The Last Greek Empire - a Trebizond AAR

@cezare:
Thanks! Hard to say 'how I did it'. I mean, some luck is needed, I wouldn't be able to replicate these precise results in a new game. But generally, what is necessary is to stay focused on chances, alert of what's happening, invest smartly, and be ready to make use of any weakness in your neighbours.

@Insanity Boy: Right, thanks. Will fix it.

@R3d F0x:I know, I know, I will continue!

But I'm kind of hard pressed lately, I'm suffering from a displaced vertebra in my neck (which hurts and sucks badly) and I would rather like to obtain my bachelor's degree this year. While I enjoy writing and playing for this AAR, my study really gets priority. Or it should, anyway

2681 A.D., Trebizond Interplanetary HQ.

"A.. Admiral?"
"Yes?", replied Admiral Dimitrios Komnenos of the Third Jovian Fleet. He noticed his own voice was a bit shaky too, although not as much as his aide's.
"Did.. did you feel that?"
As a matter of fact, he did. A thoroughly disturbing feeling permeated his bones, like they were twisted and bent in ways they really shouldn't. Not in a painful way though, but it was definitely nauseating. Should he speak up?

He thought he saw a few of the others around the conference table struggling to keep their composure, but most did not show any emotions on their faces. But of course, showing signs of surprise - of weakness - is generally not seen as a smart move on a top military conference. Then again, his aide felt it too. If something was indeed happening, much victoglory would be due to the person who first identified it. He decided to take his chances and rose to his feet.
"You might be pretending everything is all right to save your asses, but I want to know what the hell is going on!"

--

Six weeks later, the generals, admirals and other dignitaries of the Trebizondian Interplanetary Empire reconvened, together with a huge pile of reports trying to explain the phenomenon. Most were silly conspiracy theories that were discarded straight away. A few were interesting enough to invite the writers over to elaborate. One of those reports was from Sinope Temporal Laboratory.

"..and based on this coincidence of a sudden leap in time-hypertime ratio, the observed bursts of anti-tachyons and an instantaneous temporal-inertial force field in all of our observed light-cone, one can conclude..."

"Wait, wait, wait!", Admiral Komnenos, now chairman of the investigation team, interrupted the scientist.
"Are you saying that someone or something just paused the universe?"

"Well... more or less, sir, I am. For more than a month of external time, every motion, every tiniest change down to the subatomic level was frozen, except in a few obscure microdimensions we don't know much about."

"This is outrageous! A month! How can anything cause the galaxy to simply stop? Is there an intelligence behind this? Are we being manipulated from a parallel universe? Has anything changed in our timeline? What happened... Is it dangerous?"

"We... we don't know..."

Thanks for posting all

@urdh: Actually, it's Artificial Intelligence! But you quickly learn to master the techno-babble if you watch as much Star Trek as I do

Update coming up!

Lacking any equipment able to detect hypertemporal anomalies, the 16th century Trebizondians had no choice but to just ignore their nausea and go on with their lives as if nothing happened. Nothing did really happen, anyway, that's exactly the point. But now the happening is back, with a vengeance! Yarrr!

Let's see what's happening in the world, shall we?



The big bad Ming are looking at us across the border with hardly concealed contempt in their eyes. They are also slowly gobbling up all of South East Asia.

OK, so much for Asia. What's happening in Africa?



Not much, but we're about to fix that. Morocco will lead the opposing alliance.



No resistance (or forts) here.

In 1572 we get to pick another (4th) National Idea and we pick our first Military one. Our soldiers will now be drilled. Innovative, huh?



Our other ideas are National Trade Policy, National Bank and QftNW.



The Swahili are quickly subdued, and in our victoglorious kindness we are satisfied with just a load of gold and a cute little island. And their total submission, of course.



In 1573 we discover an island in the middle of nowhere. As you can see in the ledger in this screenshot, I put the Swahili gold to good use (workshops). But altogether I'm starting to get quite rich anyway.

Now there's also bad news. Even the greatest empires have their shameful moments, and this is one of them.



A totally fresh, full strength cavalry division was slaughtered in their first confrontation with a same-size rebel force, even though our leader was better. I blame it on the tech level, Land 17, which is a sort of a low point for cavalry forces. Still it sucks.

I forgot to make a screenshot, but we made peace with Oman for some of their southern coffee provinces. We soon sell them to our vassal Yemen.



We don't feel like expanding much into Morocco, but they're too big to vassalize. So we settle for one province and end the war.



Our reputation:



Income and research:


No idea why I'm minting like that here, while I've got plenty of money on hand. I shouldn't.
Then again, inflation is definitely back under control, way down from where it was.

Armies of the world:

Nice to see there's plenty of healthy competition. Note that my direct neighbours Aquileia and Timur are both still a bit stronger than me.

Meanwhile Oman annexes Najd, which simplifies things for us.



We reach Gov 18 and decide to 'modernize' the government. The victoglorious Emperor now has a well-defined set of responsibilities: to rule everything. Anyway, it makes us more productive.



Trebizondian tourist resorts pop up in South-East Africa



And we need more and more ships to ferry those tourists around.
(Actually we still have a limited number of cores on the Indian Ocean and I've been building ships non-stop for like decades to assemble this fleet)



Stuff in Bangladesh rebels to our vassal. Excellent.



But this update is way too peaceful, don't you think?
It's time we take on the big red danger to our east again, and we find a way to combine just that with another long-term goal.



We sent a small army in Sibir's direction months before the declaration, so we'd get there before our Russian allies would arrive and occupy provinces that are rightfully ours.



Here's the breakdown, but it doesn't do justice to the ferociousness of the Timurids.



Sibir, on the other hand, goes down easily.



Unfortunately, our well-respected King David II doesn't live to see this victory and is replaced by his so-so son Georgios.

For now the Timurids are kept at bay close to our border. We try to wear down their superior manpower while keeping our casualties low.

Also note that the Syrian war for independence still hasn't concluded. For some reason they just won't sign peace with the Mamluks. Annoying.



The Sibir are subjugated, completing our belt of central asian vassals, and sealing Siberia off to Russia.



The continued Timurid war is long but fun, and warrants an update of its own.