The Despotate of EPIRUS

[S0ny B1ack]

Its a Httt 4.0 game, with everything on normal.

This is my first attempt to write an AAR, so don't expect too much and of course any criticism is welcome

I read on these forums something about them being one of the hardest nations to play... So I decided to try out how long I could survive. But after getting an really lucky start (no DOW on first day) I thought the game may become interesting and decided to write this AAR (hopefully it won't be the shortest AAR ever ).

And before I begin I have to admit that I'm a noob, who played only easier nations before (and sometimes with rather shameful results )

PS: I apologise in advance if my English isn't the best

[S0ny B1ack]

Part 1 : the first war:


As I said before I was lucky, because Venice DOWed Byzantine and the OE was still busy fighting the Timurid... so I had some time to buy some mercenaries and I declared war on Tripoli (and their ally Algiers), who had some minor rebel problems, the rebels were quickly destroyed and the 1000 man army of Tripoli didn't last much longer...



Soon they had lost all their provinces and they had to accept our peace offer:



After the war our economy was booming:



Algier however had begun with an assault on our capital and without any chances against their fleet we conceded defeat:



Soon after we got alliances with Tripoli and Wallachia and we were guaranteed by Georgia:

[theconfusedone]

An Epirus AAR!
Promise me you'll conquer the world!

After seeing the Bar AAR, I have high hopes for Epirus

[S0ny B1ack]

part 2: The first real challange


After one and a half year a new chance for expansion appeared. Hungary DOWed OPM Ragusa, who was allied with Montenegro. We took the oportunity and moved our fleet (if one cog can be called a fleet) with 1000 soldiers, under the command of our king, on board to the straits of otranto and declared war on Montenegro (allied with Ragusa, Moldavia and sadly Wallachia, who betrayed us). Our "army" was send to Zeta immediatly and arrived just in time before our ship was sunk by the combined navys of Montenegro and Ragusa.



When they arrived Montenegro was hireing mercenarys, which were defeated (but not destroyed) after deployment. They reorganised in Ragusa and returned, after a fierce battle we won a heroic victory:



In the meantime we decided to ask Serbia for military access, which was needed to came to Wallachia and if needed to retreat our soldiers in neutral teritory, but Montenegros hirelings marched together with Ragusas army into Hungarian lands...



During the war we recieved an unexpected offer:



Moldavia had more important matters then our war so they send a peace offer which was accepted:



Ragusa and Montenegro had successfully occupied a Hungarian province and we were worried if their combined armies would come back (although the war was not over yet - where the hell were the hungarians), so we accepted also an offer from Ragusa which came in the right time:



Finally after more than two years Zeta fell:



Montenegro was integrated in our kingdom:



While our army was occupied in Montenegro, a new cog was built and new soldiers recruited. Some time earlier a revolt occured and took over our holds in North Africa. After the ship was ready our new regiment went immediatly there:



Our invasion force went toward Wallachia, which has been vassalised by Hungary, but we were still in our war, because they had no army left, our victory was only a matter of time; soon the first of their two provinces was conquered:



They gave up after a month, offering us exactly what we wanted :



So Epiruses second war ended with a great victory. And the rebels were taken care of:

[S0ny B1ack]

Epiruses political situation after the war:



We have made it to a 5 province minor, with a vassal and a relatively strong ally.

[blsteen]

Wow, you seem to be moving into the balkans in style. Hopefully, the Otto's don't take a disliking to your initative.

[Zitanier]

I played a couple of times with Epirus but I never thought of attacking Tripoli.
I MUST follow this AAR.

[S0ny B1ack]

An Epirus AAR!
Promise me you'll conquer the world!

After seeing the Bar AAR, I have high hopes for Epirus

I'll do my best, but as i said don't expect too much, I was already surprised that I've survived so "long"

Wow, you seem to be moving into the balkans in style. Hopefully, the Otto's don't take a disliking to your initative.

I have to take every opportunity to gain some lands...
and they dislike me anyway

I played a couple of times with Epirus but I never thought of attacking Tripoli.
I MUST follow this AAR.

My first thought when i started was that i have to expand at any cost, then i saw the rebellion there and that they almost didn't have any army, so I tried it...

[sylverCode]

Sweet!

*subscribed*

I have never thought of attacking Tripoli either.

[Tsar_adam]

Nice! I'll be following this.

[TonyJoe]

Very nicely done. I hope you can carve out a Greek kingdom.

[tuore]

The start is all about luck; when I tried once to attack Tripoli (or Tunisia, can't remember), OE DoW'd me and defeated my navy.

[History_Buff]

definitely good strategy. If the Ottomans attack you in Europe, you now have a refuge that they cannot reach by land. I would not have gone for Montenegro or Wallachia afterwards though, but would have preferred to go for Albania before them, as long as I though I could take them, as I prefer to have all my provinces connected by land, The North African territories being exempt from this rule for obvious reasons

[S0ny B1ack]

Sweet!

*subscribed*

I have never thought of attacking Tripoli either.

Nice! I'll be following this.

Very nicely done. I hope you can carve out a Greek kingdom.

Unificating the greek provinces would be great, but there are Venice and the Ottomans ... but it'll be one of my primary goals.

The start is all about luck; when I tried once to attack Tripoli (or Tunisia, can't remember), OE DoW'd me and defeated my navy.

I think its the same for most such nations... I just hoped the OE would be to busy in the east.

definitely good strategy. If the Ottomans attack you in Europe, you now have a refuge that they cannot reach by land. I would not have gone for Montenegro or Wallachia afterwards though, but would have preferred to go for Albania before them, as long as I though I could take them, as I prefer to have all my provinces connected by land, The North African territories being exempt from this rule for obvious reasons

Albania is held by Venice and they have about 10.000 soldiers there, so I got no chance... yet...

[S0ny B1ack]

part 3: Protecting our Brethren in Athens!

The mission our country wanted to accomplish was to rescue our people in Athen from the intruders Venice, but how could we defeat such an economic empire.
Again rebels helped us. An Albanian uprising:



Venice used the majority of their army to crush them, but suffered heavy losses in the mountains of Albania, so the time to strike was there:





On Venices side joinned their vassals Corfu and Naxus, as well as Bohemia, Switzerland and Morea.
We were betraied by Aquileia, who could have easily invaded Venice, but we had to make it only with our Vassal Tripoli:



Venices main force(which hadn't recovered from the battle against the rebels) were soon crushed by our army (supported by 3000 recently hired mercenarys):



But the Mameluks also decided to go conquering (Naples, Georgia and Bizantium gad guaranteed our independence) :



At least in the meantime the Venecians were taken care of:



But North Africa seemed lost:



In Europe our army successfully invaded Corfu:



We couldn't have done anything against the Mameluks:



More northern Bohemia had its own problems:



There had been minor battles all over Greece which we all won, but our army couldn't be reinforced in time and we were defeated in Athen against a combined army of Venice and Naxos:



The allied forces of Venice and its vassals began a counter offensive, but they all failed in the mountains of Janina:



At the edge of bankruptcy we were finally able to disband mercenarys who had been besiging Corfu:



We decided to improve our land forces:



Surprisingly Tripoli managed to capture Crete:



And we managed to get Morea out of the war:



And another surprise:

[S0ny B1ack]

I will post the continuation of the war later today...

[Marco Oliverio]

Excellent! You Epireans (or whatever you're called) just jump right in and make it happen! That's a good omen for the future - if you can just get those Mamluks out of your hair!

[S0ny B1ack]

Excellent! You Epireans (or whatever you're called) just jump right in and make it happen! That's a good omen for the future - if you can just get those Mamluks out of your hair!

The Mameluks at least can't reach other then tose two provinces and later the OE started a war with them as well.

[Zitanier]

Excellent! You Epireans (or whatever you're called)

It's Epirotes.

[S0ny B1ack]

continuation of part 3:

First reactions of our civil population:



After years of war we finally managed to get back our belongings in North Africa, the Mameluks, which were attacked by the OE ended war after we annuled the military access granted by Serbia:



But we immediately got it back:



Albania was conquered:



In the meantime Venice attacked our regions in Africa and Bohemia was elected as the Holy roman emperor:



Just in time Sirt revolted and Venice was once again fighting rebels:



Also in other parts of Europe interesting things happened:



Our main goal was achieved when we occupied Athens:



Peace negotiation with Switzerland were successful:



More rebels rised agains our governement in Africa:



Venice decided to send even more soldiers to Africa and defeated some of the rebels, but Tripoli our loyal vassal engaged them heroically, though without any chances:



We left Athen undefended to get Naxuses forces from their island and then defeated them:



Victory was ours:



Corfu,which was taken in the beggining of this war and which Venice had to give up was converted to our faith and vassalised:



In august 1413 after almost exatly 5 years of war the last peace treaty was signed: