we can demand that Gaelic province in peace and will at last have realized our goal of having all Gaelic provinces under our control (indirect control, in the case of Ulster, but control nonetheless!)

Our battle regiments on the mainland are more than sufficient to the task of taking Morbihan, especially as the Burgundians have no force posted there to defend it....it should be a cakewalk....in, grab one province, win some naval battles, and out....

And so, to that end, our fleet is put on full alert, war is declared on the day the insult occured, and we invade Morbihan, with the fleet ordered to the Straits of Dover to go hunting.

On December 3rd, we get our wish, and our fleet (10/5/0) encounters 8 Burgundian warships.

Sadly, we would be outmaneuvered in this engagement, losing one galley, and forced to retreat to port in dissaray.

This should have told us that the war would not go according to plan, but we were so focused on the goal of Gaelic unity that we paid that omen no heed....much to our misfortune....

[Velociryx]

Having suffered an ignoble defeat at the hands of the Burgundian navy, we retreat to Dover to lick our wounds and recover our confidence, in 1481 we strike out twice more hunting for the Burgundian fleet, finding them both times, and both times, despite having superior numbers and an equal level of technology, our fleets are simply outclassed and out-maneuvered. Two more stinging defeats then (no additional shipping losses).

So that by mid-year, the King calls for the construction of an additional 5 Warships and a galley to replace the one lost in battle. If our current fleet size cannot get the job done, then perhaps applying MORE firepower to the equation is the answer, and though it strains the treasury to its limits, the King gets his wish, and Scotland's fleet increases in it's size again.

By March, our new ships are at the ready, and we again go hunting....sadly, it's a sub-hunt...there is no reliable way to tell where the main Burgundian fleet IS, and so for months we prowl to no avail....it isn't until late year 1483 that we catch a middling-sized Burgundian Fleet in the Irish Sea and that has been pasted by the Irish fleet and is still recovering themselves that we find any evidence of Burgundian ships, and this gives us our first victory on the high seas! (we lose a galley, and they lose nothing, but it IS a victory!), and with that victory, we set off in pursuit of the battered fleet (4 warships and 8 transports) to keep punishing them! In the meantime, Morbihan has long-since been captured (having fallen in August of 1481)...so...the army has done their part...now it remains for the navy to do theirs, and our war continues....

[Velociryx]

By 1482, having seen the lackluster performance of our naval squadrons against the numerically inferior Burgundians, King James begins exploring other options to gain us the province of Morbihan, and although it is dreadfully expensive, he begins regular communications with the King of France, bending his ear and slowly thawing relations to +80, whereupon we ask for, and gain military access through French lands. That accomplished, and HUNDREDS (perhaps more than a thousand) ducats later, our two regiments assigned to the mainland of Europe strike out across France to assess troop strength in the Burgundian capitol of Bourgogne and Compte, in hopes that these are easy pickings and we can gain a quicker victory than waiting for our navy to begin to perform.

The news is....not heartening....not heartening at all, and STILL our focus remains squarely on gaining Morbihan and uniting the Gaelic peoples! Despite the difficulty with the task, it has, at this point, become a matter of honor. We MUST do this!!!

[Velociryx]

Having won our first engagement against Burgundy on the high seas, the next several come in rapid succession as we follow their battered squadron and pound them relentlessly....however, they give us the slip in 1484 and retire to port for quite some time....if there are any Burgundian fleets out trolling, we do not run across them, and so the war grinds on, with war exhaustion beginning to creep higher, and restless rumblings at home about how long this war will take.

And yet, we are STILL so totally focused on the goal of uniting the Gaelic peoples that even these signs go unnoticed.

Folly...pure folly.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Velociryx
especially as the Burgundians have no force posted there to defend it....it should be a cakewalk....in, grab one province, win some naval battles, and out....

This would be the same Burgundy that has 47k men in Flanders and another 23k in Geldre? That is the Burgundy we're talking about isn't it sire?

*Starts edging towards the door*

[Edit: Holy cow - Now England has 50k men under arms as well? Better hope they don't take it upon themselves to break that vassalship ... ]

[Velociryx]

In the early part of 1485, the Burgundian Duke offers an abject apology and a large (250d) sum of money for his insult against our King, but this offer is steadfastly refused. The King will accept NOTHING LESS than Morbihan, and it is on this point that our negotiations with Burgundy break down, as they are unwilling to part with ANY Burgundian territory, and go so far as to dare us to try and take anything besides undefended Morbihan.

And so, in frustration and desperation, having utterly destroyed the Burgundian fleet, and on seeing that the Burgundians are not interested in building more, and still will not part with their province, the King orders vast conscriptions, on par with the force we had when we settled the matter of Ulster, and commands the fleet to make a landing at Holland. Once more we shall try to use terrain to negate the numerical advantage of our enemies....nonetheless, this appears to be a fool's errand....the army of Burgundy is so vast, and we cannot hope to long support a comparably sized force. Add to that their superior technology, and the odds against us seem vast indeed.

But the will of the King held sway, and vast legions of mercenaries were hired to press our claim of Morbihan, by invading Holland despite the overwhelming force the Burgundians could bring to bear.

[Velociryx]

The same, brother Rav... That same Burgundy who has ~4x our army....the same Burgundy with that #@#$ leader, Phillip (thankfully he was dead by the time we invaded)

Fortunately however, we have one advantage....the attack force will have to cross two rivers to reach us, suffer attrition damage on the march and give us the river and the defensive terrain advantage....what remains to be seen is if that will be sufficient to allow us to carry the day....

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

With full minting of coin, war taxes raised at every turn, and a loan floated, we continue pouring mercenaries and scottish-trained troops into our battle line at Holland, and even go so far as to break off a segment to invade Geldre as well, when the Burgundians consolidate their forces in Flandres, seeminly shocked that we would take them up on their dare of invasion.

Twice they send piecemeal forces across the river to attack the siege group of Holland, and twice we beat these small (7k and 11k) attack forces back.

Thankfully, the main body of the Burgundian army seems....confused and uncertain what to do.

Our report is that they recieved numerous, often conflicting orders, and spent more than a year's time marching between Flandres and Zeeland, and this gave us time to do our work....nonetheless, with the threat of a massive incursion into Holland looming large, we had no choice but to maintain full pay for our troops, despite the vast expense of fielding so large a force for this extended period.

Finally, in September of 1487, the worst happens, and the Burgundians mount a significant attack on Holland....our forces brace for the very worst sort of fighting imaginable, and in the end, they carry the day, but are so shattered by the battle that they cannot even maintain the siege.

Nearly penniless, our only option is to abandon our position in Geldre and consolidate in Holland, which we readily do. (our force was reduced to less than 4k, while the Burgundian force was whittled to ~6k)...didn't take careful notes...was too scared to let my eyes leave the screen!

[ravagon]

* Makes noises about biting off, chewing, and the Flanders COT having a very large manpower recruiting base *


I fear the moral of this story may turn out to be something like "An apology and 250D is better than the apology and a kick in the teeth".

I'd keep that navy on hand for an evac if I were you.

[Velociryx]

This was the battle, however, that turned the tide.

With the dawning of 1488, we were able to recruit another 6k infantry and add them to Holland's siege crew (bringing us once more to nearly 20k), and never again did the Burgundians attempt a river crossing against us.

Holland's walls proved stubborn, however, and that siege would not conclude for another whole year (holland finally falling to us, November of 1488), and when the battleground that was Holland finally fell to our battered, exhausted troops, the Duke of Burgundy offered us both Holland and Morbihan for peace.

We only wanted Morbihan, and tried to stress this point, but the Duke would hear nothing of it....having been shamed and humiliated on that ground, he INSISTED that we take it from him....so....we did.

Ten years of fightinng. Ten years of exhausting, grueling battle. Fending off the odd rebellion (there were perhaps ten, but I did not go into much detail about them, because they were crushed by our merc forces before being shipped out...with varying degrees of success).

It was folly, wasteful, expensive, and totally not worth what we had to pay to gain victory, but in the end, our King had his way, and all Gaelic peoples were under Scottish control.

Many more such "victories" though will surely be our nation's undoing....we MUST be mindful to never again allow one singular objective to blind us to the realities we face...this fight should NEVER have gone on as long as it did, and the failing to the Scottish people is entirely my own....

[Velociryx]

Indeed, Rav...at the height of our military presence on mainland Europe, I was having to pay in excess of 20d a month in overage charges to simply maintain the force....was totally paralyzed (even tho I had money in the bank), and unable to raise ANY more troops...that was it...I mean, we were stretched to the MAX....if they had hit us again after we beat the 20k force, we'd have had no choice but to give up and go home.

As it was....with the "victory" for our side, it will take YEARS to fully recover....

-=Vel=-
(who shoulda just taken the money!)

[ravagon]

Another consideration (as always oh so helpful after the fact, oy )
Does this give Burgundy a CB against you for holding one of their "National" provinces?

As a fairly major continental force it might be a good idea to mend fences - particularly if there's the possibility of a scrap with France in the near future - although now they'd have to cancel the military access first so maybe it isn't quite so bad and you'll get the warning ...

[Velociryx]

I'm almost sure they do, which is prolly why that cagey bastard Charles insisted on giving us Holland....gives him a ready-made excuse to jump on us at a moment's notice....ARGH! WHY did I get so damned focused on gaining Morbihan....I feel that I may have doomed us!

-=Vel=-

[ravagon]

Mayhaps Holland be left without ye obligatory garrison?

The neighbouring rebel penalty may give Morbihan a bit more of trouble than she would otherwise see but with luck a defection might solve that little problem before Burgundy comes a-calling in a few years time ...

OTOH though, if they're both National provinces then losing just Holland will do ye no good at all laddie...

[Velociryx]

Hmmm...I don't *think* that the lands of Brittany are national provs, but if Morbihan is, then the rest (Bretagne and Armor) are too, in which case, they'll hit us no matter what, but I think most of their CB shields are centered in the low country and northern France....

What worries me about the current situation is that we're REALLY in a tenuous position right now.

Manpower is a vexing problem for us....the only provinces we're drawing ANY manpower from are our Gaelic lands--which is why control of all of them was so important to me--all those Anglosaxon provinces we control are adding handsomely to our treasury, but they're not adding ANYTHING to our manpower pool...end result: We cannot maintain a very big standing army, and certainly nothing on par with what the Burgundians, Castillians, and French are fielding (France has more than 210k under arms, Castile is right at 170k, and Burgundy is ~125k)....meanwhile, our max is....27k....if we get into a serious land battle with any of these guys, we're toast.

If there IS a bright spot to be found in the prosecution of this war, it's that we were able to do a lot to restore our relations with France, and although they will drop over time, it buys us time, and that's a good thing. Add to that the downright NASTY stability hit they'll take for declaring war against us (-1 for same religion, -1 for RM, -1 to cancel military access), and we have a bit of a cushion). Still...we've got some big, strong powers right p*ssed off at us, and we are not yet strong enough to adequately defend ourselves.

I think the best use of Holland is as a bargaining chip...it's one of the few non-culture provinces that's generating manpower for us (0.5)...not a huge amount, but we need all the help we can get in the manpower department, so I'd definitely like to keep it for as long as we can, and then use it as a bargaining chip to get us out of a war....sort of a "free pass" that buys us five years of peace...if it comes to that.

With relations restored somewhat with France, our most pressing problems are:

1) Manpower - we can't stand up to the big boys in terms of troops in the field....this means we need to relentlessly focus on quality and offense to gain benefits for what troops we CAN field.

2) Annexation - Ireland will be first, cos we want to wait till England gets their Royal Ship Yard and their CoT in Anglia....trouble is, Ireland has been locked in a war with Bavaria (whom we cannot get to) for the past hundred years, and won't make peace....if they're at war, we can't annex!

3) France - Long term, this is still a problem...VERY expensive to keep forking out 70d to send a freakin' LETTER to France, which might increase our relations 1-10 points...

I don't really consider Burgundy as much of a threat. They don't have military access through France, and we have totally destroyed their navy, so a) they'd have to build their fleet from scratch (and we can easily keep pace with their efforts....we have the money for that at least), and b) the worst they could do would be to retake Holland, which we would gladly give them and buy five more years of peace....it'd be the war following that one that might give me concern, cos we don't want to find ourselves locked in perpetual war with Burgundy.....that would eventually disintegrate the nation with revolts....

A quandry, then.

And, something you mentioned before and I did not respond to yet (but something that DOES bear consideration) is that we have potentially built the monster that could be our unmaking....both England and Eire put the hordes of money we gifted them to improve our relations to good use.

The upshot is that the Scottish Isles are in not much danger of being overrun by our enemies (not with 40k Irish in Ulster and 50k English adding to our own forces), but if either of these should suddenly turn on us.....

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

And now that I have the Lorraine thread begun, this one shall get an update this evening....played ahead some more and have some additional notes to add, but for the moment, let me just say that Scotland has truly entered a dark and uncertain age....we face numerous problems and NONE of them are easily solved.

This latest segment saw rebellion and bloodletting as our citizenry, unhappy with the duration and the price of this war, vented their anger toward our King....setbacks of a variety of sorts. The essence of what tonight's update holds is a temporary withdrawal from the world stage....a pulling back within ourselves to recover our strength, and we lost a great deal of national strength in this protracted war. It was a victory that very nearly undid us as a nation. We lost our treasury reserve, we lost thousands of scotish lives, our national stability took repeated hits, and war exhaustion reached never before seen heights (-9,....took nearly two years to recover from that, and the economic hit it brings with it!).

So....I fear that tonight's update will not be filled with much in the way of good news, save for the fact that we're still here as a nation, and on the mend! Let us hope that our NEXT opportunity for greatness is not so hellishly expensive!

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

1489

Our good King James dies a broken man, not long after the disasterous "victory" over Burgundy. His glorious rule, marred forever by that horrid misadventure, and this would set the tone for the years that followed.

His son, James IV was an able ruler, but he was not cut from the same cloth, being only an average diplomat, but a good military man and organizer). Nonetheless, the skill our nation needed MOST of all in these times was diplomatic finesse....a thing which James IV simply wasn't as adept at as his father before him had been.

That, coupled with our newly risen inflation (7.7% after the disaster with Burgundy), made it more expensive to conduct regular diplomacy with our vassals.

In one aspect, however, James followed in his father's foosteps, and continued to take power from the Aristocracy and place it in the hands of the people (Aristoc -1), Production Effie = 43%, Trade effie = 45%)

With our old King dying, and a new one taking his place, the year passed us by quietly, and we were most grateful for that quiet.

1490

Slightly more than a year into his rule, James IV all but abdicates the throne and begins spending more and more time with the troops (new leader: James IV, Diplomatic skill drops to wretched - 1 dot)

At this point, if we send letters to our vassals, all we do is worsen our relations with them, and so, we sit by powerlessly, and watch all the years of careful planning by our former King, and all the hundreds of ducats spent toward the day of their eventual annexation....it all begins to head south, and there is NOTHING we can do about it. Thousands of Ducats spent, and our vassals used that money well to rebuild their armies, and now, our relations with them begin to crack, and we have no means of repairing them. Our only hope is that James IV will give up his love of the military and tend more to matters of state, but this does not look likey....

If there is one bright spot in the otherwise dreary year, it is that we gain greater understanding of coastal navigation and maneuver (naval tech 3).

1491

Relations with our vassals continue to deterioriate....still friends, but the day is coming when they will not be.

On the other hand, our national stability is at +2, we have rebuilt the treasury to 183d, and our economy is a respectable 34.4, with 21.2 coming from taxation, 12.4 from the production of goods, and 0.8 from trade surplusses as our merchants once more begin plying their trade.

By June, national stabilty has been restored (+3), and in November, a wandering Scot returns to his island home with detailed maps of a place called Vladimir (new map data - Vladimir discovered!)

1492

Our treasury has risen to 303d, but this is mostly because spending money on diplomacy doesn't help matters, and in May, the situation worsens when one of our Stewards inadvertantly insults the English Envoy, driving an irreparable wedge between us and our English vassals. The King pays this no mind whatsoever, and continues to play with his army while strategic relations deteriorate (with both of our vassals AND with France!)

1493

The English grow bold and increasingly hostile, breaking out treaty maps and pressing for more lands (boundary dispute)....thankfully, we resolve the matter peacefully, and relations actually improve with them....for now....

1494

About the only noteworthy event of this year is that our military technology improves slightly with better (more fully articulated) armor for our troops (land tech 4)

1495

Again, our increasinly emboldened English vassals approach us over a matter of borders (another Boundary dispute) - this matter is also settled in their favor, and they return home happier than when they left...but if this keeps on, will we not eventually give them back the bulk of the island? This is not diplomacy, it is extortion, pure and simple!

1496 - 1497

A pair of blissfully quiet years, marked only by our King out playing war games with his troops, as our relations continue to sink deeper into decline, and our nobles not with growing alarm the sheer size of the armies England has just across our border....

1498

A surprisingly good year in the midst of our overall darkness, with an Internal Trade Ordinance in the Grampians (+1 to tax value) and Cantonments established in parts of Morbihan (+1 Manpower)

1499

Our stabiltiy takes a minor hit as the King interrupts his ceaseless wargames to take further power from the aristocracy (-1), which sees our production effie boosted to 44%, and trate to 47%

August sees another new land discovered (New Exploits! - Mekkah, while October puts us in the uncomfortable position of finding corruptive elements amongst the (mostly absent) King's advisors (-100d and -1 Stab to root them out).

The King and his army use them for Pike practice, and things continue on much as they have been....a slow downward spiral, with no means to prevent it.

1501

1500 passes our nation by in total quietude, but the following year, 1501 sends sufficient shock waves through the Kingdom of Scotland to rouse even our useless King, as France cancels their military access pact with us, and our centralized governmental power erodes due to Non-Enforcement of Ordinances (centralization -1).

Does our King do anything about this? Does he take bold steps to reverse our increasingly dangerous decline?

Of course not....after acknowledging that they occur, he goes right back to playing with his toy soldiers, and Scotland continues to wither....all his father's work continues to slowly come unravelled....

Does the King care? Hell no! We achieve land tech 5, and the ability to perform assaults, much to his delight! The rest of the kingdom can rot, apparently.

1503

Despite the King's total ignorance about how to rule a nation, this year IS a notably bright one, as this is the year when our nation's infrastructure sees another marked improvement (Infrastructure Level 4, and with it, the ability to promote Justicars throughout the land).

Our King's endless wargames are interrupted just long enough to get his approval to do that very thing, and then he goes right back to ignoring his country, and his faithful advisors set about doing what they can to improve things in the almost total absence of leadership, beginning with Justicar appointments in The Highlands and Grampians.

1504

Sees an agricultural revolution in Munster as new farming techniques are put to widespread use there (manpower +1), and this, coupled with earlier gains, now enables us to field a standing army of 37,000 soldiers, which seems to please our King endlessly.

1505

Taking up the King's passion, the people of far-off Holland rally behind him and begin joining the army en mass (Enthusiasm for the Army, gain 5k Infantry in Holland). This does not cheer the less militant among us in the slightest.

1506

Sees a Justicar promotion in Lothian, and little else

1507

Justicar in Strathclyde in January, followed by a revolt in Lancashire and dissastisfaction growing among the peasantry (Unhappiness among the peasants, stab -2)....land tech 6 achieved.

1508

Little to report besides a Justicar appointment in Northumberland and in July, New Land Claimed in marshy Connaught

1509

We beg the King to re-centralize the government, and he stops long enough to sign papers enabling his faithful staff to do so (centraliztion +1), and later in the year, our skill at ship-handling improves further (naval tech 4), and a Wave of Obscuritanism sweeps across Scotland...how....appropriate for the times.

1510

Justicar in Midlands, and July brings a 5k revolt in Holland....our volunteers there quell the rebellion, but are themselves reduced to 1547 Infantry. The King is overall satisfied with their lackluster performance.

Later in the year, we achieve Land tech 7, and with it, the ability to construct siege cannons, which, as you can imagine, delights our self-styled "Warrior King" to no end. No one in the Court is amused or impressed, as our problems are becomming deep-seated indeed.

1511

Further military improvement (land tech 8), and a foriegn drill instructor presents himself to the King, and is hired at once! (+1 Offensive Doctrine, +1 Quality) - this at least, is a useful thing. A pity the rest of the King's decisions aren't more like it. We must take a loan to hire him, but it is done without question. The Court Advisors fear that we'll need the military as good as we can possibly get it in coming years if things keep on as they are.

1512

April - The Pope enacts the Treaty of Tordesillas...not that it matters much to our slowly withering nation

and in October, we see relations improve with France (in-game event "The Auld alliance, +75 with France), once more staving off our doom, at the expense of relations with England (-50 with Eng).

Near the year's end, the King decides to host a great royal hunt, and it actually has some positive diplomatic effect! (relations with France +100, staving off our imminent doom at their hands). Burgundy is also invited to the party (+50), but of course, our vassals are both shunned (Ireland -50, England -100). Our vassals now hopelessly hate us, and still, there is nothing we can do.

Which brings us to the end of King James IV's life....death in a tragic training accident with a siege cannon prototype which saw his royal blood spattered liberally along the walls of the south tower in Sterling.

His son, a quiet boy named....James, if you can believe it, stands ready to take his father's place.

We dearly hope is is more like his grandfather than his father....alas....it is not meant to be, and Scotland's time of darkness continues.....

[Velociryx]

There is scant need to bore you with the details of the next 10 years, as they were, by and large, like the several you have just read about.

Although James the Fifth was not an avid fan of the army, and did not spend his days endlessly drilling with them, he was nigh on useless as a diplomatic figure, being to short of temper and too brash and unruly to ever make a good impression.

He did have one compelling strength, however, and that was in matters of organization. James V ran a tight ship, that much could be said of him, at least, and so under his rule, our Kingdom did prosper, even while our relations around the world turned increasingly hostile.

That hostility would reach a fevered pitch in 1523 when tensions with our one time friendly, faithful vassal of England rose to unbearable levels as England declared herself devoted to the Protestant faith, broke our long-standing vassalage, and was suddenly a hostile, monster of a force sharing our once-tranquil island home.

Diplomat or not, James V knew that something had to be done, and vowed to make use of the only tool he trusted to resolve the matter....the Army of Scotland.

However, during the years of good relations with England, they had spent the money we had showered them with well and wisely, and we now faced a numerically superior, deeply embittered foe. True, they did not control much land, but their army was large, forboding, and well-trained.

It stood to be a terrible struggle....one of our own making (or perhaps "unmaking" would be the better term) and one which we might not survive....

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

On the Eve of War with England....

[Velociryx]

But it would be both unfair and remiss of me to completely discount those "missing" ten years I so easily glossed over, because there were things of import in that time.

For one thing, that ten-year period saw us reach our goal of seeing Justicars promoted in every province in the Kingdom of Scotland, and those promotions had profound and far-reaching effects indeed. A greater sense of security for our peasantry for starters, which in turn, led to greater producitivity, and contributed to our steadily growing economy, so although our diplomatic options were entirely shut down, it was IN this ten-year period that we began to get some sense of ourselves as a nation again...that we began to once more find our national footing, and it had been a very long time since we had had that feeling of self confidence.

The disaster with Burgundy had shaken us to our core, and done vast, far-reaching damage to us as a nation, but in the abovementioned ten-year, we began to truly recover from that....finally.

It slowly dawned on those of us who were the cogs and wheels OF the King's government that even though we were all but paralyzed diplomatically, even though James the Third's grand designs had come completely undone, setting us back literally thousands of ducats, and now left us facing re-armed, dangerous, and determined opponents, that there WERE options to be had....that even without diplomacy to aid our efforts, we could, by focusing on the fundamentals that made the Kingdom run, still excel....still succeed.

And so, in the face of ever-growing dangers, Scotland began her slow, painful re-awakening.

As Fate would have it, our re-awakening corresponded loosely with Martin Luther's publication of his 99-Thesis, which sparked in all of Europe the Reformation Movement, and it was this movement that was directly responsible for the crisis at hand....the crisis which stood at the cross-roads of our re-emergence as a nation.

For more than twenty years, Scotland had drifted with the currents of history....tugged along in seeming helplessness until she had drifted into dangerous waters indeed, and the looming war with England was to be our test.

If we passed this test, Scotland had a chance (not a guarantee, by any means, but a real chance at once more being a brightly burning star....if we faltered here, we would forever be relegated to the backwaters of history.

Those were the stakes we faced going in, and everyone in Scotland's government knew it full well.

We had to win this war. It would either mark our re-birth, or our slow death.

There were no other options.

Of course, the war itself, having been simmering and brewing for quite some time before the English declaration for Protestantism, was hardly a surprise, and because of that, we had ample time to prepare, bulking up our army to impressive levels (and once more, rising well above the normal limit we could support long-term), but it was that act of religious defiance which proved to be the final straw....the catalyst which set the war in motion finally, and roused our sleeping nation from its dreaming and once more into action.

Stand or fall....right here, right now....against an England that we created.

The die was cast....

[Velociryx]

Preparations for our war with England had begun a full two years earlier than the war itself, and in that time, all available forces were pulled out of the various places we'd been keeping strong garrisons.

Ireland...empty. Holland...empty. Bretagne and Armor....empty.

Every availble man we could scrape together was piled into the Scotish Isles and formed two massive armies for the fight of our lives, in Northumberland, we stationed the Army of Holland (named for the volunteers who had flocked to our banner some years earlier), their ranks swelled handsomely to 11,453 Infantry and 6000 Cavalry

And a larger force, the Army of Kent 18,628 Infantry/ 17,926 Cavalry. All told, these forces gave us a staggering 54,007 men under arms, and yet....the English still outnumbered us, with our latest intelligences informing us that there were some 68,000 Englished armed and waiting for us.

And so it was that on December 1st, in the year of our Lord 1523, Scotland declared a war for her very survival against a newly re-strengthened England, and on that day, the Army of Kent recieved orders to march to Yorkshire and give battle to the English army awaiting them. We had not expected our Irish "allies" (and remarkably, still vassals, though they dearly hated us) to join in our fight, but they did, apparently bearing the English even more ill-will than they bore us, and for that, we were grateful.

That battle came to pass on the days between December 11 and January 11th of the following year, when our largest army gave battle to 10,063 Englishmen. Ultimately, the English army was destroyed to a man, but our own losses were horriffic, and nearly eight thousand in number (down to 12,112/16,623). Nonetheless, with victory assured in Yorkshire, and one of the three English armies demolished, our main force marched south, into Lincoln, where we had given the English battle many times previoius. These were familiar stomping grounds for us, and we fell into our old, comfortable rhythms.

Meanwhile, the main English army, some 43k strong had advanced into Bristol to give battle to a relief force of Irish reserves that had landed in Lancashire in late December and were hastening to join the fight. This force would be utterly defeated, but not before handing the Englishmen nearly eight thousand casualties of their own....a good, solid showing from our allies.

On February 26th, our main force encounters and utterly destroys the 10k garrison left to guard Anglia, but our army has now taken a serious blow, and is reduced to 7391/12,715, and the Army of Holland has come down from the rugged hills of Northumberland and begun a siege of York...not the first time we've been in this situation, either. Leaving a siege crew here, the bulk of the army marches on to Lincoln.

Only two days after defeating Anglia's defenders, some 1600 English Cavalry race across the Thames, apparently attempting to rescue the garrison. They arrive far too late, and are slain to the last, turning the waters of the river red with their blood (no losses for our army).

In early May, the English General Norfolk leaves a detachment of his army in Bristol to continue the siege there, and returns to Anglia with 13,022/5801, determined to give us battle and rescue London from our wrath.

Seeing this move, we send for reinforcements from Lincoln, and when these arrive, we see our own force swell to 13,649/15,487

Alas, Norfolk proves the better general, and our own army is devastated in battle, suffering more than thirteen thousand losses, while inflicting a scant 3423 on the Army of Norfolk.

Retreating to Kent with 2497/13,257, our army is humiliated, but not utterly defeated, and vows to return.

To bulk up our battered army, we recruit two mercenary bands in Kent, totaling 10,000 Infantry and 3000 Horse....these are welcome additions indeed, and do much to rapidly improve the shaky morale of our forces, and while we are recovering, Norfolk abandons his siege of Bristol and marches south to Wessex, recalling his siege crew left in Bristol to that location to reinforce his army.

[Velociryx]

Round two with Norfolk

[Velociryx]

Having recieved fresh troops to swell our ranks, and Norfolk, without such a luxury, we catch his exhausted-but-victorious army resting non their laurels on August 25th (battle ran Aug 16-25), and destroy the army utterly....our own losses were 7915/1583 (9498 total).

With the Scottish isles once more free of English troops we settle into our sieges, and by early 1425, all three English provinces on the Scottish Isles are well in-hand.

With these victories come English maps, and we discover that while we have been in our doldrums, England has been busy exploring and colonizing the new world.

Our fleet is gathered and 12,000 cavalry are shipped out to these posessions to claim them for our own.

En route, we lose 5 ships (forgot to separate our galleys....oops) and some 1500 horse troops to disease and storms at sea, but we discover England's overseas colonies, trading posts, and cities to be lightly held indeed, and so it is that by November, 1426, we conquer England wholly, and demand all but London from them in peace. Victory is Scotland's, and once more, her star burns brightly.

[Velociryx]

Greater Scotland

[Velociryx]

North American Holdings