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The shortest road is always the steepest
1425-33
The shortest road is always the steepest
1425-33
The epic journey of Syria starts with very unepic domestic tasks... adjusting investment, sending a missionary to Mosul and dropping a redundant forcelimit advisor. With that sorted there is the issue of who to keep as friend and who to target for expansion. Reader's advice was mostly divided between attacking Persia or a Mamluk ally. I personally perfer the second option, Mamluk lands will be easier to absorb right now.
However Qara Qoyunlu is also guaranteed by Persia, and Swahili has a decent army they could move freely through Mamluk territory. Luckily for me I don't have to ponder for long about this - Yemen breaks our alliance a couple of weeks into the game. Yemen is conveniently guaranteed by Morocco and the Mamluks, a perfect target
Enemy decided, all effort goes now to keep the backyard safe, that is, make friends with the Ottomans. They do have one of my provinces, but since it is of my culture the core can't be lost, so I figure that with a bit of luck some Syrian rebels might help in the future to hand the province back to me. Royal marriage, military access and an embassy in Mosul bring relations to over 140. Safe enough for now.
The DoW will cost 3 stab points but that shouldn't be an issue at this point. I recruit another cavalry regiment, put my king in charge of the army (2-shock, not bad) and in April 1426 I DoW Yemen. Tripoli doesn't honour the alliance, oh well. Morocco does honour the guarantee, and annoyingly becomes alliance leader. Adal joins in the fun as well.
The balance doesn't look very fair, but everything seem to be going well all through 1426. No Mamluk forces show up and I get some false sense of security, until a big stack appears. Najd holds well against Yemen, until Hedjaz DoWs them Fortunately Hedjaz is happy to sign a white peace only a few months after starting the war, I believe the Ottomans have something to do with this sudden decision.
A 16K Mamluk stack pushes my army back to Beirut, but my king is a much more effective at hurting than the Mamluk malik. They lose the next battle in Beirut and I chase them up and down the Sinai until they are routed. A good king and more cavalry make all the difference.
Time to settle down and do some besieging. Unfortunately that was only half of the Mamluk forces. The other half eventually regroups in Cairo. They attack, leaderless, and lose miserably. Same hunting/ping-pong operation is performed.
Only this time I can't really afford to do it leisurely; after ignoring the war for more than 4 years Moroccan forces start disembarking in Beirut. And in the east things haven't been going very well for my ally Najd, the Yemenis have occupied half their lands. War exhaustion is taking its toll as Iraqi rebels ravage my eastern provinces, and though Ottoman units wipe most of them they still cause some damage. On top of that Oman DoWs Nadj in 1431
Again, Oman strangely offers white peace after a few months. The last Mamluk stack is destroyed in Kargah and I focus on the siege of Cairo to gain as much WS as I can while the rest of the army goes back north to neutralise increasing Moroccan landings and rebels.
Al-Adil dies on rebel duty after 7 glorious years, his successor is not that legendary.
Cairo finally falls in October 1432, and with 54% war score I get a fair 58% value peace out of the Mamluks. The war has been a lot longer than I expected, I hope Jerusalem is worth the effort.
Yemeni troops are chased away from Syrian lands and Morocco accepts white peace eventually in April 1433. WE wasn't very carefully managed, stands sky-high at 17.92
The other downside of giving the Ottomans access: they got involved in a war with Hedjaz, reduced them to an OPM
Amazingly both Najd and Syria have preserved their territorial integrity all through the war. Although as you can see there is Syrian peasants and Iraqi patriots to deal with while WE cools down. On the good side Mosul converted during the war, and a 'People feel safe' event made for the stab hit caused by the king dying in battle.
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Syria in 1433
Provinces: 11
At peace.
Allied with Nadj.
Stability: +2
BB: 2.60
Monarch: Sultan al-Afdal III (5/5/8)
Army: 13 (6/7/0)
Navy: 7 (0/0/6/1)
WE: 17.92
Neighbours
Mamluks: Allied with Tunisia, Qara Qoyunly, Swahili. CB on Syria. Guaranteeing Yemen, Oman, Nadj, Hedjaz.
OE: Allied with Bosnia, Serbia, Golden Horde, Karaman. CB on Novgorod. Guaranteeing Nadj, Syria. At war with Novgorod. At war with Oman.
Persia: Allied with Delhi, Chagatai. CB on Khorasan, Qara Qoyunlu and TE. Guaranteeing Khorasan and Qara Qoyunlu and Khiva.
Najd: Allied with Syria, Tripoli. CB on the Mamluks. Guaranteeing Candar. Guaranteed by OE, Algiers and the Mamluks.
Hedjaz: Allied with Oman and Adal. Guaranteed by Yemen, Mamluks and Morocco.
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