Yayz!
Punitive expedition?
Sounds fine.
But does he have the imperial authority to do that?
Remember the feudal disintegration/decentralization has already been in play since Manuel...
Rome AARisen - a Byzantine AAR
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Remember the feudal disintegration/decentralization has already been in play since Manuel...
theodora eh? does this mean a possible bi emperor?
excellent
stupid mongols always messing things up, they are far too arogant though. i hope to see the hordes of genghis smashed against the iron resolve of the skoutatoi.
excellent
stupid mongols always messing things up, they are far too arogant though. i hope to see the hordes of genghis smashed against the iron resolve of the skoutatoi.
Mongol arrows pierce through iron.
That's why no one likes them.
Decentralisation, what's that?
Not in Romaion, all must bow before the Emperor, that's enough of centralization!
Hmm, this aar has a lot of comments... sweeet... my 157th comment here. :rofl:
That's why no one likes them.
Decentralisation, what's that?
Not in Romaion, all must bow before the Emperor, that's enough of centralization!
Hmm, this aar has a lot of comments... sweeet... my 157th comment here. :rofl:
VladAntlerkov - Yes, that was the Subotai. Since its 1213, he's not that high ranking yet... hence him getting the crap job of going to goad the Romans into war.
Enewald - Alexios has the authority as a comes, partly because the empire is feudalized, and partly because he's in the backwaters where higher powers really don't want to intervene unless they absolutely have to. Either way, he's got a lot of leeway when dealing with people the Empire considers more "pests" than anything else.
Servius Magnus - Probably not, mostly because a) Thomas is learning how to cope with his voices, we hope, and b) That's decidedly one voice he's not going to give into, partly because of what she wants, partly because of where she comes from. More about that later!
Exadus - Well, we can safely assume, here starts the end of Alexios Thrakesios' punitive expedition!
Qorten - No kidding! This is a guy who's probably used to corralling maybe a hundred or so loose Cumans at most, and now he's lumbering into a vast hornet's nest...
Deamon - An animal? Like... what kind of animal?
Devin Perry - I warned everyone, the Mongols came EARLY.
RGB - Believe me, the translator toned down alot of what Subotai said, hence Alexios' relatively "cool" reaction.
Irenicus - They have arrived... to the tune of "Moscau! Moscau!"
AlexanderPrimus - Yeah, that nice Rus Kingdom the Megas set up? All those nice little principalities up there? Yeah. Scratch that, redo from beginning due to Act of God.
asd21593 - If you liked two updates, you're going to be tickled pink when you see what's below.
Fulcrumvale - Well, it's not like anyone important is going to care about the "ass end" of the Empire...at least, not yet.
Nikolai - Never have two words summed up a situation more perfectly!
Okay, so I was really trying to avoid work tonight, and so here's ANOTHER update! I'm really really spoiling everyone! It's a look at the Komnenid Army during the time of Thomas I and II...specifically the Imperial Guard, the units that are raised and maintained by the Emperor from his personal estates all over the Empire, focusing on each unique tagma. I know the numbers are huge, and yes, those are really what they were in game!
FIRST:
THE CAVALRY
Enewald - Alexios has the authority as a comes, partly because the empire is feudalized, and partly because he's in the backwaters where higher powers really don't want to intervene unless they absolutely have to. Either way, he's got a lot of leeway when dealing with people the Empire considers more "pests" than anything else.
Servius Magnus - Probably not, mostly because a) Thomas is learning how to cope with his voices, we hope, and b) That's decidedly one voice he's not going to give into, partly because of what she wants, partly because of where she comes from. More about that later!
Exadus - Well, we can safely assume, here starts the end of Alexios Thrakesios' punitive expedition!
Qorten - No kidding! This is a guy who's probably used to corralling maybe a hundred or so loose Cumans at most, and now he's lumbering into a vast hornet's nest...
Deamon - An animal? Like... what kind of animal?
Devin Perry - I warned everyone, the Mongols came EARLY.
RGB - Believe me, the translator toned down alot of what Subotai said, hence Alexios' relatively "cool" reaction.
Irenicus - They have arrived... to the tune of "Moscau! Moscau!"
AlexanderPrimus - Yeah, that nice Rus Kingdom the Megas set up? All those nice little principalities up there? Yeah. Scratch that, redo from beginning due to Act of God.
asd21593 - If you liked two updates, you're going to be tickled pink when you see what's below.
Fulcrumvale - Well, it's not like anyone important is going to care about the "ass end" of the Empire...at least, not yet.
Nikolai - Never have two words summed up a situation more perfectly!
Okay, so I was really trying to avoid work tonight, and so here's ANOTHER update! I'm really really spoiling everyone! It's a look at the Komnenid Army during the time of Thomas I and II...specifically the Imperial Guard, the units that are raised and maintained by the Emperor from his personal estates all over the Empire, focusing on each unique tagma. I know the numbers are huge, and yes, those are really what they were in game!
FIRST:
THE CAVALRY
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Wow, nice.
Maybe later on you can make a small update about the beaurocracy, and the internal religious conflicts (If there any) of Rhomanion. It would really make this AH really come to life.
As always, have been a faithful reader for a long time, always will be.
Maybe later on you can make a small update about the beaurocracy, and the internal religious conflicts (If there any) of Rhomanion. It would really make this AH really come to life.
As always, have been a faithful reader for a long time, always will be.
Too much, too much.
What happened to old legions?
And what is the overall number you could have raised into arms during Thomas II's reign?
What happened to old legions?
And what is the overall number you could have raised into arms during Thomas II's reign?
General_BT;9511484.[b said:
A dog that just barks or a all-knowing sheep?
On a more serious note
A noble Lion that values honour and pride above all else.. Ehm a Raven that speeks cryptic messages about persons that have some kind of hidden truth.. A greedy snake etc, etc.
Haha, that's a long, long list.
And very professional-looking, too!
Are there actually different MTW2 troops to correspond to that or did you just screen-cap and sort them until you found something you liked?
And very professional-looking, too!
Are there actually different MTW2 troops to correspond to that or did you just screen-cap and sort them until you found something you liked?
Sorry, no surprise update for tonight! My goal is to have the next update ready by Friday like usual. It might be sooner, I don't know. First, as a little teaser, here's a quote from an update down the line (might be the next one, might be even further):
asd21593 - Well, the Emperor's personal army is over 130,000, and considering the average tagma historically was between 1500 and 3000 men, that means there's a lot of tagma out there. Besides, complexity seems to be the Byzantine way.
Saithis - They're from Stainless Steel 6.1, a wide range of factions (Eastern Christian and Muslim mostly). The troop list I got the pics from is here
RGB - I sorted till I found screenies I liked. Most of the skoutatoi are different spear regiments from different factions (Jerusalem Guard are actually the top tier Kieven spears, etc.).
AlexanderPrimus - Hey, now its your turn to update!
English Patriot - I think in this timeline, down the road the Varangoi are going to be absorbed by the Angeloi. The Saxons are more numerous, and it would make sense to just merge the regiments together. Likely, they would keep the name Angeloi.
Deamon - Hmm... a Lion would sound too much like Aslan. We'll have to see what other surprises are in Thomas' mind though.
Enewald - Legions had been dead long before this alternate history started. The original legionary system was changed in the 4th century, where units became smaller (around 1,000 each) and the army was divided up into garrison units (limitatei), and field army units (comitatei). These in turn faded out with the reforms of Emperor Maurice around the turn of the 7th century. The Komnenoi Empire still functions under a vastly enlarged and greatly bastardized form of this system, where the Imperial field army (in this case, the Emperor's personal troops) are split into standard tagma, or regiments, that can be grouped to form larger field armies. Unlike when Maurice enacted the reforms, the current tagma are not tied down by geographic area and their command is not tied to control of a theme.
As for the total number the Empire can raise in war, if all vassals answer the Emperor's call, on paper the Empire can muster 600-700,000 troops. As you will see down the line, Emperors are loathe to do this. In game, this was because in vanilla CK if a person in command of an army took a territory (especially pagan or Muslim), there was a chance he'd seize the title himself. So I took to not raising anything beyond the Emperor's own force if possible, and trying to have "anonymous" commanders do most of the sieging! For AAR purposes, lets just say the dynatoi would whine, moan, and demand concessions before they put their forces in the field.
Qorten - Thank you! It's been a project that was in the back of my mind for a long time, it's just last night I suddenly had the inspiration to go ahead and see it through!
Exadus - I have some tenative graphics made for the Church and Bureaucracy, but for now I think we need to have a story update or two before we do another interim.
asd21593 - Well, the Emperor's personal army is over 130,000, and considering the average tagma historically was between 1500 and 3000 men, that means there's a lot of tagma out there. Besides, complexity seems to be the Byzantine way.
Saithis - They're from Stainless Steel 6.1, a wide range of factions (Eastern Christian and Muslim mostly). The troop list I got the pics from is here
RGB - I sorted till I found screenies I liked. Most of the skoutatoi are different spear regiments from different factions (Jerusalem Guard are actually the top tier Kieven spears, etc.).
AlexanderPrimus - Hey, now its your turn to update!
English Patriot - I think in this timeline, down the road the Varangoi are going to be absorbed by the Angeloi. The Saxons are more numerous, and it would make sense to just merge the regiments together. Likely, they would keep the name Angeloi.
Deamon - Hmm... a Lion would sound too much like Aslan. We'll have to see what other surprises are in Thomas' mind though.
Enewald - Legions had been dead long before this alternate history started. The original legionary system was changed in the 4th century, where units became smaller (around 1,000 each) and the army was divided up into garrison units (limitatei), and field army units (comitatei). These in turn faded out with the reforms of Emperor Maurice around the turn of the 7th century. The Komnenoi Empire still functions under a vastly enlarged and greatly bastardized form of this system, where the Imperial field army (in this case, the Emperor's personal troops) are split into standard tagma, or regiments, that can be grouped to form larger field armies. Unlike when Maurice enacted the reforms, the current tagma are not tied down by geographic area and their command is not tied to control of a theme.
As for the total number the Empire can raise in war, if all vassals answer the Emperor's call, on paper the Empire can muster 600-700,000 troops. As you will see down the line, Emperors are loathe to do this. In game, this was because in vanilla CK if a person in command of an army took a territory (especially pagan or Muslim), there was a chance he'd seize the title himself. So I took to not raising anything beyond the Emperor's own force if possible, and trying to have "anonymous" commanders do most of the sieging!
For AAR purposes, lets just say the dynatoi would whine, moan, and demand concessions before they put their forces in the field.Qorten - Thank you! It's been a project that was in the back of my mind for a long time, it's just last night I suddenly had the inspiration to go ahead and see it through!
Exadus - I have some tenative graphics made for the Church and Bureaucracy, but for now I think we need to have a story update or two before we do another interim.
Well, have fun recruiting invisible commanders to conquer Mongol lands. Something DV does not fix.
Any thoughts of brining legions back?
Or even something more shocking, regular field armies!
Any thoughts of brining legions back?
Or even something more shocking, regular field armies!
I haven't yet finished reading this excellent AAR (just started book two) but I just have to comment.
I simultaneously love and "hate" this AAR. Love it because of the great story, well built characters, very realistic portrayal of an alternative history Byzantine Empire (I'm quite fascinated by the history of the Roman Empire so another reason to like it so much) and the sheer quality of the writing. Congratulations for you're excellent work. I "hate" it because of all the sleepless nights I've had since discovering it about ten days ago. I'm always sleepy during the day but when I get home instead of sleeping I can't help bet read some more (and I always say "just one more chapter" and that one chapter turns into 10).
It is now 5:30 AM here in Romania and I have to get up at 9 so congratulations once again and keep up the great work (from what I saw in the table of contents it isn't finished yet)
I simultaneously love and "hate" this AAR. Love it because of the great story, well built characters, very realistic portrayal of an alternative history Byzantine Empire (I'm quite fascinated by the history of the Roman Empire so another reason to like it so much) and the sheer quality of the writing. Congratulations for you're excellent work. I "hate" it because of all the sleepless nights I've had since discovering it about ten days ago
. I'm always sleepy during the day but when I get home instead of sleeping I can't help bet read some more (and I always say "just one more chapter" and that one chapter turns into 10). It is now 5:30 AM here in Romania and I have to get up at 9 so congratulations once again and keep up the great work (from what I saw in the table of contents it isn't finished yet)
By medieval standards, that is a massive standing army, even after ignoring the increasingly theoretical contributions of the Dynatoi. I wonder what the implications of this are, given that the standing-army tradition (and the bureaucracy needed to pay for it) has reemerged several hundred years earlier than in OTL, and spread across almost the entirety of the Mediterranean. This could lead to all sorts of interesting military knock-off effects...
Also, what’s the population base of the Empire like by this point?
Also, what’s the population base of the Empire like by this point?