From the notes of Grandmaster Philibert de Naillac
2nd November, 1400
It has been a little over a year since I took power and things have deteriorated rapidly. We have exhausted virtually every source of loans available to us (and then for a meagre 25 ducats!) and are verging on the edge of bankruptcy. Funding for the shipbuilding and trade techniques Brothers Nix and Aywanex support has been cut to a trickle as we mint debased coins to cover our wildly spiralling debts. Traders have seized positions in Lubeck for a slice of their lucrative trade; then swiftly were competed back out again. Finally, the nations of Europa hate us with a passion for our dishonourable deeds.
The reason for such chaos? Survival. On Rhodes alone we could never survive the might of the Ottomans so close. We had to expand and damn the consequences. So on my ascension we studied those cities that could be assaulted with the least of troubles; Ragusa, Montenegro, Urbino. We considered some of the island; Crete, Cyprus, Naxos, but all under the protection of powerful neighbours. Firenze would also have proved a fine target but the Emperor would move to protect it. Urbino was the best choice, and for the past year we have warred against it, struggling to wear down its people. The break in the long siege came as the Pope himself declared war on Urbino, perhaps in the hope to seize the region once our forces gave up. We did not, and their increased numbers put additional pressure on the Urbinines until they finally surrendered today.
Now we have to decide whether to take the province whole or make it a duchy under our rule. The latter option would be less devastating to our reputation (given we had no casus belli for this war), but provide us with less manpower and income ourselves. They have not enough money to sue for peace in exchange for cash, alas. Our next war, should we be able to even fight one, must be for money.
Money is a critical factor; we are steadily losing cash and have exhausted all of our loans funding that war - hiring a single mercenary put us over our forcelimit of 1, doubling costs in addition to the actual mercenary cost. Very, very expensive.
We also have a slider change open to us! We can centralise (always good) at the cost of armies spawning all over and trying to seize power. We are at 3 Serfdom, so we could change towards it for even greater research penalties in exchange for lowered infantry costs, or start slowly changing to Free Citizens for research bonuses. We are currently at 1 Naval, so we can try and go even further towards the navy at the expense of our military (cheaper ships!). Alternatively we are at 3 Mercantilism, so we could try to head towards Free Trade to make us more competitive in the foreign market or even go still more Mercantilist... and then try and capture a CoT.
Finally, shall we vassalise or capture? Capture will expand our unit limit to 2 and give us a maximum manpower of >2000 (it is presently a weak 1000). Vassalisation will force Urbino to be our ally and give us half their monthly income (not much), but we won't have to worry about coring them. It also means the difference between 8 infamy and 4 infamy.
This decided, what about our next war? Shall we try and get a valid CB for conquest, or ally with an ongoing war and try to fight for cash?
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Topic: Gloria Patri: Hitler would be proud. (Read 4397 times)