7
The roadrunner from Durrani
1470-79
Despite the Funj consensus I don't feel Cairo is worth losing 3 stability, I decide to warn them and wait instead. Pretty much all of my neighbours have been warned by Syria, surely one of them will cross the line and DoW soon...
Or maybe not as soon as I thought... in the meantime, for the sake of strengthening relations with the Golden Horde, I follow Kami's advice and declare war on Georgia. As predicted, GH happily joins along with Khorasan; Tver and Muscovy join on Georgia's side.
Since the Horde is busy in the west I send some men to besiege Georgia's only province, which falls quickly enough. The Georgians offer a neat sum of money for peace; I accept and run, of course
Muscovy and Tver refuse to sign white peace at first, but they eventually get bored and accept a year later.
1472 and 1473 prove to be difficult years for more than one nation, collapse seems to be the name of the game. Hungary is almost partitioned between Austria and the OE...
... the Mamluks are free again after 32,000 rebels convinced Funj -and me-
that it wasn't that cheap to keep Cairo...
...and most unexpectedly, in 1473 the Golden Horde imploded due to war exhaustion and total rebel neglect. Kazakh, Sibir and newly born Astrakhan are the main beneficiaries of this collapse.
So much for my new strengthened relations with the now two-province Horde
At least they keep their 50 regiments attriting away in their capital, so they might still be useful for a while, and even recover some of their old territory.
Looking back to Syria, 1473 is time for a new policy change. I push the slider towards innovative -I only get a small prestige hit- and later on a 'Merchants Complain' event will let me favour plutocracy.
By 1476 I'm tired of waiting for any of my neighbours to trigger a warning, but if I must sacrifice 3 stability points it must be worthwhile. Persia promises to offer the best reward in terms of land and wealth, so I send the DoW.
Both my allies join, Haasa and Durrani back Persia. The two Haasan non-capital provinces -unfortified- are quickly seized and obtained in a separate peace deal, leaving Haasa an OPM.
Khorasan leaves the war shortly afterwards with a white peace, overrun by Durrani and involved in some obscure succession war, just as a few GH regiments arrive to help out against a really annoying 8K Durrani stack.
Persia has a bigger army than I thought, so I have to regroup my separate stacks to defeat it.
The Persian army is destroyed in 1478, when I can finally focus on finishing sieges and chase down the Durrani stack that has been harassing my smaller siege units. The GH abandons the war at this point.
I get carried away pursuing the Durranis up and down into Afghan provinces, which is not good for my WE, but in the end I exact my revenge. When Sistan and Makran fall I obtain the latter in a separate peace.
And a month later the last Persian province falls and I get a neat 100% peace deal. This leaves Persia reduced to 2 provinces and gives me a solid eastern border. Durrani is left as a buffer against the rapidly consolidating Indian powers, of which Rajputana is the largest. Conveniently the CoT in Hormuz has disappeared (stagnated?), most of its revenue is going now to Fars
In the west the Ottomans are fighting two wars along their new ally Astrakhan; they are doing well against Lithuania but losing ground against Austria. I hope the OE loses some Adriatic or Hungarian provinces, although knowing the AI it might all end up in white peace. After this war I need to consider ditching the GH and getting Astrakhan as ally.
And in Africa Algiers has taken most of Tripoli and Tunisia and vassalised them, they might not be such push over as I expected. On the other hand, attacking and weakening Algiers will only make Castille stronger in North Africa...
Am I ready yet to fight a Lain power? Probably not, looking at the economy and tech levels...
I have a temporary CB against Qara Qoyunlu (they pressed a boundary dispute), but I think it's probably better to let it go this time, WE and BB need some rest. On the admin side I've just breached the 30 provinces, so I can switch to Empire, is it worth the stab hit in the long run?
_________________
Syria in 1479
Provinces: 31
At peace.
Allied with Korashan, Golden Horde. CB on OE.
Stability: +2
BB: 10.10
Monarch: Sultan al-Mu'azzam II (7a/4m/6d)
Army: 27 (12/15/0)
Navy: 15 (0/0/6/9)
WE: 5.99
Neighbours
Mamluks: Allied with Hedjaz, Najd, Adal and Swahili. CB on Syria. Guaranteeing Yemen, Haasa, Najd, Hedjaz and Iraq. Warned by Syria. At war with Kazakh.
Funj: Allied with Yemen and Qara Qoyunlu. CB on Hedjaz. Guaranteed by Swahili and Sokoto. Warned by Syria.
Tripoli: Allied with Yemen, Najd, Algiers and Qara Qoyunlu. CB on Tunisia. Guaranteeing Tunisia. Warned by Syria.
Algiers: Allied with Najd, Tripoli, Tunisia, Khorasan. CB on Castille. Guaranteed by OE. Guranteeing Yemen, Haasa and Oman. Warned by Syria.
OE: Allied with Bosnia, Serbia, Golden Horde, Nogai, Astrakhan. CB on Hungary. Guaranteeing Yemen, Haasa, Oman, Hedjaz, Algiers and Iraq. At war with Lithuania*, Hungary, Brandenburg and Pommerania; at war with Austria and Bavaria.
Najd: Allied with Iraq, Algiers and the Mamluks. CB on Syria, Oman. Guaranteeing Iraq. Guaranteed by the Mamluks, Yemen and Fez. Warned by Syria.
Iraq: Allied with Najd. CB on the OE, Syria. Guaranteed by OE, Yemen, Haasa, Fez and the Mamluks. Warned by Syria.
Haasa: Allied with Oman and Qara Qoyunlu. CB on Syria. Guaranteed by OE, Yemen, Algiers, Fez and the Mamluks. Guaranteeing Iraq. Warned by Syria.
Hedjaz: Allied with Oman and the Mamluks. CB on OE and Yemen. Guaranteed by OE.
Khorashan: Allied with Syria, Kazakh, Durrani and Kashmir. CB on Persia and Delhi.
Qara Qoyunlu: Allied with Funj, Haasa and Khiva. CB on OE, Georgia, GH, Persia and TE. Guaranteed by Persia and GH. Warning Georgia. Warned by Syria.
Persia: No allies. CB on OE, Syria, Khorasan, Qara Qoyunlu and Khiva. Guaranteeing Qara Qoyunlu. Guaranteed by Durrani. Warned by Syria.
Durrani: Allied with Khiva, Khorasan and TE. CB on Syria, Rajputana. Guaranteeing Persia.