Things start out quite nicely, with The Palatinate kindly releasing Baden to us, the head of the HRE. Normally I'd go for good karma and release this back to Baden at this point, but as we're going for as much of a WC as possible, we do the land grab at just about every opportunity. We'll take Baden. No "unlawful HRE territory" penalty, because we're not part of the HRE - we just lead it! :) [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/022.png[/IMG] The time to attack Bohemia is coming up soon, but we let our armies and manpower replenish for a bit first. Meanwhile, Lorraine has been our vassal for more than 10 years so we use one of Burgundy's many "free provinces" missions to gobble up Lorraine which also nets us a core on Metz. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/023.png[/IMG] Our next mission is a boring "establish trade in Novgorod". After cancelling that, we get the much more interesting... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/024.png[/IMG] Yep. After a rather quick and easy war, Utrecht is our vassal. I happened to notice that we are now in a position to use yet another of Burgundy's unfair advantages; the "Establish the Order of the Golden Fleece" decision. Free prestige, baby! We take the decision. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/025.png[/IMG] At this point, our armies are strong and we decide to really whack Bohemia on the Imperial Liberation CB - there's only about a year left to use it. After hitting them hard, we are able to take almost all of their provinces. It gives us quite a bit of infamy, but land grabbing is what this game is all about, and we will now have an eastern border near the Golden Horde. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/026.png[/IMG] Another decision becomes possible for Burgundy; "Create The Compagnies d'Ordonnance". Cheaper mercenaries (not that we'll really be needing any given our manpower and force limits) - still, a bit of a no-brainer, really. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/027.png[/IMG] And after a slider change, we are now narrowminded enough to pass the Liquor Act, which we do for a tax bonus for the rest of the game. Should be able to start going more Innovative now (though never TOO innovative... we need a bunch of missionaries to convert the vast number of non-Catholic provinces we will no doubt conquer). [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/028.png[/IMG] A short time later, Guyenne is excommunicated - for some reason a lot of leaders are getting excommunicated this game. This would be an ideal opportunity to annex their territory but unfortunately we have a regency council for the next 10 years, and France will go on to reconquest Guyenne before we get a chance to annex them. Ah well. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/029.png[/IMG] For comedic relief, Austria declare war on us to reconquest Sundgau. They're going to seriously regret it. We have a full-strength army and plenty of vassals/allies, so even with their allies Poland and England against us, the war goes in our favour quickly. We have the power to make every one of the battles and even victories Pyrrhic. They will lose men, and so will we.... but our manpower just keeps coming back quickly thanks to our high-population replenishing territories like Antwerp, Brabant, Ghent, Flanders, etc. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/030.png[/IMG] Poland joined in against us even though they were also fighting the Golden Horde on their eastern front - the war went predictably badly for them. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/031.png[/IMG] Saxony also joined in - a great opportunity to vassalize another HRE elector, which we did. A good thing too because Milan was threatening to replace us as emperor with nearly 4 votes: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/032.png[/IMG] But a vassalization and a few bribes later to counter our infamy, Saxony was reliably voting for us. We should now have no problems staying emperor for as long as we want: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/033.png[/IMG] Austria being utterly defeated, they were forced to release Styria and Tirol. Divide and conquer... weaken the opponents. That's the best strategy, especially if we're going to have one large opponent - the Golden Horde - in the near future. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/034.png[/IMG] Finally, our regent comes of age and he's pretty darn good. Philippe III de Bourgogne is good in all 3 skills. Bohemia's ruler has been excommunicated. They have 1 territory left and they're just too juicy a target to ignore. We immediately DoW on them, force them to release their territorial claims, and vassalize them. We've destroyed Bohemia! [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/035.png[/IMG] We also hit trade level 7 around this time, and switch from Military Drill to Quest for the New World. Hiring an explorer, our War Fleet 1 sets out to discover new seas... and lands. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/036.png[/IMG] The Azores is discovered, but is just outside Burgundy's colonial range in 1435. Annoyingly, Portugal will probably beat us to it. Just another territory we will have to take infamy conquering, instead of infamy-free colonizing. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/037.png[/IMG] France (as part of a reconquest war against Champagne) took a couple of Savoy's HRE provinces, both of which they kindly decide to quickly release. No chance of ceding these provinces; they're ours ours ours! Cuneo... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/038.png[/IMG] ... and Savoie. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/039.png[/IMG] Still, I'm slightly concerned that France is gathering some strength to the west again. We will have to focus our resources on fighting the hordes and doing colonization; we kind of need France to leave us alone, but their mission is "save the Cosmopolitaine people". We start to explore the strange new world across the Atlantic, hoping to discover some natives there to conquer when... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/040.png[/IMG] BAM! Having eaten up Moldavia, the Golden Horde finally breaks through Ruthenia and borders our captured Ersekujvar territory. It's a battle to the death. We'll fight them as aggressively as we have to to get the best chance of conquering massive amounts of infamy-free land! The only other nation they are currently fighting is a 2-province occupied Wallachia which will probably peace out with them soon (vassal? tribute?), so we should have most of their land to ourselves. Now it's just a case of beating their armies... without Military Drill on our side. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/041.png[/IMG] Still, we've been working on that. Our manpower is excellent and our forces are armed to the teeth and spoiling for a fight. Our land tech is 5 (Longbow being the favoured infantry unit); theirs is 3. This is going to be a very long, bloody war... the great Burgundy - Golden Horde war, started in November 1436, ending... who knows? By the end of it, swathes of territiory will be stained with gold or deep red. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/042.png[/IMG] One thing's for sure. Both sides will fight bitterly to the last man.