[AAR] Vive la France -or- Life after the War of Austrian Succession

[Dago Red]

Vive la France !
or: Life after the War of Austrian Succession

A Proper Empire: Terra Incognita v1.1.0
Late campaign - start date: 1783
with AUM 3.2 (including Ornamentum) - all packs installed.


After grappling with some of the quirks of the late campaign start options -- such as France having 2 schools costing 13,500 each (each turn!) and having to fiddle with setting these oversights straight for the first year or two of the campaign -- I am pleased to announce that I have obtained a new desire for blue colored Parisian clothing with huge buckled straps dotted with numerous extraneous buttons.I admit this to you, man to man, because if you've played this mod as I have it configured above... you certainly share this desire. In short, it's a good time. You may find this summary to be misplaced or not following the tradition of the others, excuse me, it is my first write up of this kind and I am ignorant of a formula, if there is one.

In the year of our Lord, 1783, we are at war with Savoy, Austria, Britain and the Iroquois federation from the opening. It's not an easy start, even with a nation so powerful (evident is the insidious nature of the villain, l33tl4m3r, and his cohorts).

But... after being routed across the globe, awash in the tumultuous aftermath of the War of Austrian Succession, I managed to turn the tides against my enemies on Easter Sunday, thanks be to Christ.

As you well know, Britain absolutely dominates the seas, her fleets bristling with ships of the line stretched across every theater. My European history from this time frame is so poor, I hadn't realized that France and Austria duked it out so hard that the war had essentially become a world war, with just as many players and just as many theaters as either of the two wars that already hold those titles.

In America, I quickly lost the Huron territories, but regained them after dealing a punishing blow in the field to the Iroquois....

...who then accepted a truce.


Skirmishes with Britain have continued for a few decades, many trade lanes are raided and many ports blockaded but a huge battle has been avoided by both sides. North America has become a backwater in the overall war, with small parties sneaking through the wilderness (especially units with campaign map concealment like our starting native American units and Coureurs de Bois versus their native allies and rangers which the AI keeps sneaking around) raiding each others smaller towns and fur trading outposts. The infernal Queen's Rangers are the worst of the British lot, pillaging almost at will across a great expanse of wilderness north of the Great Lakes.

Britain's Queen's Rangers (from Ornamentum, which is included in AUM).

However, the real action has been in the Mediterranean, since we cannot engage the British on the high seas toe to toe after the routing of our fleet in the channel (the remainder now taking shelter in a drydock in Normandy) and the loss of our Third Rate flagship off the East coast of India (near the Dutch held island of Ceylon).

Lots of naval battles with frigates and the lesser ships of the line with only three third rates/74's yet seen in the Mediterranean. Once our admiral, based out of the shipyard in Corsica managed to "hold his weather gauge" against some rowdy Venetian upstarts, Savoy and various other comers, we began to see our first real victories.

Chainshot fired from a French frigate at the mast of a Venetian merchant. An unfortunate sailor was hit directly on the crow's nest. This is just a jolly coincidence, causing casualties before boarding, the main goal is to obliterate the sails, or even de-mast the vessel to capture it -- a very lucrative enterprise.

A first time occurrence for me after a few years of playing this mod. The still images hardly do it justice, but you well know the thrill of a broadside battle between two ships ending in a boarding action. Here our veteran Heavy Privateer (the upgunned ship tasked with boarding actions in our fleet, packed with extra marines) caught a vessel of roughly equal weight, but with a smaller crew -- a fifth rate or heavy frigate and began boarding her. I failed to notice a fire in her galley had erupted from the last point blank broadside (even though I'd switched the guns to grapeshot) as I closed within grappling range.

By the time the ships were joined the fire burst out of control and spread up the masts. Normally a ship's crew would move to firefighting over other duties so I've never seen a fire catch the sails like this. You hear of debacles like this at Trafalgar though. In this case, the crew was defending the ship from my boarding party so the fire just raged. It dawned on me that this could be a disaster, but the ships were already tied together. I managed to catch the moment of the doomed ship's detonation -- which also blasted a large hole in our Heavy, sinking it and killing all.



A great funeral was had on Corsica, and many widows could be heard weeping well into the night, but we moved on. After defeating an invading Savoy army, we then took their capitol, Turin. Their annoying naval presence was nullified by landing a force on Sardinia -- their last refuge. Besieged it for 2 turns (8 months) and they capitulated. They have now broken their alliance with Austria and are our little protectorate.

Wuttemberg is our other protectorate, gained after Austria took their capitol, but a spawning rebel stack retook the country under the Wuttembergundian (?) flag. We immediately offered the renewed country protectorate status in exchange for....

1. A backwater Canadian outpost we had gained from the British.
2. A few marvelous technologies and brilliant ideas for their economy.
3. Some military assurances.

....in exchange for nothing less than their sovereignty (and half their income). Now they are a buffer between Austria and glorious France, and they have some flexibility of their own with that meager port in the new world. Austria lobbies for peace. We shall give it to them and see how things go.

The most stunning event, by far, is the turn taken by Genoa around 1795/96. The crusading spirit of old is still very much alive in the Genoese, it seems, who declared war on Spain landed an enormous force at Barcelona, whose inhabitants were apparently looking a bit too Moorish for their tastes. They sacked it and then marched on Madrid........ ending the nation of Spain.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I have never seen such a calamity before in all my games with this mod. Two new nations emerged immediately: Mexico and Gran Colombia, along with half a dozen little coastal island cities that we don't even recognize as nations, flying garish flags and no doubt committing unspeakable atrocities to their former Spanish governors.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

to be cont....

[Dago Red]

The United Provinces declared war on us, joining their Protestant pals Britain and our on/off enemy Austria. Their mighty trade fleets are too well defended by so many Fluytes, and they largely stand our equal on the sea, but we have routed them from Flanders and then sent in the:

Mousquetaires de la Garde

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

...with the entire northern army along with 3 companies from the:

O'Gilvy regiment

This Scottish regiment was raised by David, lord O'Gilvy on February 28 1747 from the remnants of the force defeated at Culloden. The regiment counted 1 battalion.
During the War of the Austrian Succession, the newly created regiment served in Flanders in 1748.
During the Seven Years' War, the regiment ranked 113th.
By August 1 1757, the regiment was assuming garrison duty in the citadel and fort of Calais.
In 1758 and 1759, the regiment served in Germany.
In 1760 and 1761, the regiment was stationed in Flanders.
On December 21 1762, when the French infantry was reorganised, the regiment was disbanded and incorporated to Clare regiment.

... to destroy them.

They would not accept any truce, even after falling back into Amsterdam and remaining besieged there for a year, so they have been eliminated as a nation-state. All their former colonies, including Ceylon where we'd lost that flagship decades before, are waving indigenous flags. Amsterdam itself is rather displeased, already having spawned a rebel Dutch army that had to be hung, guillotined, and shot.

An elite company of light infantry the, "Chasseurs de Fisher," hide in the bushes, protecting the right flank of our line in a battle against the Dutch rebels, which ended after several unpleasant mopping up actions together with French marines -- whom you can see crouched behind those stone walls in the distance.

Dragoons and the Mousquetaires with their flair for policing actions have helped settle the following unrest, together with an enormous garrison of marines stationed there. Following the utter destruction of the Dutch, we raised several companies of the:

Royal-Suédois* who from then on formed the well dressed cuff on the fist of our right flank, serving admirably in securing the long borders with Westphalia and Wurttemburg against tasteless German speaking peoples of many varieties.

*The regiment was raised on August 1 1690 from 500 Swedish prisoners captured at the battle of Fleurus where they were in the Dutch service.
During the War of the Polish Succession, the regiment occupied Lorraine in 1733. Then in 1734 and 1735, it was stationed in Palatinate. In 1737, it was at Strasbourg.
During the War of the Austrian Succession, the regiment first served in Bohemia in 1742 where it defended Prague after the capture of the city. For its behaviour during the siege, the regiment received the title of “Royal Suédois” on October 30 1742. In 1743, the regiment served in Bavaria, In 1744, it was at Wissembourg in Alsace. In 1745, it was at Pfaffenhoffen in Alsace. From 1746 to 1748, the regiment served in Flanders.

They have already served admirably in the trenches. The artillery firing behind are not rockets but carcass shot fired from conventional 12 pound howitzers. An early incendiary bomb, essentially a flaming cannonball, which exploded on impact, sends shrapnel and flames all over our less impressive looking enemies. The French were the first to use them.

The challenge at hand is to transport marines to the Americas, dodging the privateers and the British ships of the line. And once there, dealing with not only the British, but South American and coastal natives, and their ambushes.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And lest we forget, Genoa. A trading partner but no true friend, and they have become a super power at our back door, occupying what were once Spain and Portugal. If we have to go to war with them, they'll pull in Venice, the papal "Italian states," and "Naples & Sicily" at the least.... all of whom covet our superior sartorial flair.

Perhaps we shall drive the Royal-Suédois at them first, non?