Both of these kingdoms are protectorates of my mighty Polish-Lithuanian neighbour, the Polish monarch eyes my offers with mild suprise, a friend of their friends perhaps? My standing in their court goes up as I begin to make profit for their protectorates.

I invest all my research in my initial social technologies, hoping for the benefits that the increased tax revenue and productivity will bring, not least the extra goods I'll trade into central Europe.
The money I'm making starts to increase, larger powers take notice.

Britain approaches me with an offer to trade, their wealth is mighty and I need their naval backing. I readily agree, only to anger my mainland neighoubr, France. As a friend of their long time enemy I am not to be trusted.

My college is ready to upgrade to a full academic faculty, offering me acces to newer, larger technologies. But my peple are becoming restless.
The academics are talking, lessons on social division, class structure and the wealth of nations are filtering down to the gutters and the poor. Dark mumbles of discontent occur in taverns, the lower classes don't wish to see the ever growing farming estates of the rich as a mere workplace anymore, but as a potential property of their own...

The diplomatic nicities are interrupted as I see a Polish gentleman approaching from the East. He's heading for my world class research facilities in Western Europe under the guise of a visit. I suspect him to be a spy.
He will enconce himself in my facilities and bleed my knowledge for nothing.
I swiflty look to the dirtier, more bawdy regions in the east of my tiny Empire. Here, amongst the pleasure gardens and brothles I have a Rake. His deep and slow voice tell me I need not worry, that this gentleman will be...'dissapeared'.

As the Rake shadows the Polish Gent on the path to Brandenburg, the Pole looses his nerve and heads back to Warsaw. Who knows? Perhaps that was always his destination?

But now thre is trouble in the capital.
The peoples discontent at the rate of industrial change and the growing pressure on them from tax rises daily. I can only afford the upkeep of a few extra troops to garrison the town, I recruit them, hoping the armies will deter any potential bid for 'reform'.

A factory outside of the capital is ready to be upgraded, but I dont have the technology to do so.
I turn to the British and offer them money for it, not enough it seems.

I scour the smaller nations, looking for the technology I need, a trade here, some money there, nothing.
This factory will really sart making me some cash so I need to upgrade it.

I go back to the British, they welcome me as a friend but I know they see me as a purse.
I double my offer.

"Why didn't you say your need was so great?" "Knowledge is shared between friends of course!"

I am several thousand pounds lighter but now able to upgrade the much needed factory.

When the plant is completed the poor finally erupt. A strike is called, workers looking dangerously close to rioting at the sheer speed of industrialisation in my small nation.

I will not tolerate dissent.

I increase the garrison of the town by another third and the poor back down, realising they cannot take on several ranks of well drilled line infantry at this stage.
I notice Austrian forces moving just in the periphery of the fog to the south of the Prussian kingdom. Do they have military access rights to those lands?


Storm Clouds Gather:


The British abruptly break off our trade agreement, with no reason as to why, uttering some pleasentary about 'political necessity'.

Within three years they have signed an alliance with Austria. More troops are seen in the south.

Rumours of war between Austria and the Ottomons reach me. Surely the Austrians cannot be so foolish as to fight an empire so mighty so early?
The next turn a messenger brings more urgent news. The small Crimean kingdom sandwiched between these two foes has fallen to Austria. Their people are gone from history, removed in one fell swoop.

The Polish are massing large armies beside me, Russian forces are moving in form the cold eastern euroeapan climes too. What is happening here?

I hastily arrange a trade agreement with the Russian empire, knowing that continued exhange will eventually lead to good feeling.
The Polish are allowing Russian troops to cross their lands, moving ever westward at speed.
Why?

Are the Russians coming for me?
Austrias war against the Ottomons is brought to an uneasy truce. Both sides fought to a standstill.

I am left delicately balancing, upgrading all my sea ports and trading with as many people as possible, hording a war chest.
Russian forces are still stationed in eastern Poland, they move in and out of my view, I decide I must send an emissary. Someone who indicates no threat that can illuminate more of that side of the map for me.

A priest, I'll send a holy man.

He moves eastward form my church and looks like no more than a travelling evangelist, but his movements show me something of the land around him.

It is a terrifiying spectacle.

Austria has swallowed several smaller kingdoms and bloated itself into a large land hungry power. Desperate to gain income from developing regions to support its armies in the field.

I need more information before deciding how to act.

I send a rake into the nearest Austrian city, I need to see what units are present.

He is succesful and returns news of a large and growing garrison, mostly militia but with a growing number of well drilled rifleman to boot.
Clearly the Russians are nervous.

My technology is now sufficient to generate a good healthy income from farming, social and industrial advancement. If I could trade for just a few more years, I could afford to place an expeditianry force in the field.


A National Disaster:


The end of the winter season brings terrible, tragic news.

My king is dead.

The United Provinces, immediately lay claim to my throne. "A war of succesion" they cry. I am at war.

The Dutch are mighty, but the smaller satellite kingdoms of Poland-Lithuania protect me fomr any land advance and the narrow straits of the northern oceons prevent them form entering my ports, their enemy Sweden is present here, large fleets silenty drifintg through these narrow waters.

I am safe.

In that instant Austria signs an alliance with the United Provinces and sends a huge force across my southern border, capturing the rich lands of my farming estates in Brandenburg, just a few miles from the capital of my empire itself.

My people panic.

I send my troops into combat for the first time, hoping the basic military technology I have can win out.


The Prussian - Austrian War:


A bloody pitched battle ensues, the green hills of southern Brandenburg are soaked in the blood of Austrian and Prussian conflict. My brave rifleman stand several ranks deep and fire stubbornly at the enemy.
Austrias troops are higher in number but of poorer calibre. They aim and march sloppily, poorly drilled but deadly with a large volley.

I seize a vital hill and immediately increase my lines length, firing down at them with everything in my arsenal.

A small unit of Austrian cavalry circles my flank, ready to smash into my lines fomr behind, driving me down the hill and into the enemy.
I send my general in a last ditch charge to hold of thier advance, he battles hard and although his number is halved he wins through, breaking their morale.

With that I fix bayonets and charge down the hill into the Austrian mob, hoping against hope that their poorer training will show here.

It does.

The Austrian line breaks under gunfire and bayonnet assault, fleeing for the relative safety of northern Austrian territory.

Now my people are full of patrotic fervor. The talk of loss and revolution has been replaced with pride and courage in the face of adversity, for this is a war we Prussians did not want but that we must now win.

Despite the bump in morale, I'm wary. My forces are too few, I cannot hope to advance and can barely defend.
I make a desperate appaeal to Poland for alliance, they refuse. Unwilling to be drawn into a war with such a power on their doorstep.

I sweeten the deal with money and tech, to this they agree. But signing after my being attacked doesnt gaurantee their aid.

Spotting a thin gap in the Austrian troops zone of control I walk my armies into a lightly defended Austrian region, hoping to catch them by suprise.
It works and I lay siege to the small capital to my south. Burning its lands.

I take the town in a bloody battle that costs the better half of my remaining army. I cannot hold this place.

But I do not intend to stay. The Austrians will pay for the aggression they have shown against me and they will feel it here.

I burn everything to the ground.

Farms, factories, government houses, schools and barracks all are raised.

When the Austrians return I retreat, leavingt them a burned ruin of a province, let them invest thousands of pounds and years of devlopment bringing it back up. For now it will offer them nothing.

My blitzkrieg is working well, I use two armies in alternate pattersn, harrassing farms and villages then attacking capitals in the rear of their line. I hold the reinformcements off for one turn whilst burning their citites to the ground, leaving them in possesion of nothing when I vacate.

Then the campaign turns.

I have overstretched and cannot resupply this far out. My generals have no clear route for reinforcments and canont call for any. Both my field armies are eventually surrounded outside Vienna itself. Three massive Austrian armies are ready to attack me in the next turn. With these armies wiped out they will advance unopposed into my capital, giving me nothing to hold them back with.

The battle is long and hard.

The Austrians kill hundreds of my men with a well times barrage of cannon fire as they march, followed by rifleman hidden in the trees. By the time my men are in position I know I needed to recruit artillery of my own and some more cavalry. But it is too late.
Despite a spirited battle my men are tired, worried and in poor shape. An Austrian cannon volley follwed by a raking line of fire from irregularsl forces their breaking point, they flee.

I shout in rage as they run from the field, knowing this leaves my southern flank open and my capital lightly defended.

The next turn I prepare for the worst, recruiting poor militia units and irregulars as they are fast and cheap in a last minute attempt to hold back the Austrian invasion that will swell up from Vienna.


Defeat?


Then it happens.

A massive Polish Army, backed by Russians appears out of the fog of war and lays siege to Vienna. More than twenty brigades are stationed in the Austrian capital and the combined Russian Polish force annihilate them utterly.

My allies have saved me.

The Austrians are now in dissarray, their capital is gone, all their remaining provinces a re burned to the ground and they hold nothing but soil and the tattered remnants of the armies used to crush my Prussian forces.
The Poles are merciles, they hound the Austrians to their final region, Croatia.

I follow with what remains of my army, intent on sealing the doom of the Austrian scum.

The Poles attack and the Austrians withdraw taking heavy casualties.

The Russians siege the capital and I make my move.
In a daring assault we crush the Austrian town and remove them form history. A once mighty nation, gone forever.

Now, all over central Europe there is a massive land grab, rebel factions rise up in ungoverned provinces, citizens unhappy with mine or indeed Polish rule rebel against us.
My Empire is stretched thin and ununited. A long thin, land strip running form northern Europe down to the opposite coast of Italy.

The Russians absorb everything to the east, splitting their armies and taking Austrias lost regions. An empires carcass for the crows.

Poland tightens its grip on Vienna, a highly developed and lucrative prize.

I am left desperately trying to govern the scraps of land I have, hoping against hope that this will not decend into anarchy.

The United Provinces, seeing their allies fate sue for peace and I grant it. In truth I cannot afford another war.


An Uneasy Peace:


The Poles see me, overstretched and weak. They ask for Eastern Prussia, a prize they had long sought when we were enemies.
I decline.

They ask again with money involved.

The Russians retreat into the vast expanse of Eastern europe and I loose track of their forces.

Poland demand Eastern Prussia, I try and placate them with some of the austrian spolils but it wont be enough.

We remain allies but they cancel our trade agreement, citing my nation as 'inferior'. A sign of things to come?

In the north I hear word that my ship wrights have finally built a small trading fleet, they move escorted by a tiny number of sloops and a few brigs into the English channel, and from there out...

Out into the open expanse of the ocean and the new world beyond...



A Broken State:

The hostilities with Austria have cost my nation dear.

The remains of armies in the field and a host of new territory to govern, almost all of it ruined by brutal war.

Resistance to occupation forces riots in Hungary, the people are starving and have a burning hatred for their new masters.
I garrison the capital with the few units I can spare but it isnt enough to even dampen the vitriol with which they treat my people.

I imagine my armies are spat at in the streets and my government is openly defied.

I try to hold off the angry mob by exempting the province from tax.

This gives me time to breathe, but little else.

The three new provinces I have taken are almost utterly undeveloped as a result of my slash and burn invasion. I concentrate on developing the governors buildings, gradually increasing tax revenue and imposing my authority in marble and stone.

A tattered Ottomon army appears on my southern-most border, their flag ripped and their numbers depleted. They have had a long and bloody march, I don't know from where or why.
We have traded for many years now and they regard me as a friend if not an ally. They quickly move back into the darkness, their purpose unknown. A long way from home.

I just need to keep order long enough to get a foothold in these new territories. I order the construction of a theatre in Hungary, hoping this will alleviate the anger of the people by diversion.

There is one year to go until the completion of my grand theatre project there, one year until the populace can loose their anger in art and performance.

A Russian army, it's flag crisp and its general standing tall arrives on the border.

We had been allies of convenience but had no binding diplomatic agreement to protect one another.

I have nothing to defend should they seek to invade. I can barely hold back the riotous mobs of Hungary.

The Russians demand the province of Serbia in exchange for a host of technologies and a small, polite, payment of coin.
This is excellent news, although I had invested in Serbias devlopment somewhat it's a long way from fully functional and its populace hate my Prussian troops with a passion that can only come from occupation.

I agree and withdraw my armies as the Russians roll in and impose their own brand of order.

A good deal, just when needed.



Eruption

The Hungarians watch with awe as I simply hand over another province, they see my weakness and it is the final straw.

A massive rebellion begins outside the city, a small newly built factory is torn down and a huge rebel army enconses itself on the site. I simply cannot keep order here.

Then the worst happens.

Workers in Brandenburg, my capital, smell rebellion and strike, almost in sympathy. The poor in Croatia immediately follow suite.

In the next moment the rebel Hungarian army marches on it's capital. My meagre garrison is trapped.

It is a slaughter.

Rebels simply charge my tiny defensive positions and overrun the militias defences. I fight a desperate reargaurd action, hoping to give some of my troops an avenue for escape.

The larger rebel force simply swings around the rear and cuts off any escape.

It is hard to watch but my men fight to the death. They do not beg, they do not bow and they do not flee.

After the carnage the rebels destroy any symbols of my government and hang the local administrator.

Hungary is lost to their own people, they immediately declare themselves a faction and seek international recognition.

The Poles see my weakness, they see the new Hungarian power rising and agree to trade with them. They do not offer protection, merely the infusion of money through trade.

I will remember their opportunism when the time comes.




A Peoples Prussia


My treasury is crippled, my advisor warns me that in one year I will be utterly bankrupt. There are already whipsers amongst the people about my leadership, the treasury secretary has an expensive mistress they say. The leader is impotent in the face of military challenge they think.

The Ottomans send an envoy asking for Eastern Prussia for a host of tech and coin. I cannot give this up. It is the other half of what I envisage to be the grand Prussian Empire. They leave empty handed, clearly insulted by my refusal in such a state. A beggar deciding to choose.

If I can hold the nation together for one more year then my tax revenue will be enough to stop any possibility of bankrupty and perhaps allow me to invest in some diversions for the people of Brandenburg.

I dont get the time.

A full scale revolution begins.

Armies of the people smash into the gates of Brandenburg palace, throwing the iron backward and forward as a desperate royal guard fire on them from inside the palace.
With whom will I side?

The people who see a new, powerful Prussia lead by republic or the old guard. The aristocratic ruling classes.
At this, the burning of my capital, the loss of my influence I know where my heart lies.

I am loyal to the crown. And if the crown is to fall then I will take my nation with it.

I side with the loyalists and the peoples German army, under the new German flag begin destroying the region in protest.

Their first targets are the plantations of the rich, they smash these palacial estates and burn thier harvests.

This conflict must be ended hard and fast. The longer it persists the weaker I will seem.

I take everything that remains from the capitals garrison, royal horseman and loyal line infantry. The general, a member of the upper class remains steadfastly loyal.
I march into battle against my own people, not far form the site of the first battle of the Prussian - Austrian war, south of Berlin.

I wonder if the irony of this is lost on my enemies, as Prussian lines up against Prussian on the field.

It's a cold winter. Snow drifts down form the sky, decreasing the rifelmens range and tiring the horses more quickly.
They march under a three coloured flag of orange black and red. This new 'peoples' flag.

I detest it.

Forming up I issue the order to engage.

The rebel army splits into two large forces, the left flank moving far out into the fields and the right rushing to garrison nearby farms buildings and small developments.

I focus all my forces on the thin left flank as it marches. I leave my right almost utterly undefended, concentrating on crushing the first half of the rebel army.

I force my units to run, they arrive, breathless just ahead of the rebels and force an exchange of fire.
As the rebels reload I bring in another two units of line infantry, creating a horsehoe around them, they are rapidly loosing discipline.

I tell my officers to hold fast as I bring in the remainder of my units in fire support.

The Rebels have now massed in the centre of the horsehoe and are firing out on all sides. Their volleys are deadly, and I notice amongst them several units of line infantry I myself recruited. Defectors, traitors. Scum.

I lack the forces to close the trap and fire on the rebel position from all sides and my line infantry are rapidly loosing heart as the rebels concentrate their volleys on the thinnest parts of my line.

Then I know what I must do.

I take two of my most veteran line infantry and tell them to fix bayonettes and charge the rebel mass.

Without question they ruin into the midst of a superior force, some of my units are satarting to waver, wondering why on earth I have taken these men off the firing line and to their certain deaths.

The charge has the desired effect.
The rebel army can no longer fire from such a concentrated position and must engage in melee.

With that I order all the other units of line infantry closer, allowing for the poor visiliblity caused by snow.

The infantgry are stretched thin and those in the centre are battling for their lives.

Little do they know their death is part of my plan.

"Fire into the centre"

I order the rest of the line infantry.

They will kill everyone there. My own forces and the enemies.

The first barrage rips musket shot into the melee. Rebels and my own forces are torn to pieces by musket fire.

They keep fighting.

"Fire"

A second volley from all the amassed infantry tears into the throng.

Small metal balls do not discriminate. They kill my own and theirs. More of theirs, and thats what I am counting on.

With the order to fire again, one of my units in the centre, having taken huge casualties in the hand to hand fighting and been fired on by his own side, routes.

I cant allow this middle to fold and have the rebels surge into my overstretched line.

I order another unit into the fray, knowing I am ordering it to its own death.

"FIRE"

The next volley utterly breaks the rebel army.
They are bloodied and battered from close quarters fighting and my willingness not only to kill fellow Prussians, but my own forces has clearly shaken them.

"FIRE"

Another batch of fire sends many of them slumping, never to wake.

With that they hoist the white flag, their units all surrendering on mass.

"Shall we end the battle with honour now my leige..?"

The surviving rebels, trapped in the perfect firing circle and without morale look at me once more.

Honour be damned.

I order the units to continue the battle and fire on the group until every last rebel is dead.

The screams of the dead and dying do not bother me, they would have had my throne and my head. There will be order.

When the battle finishes I have annihilated the rebel forces.
Their leaders are tried and executed in Berlin and the rebellion is a failed idea, tested with the blood of thousands of peasants.

Order is immediately restored to Brandenburg and my outlying provinces. The rebellion has been so utterly destroyed that people dare not raise their voices against me.

I refresh the army and send it back into the Berlin garrison.

Things are looking up.




Shockwaves

Then something happens that nobody expects.

A message arrives, showing me a field of battle somewhere, somewhere in western Europe.

The carnage there is not unlike what I had witnessed during my own revolutionary war. But the forces are more devloped, more numerous.

A massive city is burning in the background.

"They are utterly destroyed, they no longer exist on the world stage"

Seeing the torn remnants of a flag draped over a cannon in this report I cannot believe it.
It cannot be.

France has been destroyed.

The city of Paris has fallen to the Dutch and the world will never be the same.

The United Provinces have expanded so far into western europe that they now threaten Portugal.

The French fought a bitter battle for their survival but were no match for the United Provinces.
Glancing at the map of Europe I see it painted orange. Everywhere west of Saxony and Hannover is Dutch save for a small piece of Spain and Portugal.

I hastily try and broker an agreement with the United Provinces. Gluttenous in their victory they will have none of it.
No alliance, no trade.

My victory over Austria with Polish and Russian assistance is as nothing compared to them singlehandedly destroying the French.
My diplomats advice me that their wealth is spectacular and their military might terrifying.

We have not yet broken down into hostility but it can only be a matter of time.
They have not yet renounced their claim to the crown of Prussia. All that sits between me and them are the small kingdoms of the west and the Danes in the north.

Europe is polarising.




A New Cold War

I look east for allies, solidifying my agreements with Poland and approaching Russia for a formal alliance.

The Russians will not sign, thinking of me as an upstart I am not militarily repsected by them. They saved me once and the burden of this knowledge hangs over my reputation.

No amount of money, tech or inducements will let them consider me an ally, not when faced with the might of the Dutch, just beyond the horizon.

Then I will show the world I am to be feared.
I generate revenue form my newly subjugated populace and even demolish a factory to build another theatre. I want them pacified and with me on my next venture.

Slowly, over time I raise an army. I divert reserarch into basic drills and new formations, allowing me more options in the field.

All the while a flood of Dutch rakes and gentlemen appear in the west.

They creep into the capitals and cities of the small kingdoms on my border, they begin to walk towards my own seat of learning in Brandenburg.

I station three rakes in the university there. One of them a formidable counter-espionage agent.

A Dutch gentleman is politely ejected, his purpose unknown.

A Dutch rake appears a few months later. I deliberately target him with two of the rakes from Brandenburg.

On the next turn I get a report that my first agent has been killed in the field. His assasin is unknown.

He's known to me.

The Dutch rake remains on my border, almost taunting.

I call off the second Rake, sensing that he is more of a duellist than my curent agents can approach. Let him be.

We are going to send a different kind of message.

I send my now ready army into Hungarys capital.




The Prussian - Hungarian War

The Hungarians are a small and fiercly proud nation, having driven me out once before they hope to repeat the trick again.

This time I arrive with a full compliment of troops, their buckles shining in the autumn sun.
They march in well drilled lines and they have the sense of destiny about them.

The Hungarians are irregulars and a large collection of militia and basic rifleman. They no longer face a bedragled and small occupying garrison. Now they face the might of the Prussian military machine.

I arrange my lines in ranks for our firve deep and in a tight formation. I then give the order to engage.

The Hungarians seeing I cannot possibly use my firepower to its utmost in the terrain charge the centre of my line, pinning us between two hillocks.

I tell the men not to fire at will.

The Hungarians are close now.

Closer.

They run the last few metres at my line.

Then I give the order to fire.

The first row of my troops deliver a devastating volley from upgraded muskets, sending many of the Hungarians falling.
But it is not enough.

They dont break and continue running at my line, safe in the knowledge that I must reload.

Now is the time.

The front row of my infantry kneel to reload.
The second rank fire a devastating volley.

The second row kneel to reload and the third brings its guns to bear.

The Hungarians panic.

This line firing drill allows my men to fire three volleys in the time it takes for them to load and fire one.

The third volley stops the Hungarians in their tracks and finally they realise they are beaten.

But this is their country, these are their people and we are the old enemy.
They do not give in and I dont expect them to.

We exchange fire for a few minutes, the bullets whizzing by on both sides, parting the air.

They even offer an attempt at a breakout, testing my line in one location while surging in another.

It wont be enough.

A decisive victory is mine and I raise the Prussian flag over Hungary once again. I do not intend for it to be pulled down.

The other nations of the world regard me with a higher appeal. Perhaps, I am an enemy to be reckoned with or an ally to be relied upon afterall?

But I do not stop here. This is the first of my gestures to the Dutch.

I have identified the Ventians as my next target. A seafaring nation they have left themselves without ally on the mainland. With just one province under their control I can take them now and wipe them from this map, much as I have with the Hungarians.

I ask the Bavarians for military access, a move I think they will later regret, and march on Venice from the north. I leave behind a decent garrison in Hungary and look south, to the jewel of the mediteranean.




The Prussian - Venetian War

The Venetians are smarter than their Hungarian neighbours, they have several months to prepare as my armies move over rough ground.

Their first act is to send their mighty navy into my Croatian ports. Blockading all trade to the south of my Empire my trade dries up considerably.
I am not overly worried.

I've developed an industrial and agricultural economy for just this scenario, that I be cut off.

Then they begin pirating the trade routes to the south.

I have one more turn to reach them and the Bavarian military access agreement expires in three.
My hubris is going to be my downfall but I dont know it yet.

When my forces arrive in Venice, their land army has run back into the capital. I have a large contingent of cavalry and infantry and I feel positive about the engagement.

Bavaria cancels our agreement as I reach the gates of Venice.

Bavaria declares war on me as I reach the outer walls of the city.

I am trapped.

My only hope is to seige Venice in one move and put myself behind those same walls.

When I enter the battlefield my heart sinks.

Clusters of buildings have been garrisoned by the mighty Venetians.
Narrow streets will make my cavalry useless, and I am without artillery on this long march.

We will have to fight a bitter hand to hand battle for each of these buildings in order to secure the city.

There are far more of them capable of fighting in this terrain than I had bargained for.

My greatest triumph that proves to the world I am an Empire in my own right may just have turned into the opening act of my Empires destruction.

My loss here will broadcast my weakness to a thousand potential adversaries.

The sun is setting low over the houses, a clear day.
I can see my men fidgeting, nervously checking uniforms and guns.


Then let us get to the bloody business of the day.

It begins.

-To be continued.