Nav 7 History

[Kaiser Kirk]

The land points thing Kirk is referencing relates to a specific thing within the Concessions rules and should not be taken as a measure of the overall military power of a given NPC state. I really really really don't want to have to define and keep track of individual NPC values.

Wait, does that mean you aren't planning to track the number of official belt buckles issued in the various NPC states? What do we pay you for anyhow?
Oh...that's right....um, never mind ....

As for the 10, snip is correct, that comes from the Concession rules. However, currently that's  the only number out there to gauge the Military strength of NPCs, and by the concession rules it applies regardless of if you're grabbing just the island of say Kagoshima, or if you're grabbing all the Japanese islands as a concession, (or the province of Hianan vs. 20 provinces of the mainland China) so I've been (apparently erroneously) taking as a gauge of the military strength of the NPCs.

Don't mean to digrees at this point, but it's probably worth another thread for clarification/discussion of how the NPCs are expected to work.
For example, Parthia will want to support some NPCs and rip of chunks of territory from others. :)

[snip]

This is done.

[The Rock Doctor]

Okay, so this is what I'm thinking for history and growth of the Union.  Some of this up-front stuff you've seen before:

Generally speaking, the history of the Baltic broadly follows historical trends, if not specific events, up until 1647.  Four notable differences apply up to or at this point:

1)  Russia is much smaller and less powerful, being under pressure from the still existant Golden Horde to its east.

2)  Sweden is constrained by the presence of a sometimes hostile Northern Kingdom to its north.

3)  There is a Byzantine Empire in place of the Ottomans, and a different but not hugely different Hapsburg Empire.  There is also an actual Roman Empire, so no Holy Roman Empire; the German states are a little less organized in one way, but also sometimes leery of the larger empires to their south and east.

4)  Crown Prince Sigismund Casimir of PLC survives his historically terminal illness in 1647, meaning that the House of Vasa is the surviving royal house of the Union.

5)  A near future difference is that the "Deluge" of 1655 applies not to PLC, but to Russia, leaving PLC strongish and religiously tolerant.

Timeline:

1650:  The historical-ish Khmelnytsky Uprising begins as Cossacks in not-Ukraine rebel against the PLC.

1654:  Having defeated PLC efforts to suppress them, the Cossacks declare the Hetman Khanate, and become an ongoing nuisance to all of their neighbours for the next two centuries.

1655:  Now quite isolated from the rest of the PLC, the Grand Duchy of Greater Moldova separates from PLC and swears allegiance to the Hapsburg Empire.

Russia attacks the PLC at this time, initiating the Second Northern War

1657:  The Horde and then Sweden intervene in the Second Northern War

1660:  Russia falls; Sweden, PLC gain some territory but Horde occupies most of it.  PLC swamped with refugees fleeing from the east.

1675-9:  Scanian War, Sweden vs Denmark/Netherlands/Brandenburg-Prussia, generally inconclusive.

1700-16:  Great Northern War/War of Swedish Succession.  PLC, Denmark, Saxony, Brandenburg-Prussia and the Horde (independently) attack Sweden ad its Dutch and Holstein allies.  Sweden strikes hard at Denmark, knocking them out of the war.

1701:  Swedish invasion of NE PLC ends near Riga as Charles XII dies in battle against Polish-Saxon army. 

1702:  Sweden sues for peace, loses Suomi region (much of it already overrun) to PLC.  Charles XII's elder sister takes Swedish throne.

1703:  Horde attacks Sweden; PLC enters on Swedish side.

1707:  Horde repulsed.

1708:  Queen of Sweden dies of smallpox.  Different factions back her son or her younger sister for the throne.  Power struggle ensues, Germans/Danes intervene on son's side, PLC intervenes on sister's side.

1716:  Peace.  PLC-backed Ulrika married to heir of PLC, personal union formed between PLC and Sweden.

1741:  With the coronation of Sigismund V and Ulrika's eldest son Stanislaw I, PLC and Sweden merge as the Vilnius Union.  War of Baltic Unification sees Denmark, Netherlands, and German states attack Sweden/PLC in an effort to prevent the formation of a new major power.  The new Vilnius Union fights defensively, focusing efforts on conquering and annexing Prussia in order to secure the Union's interior, and ultimately prevails.

1756:  War of German Unification begins as Vilnius Union and Hapsburg Empire cooperate to prevent the unification of various Germans states into another major power.  The Hapsburgs attack into Bohemia, while the Union invades Brandenburg and Saxony.  Denmark and the Netherlands opt for neutrality, not seeing an upside to either a German victory or defeat.

1759:  Brandenburg conquered by the Union.

1761:  Saxony conquered by the Union.  Bohemia conquered by the Hapsburg. 

1762:  Joint invasion of Bavaria ends fairly quickly as Bavaria surrenders to the Union (only).  Union and Hapsburger forces clash for several weeks before Hapsburger forces withdraw to Bohemia and their own territory.  End of the war.

1778:  "Das Bankett" begins as the Union begins using diplomatic means to entice minor German kingdoms, duchies, and statelets to accept annexation into the Union.  This is most effective with Lutheran-majority states who find the Union's position on religion more bearable than the Roman or Hapsburger states also vying for major power status on the continent. 

1788-90:  Catherine the Great's War.  Northern Kingdom and Vilnius Union go to war over border demarcation in Scandiniavia.  Uprisings in Saxony and Brandenburg cause considerable difficulty for the Union, which sues for peace and cedes a long, narrow strip of land in Scandinavia to the Northern Kingdom.

1797:  Second Brandenburg Uprising.  Connections between the rebels and the Danish government are discovered, leading to a state of war between the Union and Denmark.

1799:  Battle of Kopenhagen sees the Danish navy destroyed in action against the much larger Union navy, followed by troop landings and ferocious fighting that damages much of the Danish capital.  Denmark surrenders and is annexed into the Union.

1813:  Das Bankett ends with the Union invasion of Wurttemburg, Hohenzollern, and Baden. 

1815:  An impromptu alliance of surviving, independent German states crumbles in the face of a major Union attack on Osnabruck. 

1817:  The last German states are incorporated into the Vilnius Union. 

1829-31:  Hetman Cossack raids into Poland trigger three years of cavalry actions, ending with the slaying of the Hetman Khan in action on the border.

1854-8:  Sporadic border conflict with the Horde.

18XX:  The big thing where Rome and the Union smoosh the Hapsburgs and gobble up everything between them.