As predicted, Wallachia quickly become the Golden Horde's vassal, but do not join the war against Burgundy. It's still just the Golden Horde troops. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/043.png[/IMG] Burgundy's troops pour into Golden Horde territory, taking heavy attrition. Still, this number of troops is necessary or they would just be eliminated by the Golden Horde stacks. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/044.png[/IMG] The first spoils of the war go to Burgundy! With Ruthenia occupied, a colonist is immediately sent to start its defection away from the hordes. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/045.png[/IMG] Continuing to battle forward, the Burgundy troops take the initiative in attacking Golden Horde troops. Losses are very heavy despite Burgundy having skilled generals from a high army tradition. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/046.png[/IMG] Presumably sensing Burgundy's relative weakness at this point, Austria decides to declare war to reconquest Sundgau again. I'd forgotten that although I had made them release 2 nations, I had not made them drop their core on Sundgau. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/047.png[/IMG] Nobody except Austria gets involved on their side until... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/048.png[/IMG] Sweden gets in on the action. Luckily, they went on to have no real impact in the war and Austria was very isolated. The one or two Burgundy units left to defend the homeland were rushed to Austria, but most of the credit for taking care of the Austrians went to our allies such as Styria who came in on our side. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/049.png[/IMG] Despite the odd hiccup requiring our troops to deal with rebels unhappy with our rule... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/050.png[/IMG] ... Sweden decided this just wasn't the war for them and offered a white peace. I couldn't help but notice at this point that the notorious Samogitia hadn't yet been converted away from the animist religion. If we captured and converted this province, it would be an opportunity for us to flip the region's culture over to Burgundian, which would be neat. Sweden were one of the nations allied with Lithuania, so this seems like a good opportunity to launch a snap war of aggression to grab Samogitia and immediately accept white peace with Sweden, taking them out of that war. We do this. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/051.png[/IMG] I just hope I haven't bitten off more than Burgundy can chew... we're certainly at full stretch. Switzerland also detect our relative weakness and declare a war of aggression on us, bringing the stubborn England in with them as allies. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/052.png[/IMG] Then it occurred to me that we had an explorer who had recently been discovering new sea territories around Africa. This is one of the few things that increases your naval tradition, which is needed to get a high level Navigator advisor, increasing your colonial range still further than the Quest For The New World idea does. How far away from Picardie was The Azores again...? 212.5? Our max range had been maybe 20 below that. Maybe it wasn't as inaccessible as we had thought! With a very high cultural tradition and a naval tradition over 20%, we get a decent level 4 Navigator... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/053.png[/IMG] ... hire him, and The Azores (just barely) becomes accessible to our colonists! We can also reach Madeira, The Canaries, and even Cape Verde! We get on with sending colonists there right away. The combination of fighting the hordes to the east and colonization to the west puts a heavy strain on a country's economy, but if any economy can handle it, it's the rich cored central provinces of Burgundy. They'll just have to work extra hard for the empire. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/054.png[/IMG] Meanwhile, Austria has been thoroughly defeated. They are made to renounce all their cores and pay us a bunch of cash. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/055.png[/IMG] And the first occupied Golden Horde province finally defects to us! Things seem to be looking up, though our manpower is on the distinctly low side despite many Golden Horde troops still remaining. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/056.png[/IMG] We get an Imperial Liberation CB against The Hansa which would normally be a good opportunity for more land grabbing, but we do kind of have our hands full right now so I'm not sure we'll be taking advantage of this particular opportunity. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/057.png[/IMG] Ditto with Holland. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/058.png[/IMG] Our western allies like Cologne were helping one of our Terminator units keep England at bay, though it was through a bunch of tough battles, some of which were lost. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/059.png[/IMG] But back to the war in the east, with the Golden Horde. Except... England decide to land a large unit in Budjak?! I certainly didn't expect to see them there. Luckily, we have a large stack we can mobolize quickly and eliminate the English troops. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/060.png[/IMG] By now, Ukraine had gone back to war with the Golden Horde and the Golden Horde were wasting some large stacks sieging their territory, which helped take the pressure off us a little as we continued to send colonists to defect their territories to us. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/061.png[/IMG] Presently, we receive a white peace offer from Switzerland. We happily accept it, removing this nuisance war from the picture. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/062.png[/IMG] Still, we're at war with Lithuania and the Golden Horde, we're running on empty when it comes to manpower, and the horde are closing in. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/063.png[/IMG] Burgundy finally manages to pry Samogitia from Lithuania's grasp and a missionary is sent there immediately to convert it to Catholicism. The end of this war also means one more unit to send to the Golden Horde front lines. Every little helps. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/064.png[/IMG] Our colonization of The Azores and islands west of Africa is going well, and takes a priority for our colonists, even if it does mean we're a bit slower to send them to defect Golden Horde territory. We don't want the likes of Portugal beating us to those islands, as it would help them colonize the Americas (which must be ours!) So, there's a taste of Burgundian culture in the Atlantic. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/065.png[/IMG] Ukraine become a Golden Horde vassal but now Novgorod go to war with the horde once more. The Golden Horde divert some of their forces north, taking a bit of pressure away from us again. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/066.png[/IMG] Manpower is very low now, as is the sheer number of men left in our armies, and the decision is made for Burgundy to sit back and allow the Golden Horde to siege some of the territories currently occupied to allow for a bit of a breather, and a rebuilding of manpower. Fighting these guys is a marathon, not a sprint. On the plus side, war exhaustion's relatively low and certainly not causing a problem. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/067.png[/IMG] Attrition has really taken its toll and despite having a higher max. manpower than the Golden Horde, we march many of our troops back into friendly territory to recover their numbers. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/068.png[/IMG] Novgorod admit defeat to the Golden Horde, meaning all the horde armies are coming back down south to attack us. With things getting a bit desperate in the manpower department, we take the 3 stability hit to switch back to Military Drill as our national idea; we need everything we can get to help us fight the Golden Horde. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/069.png[/IMG] Quest For The New World has served its purpose for now (we have the colonies we need established), and we will pick that national idea up again when we get a second idea available. A push for government research is therefore a priority. Burgundy is now taking heavy losses while pushing for Bessarabia to defect by sending its colonists, yet the Golden Horde seem willing to offer a concession of defeat from time to time nevertheless. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/070.png[/IMG] As we take horrendus losses to the Golden Horde, an event releases Oldenburg to us from The Hansa. We can't keep these losses up much longer, though, as we're pretty much throwing everything we have at the horde. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/071.png[/IMG] Most nations would have collapsed by now but thanks is large part to massive efforts from the general Jean-Baptiste de Bauffremont, a very costly battle is won at Cherson. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/072.png[/IMG]