Imperial Diet

[OverKnight]

A few years delay at most Maximillian, it is a small price to pay to be rid of the Milanese forever!

Surely you are not undermining your own skills as a prospective Chancellor by exaggerating the difficulties?

[FactionHeir]

I believe that edict 5.3, which I proposed, is very well worth going through with as having 2 castles on islands is a perfect staging point for crusades and invasion fleets to Iberia and Africa alike.
As Mandorf pointed out, the enemy army near Florence is the last straw of the Milanese. As such, sending only a small expedition force to the islands should be enough to crush the little troops the Milanese still have left, no?
Also, if I remember correctly, each ship may ferry two regiments and 6 regiments should be more than enough to crush them, especially if we send one fleet forward to scout out their defenses.

If we end up not wanting the two islands as castles, we may well expand them into flourishing island trade posts with links to most other regions. [OOC: Those islands converted to towns can give ~3k-4k on vhigh taxes at minor city level already]

[TinCow]

It is not a question of difficulties, Otto, it is a question of finances. As you have said yourself, the Milanese island settlements will have to be converted to towns before they can become prosperous. This will take many years and thousands upon thousands of florins before the Reich even begins to see a return on its investments. I find it unlikely that these places would even make up the costs of converting them and constructing trade facilities before the next election for Chancellor.

Contrast this with Venice, which is already the most prosperous trading city in all of Christendom, Zagreb, a well developed city in its own right, and Ragusa, a castle of a quality to rival any in the Reich. These places will immediately bring wealth to the Reich, while the Milanese islands will only drain the Reich further for many years to come. This is simply poor economics, especially if we can obtain tribute from the Milanese as well!

If we cannot obtain a ceasefire on favorable terms, Edict 5.15 does not require that we sign one at all. However even in that situation it is still in our best interests to delay any move on the islands until the other fronts have been stabilized and the treasury reinforced, for the same reasons as before.

[AussieGiant]

Receiving summary after summary from his team of lawyers the 2nd Electors face begins to frown

Well...if these are the summaries, then god knows how the rest of you deal with all this information...

...still, I'm never lost for words normally.

My Lords, as per bloody usual we seem to be trying to pull this Reich in 5 different directions at once.

Having seen the troop compositions I'm totally bloody committed to saying that taking an offensive war to any more that ONE country at this time is totally irresponsible.

Given the Ducal Armies will be created in one form or another it seems totally unrealistic to pursue more than one offensive campaign at this time.

We should allow the House Armies to be created and for this Diet session PICK ONE nation to attack with our fifth standing army.

What say you all?

Likewise, our Kaiser reluctance to support sections 6 to 9 of the Amendment 5.1 would effectively mean a Ducal army could consist of one regiment.

NOT what anyone had in mind I'm sure.

Hell Mandorf, I'm a fair man...I'll second edict 5.15

At this point one of his Lawyers leans down and whispers into the 2nd Electors ear, looking back at the assembled nobles he slams his fist onto the benches in frustration

CHRIST ON THE CROSS!! This is what I'm talking about!!