Rebels without a pause - a Tribal AAR

FEEDBACK​

Vesimir - I like the Persian border - the travel times for rebel bashing are a lot better! I suspect opportunities for deliberate action are going to be relatively few after TSCs, WE problems and BB wars,

naggy - Welcome to the Happy Horde

The Arch Mede -

I think that Federation has 'better' slider limits for Westerisation - I could be wrong as I only checked briefly.

I'm annexing rather than vassalising because I can tbh and because that's my play style - I'm not much for vassals.

Cores occur after fifty years irrespective of any nationalism revolt risk - generally I have nationalism up until the province cores as most provinces fall at one point or another during a TSC.

Enewald - Rebels under control, for now

GaiusC - The high military Khan is absolutely the difference - as I'm not getting anything like as many DOWs (not the case in the next decade) I can get WE down. I need to get WE down the revolt risk has killed my tax income so I'm too economically weak to build up my army.

Davout - I believe that Middle Mongolian as opposed to Classical or Modern would be most appropriate

This update isn't as successful

naggy - Good spot, but surely you mean less wars being declared on me

Angry_Norway - Thanks - this war may ot be quite what you're expecting.

Malurous - Yip definitely made some nice progress there. WE was down to less than 2 IIRC.

I knew that someone in the forum was Mongolian so yes please if you're reading enkhuush - what's OKH in Mongolian?

Colonists

You've spotted the problem that GaiusC and aldriq were thinking about. Colonisied provinces aren't cored so come TSC time they revolt. Nice. I do intend to colonise Siberia - once I westernise I should be able to afford it.

Johan11 - True the Khan dropping dead would be inconvenient.

sprites - The enemy alliance does have a couple of problems...

Chief Ragusa - The way I see it there's no point worrying about neigbours with missions CBs etc. If they attack they attack - I'll beat them; mostly.

GaiusC - The Ottoman backstab is a potential problem. Burgundy isn't, already gone. Even by IN standards France is going psycho - I fear greatly the day we have a common border

morningSIDEr - Killing rebels doesn't seem to stop them although not dying in external wars helps. People are strange

wraitii - Thank you hope you keep on enjoying.

Keinwyn - The border does look a lot better doesn't it

Malurous - Uncontrollable WE - I'm going to try and avoid that!

The Arch Mede - Good points. I wouldn't choose to go permanently BB before I'd recovered from westernisation. Neither my military nor my economy is strong enough. That's about a century away

blsteen - And that's the key point - will everyone come to play!

soulking - Peace, reasonably sure that it'll arrive by 1822.

tuore - Peace? That's the bit when everyone else is dead.

Malurous - I hope that I can keep WE under control if I'm not in a BB war situation. Certainly I'll get DOWs but thye'll be from my neighbours and I can hurt those a lot more han I can hurt say Engand or Castile. Anyway it's getting close to QftNW time on the western Atlantic so that might distract England at least.

Johan11 - A final rebel count competition sounds like a thought - I'll think on it over the weekend.

The next update takes us to where I've played to and I doubt much will happen in the next couple of days as I'm having a belated housewarming party tomorrow night.

Chapter Twenty Four​

The situation isn’t quite as bad as those raw numbers suggest. Only Lithuania has a direct border with Horde territory although experience has shown the Austrians are prepared to march against Sarai. Mecklenburg is in a PU with Lithuania so will be a source of enemy troops until the end of the war while neither Brandenburg or Bohemia currently have a route to get troops to face me. The Bohemian King is excommunicated so that may also be useful.

The bad news is Austria is Emperor; this is also the good news. While they have bottomless manpower there could be calls for it nearer home.

Of my other neighbours:

1. Novgorod has a mission but no CB
2. Pskov has a permanent CB
3. Yaroslavl has a permanent CB and a mission
4. Muscovy has a mission but no CB
5. Hungary has neither mission nor CB
6. Ottoman Empire has a mission but no CB
7. Mamluks has neither mission nor CB
8. Iraq has a permanent CB
9. Qara K has a permanent CB
10. Persia has a permanent CB and a mission
11. Nogai has neither mission nor CB
12. Khazak has neither mission nor CB

As far as I’m concerned I have the ‘Colour thief’ CB on Persia and the Mamluks, the ‘Annoying Bastards’ CB on England and Nogai and the ‘Pretentious Gits’ CB on the Ottomans (City of the World’s Desire my arse – and anyway build your own mosque don’t renovate – you do not know who Sarah Beeny is!)

At the start of 1492 the Lithuanians are building a doomstack in Smolensk (on their side of the border) – I’m really hoping that will turn out to be a mechanism for war exhaustion. I’ve a smaller army facing it; there’s a lot of marching and countermarching under way simply to keep that force engaged and possibly eating attrition. In the south I’ve beaten a couple of small units. No one else has sent troops yet.

Battle of Kholm – April 1492



The Lithuanians marched north and assaulted – I hit the army after the assault failed but before the infantry recovered morale. I won’t pursue as all I’m trying to do is pin this stack here and let attrition do its work.

There’s a lot of very careful manoeuvring and indeed cancellations of movement going on here to avoid combat except on advantageous terms. That’s a big army and Shock 6 could be devastating.

Second Kholm – July 1492



A defensive battle with roughly equal numbers goes very well. Kiev falls at almost the same time. The benefits of the Northern Pin strategy start to show. I do have a developing problem with Austrian troops working through Hungary and Poland.

Battle of Polotsk – August 1492



I gave chase and have heavily beaten the Lithuanians again. However, they are retreating towards their reserves in Minsk so I pull back. I have no intention of campaigning in the winter on enemy territory as the attrition will carry a high war exhaustion cost and after the last few decades I’m wary of that.

Bryansk and Orel core in March 1493 – Most of my Russian lands are now cores so it’s definitely time to push out the boundaries.

May sees Ak K nationalists rise in Azerbaijan. At 9000 men this is the sort of problem that needs an army to resolve and all my troops are in Lithuania. The Caucasus garrison originally held back was moved up once Austria became a threat,

Lithuania – June 1493



I’m winning against Lithuania although they aren’t yet ready to make peace as their armies to a large extent are intact. Austria is my problem – the unit moving through Polish/Hungarian land is 15 Regiments with a good General – it’s been interfering for the last year or so.

War Score is +28 although that’ll rise quickly once the war drags on long enough to let me white peace people out.

War exhaustion is 2.81; for Lithuania 8.95.

The Lithuanian King dies days later; they take a stab hit and lose the PU with Mecklenburg. The new King is A/D/M 9/8/9. Nice, he’ll probably have war god stats as a general.

Enemy troop numbers are climbing like a rocket – there are now 80000+ Cavalry and 70000+ Infantry. However, Austria is losing interest so:



Mecklenburg has landed some troops in Archangelsk and is blockading the Black Sea coast but Lithuania is essentially alone now. The citizenry aren’t impressed; Ryazan rises in nationalist revolt as does Kartli at the end of the month.

Bersh cores in August and the new Lithuanian King loses his first battle – I bled heavily in the process losing twice as many men before he breaks off (Yes Shock 6). By late September I can start stab hitting. The Lithuanians won’t concede anything even though I have +37 war score as their Capital is unoccupied and their armies battered but intact.

Tartar Voronezh converts back to Sunni in late November. Religious conversions are my main focus for internal improvements at the moment.

War exhaustion is climbing by the end of the year (3.70) as the war is carried to the foe.

The Ottomans declare War – February 1494



You can see the Ottomans aren’t starting this war in great shape and look there’s Nogai, happy times. My troops are months out of position. I have a small cavalry force in the Caucasus fighting Georgian nationalists – I’ll move it against Nogai when I get the chance.

The full alliance is the Ottomans, Serbia, Bosnia, Nogai, Yemen and Hedjaz.

The concentration of the front in Lithuania is working against me as I fight bigger stacks on hostile territory. The Lithuanians have a Shock 6 General and a Shock 5 General as well as that King. Unfortunately they won’t make a sensible peace yet.

I miscalculate and end up with the entire Lithuanian army under their King pouncing on a stack after a failed assault. It’s time to cut and run before I lose 30% of my military. Despite 42 war score I can only force a 24 point peace deal.

Peace with Lithuania – February 1494



I’m really, I mean really not happy at this point – I wanted Poltava possibly Smolensk and Lithuania’s treasury. Lithuania is plunged straight into another war in Germany and they’ve guaranteed a couple of minors so once I get the Ottomans out the way…

By early summer I’ve still not engaged the enemy – but Ottoman war exhaustion is rocketing as a 39 regiment force storms Budjak and then marches onwards to Cherson. I’ll observe from a couple of provinces distance and hope war exhaustion will do much of the work for me. The main effort this year will be in the Caucasus where Ottoman forces are smaller and dispersed.

Dagestan (Shiite) converts in June.

Déjà vu – July 1494



I make another slider move Innovative late in the year – the side effect is a naval reformer rather than anything nasty such as a stab hit.

Hungary declares War – November 1494



The full enemy alliance is Hungary, Sweden, Naxos, Bavaria, Austria, Naples and Muscovy.

OK this is crazy, Hungary has 5.99 WE, Sweden 12.81 and Austria 12.38 – offensively breaking the truce has cost them five stab as well. That’s less of a problem than for most as they are still Emperor. The armies are huge but how interested all these people will be is another matter. The truce with Persia is up soon as well…

Battle of Imereti – November 1494



That’s twenty Ottoman regiments destroyed; the stack had marched to Imereti from Bulgaria via Horde territory north of the Black Sea.

Second Battle of Imereti – December 1494



The next Ottoman wave hits six days later and I have to run to keep my army intact. If I was only fighting the Ottomans I’d be happy at this point they’ve bleed out a lot of manpower as well as losing twenty complete regiments and ramping up WE – currently 9.09.

The Black Sea – April 1495



I’m down a couple of provinces against the Ottomans but I’m very happy with the way their manpower is burning at speed. The Hungarians haven’t managed anything of note – my Northern army is currently finishing off the Muscovites before moving south to try and pick off some smaller formations.

Third Imereti – April 1495



The Ottoman advantage in land tech and units is starting to be noticeable. I’d have preferred to have won here but they are still running up WE.

Persian patriots take their chance rising 9000 strong in Hamadan in May.

By August the Ottomans have 48 regiments in the Caucasus in large stacks so I can’t get kills in before the morale difference tells.

The Ottomans offer Peace – September 1495



I take this as I really struggle going up against the Ottoman war machine. I think that the war exhaustion strategy has worked here since their armies are better tech, higher morale and more numerous than mine. At least I managed to vassalise Nogai and this has cleared the Ottoman warning.

The screenshot also shows the swarm of enemy units in the Crimean region. Missing is Naxos’s invasion of Archangelsk

Moscow!



I decide to annex Muscovy, done correctly on the last day of the year. The Map in Diplomatic mode shows I have relatively few uncored Russian provinces so the TSC should be less challenging than previously.

Freed of the Ottoman threat I’m able to push the Hungarians and their allies back to the border. The Neapolitans in particular lack leadership and lose some 40 regiments. Austrian, Bavarian and Hungarian forces suffer very heavy casualties although few units are destroyed

Mid summer 1496 brings another Persian patriot uprising in Hamadan and Tverian nationalists in Rzhev.

The twin battles of Cherson and Bessarabia



Cherson sees the Bavarian army (18 regiments) beaten; it’ll be chased and beaten again Budjak but ultimately escapes. The attack on Bessarabia cost me my best general but that force is 55 regiments of Austrians and Hungarians. Naples manages to throw away another 10 regiments in the Crimea while Naxos channelling the spirit of William Pitt lays siege to Trebizond in addition to Archangelsk.

Persia declares War – September 1496



I don’t really want anything from the Hungarians now – land gains either give me a border with Poland or an extended and vulnerable border with the Ottomans that is very isolated in a TSC. Tired of a war going nowhere I pay Hungary 25 ducats for peace. It’s hard to win when my armies are so small compared with the opposition but my economy is too feeble to support much more.

Ukrainian nationalists rise in Chernigov as December ends. January 1497 brings more revolts; Tula (Tverian nationalists) and Azerbaijan (Ak K nationalists). There’s a reasonable sized Persian army marching on Azerbaijan and it does the hard work to break the rebels. The next revolt isn’t until October in Ustyug when Qasim Khanate nationalism returns. There’s an Orthodox zealot uprising in Kostroma in January 1498.

War exhaustion has got away from me to a fair degree – it’s now over 7. The war isn't very interesting it takes me half a year to get into position.

February sees Hungary become junior partner in a Personal Union with Mantua. Elsewhere France is rampaging through Northern Italy seeking to claim Lombardy – the Austrian Emperor is in trouble – there are French armies at the gates of Vienna.

Peace with Persia – April 1498



War exhaustion (7.36) was climbing and my Khan is getting old (19 years).

Yes that was very conservative play I’d like to work an opportunity to hit Lithuania again and I want to be in a position to fight a long war.

Qasim Khanate nationalists rise in Yaroslavl shortly afterwards, presumably in disappointment at the peace deal. In August Lithuania exports a 9000 strong Socinian heretic army to Catholic Chernigov, notable mainly for this being the first time we’ve ever seen this brand of rebel. There’s also a Trebizondian nationalist uprising that month.

Iraq exports a Shiite zealot army from Khuzestan in November; it’s a bit ragged around the edges but at 21 regiments is a significant force.

Rebellion in Moscow – Muscovite nationalists rise in arms in March 1499, 18,000 of them (7/11). There’s a second Muscovite nationalist uprising in Yaroslavl weeks later. September brings a third muscovite uprising in Tula and Georgian nationalists in Alania.


And then it’s 1500.

So what we have learned is that the AI will DOW even without a CB if it spots a dogpile.