The Timurids, session one.
The Big Red Blob That Didn't Move, By Snall.
My grand army is pretty awesome.
Note: I just write what happens, no story for you!! Also I didn't take pictures as this is my first MP game and just getting used to no pause and the Timurids rebels and sometimes multi-front wars made me sweat, that and my AC is out.
1399 as most of us know sets the Timurids up as a nice big, if unstable (0 Stab and lots of cultures), blob with a great general/leader. In fact I probably started out as the largest PC nation.
I have played the Timurids (Here on referred to as TIM, or Timmy /Southpark) early years a few times in SP recently to get a good grasp on what I need to do and I also looked up some strategies for TIM in the long term so that I can eventually protect myself from all the powerful Euros and their crazy colonizing antics.
Sadly a few idiotic mistakes during MP has kept Timmy from expanding to form the Coffee Mug Empire. Onward to the relating of mostly actual events (based ony my hazy memory, 3.5 hours sleep, and need for self-aggrandizement)!
---------
Starting out at war I made white peace with George and forced Quara, or who ever is green and northly, to release Persia and Jaybirds to the west to release Iraq. Both were then my allies if not vassals and I can say Iraq's armies were actually quite useful for a tiny nation. Iraq also formed a buffer, if not a complete one, between myself and Momma Luke.
I didn't take any provinces because Timmy can sometimes get a horrible amount of Infamy quite quickly.
For advisers in the beginning I had 2x stability guys equaling about 24 research and a land tech guy of 6. Also techs all start out at 6 for Timmy in the 4.1 patch.
OTTs were played by James the 101st Dalmation and we made peace and then allied relatively quickly since Europe was filled with evil Christian PCN (Player Character Nations, hah, did that backwards..). I'll try not to mention much of what other players did unless directly relating to me so that they can do their own AAR and lie as much as they wish.
Sadly lord Timmy died relatively quickly, as usual, and I moved to a regency council and then to another king when I wasn't paying attention. The rebels weren't too horrible, my stab hit 3x pretty fast, and my economy was doing ok even with the evil modifiers for a bad leader and because I'm a stupid tribal government.
I changed advisers to an 8% discipline, 24% spy protection, and kept the land guy.
This is when I started my almost totally fruitless wars against Delhi in my desire to make Coffee Mugs.
We will make awesome coffee.
Now remember this is my first MP and no pause made me cry a few times.
My first war against Delhi all their stupid little allies joined in, I was surprised to find, and most of my armies went over there and thrashed them as I tried to make white peace with them all since I wanted to fully concentrate on Delhi...this lead me to peacing out with Sind who somehow lead the alliance and made the entire war stop....this would not be the last time I did this, because I am stupid.
So I peace, wait, DOW on OTTs enemies when they go to war but don't do anything because I am a horrible and lazy ally, and I annex most of Quara whatever to the north...stupidly opening myself up to the Golden Horde.
Then I wait and DOW on Delhi again and ...they're allied to the GH. Which I didn't notice, I peace out with Delhi when I notice this (Oh and they're allied to both nations to my north, Kahzk and Nogari or some such. So I go and white peace with them all eventually after fighting for a while. Iraq is helpful and has about a 10k army. Sadly they decline to go to war next time, though nice little Persia stays loyal...this is when I decide that from now on I will just make people vassals.
It's about then I realize that all the rebellions and wars have ruined my economy somehow and my 400 trasurey is down to like 80 and I'm losing a lot still so I mint more, end the session with a 3.5 or so inflation but with economy back on track- still minting at about .1 I think though. (Was minting at .04 or .03 in the beginning.
We had also spent too much money in the hopes we would have our Mugs soon...and had a 200 ducat loan (Paid off before end of session) for the second GH war which happens below.
My next war starts about the same except this time the GH has a 40k stack that scares me and makes me pee a little. Thankfully the OTTs help me drive them back thankfully as I thought my 14k stack would be enough to just hold the causeway while I took on Delhi for a bit. I'm only fielding about 42k troops TOTAL, so that stack...was not good. I peace with Delhi when I saw it...again, with no gain...and the OTTs and I trounce the GH armies and push them back into their realm then peace out...another entirely useless war......except that the GH begins to have a lot disability (We had a truce when they came to Delhi's aid this time)...so I think, NEXT time I'll be good to go!
...and so next time I DOW on Dehi GH has tons of rebels and though they war me I'm not too afraid, I start to move into India and leave a 12 or 14k guarding the entrance from the GH again. ..I decide to White Peace them just so I can move that army down......then I realize that they were the alliance leader........this makes me sad. I cried a little.
Anyway, somehow Gugarti or whatever (Right above Kashmir or so, grey color) is still at war with me so I go and beat them to take out my frustrations and make them a vassal, which is nice I guess though they only command about 5k troops. I also ally with them.
This is near the end of the game, I'm also allied with Morroco (PCN), still allied with Ottomans (PCN) and bother Iraq so much they ally with me again, though they're in Mamma Lukes sphere of influence (Mamma's boys...) (Also the Lukes have expanded a bit from their start but I have ok relations with them). I also at some point (I don't remember when) let Quartia or whatever go so that they block the GH access to myself for now, I DID NOT ally with them so that they won't be opened up by the GH if I need to fight one of their allies until I'm ready for them.
I end the session within two months of my next Delhi war, and they're no longer allied with GH; two vassals, two minor allies, and two major PCN allies. While the first session was a learning experiance and I didn't expand anywhere NEAR as much as I wanted, I think next Saturday may see the TIMURID EMPIRE OF DEA...er, the peaceful Timurid nation expand into it's rightful place in India.
And then the Mongol Hor...er...Timurid Hordes will be a law unto themselves!! ...or at least have a better government type.