Of Turks and Austrians- Austrian AAR

**Jingo Eugene** · June 17, 2011, 10:15 PM

Hello all! This will be an AAR following the exploits and conquests of Austrian Prince, Eugen von Savoyen, I will share a bit about his character before beginning.

1. Patriotic Austrian- How could he not be with the title of "Prince"? He will defend Austria with his life, even if that nation turns against him. (Though the game's limitations would make that a bit hard eh?

)

2. Hates Turks- How could he not when he's an Austrian? He hates the Ottoman Empire and all of it's allies and vassals with every fiber of his being. As such, he is dedicated to the expulsion of the Ottomans from the Balkans. Including Istanbul/Constantinople.

3. Arrogant- How could he not with his command skills, his appointment to leader of the Balkan Armies, and his proud heritage? Not to mention his title. He will spend a good portion of the story trying to rid himself of an "upstart, second-rate lieutenant who seeks to steal my job."

4. Guido von Starhemburg- His "upstart second-rate lieutenant who seeks to steal my job." whom he is continually trying to dispose of to ensure his rightful place as commander of all forces in the Balkans. He has not been able to kill him yet, and an assassination would cause him to lose face. So he will be trying to eliminate him in battle with the Turks.

5. Skilled general- He has a lot of command stars. He has gotten the best military strategy training available in Austria, and he has already had an innate talent for leading others. This adds up to a rather impressive resume.

Okay, now you know the character. I will be posting the first update, the beginnings of the Great Balkan War. Rep, constructive criticism and cookies all welcome!

Even an occasional comment would be nice.

**Jingo Eugene** · June 17, 2011, 10:47 PM

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

This is Austria. Proud and unconquered, a Catholic bastion stuffed between heretic Protestants to the north and west, brow-nosed Italians to the east and the bloody Turks to the east. We, as a result, have a long history of blood and warfare. Isn't it wonderful?

This is me. A proud bastion of logic and reason in a world of idiots and drunkards. I am Prince of Austria, and I am proud of it. As of late, Leopold I, God bless him, has been reforming the economy and military of Austria. We are becoming richer than ever and we are at peace with all of our neighbors. But not for long...

Anyhow, this is Guido. As bumbling, arrogant, and downright embarrassing a fool as I have ever seen. Yet he is my lieutenant. Should I perish, he will take control of my men. Oh God protect them... I will be sure to send him in on the front lines...

A year later...

Here is the united Prince's Army, or the Army of the Balkans. Or the "Crusader Army" as some people up north call it. The newly built for Schlaining will house us until winter passes and we can launch an offensive against the Ottoman's territory in the Balkans. Until then we will be overseeing the trade between our two nations, making sure we end up being the ones who profit.

A year later...

'Bout damned time! It has been another year and we have finally gotten the southern nobles to agree (that is, the nobles of Transylvania, Croatia and Hungary) that war is the only option. Only this time, we are on the offensive. I hope to walk through the streets of Istanbul in the next decade... We have elected to not get our allies involved, this is a personal conflict and must remain that way. What is pathetic is that the only nations they can count on to help are the Crimeans, and the Barbary States. Both weak and nations dependent on Ottoman welfare. Pathetic.

Yet not six months go by before the treacherous Poles, once trading partners, see our new war as a weakness and declare war on us! It is obvious that they hope to gain Silesia. I am only sad I cannot be on two fronts at once.

One year goes by...

Thank God. I had a nagging worry that Leopold would never have a child, and the title of Emperor would have to go to one of the Dukes, whom I have accumulated a bad reputation with, should Elisabeth die before he. Thankfully Maria was born before such and all I would have to do is gain her favor before she becomes Empress. My title as Prince is secure yet.

Siege of Serjavo

Some time goes by and now we are in front of Serjavo. I had a garrison general who's name I forget go and take Bosnia, which was undefended and protected the Croatian front from a counterattack while I attacked Serjavo. The Ottoman garrison is weak, I had beaten them when they went to reinforce a passing Ottoman army I intercepted. I lost a few of my own men, including one of Guido's bodyguards. Oh God why couldn't it have been Guido?

Ottoman resistance was pathetic. We almost exclusively used a single unit of Militia Cavalry to rout the Ottoman Armies. They fear fighting cavalry. We used cannons and a single unit of line infantry to take out their only professional soldiers.

We had not lost even forty men, a paltry comparison to all two hundred or so Ottomans in the siege. Now they will surely surrender, out of fear of starvation or an assault.

Leopold the fool! I like the Emperor to be honest, but I cannot believe his decision. Peace with the Ottomans after only two major cities claimed? He wanted "All of our efforts focused on the Poles," well by God the Poles are nothing more than an old idea trying to live through a progressing age! The Ottomans however are still a mighty power! If we can take even just their Balkan territories our power would increase immensely! Oh God the fool...

The Ottomans and I agree on one thing. There is no chance that Vienna and Istanbul can coexist. There can be only one.

Sad day in the Netherlands, the rising power, the United Provinces have fallen. While we never liked them all that much, they were an honest ally. They had never asked us to join their war against Spain and France. Not that we could have helped anyhow. Now France is growing stronger, perhaps the Alsace-Lorraine region would be better off under an Austrian banner?

Now that the Ottomans have rejected our offer for peace, I have been given permission to march of Sofia, only facing small local militias on the way, we came upon the city. The center of Bulgaria. This will hopefully isolated Moldavia from the rest of the Ottomans and allow either us or the Russians to acquire it. However we have discovered a grim truth in Sofia.

They have possession of a deadly Organ Gun.

I pray to God all their artillery-men starve...

The battle has begun. I had originally underestimated the Organ gun's accuracy, thankfully I had a perfect place to aim my Demi-cannons at the enemy infantry. Sadly the Organ guns are out of range. So I tried to convince Guido to go out there and disable them. He refused so I sent in the militia just to scorn him. They disabled the guns and kept my trenchwork from being crushed. Victory was ours.

God, what demon has possessed Leopold to seek peace with the Ottomans yet again? I personally think they made it clear last time that there would be no peace. They rejected it once more, thankfully. I had always wanted to see Athens with my own eyes.

Eight years later, thanks to me we have claimed plenty more land for the Austrian Empire. The Ottoman resistance is weak, for I suspect they have trouble outside of Europe. We have had no losses against the Poles, but we have crushed some of their armies. Rumor is that Leopold plans on razing Warsaw.

That is chapter one. From 1700 to 1708. Three provinces claimed and the Polish and Ottomans completely embarrassed by my superior military might.

**Jingo Eugene** · June 18, 2011, 12:05 PM

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Austria, 1708

Here I am in Sofia. Despite being liberated from the oppressive Muslims, the people of Bulgaria are not content under Austrian rule. I think that an uprising in imminent despite us graciously exempting them from taxation. The ungrateful Orthodoxies...

Anyhow, diplomatically this is where we stand. Recent events have weeded out our true allies. Wurtemburg and Bavaria, both good Catholic sovereignties have remained loyal while our third ally is, shockingly, the Protestant British. For being an island of heretics, they are a loyal bunch.

The Orthodox Bulgarian workers are on strike. Things are beginning to heat up here, I think my men will be seeing more action before we burn Istanbul.

However, the Barbary Pirates, vassals of our sworn enemies, the Turks, are begging for peace. Leopold turned them away saying, "Once your masters agree to peace with us, we will consider making peace with pirates like you."

My fears have been realized. The people, both Muslim and Orthodox, have risen up against us to try to establish an independent Bulgarian state. Well by God these fools will learn the price of defying the Emperor!

Aside from my bodyguard and Guido's, I had no cavalry. So I managed to convince Guido to take the job and flank the enemies. However, his unit was decimated in the process. Leaving only him and two other bodyguards. Lady Luck does not seem to favor me, oh God why couldn't have Guido died with the other 42 of his guard?

After the battle, we spent some time establishing order and debating. That is, debating between my own and Guido's plans for finishing the Balkan campaign. Guido wanted to hit Moldavia then Greece, before marching on Istanbul. However, I knew that Istanbul was weak and now was the time to put them under siege. In the end, I won the debate and we began to march on Istanbul, or as it will be called, Constantinople.

This is the Ottomans' second attempt to sally against us, the first time failed. And then we didn't have Hungarian Hussars to assist us, now we do. The Muslims have no chance. I think they simply seek to die so they can go to Hell more quickly. However the last sally had hurt us greatly. We lost four cannons of our eight. However they bunched up too much this time. We only needed to use canisters to destroy them. They routed.

We lost five good men in the skirmish. Compared to their two hundred? Our losses pale when put up with their own. The Ottomans will die quickly.

They must all be drunk. This time there is no chance they can survive even one of my units, much less my entire army! All we needed were the Hungarian Hussars.

Oh how ironic. After the Ottomans attempted to claim Vienna three times and failed all three times, we marched on Istanbul. And we took it the first time. We immediately began to light the city aflame. I have decided to teach the Ottomans a lesson in respect for their superiors.

Burning towns and farms along the way, we made haste to Athens. Once we take Greece and Moldavia, we will sieze Egypt and Palestine. Hopefully by then the Ottomans will realize the might of Austria.

With some fresh new Hungarian Grenadiers added to our ranks, we surrounded Athens and cut it off from all supply lines. Hopefully the Orthodox men here will realize that Catholic Austria is destined to rule the Balkans.

Seven years later, this is the Austrian Empire. Istanbul is ash, Rumelia is worthless and Athens is under siege. Life is good.

Poland is being interesting, and actually putting up a decent fight! However, all I needed to do was burn Warsaw and their challenge ceased. Prussia has yet to attack, though they have taken Saxony.

**Stívarðr Reynitré** · June 19, 2011, 12:17 AM

Highly impressive start by one of the most consistent contributors here.

I will be following this.

+Rep

**Stívarðr Reynitré** · June 23, 2011, 06:50 PM

Keep going mate, this is sterling stuff...

**Jingo Eugene** · June 23, 2011, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by esaciar

Keep going mate, this is sterling stuff...

I will with no doubt. Expect the update today or tomorrow.

**Stívarðr Reynitré** · June 23, 2011, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by Darth Napoleon

I will with no doubt. Expect the update today or tomorrow.

I'll look forward to it...hopefully I'll be reading it on my new rig...

**Jingo Eugene** · June 19, 2011, 02:15 PM

Thank you and happy Father's Day! I will post an update either today or late tomorrow.

**Gazz** · June 20, 2011, 05:36 AM

Good AAR, rep too, but please, more battle screenies ok? They look awesome.

**Jingo Eugene** · June 20, 2011, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by Gazz

Good AAR, rep too, but please, more battle screenies ok? They look awesome.

Yeah, I am sorry. I keep forgetting to take screens in the midst of battle. Well maybe it's that and I haven't had any "epic" battles with an Ottoman army equal to my own.

**Jingo Eugene** · June 21, 2011, 08:39 PM

Sorry for the late update guys. (And sorry for the lack of battle pics, I was getting excited. (You are lucky I took campaign pics.

)

Chapter Three- Fall of Istanbul (Now Constantinople)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I am getting old... Fifty-two... I am most certainly not getting any younger. This is why I want to take Athens immediately, however my fool of a Lieutenant wants us to wait until they surrender. We compromise, we will wait for them for half of a year, if they do not sally or surrender, we take the city by force.

Istanbul had been reclaimed by Ottoman Rebels and reinstated as the capital of the empire. Exactly what I had intended, now they are trying to rebuild their destroyed city to it's previous splendor. With any luck they will go bankrupt.

No sally and no surrender. We march into Athens to try to subjugate the population. They refuse to back down without a fight.

The Ottoman's front-line resistance. We took them out with only some Hungarian Hussars.

After the battle is over, we have undisputed control of all of Greece. Save for the Peloponnese... Damned Italians.

After glancing over a strategic map of the Balkans, and I noticed that the Moldavia province is still under Ottoman control. Ho hum, I suppose that Leopold will expect me to claim that soon.

An alliance had been forged with Prussia, albeit a weak one. I doubt it will last a year.

News of an Ottoman army nearing Belgrade has forced me to leave Athens and go to Belgrade's aid. There is no chance I can save the city, but I can reclaim it after the Ottomans take it.

We are nearing Belgrade, and it looks like the Ottoman garrison is weaker than expected.

Without a hitch, Serbia is liberated.

Our spies in Rumelia have noticed something. There is a topic of note that the higher classes of Istanbul are talking of; bankruptcy. The Empire is bankrupt and the people are not happy! I am not sure if a lack of money is reason enough for secession, but maybe we could have an independent Egypt or Judea on our hands.

As I march to Istanbul to take on the city while the Turks are broke, I hear of bad news. The Poles have taken Transylvania. Apparently they marched through Moldavia to get to Transylvania, thinking our southern flank weak... I will show them the full might of Austria.

Some time ago, the Prussians broke our alliance. Now I see why. They have declared war on Bavaria and taken them, the ever-loyal Bavarians refused to call on us for help. And as a result, Munich fell. I mourn for the people of Saxony, Hanover and Bavaria, who have all fallen to the Prussians. I foresee a war in the near future.

War may come sooner than I imagined. Peace has been brokered between the governments of Vienna and Warsaw (stationed in Koningsberg after we burned Warsaw for the second time.) Apparently it was a hard bargain, or so Leopold tells me in his letters, but he managed to get the Poles to accept that after their capital had been razed twice, that they were outmatched.

Istanbul is ours. A small garrison of mostly mobs were there to keep order, so resistance was weak. I am currently sending letters back and forth from here to Vienna pleading to Leopold that once Istanbul is stabilized and the populace converted, that we march on Anatolia.

In the end, only two cities were claimed in the last seven years, but those two cities were Istanbul and Athens. Both of which are being stabilized and Christianized. We had ended the only major Turkish offensive of the war, and defeated Poland in the field of warfare.

**Sir Arthur Wellesley** · June 23, 2011, 09:03 AM

Great AAR so far keep it up. + rep

However I would like to say that Prinz Eugene was not Austrian. He was born in Paris and he is a Savoyard prince. Had Louis XIV accepted his services most of western Europe would be probably speaking french now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Eugene_of_Savoy
sorry for being a nerd

**Jingo Eugene** · June 23, 2011, 11:24 AM

Oh G...

Well, thankfully I have not emphasized the "Austrian" part so far. I can easily change his character to fit him historically. Thanks for telling me this early into the AAR!

**Pumba-Fuhrer** · June 23, 2011, 05:05 PM

Nice AAR. It actually made me want to play as Austria. Just a question. How much longer will this AAR be able to go on for? Eugene's got to die within 20-25 turns.

Either way, great AAR. +rep

**Jingo Eugene** · June 23, 2011, 06:47 PM

Originally Posted by Pumba-Fuhrer

Nice AAR. It actually made me want to play as Austria. Just a question. How much longer will this AAR be able to go on for? Eugene's got to die within 20-25 turns.

Either way, great AAR. +rep

...Seriously?

So far, I have actually had Eugen die in battle in all my Austrian campaigns. (Stupid cannons with high-tech targeting systems...) This news kinda saddens me.

**Jingo Eugene** · June 23, 2011, 07:05 PM

...

Bad news guys. My last update was not saved to the right save game and I had to start again on the second update's starting point. I am trying to catch up so don't worry, I am sorry, I hope there won't be too many inconsistencies.

**Jingo Eugene** · June 27, 2011, 06:13 PM

All right. I give up. I cannot get the "new" game to line up with the AAR. So I will have to put the final nail in this AAR's coffin. Don't worry, I will make another AAR in it's place. Whether or not it's Austrian, or even Empire has yet to be seen. I do have a silly Courland AAR in process, if you can check it out.

**dezikeizer** · July 09, 2011, 04:21 PM

Very good updates, though it's sad to hear that this had to end. You have a few typos:

brow-nosed Italians to the east

Didn't you mean: brown-nosed Italians to the south?

The newly built for Schlaining

Didn't you mean: The newly build fort Schlaining?

This will hopefully isolated Moldavia

I think you meant: This will hopefully isolate Moldavia.