The Shortest Road to Damascus

[NACBEAST]

Youch, bad diplo ruler (again). Still, you're holding up rather well considering, and it would appear that Caliphate is only a few more wars away from reaching its height! I've been reading this from beginning to end, and I am just amazed at the amount of progress you've made starting as such a small nation sandwhiched between two rather large nations: well done!

[gabor]

arePrussia and Pommerania that scary?

[Malurous]

Great news getting the last Castilian provinces! And of course Cabinet should be the end of your worries in BB regard. Let's see if the Austrians will stay off your back with no cores and lower BB...

I'm starting to consider the possibility that PrawnStar's new AAR is vampirising my kings diplomatic skills...

As an aside, gotta love your chapter naming policy

[Didaa]

How big is France Allies?

[Enewald]

You should destroy Ottomans and create a pan-Islamic alliance.

[aldriq]

enkhuush - I know, I blame vampire kittens

Nodscouterr - I didn't think of that, how many files would it involve changing?

PrawnStar - I only have one thing to say to your kitten: keep away from my kings!



NACBEAST - Thanks and welcome! I'm still catching up with your Rajputana AAR, I'll get there eventually

gabor - Not compared with France, but they will send their troops across.

Malurous - Regarding Cabinet, yes, regarding Austria...

Didaa - Nothing scary, just more regiments to consider. To be able to engage France on more than one front is definitely more important than her allies.

Enewald - I don't want to be the only Muslim country in the world, just the most powerful

Update coming later tonight.

[aldriq]

23

Down the same Sicilian road
1688-1705

Despite my warning, or maybe because of it, France remains quiet, not even DoWing her new Indian neighbours. In 1691 the truce with Austria expires and no DoW comes from the emperor either. Without the core in Messina, the Austrians seem happy DoWing Byzantines and Hungarians.

But my luck being my luck... means that Austria gets a boundary dispute in Messina in 1693, leading to an immediate warning This is annoying as it removes my freedom to DoW France when it suits me, and even if France DoWs someone else I'd still be exposed to an Austrian attack.

I could DoW Austria directly, but my BB is still high and I want to diplo-annex a vassal before I go to war. Not that I'm very successful... 3 failed attempts with the Mamluks... 2 failed attempts with Iraq... 1 failed attempt with Najd... my blunt caliph doesn't help. I also get a nice 'Corruption' event (I choose to lose 1 stab, the other option is gaining 3 inflation).

Not all is bad news though, at the end of 1696 a string of Iberian provinces core and Castillian culture finally becomes accepted

Austria eventually makes up her mind and DoWs me in November 1696. Her allies (Castille, Ethiopia ) and German vassals join in, as do my ally Astrakhan and my vassals.

The upteenth war with Austria and 0 diplo-annexations are too much to bear for the caliph, who dies of frustration in March 1698. His successor is at long last gifted with some diplomatic charm -I knew the garlic would work!-

Ethiopia is quickly dealt with: I take two provinces, one of which I sell to my vassal Adal after the war. I would have been happy to leave Ethiopia alone for the entire game, but they've been so annoying that I couldn't resist taking some land (and the money) this time.

My ally Astrakhan pulls out of the war early, but they have a much bigger problem to worry about: a war of Khivan succession against the Ottoman Empire They are badly overrun by the Ottomans, and sadly I can't intervene. They lose 4 provinces to the Ottomans in the end (and the once in a lifetime opportunity to lead a PU with OPM Khiva)...

The war with Castille and Austria drags on into the new century. Although I occupy their South African colonies without much trouble, the Castillians have garrisoned their last 3 north African provinces with 20 regiments, which prove rather difficult to destroy with the area's high attrition. It's not until 1702 that those provinces fall and I have enough WS to demand them in a peace deal. Before I wouldn't have bothered getting these provinces, but since I now accept Castillian culture I may as well take them and eliminate my last border with Castille.

Austria is also ready for peace after a long blockade and the fall of Janina and Corfu, I reclaim the core in Messina again and the release of Naples and Siena. The Austrian AI will have to work extra hard to get a boundary dispute on me now

Back at peace, I can renew my efforts of diplo-annexation. In 1704 the new caliph's charms work and Cairo is finally integrated into the empire. The centralisation hit is immediately countered with a spare slider move.

The warning to France is renewed but the French stay put. I keep building up my army in Iberia with some Latin regiments recruited in my Aragonese core (Line Infantry) when in 1705 the wait comes to an end...

_________________

Syria in 1705

Provinces: 148
At war with France*, Prussia, Pommerania.
Allied with Astrakhan, TE, Algiers, Adal, Najd. CB on Granada, Najd, Yemen and Iraq. Guaranteeing Mali. Warning Fez, Khiva and France.
Vassals: Najd, Oman, Algiers, Adal, TE, Iraq.
Stability: +3
BB: 0
Monarch: Caliph Saif II (3a/6m/8d)
Army: 204 (62/142/0)
Navy: 140 (94/4/2/40)
WE: 0


_________________

The World in 1705


Money. Thanks to the opportunistic conquest of Peru the French have lots of it.



Tech. Trade and Production had to be sacrificed to keep up with the rest.



Army. I hope not all of the 344 French regiments are in mainland France.



Navy. At least France will be no match at sea.



Empire. The HRE has been pretty much reduced to Austria and her small clique.



Old. India has become the new colonial trophy for France, Great Britain and Sweden. Castille and Portugal are taking the remaining African coast.



New. Most of America is now under firm European control. The only big war so far has been between Castille and Portugal.

[NACBEAST]

How dare those marlborough-smoking French occupy India! Crush them at once so that the Indians may be free of their control... and, ya know, get their remaining Iberian provinces... that'd also be nice.

Joking aside, good work on once again getting rid of Austria's core on Messina, must've been frustrating to have seen it pop up (given how rare Boundary Dispute Events can be for the player...) for them. The release of Naples was nice, as my ancestors actually hail from a small village south-east of Napoli.

Also it looks like the garlic did the trick! No more bad diplo-monarchs for you!

[Nodscouterr]

Nodscouterr - I didn't think of that, how many files would it involve changing?

Only 1 file. Go into the localisation and then innomine.txt. Scroll down until you find some files looking like this: feudal_monarchy_japanese_ruler;Emperor;;Kaiser;;;; ;;;;;;;x
Copy and paste that file above and change feudal_monarchy to your type of governement. Note: Empire = Imperial_governement and Theocracy = Theocratic_government. then change japanese to al_suryah_arabic and Emperor to Caliph. All done!

[PrawnStar]

Nice getting Castilian accepted now go beat the French.

I've had a chat with my kitten about not vampiring other people's Kings. Not sure she understands

[Enewald]

now to bring the BBB down.

[enkhuush]

Yeah, cross Pyrenees!

[Sweboy]

That is one hell of a bit Astrakhan!

[Judas Maccabeus]

Looks like you've just about finished. Congratulations, O mighty Caliph and leader of the faithful.

[Didaa]

Kick France ass! Please?

[gabor]

'packing? setting off somewhere interesting?"
'we're going to Ibiza. Venga boys!'

[Duke of Wellington]

How nice of the French to oblige and DoW you. That would have to sting the Castilians, first you take their land, then you take their cutlure In my experience France often has massive forces in their colonies but little on the mainland. I hope that is the case here.

[aldriq]

NACBEAST - Naples is an amazing city, not least by the fact that their inhabitants choose to live so close to an active volcano

Nodscouterr - Thanks, I changed the royal title following your instructions. I also changed the flag to a more Caliphal version: Umayyad green and white with Saladin's golden eagle emblazoned with the Syrian crescent (thanks to General_Grant for the original design!).

PrawnStar - Hopefully she'll understand when she discovers fish

Enewald - Right, from BB to the BBB...

enkhuush - I will!

Sweboy - bah, they can't even defeat the Swedes

Judas Maccabeus - Thanks, it's been an interesting road

Didaa - You'll be satisfied

gabor - Have you no shame?

Duke of Wellington - You are right, as you'll see, on one account only

[aldriq]

24

The last road to al-Andalus
1705-1715

The new flag flies over al-Andalus, the troops ready to welcome the blue tide...

And for two years that is pretty much what the war is about, welcoming, as my armies don't set foot on French territory other than the Baleares and Ulster. Repelling the French and letting their WE go up as I blockade them is my only goal. Prussia and Pommerania both join France but they don't send any significant forces to Iberia. The Prussians do send 15,000 men to invade Astrakhan, but the Astrakhanis sign a white peace before much happens.

I pay a visit to some of the French colonies, only to discover the ridiculous amount of regiments they have overseas It seems Louis XVII and 35,000 sons of St Louis are spending a nice holiday in the east coast of India. My fleet will make sure they stay there on permanent leave

I'm very glad I invested in a few Reformed Tercios and Line Infantry regiments in my Castillian/Aragonese cores. The difference is noticeable and exacerbated when you forget to assign a good leader in a major battle. This was fought with two thirds of Latin infantry and a 5-shock leader...

...while this was fought by a leaderless mix of Muslim infantry and cavalry...

The cavalry isn't top dog any more in the 18th century. The French AI is a bit cleverer (but not much) than what I've seen before: while they are besieging my level-4 forts surrounded by my armies they don't assault, and after 10-12 months of unsuccessful siege they retreat to French land to recover. Not good enough, however, after 2 years they've taken enough attrition and blockading to reach that point of no return in WE (no scorched earth needed)

Also in the first few months of war Naples DoWs me, having 3 cores in my provinces it was bound to happen. I divert some spare troops to Italy to deal with this, just enough WE to have them renounce to the cores is required, so the war is over in a year.

In September 1707 I get to government tech 33 and choose Regimental System as next NI to make sure I have much faster access to new regiments than the French even if my WE goes up, which it does as I start trying to push into the Pyrenees.

It's not until October 1708 that I finally defeat the main French army in Aragon, routed 3 months later in Bearn. That's 112 French regiments out of the game The massive losses sustained by the French army in this battle have probably more to do with their poor choice of leader (Louis XVII must have been late teleporting from India).

After that France is prepared for peace, which I sign in April 1709 once I've occupied all the provinces I want: Baleares, Navarra, Pirineo and Girona. The provinces are rather cheap in WS terms, so I use the rest to demand the release of Tyrone, Deccan (in India) and the Inca Empire (this one mostly to reduce their ridiculously high Income from gold).

My WE has reached 5 towards the end of this war but it has been worth it: Iberia is French-free! While I was at war Ethiopia and the Ottomans warned me... great opportunity to get Funj, recently diplo-annexed by the Ottomans. I DoW Fez -already guaranteed by the OE- in 1710, after the OE has been in a war with Austria for a year. Swahili is the enemy alliance leader.

Simultaneously I DoW Granada and Aragon (both guaranteed by Castille and Portugal), no point in waiting now that France is no longer a threat. Ethiopia is vassalised in a few months... Aragon is annexed... and so Granada becomes to last Christian Kingdom in al-Andalus to fall to a united Caliphate in March 1711

Fez cedes Marrakech and Figuig later in the year, but the Ottomans' level-4 forts in east Anatolia take another year and a half to fall. I'm only interested in Funj, but I take Georgia, Alania and Dagestan to sell back to Astrakhan, their former owner.

Swahili, Portugal and Castille sign separate white peaces eventually. And Astrakhan is more than happy to accept the three provinces, the Caucasus borders back to where they belong.

My first colony in Java, Priangan, becomes a city in 1714 as I establish a second one in Demak. And after two failed attempts I integrate Samarkand into the Caliphate in 1715.

That was the last of my goals, I could carry on diplo-annexing vassals but there is not much point in continuing past this point, the Caliphate has been attained in all its glory. Thanks everybody for reading and especially to all of you who commented and gave your suggestions, helping the Caliphate along the way. I will do a final update with maps and figures to close the AAR.


_________________

Syria in 1715

Provinces: 158
At peace.
Allied with Algiers, Adal, Najd. CB on Najd, Yemen and Iraq.
Vassals: Najd, Oman, Algiers, Adal, Iraq, Ethiopia, Fez.
Stability: +3
BB: 9.05
Monarch: Caliph Saif II (3a/6m/8d)
Army: 216 (69/147/0)
Navy: 151 (102/3/4/42)
WE: 2.77

[Malurous]

Yay, congratulations! Great concept, great AAR and great result. Even if I'd like reading more of your stuff (I'll definitely follow your possible future AARs), I think it's a good choice to finish when you were supposed to. And the inevitable showdown with France was a fitting way to end it. You set a goal and reached it, and it was definitely an entertaining road to follow! Thanks!