User:Rythin/Burgundy
From EU2Wiki
| |||
| Scenarios | 1419 | ||
| Orientation | Trade | ||
| Religion | Reformed | ||
| Economy | Good | ||
| Military | Average | ||
| Enemies | France, German minors, Netherlands | ||
| Allies | England, Austria | ||
Contents |
Background
History
Burgundy (French: Bourgogne) is a historic region of France, inhabited in turn by Pre-Indo-European people, Celts (Gauls), Romans (Gallo-Romans), and various Germanic tribes, most importantly the Burgundians and the Franks. Burgundians gave their name to the region. Later in time, the region was divided between the duchy of Burgundy (west of Burgundy) and the county of Burgundy (east of Burgundy). The duchy of Burgundy is the most famous of the two, and the one which reached historical fame. Later, the duchy of Burgundy became the French province of Burgundy, while the county of Burgundy became the French province of Franche-Comté (literally meaning "free county").
The Burgundians were one of the Germanic peoples who filled the power vacuum left by the collapse of the western half of the Roman empire. In 411, they crossed the Rhine and established a kingdom at Worms. Amidst repeated clashes between the Romans and Huns, the Burgundian kingdom eventually occupied what is today the borderlands between Switzerland, France, and Italy. In 534, the Franks defeated Godomar, the last Burgundian king, and absorbed the territory into their growing empire.
Its modern existence is rooted in the dissolution of the Frankish empire. When the dynastic dust had settled in 880s, there were three Burgundies: the kingdom of Upper Burgundy around Lake Geneva, the kingdom of Lower Burgundy in Provence, and the duchy of Burgundy in France. The two kingdoms of Burgundy were reunited in 937 and absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire under Conrad II in 1032. The duchy of Burgundy was annexed by the French throne in 1004, but soon granted out as an apanage to the younger son of King Robert II.
During the Middle Ages, Burgundy was the seat of some of the most important Western churches and monasteries, among them Cluny, Citeaux, and Vézelay.
During the Hundred Years' War, King Jean II of France inherited Burgundy upon the death of the last Capetian duke. He gave the duchy to his fourth son, Philip, rather than leaving it to his successor on the throne. The duchy soon became a major rival to the French throne, because the Dukes of Burgundy succeeded in assembling an empire stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea, mostly by marriage. The Burgundian Empire consisted of a number of fiefdoms on both sides of the (then largely symbolical) border between the French kingdom and the German Empire. Its economic heartland was in the Low Countries, particularly Flanders and Brabant. The court in Dijon outshone the French court by far both economically and culturally.
In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Burgundy provided a power base for the rise of the Habsburgs, after Maximilian of Austria had married into the ducal family. In 1477 the last duke Charles the Bold was killed in battle and Burgundy itself taken back by France. His daughter Mary and her husband Maximillian moved the court to Brussels and ruled the remnants of the empire (the Low Countries and Franche-Comté, then still a German fief) from there. Thus the territory primarily meant by the term "Burgundy" had completely changed between the 10th and the 15th centuries - from referring to the area of southeastern France which had been the Kingdom of the Burgundians, it had come to refer to the Burgundian lands centered in the Netherlands.
Location
The Kingdom of Burgundy is divided into two different parts - a French one and a Dutch one. The French part is orientated around the provinces of Bourgogne and Frenche-Comte, while the Dutch one occupies the Lowlands, terrains that are now owned by the Netherlands and Belgium. For player it is vital to create a bridge between the two parts, most probably by annexing Lorraine. Dutch provinces (Holland, Zeeland, Artois, Flanders, Brabant, Luxembourg) are very rich and populated thus provide a good share of manpower, a thing that is extremely needed during Hundred Years War and further expansions. Burgundy neighbours with France to south and west (depends on which part of the realm we take into an account) and German minors to east. Normally, German states don't have their businesses in Lowlands, but they can be extremely annoying when you have a high badboy - they then tend to move their uber huge armies to your provinces.
In 1419 they start with following provinces:
Holland (339), Zeeland (340), Artois (379), Flanders (380), Frenche Comte(387), Bourgogne (409)
And they have also cores on the following province:
Friesen (337), Gerland (338), Alsace (374), Lorainne (375), Luxemburg (377), Brabant (378),
Early game
A Hundred Years' War
When the Grand Campaign starts, Burgundy is involved in Hundred Years War at the side of England and Brittany. It is in relatively good position, because it can quickly blitzkrieg French provinces from many direction (simultanously from the Lowlands and Bourgogne). It borders to Paris and sieging it already guarantees twenty points of a warscore. It is very hard to lose the first war as Burgundy, because even if your army is crushed, your English ally is very likely to siege your provinces back (especially with the newest betapatch, when there is a land bridge between Kent and Calais). You can easily grab Champagne and Nivernais in a peace treaty. Apart from very rich provinces, it will give you a connection between your capital and the Lowlands (unless you play the Age of Imperialism or the other mods, in which the capital is already moved to Antwerpen at the beginning).
This extremely good positioning has also, unfortunately, very serious drawbacks. You have to maintain a big, at least 20k, army in your southern provinces, because AI French minors (like Provence) are very likely to attack you there with their massive armies. It is also very easy to lose yourself in the labyrinths of military passages - it may even turn out that your army won't be able to get back to the home!
Early battles (those which occur before 5th level of land tech) are unfortunately very random and it is possible to lose a battle with even a thousand infantry. Thus you should build a lot of cavalry and use it notoriously in the French plains - it is the only way to guarantee yourself more-or-less a victory. Also, try to avoid battling with French leaders, unless you have Philip III or Jean de Pressy. In the other case you can experience heavy losses.
Securing the Netherlands
Although Burgundy has a Dutch culture and more than three quarters or its territory lies in the Lowlands, it will suffer from Dutch revolters as well as Austria or Spain would.
The first killing event will trigger in 1560 if you own one of Dutch provinces and has less than eight innovative clicks. The first option (the one the AI is likely to pick in 95% cases) will raise the revoltrisk in Dutch provinces for ten percents and trigger revolts in Holland, Zeeland and Flandern. Also, it will reduce your innovativeness and raise the stability. The second option increases the revoltrisk only for five percents, but will cost you 500 ducats and -2 stability.
The second killing event will occur in 1565 if you are Catholic, own at least one of Dutch provinces and are under eight innovativeness. The options are just like in the event from 1560 - the first one will give you 300 ducats and increase the revoltrisk for ten and the second one will take 500 ducats, 2 stab but the increase will be only for five.
The next event happens in 1575 and has the same conditions as the event from 1565 - if you are Catholic, own a Dutch province and don't have enough innovativeness, you will suffer. It has, however, quite different options. Action a, 'Sign the Union of Arras' will increase the province revoltrisk in northern provinces for ten but decrease in four southern for seven. It will cost you 200 ducats. Action b, 'No concessions', will raise the revoltrisk in northern and southern provinces (for ten and seven respectively). It will give you 300 ducats and +3 stability. The last option, action c, 'Sign the Union of Arras and lower taxes' will increase the revoltrisk in nothern provinces for five and decrease in southern ones for seven. It will, however, take from you as many as 500 ducats and one stab.
If you played defensively, eighty percents of your basic manpower would come from Dutch provinces and once the revolt occur it will drop significantly. Thus before all this stuff happens you have to capture the province bordering to your Dutch holdings so that you can reinforce and regroup your armies quickly. The best thing, however, would be not to let the revolt occur. The easiest way of doing so is going max to the right with Innovativeness.
A bad thing about this event sequence is that once the Netherlands revolt away from you, you will automatically cede all your Dutch provinces to them. Your priority then is to not allow the revolters to own any of your provinces for more than three years - it will then automatically claim itself the Netherlands and you will lose. If you survive till 1648 you will get 'Repatriation of the Netherlands' events that will reduce the revoltrisk for 30 in all your provinces and give you a free conversion.
Slider changes
Aristocracy. This choice is rather hard one to make, because an aristocracy guarantees you cheaper cavalry (which is important, especially when France is your enemy - just look at their plain provinces!), while plutocracy gives you cheaper warships, which may prove helpful in case you would want to fill colonial spots that are free because of the lack of the Netherlands. The best option would be to stick yourself to seventh click to the right - it shall guarantee you an optimum between the cavalry and the infantry.
