@The Cat and
@RedSky, not content with regaining the Iberian peninsula, decided another foray into north Africa was needed and declared war on Morocco, who called Tunis, Fezzan and Touggourt in as its allies. As a feck you, nimic started sending regular gold to Morocco to aid them vs the Spaniards, while harms sent gold to his Spanish brothers. This war took a similar course to the last war vs Morocco. The Cat and RedSky invaded north Africa, their 30k stack was beaten back twice by Morocco and its allies and the Spaniard's panicked.
If there's something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call?
@harms busters!
With Portuguese called to arms and their troops pouring over the strait, the tide quickly turned.
And this time, the Spaniards rewarded their Portuguese brother with some land for his efforts.
Back in the HRE, Emperor Dr. Dwayne died of heartbreak over the Burgundian inheritance. While he was barely scraping the votes with old the old Emperor, everybody seems to love the new, fresh faced charismatic Archduke of Austria. Dr. Dwayne was voted to replace himself unaminously by the electors and he passed another HRE reform.
BIG BRAIN SHAKESY ALERT
We might mock the drunkard for his inaction and sloth reactions to European events, but he's really pulled the rabbit out of the hat this time. While everybody thought he was playing draughts, our boy was playing 4D chess. You might recall that while
@Shakesy was allied to the one province Mantua, he was practically begging the European elites for a big ally to protect him.
@maniak tired of his endless crying, offered him an French alliance to placate Hungary tears. They signed a royal marriage to cement their ties.
After several beddings and many years later, the French king has passed without an heir. This has sparked a succession crisis. The learned French scholars have poured over the genealogical trees to find out who is maniak's closest living heir and rightful claimant to the throne. And yes, you've guessed it right. His closest living relative and heir to the strongest kingdom in western Europe is.. the Great Shakesy himself. He has literally shagged his way to power. maniak was now under a personal union with Shakesy.
With The Cat, RedSky and harms busy in north Africa and Dr. Dwayne roleplaying as the lion from the wizard of Oz, the only nearby power willing or able to stand up was the English king,
@MadDogg. And the odds were long from the outset. The Franco-Hungarians boasted 68k infantry and 21k cavalry to the English 22k/13k, while the English had naval supremacy, it couldn't always be relied on (see: KirkDuyt war of independence) to protect the British Isles.
The English had naval supremacy and won some important fleet actions. MadDogg employed his famed ol' switcheroo tactic. Rather than fight the French head first, he marched onto Budapest. Curiously, the French didn't seem that interested in defending their "overlord" Shakesy, so he was left to fend off the English largely alone on the continent, while the French sieged down Calais.
Unfortunately for MadDogg, the war goal wasn't Budapest, but it was Paris. He was going in the wrong direction. Shakesy "allowed" the English to siege down much of Hungary before he committed to battle, winning decisively in Pest and utterly destroyed the English expeditionary force. MadDogg tried another naval landing in Normandy with 12k troops, but unfortunately 47k Frenchmen were waiting for him. You do the maths.
A few years later, MadDogg was forced to tap out. He released some Scottish provinces and the Great Shakesy kept his vassal maniak.
Down in the Med, trouble loomed.
@Withnail was deeply unhappy with
@WI_Red after the Mamluks early foray into Anatolia, seizing Adana. The Mamluks pushed their luck further by allying Karaman, again in the Ottoman de jure. The Ottomans wouldn't take these provocations any longer and declared war.
With the Turks and their allies pitting 49k infantry and 15k cavalry vs the Mamluks 28k/5k, it was very lop sided. There were only two decisive land engagements, both which the Mamluks lost.
After that point the Turks rushed down the Egyptian forts and WI_Red tapped out, with a lot of his Arabian gains reversed, but ceded relatively little territory to the Ottomans. The Mamluks lost 52k dead in battle and 200 to attrition. The Ottomans lost 49k dead in battle and 20k to attrition.
And finally, while this was all ongoing
@P-Nut declared war on the Teutonic Order and called in his ally
@hobbers . Apologies didn't have an opportunity to really follow this while the Hungarian/Franco-English war and Mamluk-Ottoman wars were ongoing. It looks like Organic Potatoes droppd the Teuton alliance, so wasn't called into it, but
@KirkDuyt was allied to the Teutons and decided to fight the Poles/Brandenburgians. hobbers sieged down Mecklenburg while Poland focused on the the Finnish territories. Swedish had naval supremacy but couldn't stop the allies walking around the Baltic.
hobbers gained Mecklenburg in the war. KirkDuyt got off very light. Despite being 1/3 sieged down, he lost no provinces in the war. P-Nut annexed the Teutons.
Oh, and no sooner than P-Nut had finished the war with KirkDuyt,
@Organic Potatoes decided to declared war on KirkDuyt too. Because this is what he does. With the battered Swedes only having 19k troops remaining and the Muscovites bragging 61k, it was a foregone conclusion. Then Andycoleno9 decided he wanted a piece of the Swedish pie and declared war on them also. KirkDuyt went bankrupt and was overrun by the Muscovites and Danes.
In other news:
- The narrator is fecked. He can't keep up with all these simultaneous major wars!
- AnotherLondonManc is supporting maniak's independence
- The Palatinate became a junior partner of Andycoleno9 in a succession crisis. Andycoleno9 ended up taking 3 provinces in the middle of Germany, almost bordering Austria.
- Little one province Parma ended up being declared war on simultaneously in 3 wars by Shakesy/maniak, AnotherLondonManc and SilentWitness. None of them gained Parma. It went to Mantua, Shakesy's best friend.
- The Cat has begun colonising Brazil
- MadDogg has begun colonising South Africa
- harms has begun colonising the Caribbean
- Stobzilla made Saxony a vassal diplomatically
- WI_Red annexed Hejaz diplomatically, took a lot of Yemen and declared war on the regional power Ethiopia
- maniak annexed Armagnac and Nevers diplomatically
- Shakesy, always one step behind everybody else, allied Genoa, who had recently lost a war vs the Ottomans
- The Pope excommunicated AnotherLondonManc for the 4th time. Then a 5th time. And a 6th time. He is the only human to have excommunicated so far
- Organic Potatoes allied Shakesy and Dr. Dwayne. Is this to encircle Poland or to deter the Turks?
- Organic Potatoes took much of Kazan
- PSV set about recapturing his lost territories. He took Liege and Lorraine.
- PSV allied Brittany to feck with maniak. Brittany is also allied to The Cat