The Ebony Cross and the Sacred Eagle (Era I)

[Sematary]

Ah suspense. Although I suppose I would like to see the TO fail for once. You know have a major failure and lose a lot or most of their empire. To watch you rebuild.

[Darthvegeta800]

Excellent AAR! I'm a big Teutonic Knights fan so i loved it!

[Polykrates]

Sorry to hear so much of your work was lost. I guess some of my profs would recommend using vi next time.

Looking on the map I guess the poor Hohenzollern never get a chance to buy back the Neumarck.

Great updates as always and I'm looking forward to the Reformation - that is only a decade 'in the future'.

[rcduggan]

Ah suspense. Although I suppose I would like to see the TO fail for once. You know have a major failure and lose a lot or most of their empire. To watch you rebuild.

unfortunately, the AI on the 1.1 patch was so poor I could steamroller it... I'll try to not make it a complete one-sided thing. there will be some later setbacks, but no total defeats.. ah well.

Excellent AAR! I'm a big Teutonic Knights fan so i loved it!

thanks!

Sorry to hear so much of your work was lost. I guess some of my profs would recommend using vi next time.

Looking on the map I guess the poor Hohenzollern never get a chance to buy back the Neumarck.

Great updates as always and I'm looking forward to the Reformation - that is only a decade 'in the future'.

what is VI?

yeah, it stays with me, because the Knights were strong enough to continue the lease.
thanks. actually, Martin Luther has already nailed the 95 Theses, and the Reformatino will be getting pretty chaotic in Europe and the Ordensstaat.

[Dorkius Maximus]

haven't posted here in a while, but I must say I've been enjoying it immensely so far. hopefully the unstoppable Deutchordensland will never fall!

[Polykrates]

what is VI?

vi is a rather old (ca 1976) visual editor that used to be very common in the good old days of DOS and UNIX and is still used in computer science classes today. It is very hard to get used to, but it doesn't cause system crashes or freezes like Word or Open Office. IIRC vi has its own wikepedia entry.

Try saving your documents more frequently!


I expect the Reformation to be coatic - and your reports on it a pleasure to read.

[rcduggan]

haven't posted here in a while, but I must say I've been enjoying it immensely so far. hopefully the unstoppable Deutchordensland will never fall!

thanks. I hope so as well!

vi is a rather old (ca 1976) visual editor that used to be very common in the good old days of DOS and UNIX and is still used in computer science classes today. It is very hard to get used to, but it doesn't cause system crashes or freezes like Word or Open Office. IIRC vi has its own wikepedia entry.

Try saving your documents more frequently!


I expect the Reformation to be coatic - and your reports on it a pleasure to read.

I've never used that.... or heard of it...
I did save it, but that whole computer was messed up... I think it had a virus.

and this must be my brain not working, but is coatic a word?

[Sematary]

Is an update forthcoming?

[rcduggan]

Is an update forthcoming?

yeah, tomorrow hopefully, if all goes well. Monday at the latest.

[rcduggan]

Chapter VIII, Part V – Alexander von Rahmel (1511-1525)

The Battle of the Nile Delta began on 4 November 1517. The Teutonic Knights were outnumbered almost two to one, but they put their artillery to good use against the approaching Mamluks. The Knights intercepted advance units sailing up the Nile and the defenders dug in at their half-built fortifications. Any hope on al-Ashraf’s part of a fast capture of the Delta was quickly extinguished, and the Sultan knew he was going to have to fight for it. So he ordered nineteen thousands infantry soldiers to attack the Teutonic positions in the area. The single regiment not in the battle joined up with a newer Mamluk army, which was marching east from Cairo. Al-Ashraf planned to use the attack on the Nile as a diversion while a second army captured the Sinai and then Gaza, cutting off the Prussians in the Nile and forcing them to either retreat by sea or surrender.

As the battle for the Delta raged, six thousand Mamluks marched into the virtually undefended Sinai Peninsula. They managed to compel most of the Teutonic defenders to withdraw to Gaza, while several small fortresses resisted the Mamluks and came under siege. But majority of the Peninsula had been captured.

But as the Mamluks were consolidating the Sinai, the Knights on the Delta won an incredible victory. They defeated a Mamluk army more than ten thousand men stronger than their own, and thwarted al-Ashraf’s attempt to regain the Delta. But the Sultan was not beaten yet. He withdrew the mauled armies to Cairo and waited for von Rahmel to make the next move. Al-Ashraf gambled that the Grand Master would become overconfident after his monumental victory, and he was right. By the end of November the Teutonic Knights were marching on Alexandria, leaving few to protect the Delta. However, al-Ashraf was not an idiot and knew that attacking again so soon after his defeat would be folly, instead he sent the re-supplied army to lay siege to Diamientia.

A second, smaller army crossed the Red Sea and with support from Karakoyun mercenaries captured the city of Tabouk, key to control of the northwest Arabian Peninsula. From there they moved south to besiege Medina, the southernmost Teutonic stronghold on the peninsula. That particular city was also one of the major rallying points around regional Muslim cries for the ousting of the Ordensstaat and its subordinate crusader states from the region. So within days of the Mamluk army laying siege to Medina they were joined by a large number of Turkic mercenaries who joined the siege while still staying neutral with the Order.

Several days later, a hastily raised Mamluk army of six thousand attacked the Teutonic army that was laying siege to Darnah, in Libya. Grand Master Alexander had given low priority to the western border of the Mamluk Sultanate, so the outnumbered Knights were defeated and compelled to retreat to Cyrenaica. Al-Ashraf was not finished yet though. He sent the army in pursuit of the Knights even as they retreated. Before the Teutonic forces could regroup, al-Ashraf’s men assaulted them once again. They clashed in Cyrenaica, killing another two hundred crusader footsoldiers before forcing them to pull back further west.

The turnaround on the neglected front troubled the Hochmeister. Alexander had not been expecting such a string of eats, and came to realize that he had underestimated al-Ashraf, a disastrous blunder. To counter the Mamluks’ unstoppable march westward, Alexander ordered further attacks on Diamientia, and reinforcements to aid the sieges of Alexandria and Cairo. The assault of Diamientia was successful. The Mamluks were driven out of the city. The fleeing soldiers quickly ran into complications as they discovered all of their possible retreat paths occupied by Teutonic Knights. Faced with this almost-encirclement, many of the Mamluk soldiers attempted to move east through the occupied Sinai and down the Red Sea coast to join up with their brethren besieging Medina. Others were picked up by Karakoyun merchant vessels and brought into the Khanate. But for the most part the defeated regiments dissolved after being driven out of Diamientia, and do longer posed a threat to the Ordensstaat.

From the victory in Diamientia the Knights moved south to recopy the Sinai Peninsula, which had been deserted when majority of the Mamluks pulled south to attack Medina. The skeleton defense regiment left to guard the forts on the Peninsula quickly disintegrated when faced with an organized crusader attack, and the Sinai was liberated. From there his armies advanced south to attack Tabouk, and were successful in recapturing it from the Mamluks. From there the Ninth Army marched further down the Red Sea coast to try to relieve the embattled defenders of Medina.

In March of 1518, Alexandria fell to the Third Arm of the Ordensstaat. The victorious Knights marched through the streets where they greeted by the Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, Alessandro Bernardi. It was said that upon seeing the Teutonic armies liberating his city, Alessandro wept with joy. He promised the city’s unwavering loyalty to the Teutonic Order, and granted countless accolades to the Grand Master. The reaction from the Coptic Pope John XIII, while still warm, was less enthusiastic than that of his Catholic contemporary. This was mainly because, although the Copts had been heavily oppressed under Caliphal and Mamluk rule, reaching a pinnacle of terror under al-Ghazaly. Although al-Ashraf had attempted to eliminate the persecution, it still simmered, barely checked.

However, John XIII was troubled that his new overlords would now be Catholic instead of Sunni. He knew that Alexander von Rahmel would not be very tolerant of the Coptic branch of Christianity, and that many of the Copts would probably be forced to convert to Catholicism in the current years. But that would be slightly more tolerable than execution under the Mamluks, so Pope John XIII established tentative relations with the Ordensstaat.



Fresh from their conquest of Alexandria (which would soon become the capital of the Meisteren of Egypt), many Knights hurried south, where a massed army prepared to break the Mamluk siege lines around Medina. In the battle, one of the largest of the war, ten thousand knights fought the once-numerous Mamluk besiegers who, although once numbering ten thousand, had dwindled gradually to six or seven thousand. The fighting was still fierce and up until the end the battle was uncertain. At various times Karakoyun mercenary regiments would arrive at Medina, joining the battle randomly, causing much confusion on both sides. But in the end, thanks largely to brilliant Teutonic commanders, the Mamluks were routed and the defenders liberated. Both sides had suffered heavily. The defeated Mamluks accompanied the Karakoyuns back into Arabia.



Ten days after the victory at Medina, part of the Teutonic army that was laying siege to Cairo split off and traveled south up the Nile to Asyut, the site of a sizeable Mamluk garrison. However, unbeknownst to Alexander, the Mamluks had sizably reduced the garrison in the weeks following the loss of Alexandria. By the time of the Battle of Asyut, there was only around half of the men left. So the small Teutonic army now had more men, but the difference was almost nonexistent: there were around 3580 crusaders, and 3520 Mamluk garrison troops. The latter were poorly trained and lacking discipline, leading to heaving losses (twenty percent) of the Mamluks, while the Knights only took minimal casualties. The Mamluk survivors fled Asyut, moving further up the Nile to find refuge. Asyut was poorly defended, with only dilapidated walls and no siege weapons, so it would not take long for the Order to bring it down.

A month later, in June 1518, the city of Cairo fell to the Ordensstaat after a seven-month siege. This was a crushing blow to al-Ashraf and the Mamluks, but the new Sultan was not ready to give in yet. Having retreated from Cairo in late 1517 when the Knights marched on the city, al-Ashraf was forced to relocate. Multiple times he was displaced as all major cities fell to the crusaders. Eventually al-Ashraf was reduced to governing from Suakin, an unimportant port city he had seized months before. At the time most if its population were Coptic Blemmye people who chafed under al-Ashraf’s Sunni Islam.


Late 15th century woodcutting of the alleged appearance of the Blemmye people

The outcome of the war now seemed to be a foregone conclusion in favor of the Ordensstaat. Cairo and Alexandria had been captured. Also Asyut and various smaller fortresses in Libya and the upper Nile were under siege by Prussian Knights. Smaller Mamluk armies were still rampaging in the Levantine Provinces, one of which managed to capture Al Karak, Hawran, and even lay siege to Judea, all while avoiding a pursuing Teutonic army. But the Twelfth Army was close on their heals. As the Mamluks departed each city they captured – leaving little or no garrison – the Knights recaptured Tabouk and Al Karak. They managed to surround the Mamluk siege lines outside Judea in a scene reminiscent of the Roman double siege lines at Alesia in 52 BC. But unlike in the battle of old, the defenders caught in the middle were not the victors. Alexander von Rahmel, the German Vercingetorix, in a concerted effort with the Knightly defenders of Judea, managed to overwhelm the Mamluk defenders. Their commander was captured, and following this most of his demoralized men surrendered, and they were taken prisoner.

With that, the last major Mamluk army in the Levant was gone. Sultan al-Ashraf’s ability to project power into the region had evaporated, as had much of his control over Egypt. In September of 1518, Asyut had fallen to the Ordensstaat after a six-month siege. With the fall of this crucial city – coupled with the revolt of the two Coptic kingdoms of Makuria-Nobatia and Alodia in the south – served to full isolate the two halves of the Mamluk Empire. In the west was the Libyan Desert, with all of the scattered fortresses within under siege by Teutonic regiments. In the east were the remnants still under al-Ashraf’s control, under his ever-weakening rule from Suakin. His only link to the rest of his still nominally controlled territory was through the upper Nile, which in late September was cut off by Teutonic troops.

In October 1518, Grand Master Alexander began to send diplomats to Suakin with peace overtures. His demands were harsher than they had been in recent years: the total destruction of the Mamluk state. All of Egypt (save the Coptic kingdoms) was to fall under Crusader (Teutonic) rule, and the Burji Dynasty was to be exiled to the Crimea. Temür II Mokhammad was prepared to offer al-Ashraf refuge, but the Sultan refused to give up the battle. He refused all offers and sent the diplomats back to Alexandria, unsuccessful.

His last hope now rested upon an unlikely source, one completely unknown to Alexander. This hope was a Mamluk general who had commanded armies in the siege of Judea (unfortunately, his name has been lost to history). After most of the Mamluks had been captured, this general fifty of his men had escaped and fled into the darkness of central Arabia. Over the next few months they gathered thousands of Sunni and Sufi Arabs who had fierce hatred of the Catholic Germans controlling the Levant. Then in the middle of November 1518, the new army sent a messenger to al-Ashraf and burst from Arabia to attack Medina, Al Karak, and Badiyat Ash Sham, all three simultaneously. The Twelfth Army, the only major crusader unit in the area, was stationed in Badiyat Ash Sham. The Arabs and Mamluks had been counting on a quick victory over the Twelfth Army, however this hope was quickly extinguished. Alexander had arrived for an inspection at the time, and his presence greatly boosted his mens’ morale. With the help of modern artillery and tactics they destroyed the approaching Arabs, who were quickly reduced to fighting disorganized guerilla battles against the Knights.

But although the attack on Badiyat Ash Sham failed, the assaults of Al Karak and Medina were more successful. The undefended town of Al Karak capitulated to the Mamluk-Arabs on November 18th, while the better-fortified Medina came under siege. Alexander, personally leading the Twelfth Army, raced from Badiyat Ash Sham west and then south to Medina, where he engaged a portion of the Mamluk army on December 7th. In the ensuing battle the Arabs were routed. They found that their hit-and-run tactics did not perform as well now. Alexander had taken the measure of employing converted Arab tribesmen from the Levant to serve as advisors in his regiments. These Arab Catholics served to forewarn the Knights about their enemies’ strategies and gave them a way to fight back. So with this tactic stymied, the Arabs fled, leaving a hundred Mamluks to fight five thousand Knights. By the end of December 8th, the Mamluks had joined the Arabs in the flight from Medina.

Following the breaking of the siege, Alexander moved north to drive the remaining Arabs out of Al Karak. After the failure of the offensives elsewhere in Arabia the invaders in Al Karak had degraded into squabbling amongst themselves for the little booty they had seized in the attack. When German cannons opened fire from the hills around Al Karak, many of the occupiers took flight, leaving small group of hardcore Saracens to make a last stand. It was a foregone conclusion though, and after a brief fight the Arabs and Mamluks were wiped out.

As the offensive in Arabia faltered, the remaining fortresses in the Libyan desert that still were flying the Mamluk banner were breached. Their defenders were captured – many were subsequently executed – and the black cross of the Order flew over the ramparts. A Mamluk army raised to relieve their besieged brothers arrived too late to make a difference, and was beaten back easily. Further Arab-Mamluk attacks against Medina were also stymied, and al-Ashraf’s strength could go no lower.

From mid-January 1519 to March of the same year, al-Ashraf would attempt to attack the Knights anywhere he could. From his stronghold in Suakin, the Sultan launched attacks on the lower Nile, and smaller raids even further down the river. He continued to incite Arabs to attack the crusader strongholds in the Levant. Some would answer his call, but not enough to make a difference. When the last Mamluk fortified towns on the Nile collapsed and surrendered, al-Ashraf was beaten. Of course he would die before admitting defeat, and went into denial about his chances for victory. He gathered his remaining bodyguards and troops that had not already deserted him, and prepared for a last stand in Suakin.

By early April, the Grand Master had arrived to oversee the final attack to either capture or kill Sultan al-Ashraf. The fateful battle happened on April 7th 1519. That week, al-Ashraf and four thousand professional soldiers and a thousand Karakoyun mercenaries departed from Suakin for the last time. They spent much of early April raiding their own cities on the Nile, plundering for weapons, food, and war materials. On the seventh of April Alexander decided to bring it to an end. He set out with this army, slipped passed the Knights on the upper Nile, and attacked Cairo. With their leader present the Knights fought ferociously and bravely. They had already prepared defensive positions in case of this very scenario. So when al-Ashraf’s men approached the city they were almost entirely annihilated by Alexander von Rahmel’s preplanned, coordinated defense.

Following his final defeat outside Cairo, al-Ashraf deserted his men and fled southeast. He managed to bribe one of the admirals of a Karakoyun merchant ship trading through Suakin, and on the night of April 11th, al-Ashraf, the last Mamluk Sultan, fled Egypt. The last Muslim to rule Egypt had abdicated, and the Burji Dynasty had fallen.

Having been betrayed by their Sultan, the Mamluk generals lost any will to fight on. On April 21st, 1519 they met in Alexandria with Grand Master Alexander and several Teutonic diplomats, a delegate from the Pope, the Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, as well as ambassadors from Makuria-Nobatia and Alodia. The parties involved signed the Treaty of Alexandria of 1519, which formalized the annexation of all of Egypt to the Ordensstaat. It also established the dominance of the Latin Patriarch Alessandro Bernardi over the Copts, and provided for the establishment of various Komtureis and so-called “crusader states” in Egypt.

After April 1519, a new era was dawning in the world. The Greatest Crusade appeared to be winding down. All the great Muslim empires – save for the immense but backwards Karakoyun Caliphate – had been brought down by the combined forces of the crusading armies. And two new developments were happening. Firstly, Spanish and Portuguese explorers had reportedly found a new land – a chain of islands between Europe and India, full of riches and exploitable native peoples. And in October 1517 a German monk named Martin Luther had nailed what he called the “95 Theses” to the door of the Castle Church in Württemburg, which would soon bring chaos to Europe.

So Europe after the fall of the Mamluks had reached another crossroads, and this one would be the most influential of shaping the years to come.

[Mettermrck]

Deus vult! That was an excellent update, full of back and forth, hard fighting for Egypt and the Levant. There were some close moments, but you've broken the Muslim hold on the Holy Land and rolled back nine centuries of conquest. I can't wait to see what you make of the Reformation. Will the Order became a Catholic hammer or slip into schism?

[Capibara]

Great update. The Mamluks have been finally defeated although with a little more difficulty than expected. I really liked the conclusion of the chapter, really makes you wonder what will happen now.

[Murmurandus]

Nice! I'm interested to hear what will happen next...

[orlanth2000]

First the nidpick :

"In March of 1518, Alexandria fell to the Third Arm ..."

Secondly awesome update, with the new size of you landmass in the south you should really think about moving the administrative capital south, but the political should stay in the German heartlands where it belong.

As a religous order I would think that joining Luther is out of the question, and that the heretics can only be meet with steel and gunsmoke.

[Prinz Wilhelm]

Oh, finally!

The mameluks are gone!

But in order to preserve the Pope's interests, Catholism is the way to go.

[Jape]

Oh, finally!

The mameluks are gone!

But in order to preserve the Pope's interests, Catholism is the way to go.

Bah! The Oderenstaat need not chafe under the Papal hold! The Knightly Prussians must be a beacon of chased piety, subservient to only Christ himself!

The Holy Order is an a position to lead the cleansing of the Christian world of needless superstition, blaspemous ritual and gluttonous pomp!

[coz1]

Well, it was a tough fight but you won. And very exciting all the way through. The fall of the dynasty was nearly bitter sweet given how you portrayed al-Ashraf.

[rcduggan]

Deus vult! That was an excellent update, full of back and forth, hard fighting for Egypt and the Levant. There were some close moments, but you've broken the Muslim hold on the Holy Land and rolled back nine centuries of conquest. I can't wait to see what you make of the Reformation. Will the Order became a Catholic hammer or slip into schism?

thanks... yup, for a while it seemed like the Mamluks could make a comeback. good thing they didn't.
I'm not going to give anything away, but it's going to be an interesting century.

Nice! I'm interested to hear what will happen next...

thanks. I'll try not to disappoint.

First the nidpick :

"In March of 1518, Alexandria fell to the Third Arm ..."

Secondly awesome update, with the new size of you landmass in the south you should really think about moving the administrative capital south, but the political should stay in the German heartlands where it belong.

As a religous order I would think that joining Luther is out of the question, and that the heretics can only be meet with steel and gunsmoke.

hey, it's only a letter missed, pretty good for me.
I'll fix if ASAP.

a Mediterranean capital would be very interesting... I'm still undecided whether to move at least the administration to Acre, Jerusalem, or Constantinople for the time being. I'll think about it.

Oh, finally!

The mameluks are gone!

But in order to preserve the Pope's interests, Catholism is the way to go.

finally, I know.... took 'em long enough to go.

yeah, it probably is.

Bah! The Oderenstaat need not chafe under the Papal hold! The Knightly Prussians must be a beacon of chased piety, subservient to only Christ himself!

The Holy Order is an a position to lead the cleansing of the Christian world of needless superstition, blaspemous ritual and gluttonous pomp!

the Knights? disobey the Pope? unthinkable!
(for the moment )

Well, it was a tough fight but you won. And very exciting all the way through. The fall of the dynasty was nearly bitter sweet given how you portrayed al-Ashraf.

thanks!

[Sematary]

Nice update as always. Good to see them gone.

[Sir Humphrey]

Terrific update, though there the religious wars are probably only getting started.