A shame that Edirine is the Ottoman capitol (or, at least, I think it is. I can't recall whether or not its in Edirine or Angola at this point), lest that could've been included in your list of demanded territories. I still think its rather unfair that England will get stuck with the BB taken up by giving Byzantium its territories, but hey, que sera sera.
The capital's in Edirne. It can technically be gained not by peace negotiation, but via the Magna Mundi long-wait event, which I have forsworn in my AAR guidelines. But due to the unique all-Europe nature of the crusade, that's a rule that might get broken this one time only. I can't see Byzantium giving it up, once occupied.
This is an /awe-inspiring/ historical AAR. I'm still stumbling across amazing ones like this, being somewhat new to the forums, but this is an inspiration. Thanks for taking the time to put something like this together. It is much appreciated.
Thanks for reading, and also for the compliments!
A great update as always. I'm always boggled by the effort you put into it. Are there
any events you don't tell us about?
It's like the newspaper; there are dozens of items that don't make the cut. I've slimmed down the tech level notifications since there is not always an elegant way of shoehorning them into the update. If the tech level provides access to a new building, unit or other tangible benefit it will get mentioned, but if it just increments trade efficiency or colonial range then it gets cut.
I also get notified of wars in places I can't see on the map, so those generally don't get mentioned either.
I try to provide just enough detail on the rest of the world so that you have some idea of what the political/economic/religious currents are. Hopefully it's enough, and no one is scratching their head wondering "How did
that happen?"
At first I thought it was a lucky escape for you that the Ottoman army got beaten by peasants. Very unlikely as well, as peasant rebels seem the weakest of all.
I don't understand how 17,000 Ottoman troops failed to beat 8,000 freshly-formed peasant revolters either. Should have been a cakewalk. I guess losing the monarch is a huge hit to morale, but even so...
Their losses so far are rather insignificant and with the cruches they get in the mod, they still might recover.
And oh, the crutches! All it would take is for the Ottomans to inherit the Mameluks, and then even a Byzantium that includes all of Greece + Bulgaria would not have much luck against them.
And I can almost feel you weighing the pros and cons of various peace settlements.
Since I can't have my primary goal (Corfu), the next best option is to leave Byzantium as defensible as I can make it. The basic choice is to either eat as many provinces as possible, or release as many nations as possible.
Funny isn't it, how the course the game took, tries to sidetrack you from your original goal to recreate the historical Britania.
There will still be a historical British Empire by the end (I hope)... But yes Byzantium has been a diversion long enough. This is in every way crusading's last hurrah; I don't plan to intervene in any further Greek or Turkish conflicts.
Why NTP as the next NI? Wouldn't sth to boost your future colonisation be better?
I think it all came down to money, really. I don't feel bad about colonisation taking an extended period of time, especially since major British colonisation didn't get underway until the late 16th/early 17th century. But I would hate to be short of cash and forced to live on endless loans.
And like everyone else I wonder how you're going to deal with Scandinavia. Wouldn't it be great if it went the colonisation route and managed to rival you, the Netherlands and France.
Scandinavia does have at least 3 naval NIs, so England, Portugal, Castile and Scandinavia are the major naval powers at the moment. I haven't really thought through a strategy to deal with them beyond "avoid ticking them off". They are my go-to nation for beautiful blonde princesses, so I'm refraining from kicking them in the shins until there's no other option.
And whatever the thing is with that colonisable prov in Finland, edit-fix it. Otherwise we'll see some unlikely Aragonese up there.
Done. Though it will not take effect game-wise until 1530 or so.
Btw, Paris has been so disturbingly quiet...
Yeah, France is silent. To silent. Undoubtly this is the calm before the storm.
France is quiet toward England, but it's gotten into plenty of scrapes lately. Wars against the Pope, Italian and French minors, etc. Also, for the past 40 years it has been guaranteeing Aragon. The Castilian-Aragonese wars typically result in France becoming defensive alliance leader, Castile kicking the crap out of Aragon and making a separate peace for a province or two, then Castile and France deadlocked in war for an additional 5-7 years until France coughs up 50 ducats.
I can't say I'm sorry to have missed being dragged into those long slugfests.