WAR!
@Solius gathered the leading Protestant princes and
@GreatDane to his war council. Glossing over the map of Europe, Solius drew his finger across nimic-Simbo's and PSV's lands.
"Now.. now is the time to strike my brothers. While the Spaniards and French remain inactive and sleep on their decision to aid the Emperor, we can take march upon Vienna and remove the Emperor once and for all.", slamming his tiny ham fisted hands on the table. "to war!" roared the princes
@maniak,
@Shakesey,
@altodevil and
@Salt Bailly in unison.
Meanwhile.. in Vienna...
Emperor
@Crackers woke to the news of the rebellion. Looking to the map of Europe, he too drew out his battle plans. "They will strike here" he opined, pointing at
@Dan. "And we shall defend here", he pointed, to his Palace in Vienna.
@RedSky and
@hobbers looked at each other nervously.
The close proximity of Dan, RedSky and Crackers enabled them to co-ordinate their effort against the protestants in central Germany at the outset, wiping several armies. They moved north to siege down the isolated GreatDane and the exposed maniak.
altodevil and Solius, as expected, marched upon Dan and pincered him from Hungary and the Baltics. The Catholics had to hope that they could subdue the northern princes before Dan, who wasn't there to defend ihs homelands, became sieged down by the Turks.
Predicting a naval assault by the landlocked and shipless hobbers, Great Shakesey sat in London to protect his capital while the enemy sieged down Calais. Shakesey remained there for the rest of the war.
The war progressed well for the Catholics, as the protestant princes of Dortmund, Regensburg, Oldenburg, Landshut, Brunswick, Lubeck, Hamburg, Frisia, Berg and Saxe-Lauenburg tapped out, without reply for the Catholics. On the baltic front, Dan battered maniak and Solius, pushing them back. The Catholics acrrued 23% warscore. They were winning!
But as the Catholic league pushed north, altodevil begun sieging Vienna and Crackers wailed from his ivory tower. hobbers had to take command of the situation.
Vienna was briefly lost to the Ottomans who marched into Germany with several armies, before they were beaten back by Dan, RedSky and hobbers. Dan recaptured Vienna. To the north, the Catholics broke through Holstein and begun sieging down maniak's lands.
On the Polish front, it looked precarious for the Catholics. Dan sat on -72% warscore and close to tapping out, so the allies shifted their armies there to push the Ottomans back. They recovered enough land to bring it back to -33%.
Prague fell. Vienna fell again. They were recaptured, then both fell again. It was looking bad for the Catholic bros. But then our first player tapped out of the war. And it was a bitter pillow for the Protestants to swallow - GreatDane was dead. F's in the chat for GreatDane. Would this be enough to turn the tide?
Soon thereafter,
@PSV declared war on Shakesey in a colonial war over Columbia. This put Shakesey in a difficult position - he was now involved in two wars and couldn't defend London from both. He too tapped out of the league war. PSV marched on Normandy.
The first of the Catholics to fall was the Livonian Order, who surrendered to Solius. Saxony white peaced out to Solius not long after, but then the Protestants lost another major participant.
maniak succuumbed. Fortunately, the terms weren't too punishing for him. But the list of Protestant allies became smaller and smaller. Only Solius, Salt Bailly and altodevil remained. Could they prevail?
Yes, yes they could. The Ottoman zerg swarm became too much and Dan (imo the MVP of the war for his resilience), eventually tapped out.
In his bunker, Emperor Crackers rocked back and forth in desperation, ranting and raving about Dan's betrayal.
"If hobbers attacks, everything will be all right"
He knew the game was up though. Without Dan there was no hope. Eventually Emperor Crackers acquiesced to Solius' demands and surrendered the Imperial crown to maniak, who has replaced him as Emperor.
The HRE is effectively dead.
THE PROTESTANT LEAGUE IS VICTORIOUS!
And boy was it touch and go.