We start this stretch of the war out with a more defensive attitude; wait for them to come to us, win the battle, then maybe follow them to finish them off. This, combined with our recently-researched land tech 6 and Military Drill, should help us win. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/083.png[/IMG] We're pumping our troops through to the front lines in Bessarabia in a kind of chain formation to give them as little attrition as possible. Trouble is, the Golden Horde are feeding more and more troops in from the east all the time too. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/084.png[/IMG] The first Herculean battle of the war is a victory. We follow the retreating Golden Horde troops... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/085.png[/IMG] ... and get a quick insta-kill on morale grounds of over 30,000 of their troops. A very nice start. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/086.png[/IMG] Shortly later, our heir dies. Well, that was random. I rarely get the death of my current heir with no associated event, but I did this time. He was only mediocre anyway, though, and we soon get a decent new heir. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/087.png[/IMG] Burgundy's armies need even more of a morale boost. They need to be fearless! We already have Military Drill, but we decide that a good Grand Captain would be a good resource for the empire too, and so Jules de Vellexon is hired for the short-to-medium term. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/088.png[/IMG] A missionary had been working away in the one initial Animist province in Europe, Samogitia, which we had won some while back. The province is finally converted to Catholicism, and with it, the culture to Burgundian French. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/089.png[/IMG] So, tourists to the West can experience a taste of Burgundian France on the Atlantic islands we've colonized - we recommend Cape Verde, which is lovely and sunny all year round. Tourists to the east can now experience a taste of Burgundian France in the Baltic! Wherever you go, we guarantee a lovely expérience française. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/090.png[/IMG] That doesn't mean, of course, that the eternal work for our armies is over. They've been fighting the Golden Horde tooth and nail, and to be honest, Burgundy has been considering taking a couple more defected provinces and just accepting another Golden Horde concession of defeat, as their armies descend on us once again with our manpower at rock bottom. However, then something unexpected happens. We suddenly notice a couple of revolts in our territories, but also in Golden Horde territories. There's been a change of leader and a succession crisis in the Golden Horde! [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/091.png[/IMG] This doesn't mean that they are suddenly powerless, but it does mean that there's a period of time where their armies will be distracted as they deal with the revolts. We decide, on a close call, to continue the war with the Golden Horde. We're once again closing in on them when it comes to troop numbers, sitting our weakened units back in friendly territory (Cherson and Budjak have very nice high force limits, meaning we can let units recover there with no attrition), and netting about 4,500 new manpower each month. There's a reasonable chance we can win a slow but steady war of attrition against the horde, so it's worth a try to keep the war going. We push on, sending colonists east to the likes of Crimea and Kaffa. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/092.png[/IMG] The strategy seems to work, slowly but surely. At various times, Golden Horde troops have the opportunity to band together and defeat our defending armies, but they keep getting distracted and moving away again. This plays to our advantage over time as we slowly take more and more of their territory. Ukraine to the north is still a Golden Horde vassal, but they also have a tribal government. This means that as soon as they become independent, we should be able to gobble up their land quite quickly and cheaply on a tribal conquest CB, which is good. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/093.png[/IMG] Eventually, the Golden Horde reach a point of weakness where we can try to capitalize fully. They have 43,000 troops of which we can see nearly 30,000. Time to try and go on the offensive with our superior troop numbers. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/094.png[/IMG] Burgundian troops press home their advantage, whittling down Golden Horde troop numbers to the point where Burgundy now has the decisive upper hand. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/095.png[/IMG] During this time, we hit the next government tech level, allowing another national idea. We re-embrace the Quest For The New World idea in anticipation of our colonization of the Americas. Burgundy is strong enough in terms of manpower and force limits (especially as head of the HRE) that it doesn't need the likes of Grand Army, and this is a major bonus in letting it choose other national ideas for world conquest early on. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/096.png[/IMG] Nothing like a good carpet siege. At this point, the Golden Horde have just one significant unit left which is being chased northwest to the edge of their lands. Soon it will fall completely. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/097.png[/IMG] Of course, dedicating literally all of our forces to fighting the Golden Horde does mean that even a single rebellion back in our conquered territories means sending a unit quite a distance to quell the rebellion. A unit is forced to return - we first assign it our general who has the fastest manoeuvre so as to get back as quickly as possible. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/098.png[/IMG] 6,000 troops left. Something tells me the Golden Horde are finished. I am hoping, however, that the current leader of the Golden Horde has a long and healthy life. If he dies and there's a succession crisis, we'll get a [I]lot[/I] of rebellions in the region south of Novgorod, none of whose provinces have yet been cored by the Golden Horde. I guess that area is our priority to defect as quickly as possible, but it's some way off. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/099.png[/IMG] We're working the Burgundian economy very hard to sustain our empire at this point. Even inflation is rising, slowly but steadily, with the heavy minting needed. Burgundy usually has no such inflation issue, of course, but it isn't usually so proactive about winning territory and colonization. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/100.png[/IMG] Meanwhile, Savoy have been annexed by Provence giving us an Imperial Liberation CB on a couple of provinces. We're likely to get a lot of nations coming in against us, but you know what? Our armies are recovering now that we've been building them up again, the horde masses to the east having been crippled. I think we can win this (albeit very tough) war, especially with the help of our allies/vassals. So we declare war! [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/101.png[/IMG] What have we gotten ourselves into? England, Switzerland, Milan, France, Genoa, and Austria (to name but a few) enter the war against us. Picking these guys off one-by-one is going to be our best shot of winning. Our armies rush back west from Golden Horde territory to help in the fight, but our vassals actually do a pretty good job on our behalf, particurlarly the Palatinate, in at least slowing down the advancing armies of Milan and Switzerland. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/102.png[/IMG] Probably the most problematic enemy of this war is England. Their naval forces are unbeatable, and only one of our Atlantic islands even has a level 1 fort right now. The islands are sitting ducks, so we'd better hope England doesn't land troops there or they will be immediately lost. Even worse, England is usually very stubborn about even agreeing to a white peace. In the end, they never do - they are simply taken out of the war when we eventually peace out with their alliance's leader, Switzerland. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/103.png[/IMG] An Imperial Liberation CB against Aquileia pops up. We're not going to be taking advantage of this, stretched thin as we are. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/104.png[/IMG] Ultimately, we manage to pick off the likes of France and Austria with white peaces. England leaves our Atlantic islands alone, and we grab the two provinces we're to liberate away from Provence - Piedmont and Nice. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/105.png[/IMG] Shortly after, the writing is on the wall for Switzerland and we're able to get an easy peace deal out of them. Whew! As usual, the Burgundian armies were mighty and fought hard, although our many vassals helped out a lot. We also managed to vassalize Ulm as a side bonus of this war, who had (suicidally) come into the fight against us. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/106.png[/IMG] Slider change time again, and we go yet more towards serfdom, taking us to -3 on the slider. We can finally now start to look at passing the Court of Wards and Liveries Act, as well as the Tenures Abolition act - although we need to be more centralized for those. It's centralization all the way from now on. The serfdom move causes a couple of rebellions which our armies can easily handle. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/107.png[/IMG] I realise that I stupidly sent colonists to Abkhazia. The trouble is that when this province defects to us, we'll be next to Qara Koyunlu and will have to go to war with them. Although I think we can win with our armies in place, I had hoped to leave a "buffer zone" between us and other hordes until we were ready to fight them in earnest. Oh well, better get most of our armies back east to prepare for this war, not to mention handling the odd rebellion. For the last few years, that task has fallen to a single unit led by one "René de Lannoy" who had the highest manoeuvre of any of our generals: 5. This allowed the unit to race around dealing with a few rebellions, but it's not exactly an optimal situation. For an area this large, several armies should be in the vicinity. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/108.png[/IMG] And all the more reason to get plenty of troops back east. While we had been fighting our European war, the Golden Horde had been regrouping with what little territory they had left. Their ability to raise more troops is impressive, and they now have a unit of 9,000 which needs to be defeated as it's trying to win back territories we conquered. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/burgundy/109.png[/IMG] As many of our troops march east again, however, there is a much higher sense of optimism than before. The Golden Horde is clearly crippled, and Qara Koyunlu is much weaker. We're sure we will be able to "mop up" the enemy troops this time with relative ease, not least because our monthly manpower increase has now risen to 4,751 per month. We now have the resources, I think, to start looking at some colonization of the Americas at the same time as carefully eating up horde territory to the east.