Installment the second
Greetings, Class.
As you clearly remember we left off after having reduced the Byzantines and the Ottomans to one province each. Trebizond, while grown to nine provinces, was struggling under a heavy financial burden with awful inflation. Now follow closely, and see how we get a multiple choice question: Do we support Byzantine dissidents, or not. Seing as how those Byzantines are the focus of our aggression, the answer is obviously not. These choices will not always be so easy
And, whoops. Did you hear that? Our puppet just bit the dust. Thankfully a successor, Ioannes IV Kommenos, is ready to take over as chief puppet of Trebizond. Keep that in mind: Always have the succession planned. There is nothing worse than a struggle for succession, save it be a struggle that deteriorates into civil war.
Notice how I just got the option to change domestic policies again? One order, and thousands of peasants are enserfed, you've got to love that feeling. Of course, stability took another hit, and is now at zero, which is not too good. Remember the rule:
All else being equal, Keep Stability Up
Now all else is seldom equal, but even so one should attempt to keep the country as stable as possible. The other way lies chaos, disruption, revolution, and anarchy. Which is a bad thing, when you are the one suffering from it.
Ah, 1430. We can declared war on the Ottomans again without breaking a truce. Great, and the Knights join the war. Let's march on Anatolia.... Ahem. Bankrupt again, I see. And our army, fighting with lower morale, has just been slaughtered by the Ottomans? These things happen. Nothing to do but soldier on, raise more troops, and try again. See! Less than a year later Anatolia falls, but, unfortunately, the Ottomans control one of Karamon's provinces. We'll just have to wait to annex them till they lose control of that province because in this simulation, you can only outright annex when the enemy is reduced to one province, and doesn't control anything. A bit harsh, but it is better to take your lumps in training, than when you are in the heat of battle on some weird planet, wondering why the Zashirieb Tribe of A'Slitanters won't be annexed by the Pollidodo Tribe of A'Banananananas, as happened to a now deceased student of mine. (But he was a bad student, so it is no particular loss.)
This, of course, is when the peasantry gets unhappy enough to revolt slightly. These things happen. Combined with our low stability this guarantees a few revolts, but only a few, because the Ottomans have now made peace with Karamon, so they can be annexed. Annexing another nation is such a positive event, that internal stability rises. Yep, being a warmonger helps!
And see, 1434-1435, one year, sees the end of the defunct Byzantine Empire. Of course, another of those annoying random events does reduce stability to -2, but so what? Now we can choose to become Byzantium taking over the claims of the Eastern Empire, and so we do: We loudly inform everyone that we will now Restore the Roman Empire, and move the Capital to Thrace. Right on. And it only takes two years after this to reach stab 3.
OK, we have plenty of enemies and 28,000 men. Let them do some marching. Karamon and Candar are in alliance, they are our neighbours, and if we let them be, they will probably attack us when we least expect it. So Karamon receives a declaration of war and 20,000 visitors, while the remaining 8,000 men cross the border into undefended Candar.
This of course, is when the court is hit by a corruption scandal. Unauthorised corruption must be eliminated, unless the country is too unstable to suffer the loss of stability caused by vigorous countermeasures. This not being the case presently, we choose to eradicate. This forces a loan, unfortunately, but so be it. Our inflation is already more than 50% after all.
And boy, do we have a hard choice coming up. After a lengthy council in Florence, we have the option to change religion to Catholic. This is a once in the simulation opportunity, I tell you. But us consider the advantages and disadvantages of going catholic before I choose.
Disadvantages
All our current 11 provinces are Orthodox. If we change state religion it will become very expensive (150% more expensive to be precise) to regain stability. We will have to invest a lot of money over a long time to convert all of the provinces to the Catholic faith.
Secondly, our relations with the Orthodox nations will deteriorate.
Thirdly, this is a very innovative choice, and will for a very long time make the population less narrowminded. We really don't want to open the populations mind's as a whole too much.
Advantages
Supporting and with the support of the Catholic church, we will strengthen our diplomatic corps significantly.
Secondly, our relations with the catholic countries attending the council will improve.
Thirdly, most of the European countries, including all the larges ones, are Catholic.
Fourthly, our remaining core provinces are either muslim or catholic. Whereas there are many orthodox provinces, there are far more catholic ones, and they are in the richer parts of the world.
Fifthly, the catholic church is better at missionary activity reflected by an increased number of diplomats simulation-wise. While not important now, in time, as our conquest grows, it will be.
Therefore I choose going Catholic, although it will enforce a few decades of very peaceful coexistance with our neighbours, as the country recovers.
(Well not too peaceful. Despite stability at -3, let us just annex Candar, and regain a bit. But see what it costs to raise stability? 860 - it will take us years to regain stability at this rate. Let us not take too many more muslim provinces, we really can't afford it. So let us vassalise Karamon rather than take its territory.)
And while putting all our income into stability we still have this army to exercise. Why not attack Ak Koyunlu? While it certainly isn't worth the effort to take
all the provinces, there is
one, in particular, which I have set my eyes on. Any guesses, class?
Good guess, Norgesvenn. Armenia it is. And see how I deftly outmaneouvre the armies of Ak Koyunlu until I can crush them in my home province of Trabzon, and how, less than a year later, by July 1442, Armenia and 30 ducats are ours. A short victorious war. Our army, it seems, is down to 15,000 men but notice that none of our neighbours are particularly dangerous. They are either small or engaged in their own wars. This is a good time to recover... And grant export licenses, apparently. Yet another example of how things beyond your control can drain your treasury or ruin your day. But no worries. Due to continous minting we have plenty of money on hand. We will need it to convert our provinces. Well, obviously not the capital at 1000+ ducats (what a price tag) but the lesser populated provinces surely.
Yet another emperor bites the dust. But no reason to worry. The heir, Konstantine XI, is a better administrator than his predecessor. How fortunate that we have been saving money for five years. Let's do some converting, and remember to enserf some more peasants next year. On conversion, there are two conflicting theories:
Convert state-cultured provinces first
and
Convert provinces with high stability cost first
The first theory will maximize the chances of success, the second the ultimate gain. I would advise against sticking strictly to the one or the other. A balanced approach is, in the long run, the better. In this particular instance, however, given that we need a core of state-religion provinces, I will follow the first.
And so we begin converting. And so does the Duchy of Athens. But that's good, since they are also catholic. Now, if only our income was greater.
Notice how there are good random events as well as bad? I know that some of you smartasses felt vindicated when I suffered Non-enforcement of Ordinances in 1449, but see, new land claimed: Angora in 1550, and a generous gift to the state in 1552, in the long run they tend to even out. Alright, that is strictly speaking a lie. The second law of thermodynamics rules random events.
In the long run, it will all turn into porridge
Case in point. The able emperor Konstantine only got to rule for five years. His successor, Demetrios, is a complete idiot. The conversion programs started under Konstantine are finally ending now. Hopefully the brainwashing went well.
And, by the penultimate principle, it did! We converted Rumelia, Kastamonu, Trabzon, Macedonia, Smyrna, Bulgaria and Morea, and failed only in Ionia. This is slightly better than expected since the succes percentage was estimated in the sixties per province. But let us not complain about good luck.
Or bad. Ak Koyunlu and their good ally Dulkadir is back for round two come 1458. And the armies of Ak Koyunlu are led by a superior general, Usum Hasan, at 5/4/5 (I trust you are up to specifications as used in this simulation?) a scary enemy indeed.... As demonstrated when he just crushed and eliminated our main army there. Notice how even our cavalry was slaughtered because of his superior maneuverability. Learn that lesson well. I am busy recruiting new armies, and enjoying this exceptional year. Bad luck - good luck, as I said. Let me just enserf the last peasants, and I am happy again.
Another multiple choice! Stay catholic or return to the orthodox faith? A no-brainer, really. The previous arguments still stand, and we have already suffered much of the pain, so why abandon it now? Ok, we will take a serious stability hit, because a large part of the population (including the people of the capital!) remain orthodox, but that is but a temporary problem.
But that damn Usum Hasan is getting on my nerves. We can't afford to lose armies at this rate without getting anything in return. Fortunately he only wants our entire treasury of 61 ducats for peace. Since that is equivalent to 6,000 infantrymen, it is a bargain. Let us make peace and wait until he dies of old age!
And that concludes todays lesson in World Conquest. We end this lesson in June, 1461. Though few conquests were achieved, you got a good look at frontline crisis management, which is an essential skill for any would-be conqueror.
The next lesson will focus on the single most important problem facing us now: How to increase our revenue.
