Autumn - 1459

Autumn 1459 - "The quality of the Roman army is built on the faults of its enemies" - Tacitus

Well, it appears that the cat is out of the bag. I may be leaping to conclusions but I believe this turn saw the dawn of the last war, I give myself three years, (nine turns) to either win or die trying. It appears most of the world has allied against me (or what's left of it, keep reading to find out) with one or two players who seem hesitant about lending a hand, when really they are the kingmakers and fail to see it, or fail to see it from a Milanese spyglass.

After the interesting turn of events with Austria last season I expected to find myself with a solid ally, someone with whom I could work with and balance the playing field a little, of course this was a ridiculous thing to assume given that I obviously failed to understand this particular man's thought-train. After the orders were placed last week, Austria decided that after losing some armies to plague, (Something I know better than others) due to poor dice rolls by the umpire, that they didn't want my friendship and concluded that in some way or form Milan had control of the Plague and had used it to trick him. Yep it's true, I stunted my own progression in the campaign for a cheap laugh with Austria, OH WAIT-.

He decided I was not his ally "for allies do not attack one another" and cancelled all chat. Bad move.
He then decided to not hand in orders, or talk to any other players to assure his safety. Worse move.
Army Austria to Hungary. As presumed Venice assaulted Austria's southern border denying me the yearly income, but I was happy with proving a point. Goodnight Austria - another power bites the dust.

So left in the campaign we now have the Papacy, Venetians, Neapolitans, Turkish and Milanese. Orders went in for Autumn, Austria died, I raised an army in Marseille and marched to Provence, The Papacy spent money like crazy building an army and a fleet, moving the forces to coastal regions no doubt to head north via transport, I understand he will attempt to assault France to slow my progression however I am quite happy containing him over there as it will enable me to strike at his city-rich northern border. The Turkish also got moving, capturing three lands from Venice, who seemed to run to defend his poorer territory. I can't tell if he's running scared of the big powers and thinks there's a deal in it for him, or that he's just tired of war and doesn't mind if new middle eastern foods such as the Kebab permeate his culture. Naples started shifting fleets around to move to more aggressive positions, leaving Tunis un-sieged, and Venice also raised an army and now has three forces sitting in southern Austria on the border of Milan, note to self: Fix That...

Orders for Spring are going in soon and it'll be interesting to see what happens and how this all plays out. If worst comes to worst I'll just fight through it. I leave you with a quote from Churchill, and a link to the recoloured map for autumn.

" If you're going through hell, Keep going."