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Post by MaybeNever on Aug 25, 2011 0:43:46 GMT -5
My hope is that they'll either collapse in typical spectacular horde fashion, or prove to be a nice foil for Moroccan power. Morocco's no joke, fielding an army three times the Catalunyan and a navy twice as large. Their many provinces in Greece and Anatolia make them a likely target, but their strength could well allow them to turn the Golden Horde into yet another adjunct of their mighty empire.
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Post by MaybeNever on Aug 25, 2011 0:44:12 GMT -5
The Faransan war is far less sharp and dangerous than the earlier war against Magyaristan and Ruma, most because the power differential is far less considerable. Faransa still maintains a small technological edge, though. The war starts off with a minor defeat, but a renewed battle in February 1488 with Ignasi Vilaplana in command of the combined armies of Spain and Italy, 24000 men, looks promising from the start. After six weeks of protracted skirmishes and counter-marching, Vilaplana deals a serious blow to the Faransan army in a pitched battle that ends in a massacre of a route on March 31. Almost 70% of the enemy force is destroyed. While the Provencal campaign goes on, Morocco sends word that Catalunyan traders will again be allowed into Bursa. Officially, this time. Relations improve a little with the southern power. Vilaplana wins a springtime victory. The weather for the battle is reported to be Nice. The destruction of the remains of 12 Faransan regiments isn't bad either. Elsewhere, a smaller army has successfully evaded Catalunyan arms until Vilaplana makes a clever flanking move, preventing enemy retreat by coordinated maneuvers. The king himself leads the Army of Spain into the battle in June. In Pirineo, the king's absence with the army is used by leading advisors to enact a series of measures that revalue the currency using a new coin. This is especially necessary as over thirty kinds of coins are in circulation from the many centers of trade. Officially called the De Luna, most merchants refer to the new coin as the Masquinto, as it has 1/5 more gold than the old coinage. The face of the coin bears the image of Lluis; the obverse, rather than featuring the palace or some other royal estate, shows a crate of Catalunyan cloth, its most precious trade good. Another victory of the glorious king! Excellent news follows the victory in July. Al-Alemand's declaration of war is unfortunate, but Ruma's dishonoring of the alliance seriously suggests that the Italian foe is simply too fragile to sustain a war! Peace with Faransa could bring something like peace, notwithstanding a probably sputtering war-in-name-only with the Germans. Lluis commands one of Avignon's forts occupied with a permanent garrison to help support local armies. This, in turn, draws a few intrepid souls to work the unclaimed land that has lain all but fallow for three generations. Cuneo marks the first defeat since the start of the war nine months earlier, but the Faransans bled for their victory. They will catch and defeat the Army of Spain again, with barely a hundred men killed on each side. Lluis and his soldiers are saved by the timely arrival of Vilaplana's Army of Italy. Exhausted after a march of hundreds of miles, the Catalunyan forces nevertheless make short work of their even more exhausted enemy while the Army of Spain withdraws to recover. Al-Mustadi, the Doge of Faransa, offers peace. But this time Faransa will pay. There will be no reprieve like the last war! The last battle of any note against Faransa takes place in January 1489. 6000 soldiers are killed or captured. Only Hammada Alani, the enemy general, escapes. Like vultures, Skandistan and Sameland swoop in to pick at the corpse of Faransa. In the west, the Sardinians make themselves useful indeed by landing troops in March. A splendid gain in that same month, as the siege is quickly followed by seizing the colony. Savoie is a wonderfully valuable province in the Italian piedmont, anchoring the Catalunyan border against the Alps. Less happy is the expansion of a colony into Auvergne, a province with little to recommend it. Oman, perhaps impressed by the Catalunyan feat of claiming relatively unimportant provinces, perhaps disappointed by their inability to actually reach Europe to engage their Jewish foe, offer a white peace. It is quickly accepted. Al-Alemand offers a peace deal too, the next month. It is not until the ambassador stares in confusion for several minutes that Lluis realizes he is not laughing at a new and particularly satiric court jester, but rather a real representative of the throne of Al-Alemand presenting a serious peace deal. Faransan Charolais falls to direct assault in July, and peace is settled the next day. The war with Al-Alemand barely deserves the name, so peace is essentially total. Lluis settles in to run his kingdom. The next month his designs are severely interrupted. Darn. Darn. Darn. Darn. ...fuck. The enemy forces are considerable, about a third greater on land and far more powerful at sea. The only advantage Catalunya and Sardinia have is that the enemy alliance is mostly destabilized or already suffering from war exhaustion. An unexpected ally emerges in the east, as the Ottomans seek to reclaim their old lands in Anatolia and Greece. They are fighting far above their weight, but they might have a chance if the enemy concentrates on us instead. The economy at the outbreak of war. It has grown considerably, even with a revenue-reducing stability below 3, a happy development. We will need every advantage we have!
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Post by Yla on Aug 25, 2011 15:04:15 GMT -5
You're spinning some nice narrative here. Go on!
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Post by Vidi The Mostly Hatless on Aug 25, 2011 15:59:01 GMT -5
Yeah, this is fantastic to read! Keep it up :3
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Post by MaybeNever on Aug 26, 2011 20:41:38 GMT -5
Hooray, praise! I feel behavioral modification kicking in already!
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Post by MaybeNever on Aug 26, 2011 20:50:00 GMT -5
The fleet in October 1489 continues its refitting and taking on crew now that the need seems to have emerged. Morocco's army is not as powerful as it once was, but its technological and size advantages still pose a serious danger. Therefore it will be the task of the Grand Fleet to keep Spain and Italy clear. One bit of good news becomes quickly obvious: a great bulk of the Granadan army is in east Italy, but cannot afford to march out because that would give Ruma too obvious an opening. That might eventually make for a good goal, but only 6000 men stand in Venezia. Even Vilaplana is not clever enough to win against 3:1 odds. The first real battle of the war comes in December, months after the declaration, as Catalunyan soldiers had to march from southern France. The armies are slightly expanded, though, with an additional 6000 horse, to make two main armies of 15000 men apiece. Even with a disadvantage of numbers, the Granadans are no fools and stand on the defensive near a river. The king's men suffer for the assault, but win at some cost. The Moroccan fleet bears down on the Grand Fleet. Importantly, this is the Moroccan 2nd Fleet, meaning that some other body of ships - a considerable portion of their navy - is somewhere else, possibly intervening against the Turks. Catalunya's fleet is ordered into port, to avoid the enemy, and to take on a vital cargo. Josep d'Espes, at 72 years old, was one of the last living men to remember his royal namesake. At a chance meeting in August 1430, the 13-year-old boy and his goatherd father encountered the king during market day in Pirineo, where the elder Espes told the king the boy was named after him. The king, delighted - and, importantly, in his dotage - immediately granted estates and wealth to the Espes clan, which were in the one case in much abundance and in the other woefully lacking. Still, the ownership of vast amounts of land and some amount of money allowed young Josep more leisure than he might otherwise have enjoyed. With that leisure he was increasingly able to acquire knowledge, as he taught himself to read and became fluent in half a dozen languages by the time he was 25. It also turned Josep into a staunch monarchist in a country where, by 1490, even the nobility were beginning to think monarchy wasn't such a good idea. In the span of a remarkable career, D'Espes became an expert on military strategy, shipbuilding, and politics; he was virtually the only person of any practical naval experience that Catalunya produced in the first century of its existence. He would advise two kings, Nicolau and Lluis de Luna, and occasionally serve in regency while the latter king was campaigning. In February 1490, his energies little diminished, he took command of the Grand Fleet at a time when it was facing a serious threat. Sadly, his capacity was not so undiminshed as his energy, although he remained competent to command. That same month, sieges in south Granada, including Moroccan coastal holdings, got underway. D'Espes engages the Moroccan fleet. Although his galleys are numerous, his big ships, each equipped with a single massive cannon, are outclassed and outnumbered by the Moroccan big ships that feature a pair of such cannons. Worse, the advantage in galleys is reduced by the difficulty in using their rams against the much larger cannon-based ships. Eventually, however, he manages to drive off the Arabic navy with damage. In one daring moment, one of the galleys rams and then boards an enemy cog, the Warith, capturing the damaged vessel and its crew. Sardinia falls to Tunisia in April, spelling the end of Sardinian involvement in the war. In England, local regiments pursue a defeat Moroccan force in June, with orders to turn and destroy an Alemandi regiment when they can. Unfortunately, naval interdiction is not practical to keep the enemy off the island; Catalunya's navy is based on a core of galleys, which are almost useless in the open ocean. Conveniently, Al-Alemand offers a white peace in July after sending thousand of men to futile deaths in England. It is quickly accepted. Algiers follows in August, accepting a token sum for peace. While a blow to Catalunyan prestige, at the moment it is necessary to reduce the field of enemies. The reason for that is apparent from news arriving from the east. The Ottoman war is a resounding failure for the Turks, freeing Moroccan soldiers and ships to fight in the west. Granada's last gasp in November. A detached siege force allows the army in Almeria destroy the enemy regiments. A month later, petulence sets in. It is honestly a surprise that this embargo did not arise earlier. But this raises an important point: the Baleares need to be liberated and brought back into the fold with their proper countrymen! A small Moroccan patrol forces ships from Navarra's yards to run for the safety of port as they try to round into the Mediterranean. Happily, the enemy ships sail on, another destination in mind. D'Espes wins another battle, more resoundingly this time, against Granada in April. The galley Muhammad ibn Nasr is added to the fleet. How Nice for us all! The Grand Fleet is called away in August to handle an important island-based affair, but since it cannot withstand a dilution of its power and hope to contest the Moroccan fleet's power, a galley squadron is left in Venezia to control the lagoon. When a Moroccan detachment evades the Grand Fleet and makes its way to the Gulf of Venice, things go badly for the Temeraria and its captain. Happily, the Granadan forces are still trapped by the threat of Ruman forces or the arrival of Catalunyan ships to risk invading Venezia. A certain revenge is extracted the next month, although d'Espes remains ignorant of the defeat at Venezia. The Oran will prove to be a very useful asset, being doubly effective at closing the gap between the opposing navies. Important island-based affairs proceed in November.5000 Catalunyan foot will lay siege to the island after destroying a thousand Granadan horse. Another landing of Moroccan forces in England in December. Their transport capacity seems to be limited, making the landings nothing more than a distraction for the English Regiments to clean up. And the war goes on...
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Post by MaybeNever on Sept 7, 2011 17:15:30 GMT -5
Sorry for no update last weekend, guys. I'm trying to update on Friday or Saturday, with bonus updates when they're feasible, but I was out of town for the holiday weekend. And also yesterday I forgot. But this works because this is a slightly special update. If you don't care about historical analysis, you should probably just skip down to the next picture. The reason is this: As you can see, the year is 1492. Nobody should be ignorant of the historical importance of this year, of course. In October - in a different timeline, natch - Christopher Columbus would land on a Caribbean island, although historians don't quite agree on which one, and believe that he had found a western route to India. In fact he'd gone about a sixth of the way, but this didn't deter him. EU3 won't model this well, but it's pretty likely that this alternate Europe would not (in reality) venture into the Atlantic for hundreds of years yet. There'd be no reason to do so, no demographic pressures or economic capacity. Why did our Europe explore there? The reasons were mostly financial. After the final collapse of the Byzantine Empire, inheritors of the Roman mantle that began (if Roman accounts are to be believed) in 753 BC with the founding of Rome, and with the Levant impregnably back in Muslim hands by the mid-1400s, trade routes into the far East were cut off. No silk or jade from China, no spices from India. Columbus was in the right place at the right time. Increasing economic and political competition among European nations meant that securing the profitable eastern trade routes would be a major advantage, and Spain, such as it was, got there first. The broad strokes of the following 500 years everybody knows. Our ne'er-go-westerly Europe would see some big changes (although less big than the changes that have already occurred, I guess). One change would be the absence of the potato, indigenous to South America, which was in fact exceedingly important to the development of European history. Hardy and nutritious as few foods are, yet surprisingly willing to grow just about anywhere, the potato became virtually the entire diet for many people. This was still the case as late as the nineteenth century, as made evident when the Potato Famine in Ireland in the 1840s killed over a million people and spurred the emigration of at least another million, mostly to the United States. These immigrants, in turn, would fuel the growing factories of the US, and prove a decisive factor when the American Civil War broke out. And this kind of dietary dependence was far more marked in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Another would be the absence of syphilis. Actually, it isn't 100% clear that syphilis was a New World disease, but the evidence suggests it strongly. Syphilis, which was originally called the Great Pox, to contrast it with smallpox, was a serious danger of that day, far more ruthless and virulent than the disease we know today. The fact that it was the first seriously deadly STD had considerable effects on how the emerging renaissance society viewed sex, and in one of those "nothing new under the sun moments" was blamed, by the devout, on the general godlessness of society. Back in the old days these things didn't happen, you know! Of course, the fact that it was an STD almost made it one of the few diseases that people were cheerfully willing to take the risk of contracting. The industrial revolution would probably be even longer in coming, even though it wouldn't begin in any serious way until the late 1700s anyway. Without colonies as captive markets for manufactured goods and as a source for raw materials to run factories, profitability would be much lower. Probably capitalism would be delayed as well, and with that the modern economy; but this hardly matters since a delayed industrial revolution would keep urbanization from happening, making economics a secondary concern in any case. And Europe would never know any red hot American indian booty.On the other hand, the native population of the Americas would not be catastrophically destroyed by disease and genocide. By the time they met these rather different Europeans, perhaps they would be in a position to compete militarily and immunologically. The Americas in this game do, I will mention, look quite different politically from their appearance in vanilla EU3. This will change the patterns of colonization somewhat, and may make for an interesting experience. Anyway, on with the show. In January, a Moroccan blockade of the western ports forces Josep d'Espes to take the fleet out of the Mediterranean to clear the sea lanes. It also points to emerging Moroccan naval technology as a potential threat, even if their fleet has failed to be one. The next month, a large fleet engagement off the coast of Almeria ends in a victory for Catalunya. The Moroccans have failed to recombine their fleet, giving d'Espes the edge. The other half of the enemy fleet appears in April, sending an army onto English shores. The Moroccan commander is an extremely talented one, fielding an army of equivalent size to that of the defenders, who have no clear leadership. He has failed to account for one rather crucial fact, however. One regiment of horse is led by colonel Pau d'Espes, grandson of the more famous Josep, and Pau proves to be a competent leader of men by rallying the defense and, in May, destroying the foe. Meanwhile, off the coast of England Josep is busy wounding the Moroccan ships. Amidst war, Catalunyan merchants still do their jobs well. Growing Catalunyan control of the seas probably has something to do with this. Georgia shrinks considerably in July as Orthodox Christian Trebizond strips our fellow Jews of their provinces. Another victory for Pau d'Espes, clearing Great Britain of enemies for the first time in a year. A signal victory for Josep in August, actually destroying a significant part of the Moroccan fleet. In September the Baleares, the main goal of this war - defensive though it is - falls in Catalunyan hands. The five thousand men of the Second Army are transported to Malta, hopefully to take that, too. More Moroccan ships destroyed in October, with one captured. 2 big ships and 3 transports have been taken from the enemy fleet. Pirates take to the sealanes in December. Under other circumstances they might have been ignored, but they control the straits. Their six light ships pose no threat to the Grand Fleet. The economy in January 1493. Inflation continues to rise, but so does income. The shortfall, and thus minting and inflation, will fall once peace comes and the military doesn't need so much money. In England the year begins badly, Pau being forced from his positions in Kent. He is able to lead a competent retreat across the Thames, allowing his men to recover in the relative safety of London. February brings two colonies: Catalunya claims Wessex, while Morocco claims Algarve. One of these colonies is unlikely to survive the war. Meanwhile, more Moroccan donations to the Catalunyan fleet are accepted that same month. On April 11, tragedy strikes when Josep is found dead that morning. The fleet was in port undergoing repairs. Obviously Morocco was behind this! 74-year-old men don't just die in their sleep, after all. The death of the elder d'Espes has two key effects. First, it leaves the fleet in the hands of Renat Llull, who had served as flag captain under d'Espes and had thus benefitted greatly from the old man's wisdom and experience. Llull was if anything a superior commander, energetic and immensely strong. He was known to set his men wrestling to keep them fit, and would join them when he could. The only thing he felt more passionately about than wrestling was Islam, which he hated fiercely. He was suspected of atheism, having shown remarkably tepid attitudes toward Judaism, but happily the charge was not a serious impediment to his or indeed anyone else's career. Second, with d'Espes gone a strong monarchist voice, a true exemplar of the Old Guard, evaporated. Pau, his inheritor, was not the polymath Josep was and had no opinions on the government, just soldiering. The balance of power between merchant and noble shifted. In May, possibly in response to the death of d'Espes or the arrival of the Army of Italy under Lluis de Luna on Ruman borders, Ruma declares war. The balance of forces doesn't favor Catalunya here. 73,000 men in the enemy alliance confront just 46,000 in Catalunya's. This wouldn't be the first time overwhelming odds had been overcome, though! One real concern is that Skandistan will be able to harass England, garrisoned with just 6000 men under Pau d'Espes, because the fleet would be needed to secure Venezia from Magyari soldiers. Those 34 galley squadrons could be a major problem in the Mediterranean, where galleys at least match big ships. Peace is signed with Granada in June, taking the Baleares and freeing the Jewish Maltese Knights Hospitaller. They can gradually be drawn into Catalunyan orbit and peacefully annexed to create a forward naval base if necessary. An overview of the situation and economy in June 1493. The Balearic center of trade is extremely valuable, and will make for a powerful economic asset.
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Post by ironbite on Sept 7, 2011 18:08:27 GMT -5
Dude...you're kicking major ass on the sea lanes. Wouldn't be surprised if that's where the war will be won.
Ironbite-still need a buffer though....start trying to raise a dragon. That'll win you the war.
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Post by Dragon Zachski on Sept 10, 2011 19:09:34 GMT -5
War-torn Europe indeed Can a single generation pass WITHOUT a war? XD
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Post by MaybeNever on Sept 10, 2011 23:25:36 GMT -5
Let's start with asking if more than two years pass without war. I have two plans. First, on the dragon front (Zachski notwithstanding), an alliance with China! Spain and China, best of buddies in 1500. On the other hand, the pools of manpower the nations of Europe have suggests dragon's teeth. Too bad Morocco owns Greece. Second, for breathing room maybe there is alliance in north Europe to be found. Al-Alemand might be possible, but Sameland owns most of Scandinavia now. And they aren't muslim. With their help, maybe a lasting defeat of Skandistan would be possible.
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Post by MaybeNever on Sept 16, 2011 2:31:31 GMT -5
In late June, Parma sees a battle which the Army of Spain under the king handily wins. The Rumans have not exactly come out swinging, it seems. August finds the galley squadron protecting Venezia forced to sea to stop a large Ruman army from crossing the straits. Unfortunately, a Ruman and Magyari flotilla is waiting for them. The Catalunyan captain, knowing his odds, calls for his red shirt. After 9 days of combat, the Grand Fleet arrives led by Renat Llull. Ruman captains call for their brown pants. A few days later, the inevitable results. Meanwhile, Lluis's Army of Spain is engaged by a slightly smaller enemy force. Their numbers are more than made up for by the brilliance of their king's leadership. The decision to attack the Catalunyan force in mountains, however, tips the battle to the defenders. The Grand Fleet attacks Skandistani ships. Once a threat to the nation, the enemy navy's combat ability is greatly diminished. The attack comes too late, however, to prevent soldiers landing on Sardinia. Two victories come in November 1493. On land, the Rumans inflict ghastly casualties in a pyrrhic victory for Lluis, whose army has lost half its men since August. At sea, Renat proves himself a worthy successor to d'Espes by not merely crushing the enemy force but by using the victory to expand the navy of Catalunya. In December, peace is offered. It is a bitter thing for Lluis to accept a return to the status quo ante when ten thousand Catalunyans had died in a few months. But the nation was exhausted by years of constant war, and the battles being fought were victories only in the narrowest sense. The enemy was being forced from the field, but inflicting serious losses while it stayed. Had the Magyari forces joined this war in numbers, they could have rolled along the Mediterranean coast with only token resistance. Not everyone is happy with the decision the king makes. Negotiating a white peace instead of concessions is the last straw for many powerful people, already outraged at years of neglect. A new threat is taking shape in the north, and Catalunya is surrounded by enemies on every front. Too, Lluis's long absence from the capital has given his enemies a chance to plot. But they are not quite ready. Not yet. Europe in July 1494. The economy is decent, Asia Minor is a wreck, and Great Britain is... different now.
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Post by Art Vandelay on Sept 16, 2011 3:04:43 GMT -5
Fuck me Scotland's really taken off in the last year.
It seems a shame that I made you colonise Britain. They may've made a good ally otherwise.
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Post by MaybeNever on Sept 16, 2011 3:38:38 GMT -5
Turns out they will anyway. I realized earlier that I had failed to turn up the difficulty level from normal, so once I tweaked that factor the AI got its act together very, very fast. Scotland's just ahead of the curve because everybody else was at war, when the AI prioritizes non-colonial stuff. Behold, many interesting things here:
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Post by MaybeNever on Sept 16, 2011 3:41:36 GMT -5
Also, wow. 3.2 megs? Imageshack's compression actually makes that file larger. It's 2.2 megs at 1680x1050 on my hard drive. I need to figure out how to better compress these things that doesn't create monster files.
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Post by MaybeNever on Sept 23, 2011 15:28:41 GMT -5
When the king left the capital to visit his English provinces in late June, his enemies were prepared to move. Word was rushed back to them that the king's ship had departed Navarre, and in early July the young Prince regent was seized by a coalition of nobles. They demanded the end of the king'd primacy and the institution of a republic of nobles - more than demanded, but established. All hell began to break loose, and it would be weeks before the king could return. He was not deposed yet! In September, ten weeks of rioting in the capital culminate in a massive army of freebooters rising up under the pretender Enric Vilamari, who styles himself Enric I, king of Catalunya. The Army of Spain engages the rebels... and is routed with heavy losses. 34 days later, Barcelona falls and is subjected to looting. He makes no friends among the locals, but his army seizes a royal armory and outfits itself with the superior weapons and armor within. Two days after that, royalist sentiment simmering in Lombardia erupts, but is quickly subsumed by a powerful particularist movement demanding local autonomy and stronger protection against the Magyari, with whom the province shares a border. Royalist soldiers manage to hold the fort against days of furious particularist assault, and the Army of Italy moves to engage the weakened rebels. A second pretender rebellion rises in Girona, ancient stronghold of noble power, in support of Enric Vilamari. The Army of Spain is already on the move to engage the enemy in Barcelona. This time, with Lluis at their head, the Army of Spain makes Vilamari feel defeat in December. The king arrived just three days before the battle and was roundly cheered by his soldiers, his captive son and exile from the capital giving him the popularity reserved for suffering heroes. Word spreads quickly: once the pretender is dead, the king will return in triumph to the capital and all the unrest of recent months will be at an end. The nobles will know their place! 1495 sees the king and the pretender, his champion Hector Gassol leading the rebel army, clash once again. The fighting is heated, but Lluis's tactical brilliance compensates for the numbers of rebels. The king fights alongside his soldiers, resolved to honor their loyalty. Then tragedy strikes. Lluis falls, dead on the spear of a rebel levy who is at once the most hated and most loved man in all of Catalunya. After the battle, many claimed to be the man and others claimed to kill him. The truth was rather different: Josep the Weaver had been a small freeholder, a skilled tradesman near Barcelona with a comfortable life by the standards of the day. When the pretender rose up and his neighbors were filled with the frantic lustful energies of a charismatic movement, Josep had no choice but to join them or suffer. So he joined them. He had no passion for the fight or the cause, but the movement coalesced quickly and desertion was impossible. Then the battles came, and Josep had to fight or die; so he fought. He had no skill, only a fear of death and a luck that was as remarkable as it was bad. He did not know that he had killed a king, the last king of Catalunya, nor that he had changed the course of history. He did know, later, that he had survived, and that his textile goods brought a good price. He remained quiet, never speaking of his time under arms, and fathered three daughters before dying a wealthy man in 1541. Roderic Pinos was 62 in 1495. He had been a royalist all his life, but listened tolerantly when his fellow nobles talked to him of the need for change. He had few enemies and many friends, or at least people who owed him favors, and in the chaos of the past eight months had been almost invisible. But when news of Lluis's death reached the capital, he acted quickly: his householders, backed by a regiment of hastily-bought mercenaries, descended on the palace. The event broke the uneasy peace that had reigned in the capital for the past two months, shifting alliances among ambitious nobles keeping any from outright declaring his bid to the throne and thus making himself a target for the others - and for the king. Five days of fierce street battles erupt, heralded by Roderic's household troops sweeping all others from the palace. When the dust settles, it is Roderic who emerges the clear victor of the fighting, and who manages to bring enough nobles under his banner to declare himself prince of Catalunya. Not king - no more will Catalunya have those. That died with Lluis de Luna, on the field of battle. Going forward, a noble, elected by his peers, would rule Catalunya. They would convene, he said, every eight years to decide whether to keep or oust a ruler. And despite the desires of those who had started this chaos, who insisted that only those who could trace their nobility back four generations be allowed - any man of noble title could hold the post. Even those who had bought it, and not been born to it. And there were many such men. Josep Gassol, brother of Hector Gassol and loser in the battles of the capital, escapes to his estates in west Catalunya and raises an army in his bid for the throne. But the nation is growing exhausted by the constant strife. Gassol, even buying mercenaries at exorbitant sums, can raise just six thousand men. His rebellion ends in short order, with more tears than blood. The Army of Spain, still headless, buys a victory in blood from the forces of Hector Gassol. The men are dispirited, their king dead, chaos all around them, and a seemingly unkillable foe still their target. Two days before the battle of Bearn, in March 1495, Jaume Piquer, one of the Roderic's men, reaches the army with his retinue. There is no time to make substantial changes, no time to drill the soldiers harder, but he quickly spreads his retainers through the army to create a reliable core of officers. The soldiers do not resist. Despite new leadership, the battle of Bearn is almost as much a fiasco as the battle of Girona the month before. A wave of desertions erupt, but they slow when Hector Gassol is found among the dead. News reaches Roderic from the Faransan border: large numbers of enemy soldiers have taken up positions. Another nightmare of a victory against the pretender in May, although the Army of Spain has been reinforced by fresh levies loyal to Roderic. This time, though, Piquer has anticipated the result, and closes the trap. In May, the ten months of the pretender come to an end with the capture of Enric Vilamari and a large portion of his personal retinue. Roderic debates what to do with him while the rebel army disperses back to their homes or across borders to something like safety. Further particularist uprisings erupt in the northwest and southwest. The Army of Spain, now free from other troubles, moves to destroy them. With Piquer in full control of the army, and the soldiers once again in fighting fit, the small forces are easily dispatched. Their demands speak to the calming of the nation: safety from the foreign foes, not domestic troubles. The last gasp of rebellion comes in August 1495, with ten thousand men under Arnau Dalmau in Venezia. The battle is a close one, with the loyalists outnumbered almost two to one. Renat Llull arrives with the bulk of the grand fleet, and debarks sailors to support the army. With the straits held by the navy, there is nowhere to flee, and after two weeks of combat in the city Dalmau is seized, and killed without ceremony. Word of the rebellion's end, complete with Dalmau's head and sword, reaches Roderic more quickly than word of the rebellion's start. For a year, the country remains quiet. Tensions remain, but thousands have died in the past two years and central power has been restored. An expansion of the army begins. September 1496 brings an end the peace at the hands of Faransa, hungry for land. They have misjudged their target. Catalunya remains diminished, but two great nations come to her defense. Scotland and, remarkably, Magyaristan. Faransa fields an incredible army of almost ninety thousand men; arrayed against her is the grand alliance of five nations, with an army of 175,000. The end of the war is in little doubt. But it is not the end of the war that worries Roderic, nor those along the border, but the beginning. However the war ends, Catalunya will no doubt bear the brunt of the suffering as it proceeds.
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