The Pharaohs Return: An Alexandrian AAR

loki100: I’m hoping that’s the case and the AI will have just as much trouble cracking that. Of course that will change if Kandesh collapses at any point, so I need to keep an eye on them and pounce if necessary.
Enewald: I paid my entire treasury, so I couldn’t have paid them off without losing some land somewhere.
dinofs: Yeah, it was basically the fleet which caught me off guard. Usually I have Galleons by the time I mess around in India, but when both sides of Carracks they actually can fight back.
Boris ze Spider: Indeed. It’ll take lot of effort to attack Kandesh but I’m concerned that it will make the AI refuse to attack it at all.
Frozen Predator: All the Indian culture groups have their own Hindustan-type decision in Miscmods. Kandesh still needs a lot of territory from Rajputana for theirs so it’ll be a while.
morningSIDEr: Ironically the Kandeshi king died shortly after the war started, but I guess Miran could be part of the Regency Council.

Thanks for all the replies!

The Pharaohs Return: An Alexandrian AAR
Chapter Twenty Three: The Battle for Italy



One advantage to the defeat the Empire had received from Kandesh was that it reassured many in the world that Alexandria wasn’t invincible and so they gave it less scrutiny. This was the chance to deal with some of the annoyances that had built up while Alexandria had been aiming overseas.



Oman was easily crushed and stripped of most of its Gulf territory. It would be a while before the Muslims could be removed from the peninsula entirely but for now Theodoros considered it a good start.



Persia remained in the war, once again intent on conquering Iraq. Theodoros personally led the attempt to drive them from the Empire’s borders, but their superior cavalry forced him to retreat. This was far from a setback however.



It was the perfect time for the Emperor to deploy new cavalrymen based on the Cossacks used by Muscowy. With updated training and equipment, the battle turned in Alexandria’s favour and the Persians were soon begging for a ceasefire.



Alexandrian diplomats in Europe had not been quiet while the Empire focused eastwards. They had managed to manipulate the Pope into excommunicating the King of Spain, resulting in a miniature crusade as Burgundy and several other Catholic nations marched on the ‘heretic’. They urged Theodoros to take the chance to seize dominance of Italy from Spain, but the Emperor was busy overseeing the conversion of the new lands in Arabia.



That would be the last thing Theodoros did, as he fell ill and died while traversing the wastelands of the region. His son Ioannes I became Emperor and was far more willing to listen to this advice.



A constant shipbuilding program had been in place since the loss of Kutch, and it was paying off as Alexandria now had one of the largest navies in the world, even comparable to Spain. While half of the navy was in the Far East territories, the same could be said of Spain and its colonies in the Americas so for once the two sides were evenly matched.



War was declared. Milan refused to assist the excommunicated king, and Burgundy was already at war with Spain. This left the Spanish with Tunisia as the only non-union ally at their side. Ioannes did not call any of his allies. For the moment.



Almost immediately the Spanish sought peace with the Catholic alliance, ironically making the Empire’s job easier as they released control of Pisa amongst other concessions.



Spain’s Italian territory quickly fell to Alexandrian forces, but wherever the two sides met on the sea the Empire was forced to withdraw. However these were few and far between as Spain deliberately avoided the Alexandrian navy where it could as they did not want to take the risk of defeat. The result was not quite free reign for the Empire to transport troops around, but it was close enough.



The common people were overjoyed by the resumption of hostilities with the Catholics. When Tunisia offered to surrender and pay reparations, the money was spent on canal networks to boost the economy and thank the people for their support of the war effort.



Meanwhile, Brunei apparently thought it was still relevant as it vainly attempted to reclaim its territory. Spanish forces had made no appearance in the East Indies, meaning that all Alexandrian forces there were free to do whatever they pleased.



Ioannes’ plan to force Spain to a settlement was to enter Spain itself and march straight for Madrid. The initial attempt at this was to use the long-standing access treaty with England to cross the Pyrenees, but the Spanish had anticipated this and acquired their own treaty; The invasion was forced to retreat to Navarra and would not be able to leave unless something distracted the Spanish army.



It only took the occupation of a small piece of land and the blockade of their capital to get Brunei to give up their intentions on the Alexandrian East Indies.



Now it was time to call on the Portuguese. An army had been snuck into their lands and would be used to conquer Madrid while the Spanish were distracted with their newly hostile neighbour.



The plan proceeded smoothly, although it was the army in Navarra that attacked the Spanish capital instead as the main Spanish force blocked the advance from Portugal.



With the Spanish king at sword point Ioannes was able to dictate terms. Spain would give up Sardinia and all of its other Italian lands. Italy was now firmly within the Alexandrian sphere of influence. He also revoked Spanish claims to Portuguese lands as thanks for their invaluable help.



Through all of this, Persia had been busy. Having suffered repeated defeats at Alexandrian hands they were now looking elsewhere to expand. The primitive natives of Africa were conquered and Baluchistan was forced to submit. The intention was clear; Persia wanted to become strong enough to achieve the same thing that Kandesh did.



As if to provide closure to his father’s reign Ioannes found himself at war with Oman again thanks to Portugal. The lands Theodoros III conquered were fully secured with the removal of Omani claims. With Persia on the rise, perhaps he had the right idea and the continued crushing of the Muslims was the task the Empire should be focusing on.

The year is now 1614.
To be continued…

Enewald: Cool though it may be, I’m not going to sit back and let them grab the delicious gold provinces.
dinofs, loki100: Indeed. They need to learn some respect.
Malurous: Thanks again! It’s an honour to be selected as WritAAR of the Week for a second time.

Thank you for the replies!

The Pharaohs Return: An Alexandrian AAR
Chapter Twenty Four: Colonialism, East and West



In the East Indies the first colonies were reaching maturity, a step signified by the increasing integration of the local population into the administration.

(I wanted to show off these events in Nubia, but for some reason they didn’t fire there. Basically in Africa, the East Indies, the Pacific and Taiwan this event returns the province to its native culture to prevent the bizarre situation where all of those areas are considered fully European, which definitely didn’t happen in real life compared to the Americas or Australia.)



In an effort to slow down the Persian expansion in Africa, an army was assembled and shipped down the east coast to invade Mutapa directly. Rumour had it that enormous amounts of gold lay in those lands, meaning they could not be allowed to fall into Persian hands. Persia contested this as it viewed the region as part of its sphere.



A Persian colony had fallen in the hands of the natives, but now came under Alexandrian control as the army made its way further inland unopposed.



Meanwhile, Persian and Alexandrian forces skirmished and laid siege to forts all along the border. A long line of upgraded fortifications had been constructed in Iraq and Azerbaijan recently to keep Persian forces tied down in sieges for as long as possible.



The local forces were no match for the firearm equipped Alexandrians, and so they surrendered and gave up the connections between their capital and the Persian territory. This would keep the Persians far away from territory they were aiming at. Persia surrendered soon afterwards on the terms of ending its domination of Baluchistan.



Not soon afterwards another conflict sprung up. The regional power of Punjab was looking to gain a sea port, and after seeing the fall of Kutch to Kandesh they decided to aim for Sind and drive out the last Europeans in the region. Unfortunately for them, Kandesh was focused on internal issues and refused to assist, leaving them alone again Portugal and Alexandria.



Meanwhile colonisation of Notiosi continued without pause. Most of the coastline was now claimed and hundreds of colonists were streaming in to take advantage of the “promised land”. The establishment of a supply base in Malacca had been a major advance in extending the reach of ships throughout the region and securing the east coast of the new continent.



Predictably, Punjab gave up as soon as Alexandrians armies were marching on their cities.



Persia and Alexandria both continued their efforts in Africa, with Persia taking more of the coastline to the north and the Empire conquering further inland and securing more of the valuable gold.



The economy was in better shape than ever, even with ducats being poured into the colonies and large-scale canal building going on across the empire. Ioannes decided to put some of the money into investing in the future, so he sponsored the establishment of a great university in Alexandria, and a Textile Manufactory in Libya. The university would hopefully continue the great legacy of knowledge that had been cut short by the loss of the Library of Alexandria.



The conflict between the Catholics and Klatovists still continued. Bohemia continued its expansionist policies, annexing the remnants of Poland and advancing into Serbia. The Milanese Emperor countered by forcing heretic nations within the Bohemian sphere to return to Catholicism. Yet another war appeared to be brewing, but the people of Europe were beginning to tire of endless religious conflicts.



With there being little chance of a war with Europeans, Ioannes commissioned a single ship to do a survey of European holdings in the Americas. The Herakles arrived in Nova Scotia and began sailing south.

(This is just a quick showing of the Colony Name Change Mod.)



England was by far the most prominent coloniser in North America. Other powers were significant, especially Spain on Terranova and Normandy in Quebec, but ultimately England dominanted.

(The mod makes it easy to name places when they’re colonised differently from history . Also, check out Creek in the bottom left. The NA natives use the horde mechanics, with the downside that this usually leads to the AI settling next to them and immediately getting its colonies conquered. Newer versions of Miscmods fix this slightly by having the natives raze the colonies instead so there aren’t sprawling native empires made up of European colonies anymore.)



Similarly, Central America mostly fell under English control. The Caribbean was a different story, with a whole mess of nations claiming various islands for themselves.



South America was like the Caribbean. No nation dominated, with England, Spain, Savoy, Normandy (just out of picture in North Brazil), Burgundy (in Inca) and Sicily all staking a claim. The last of those was a pleasant surprise. An Orthodox nation had settled in the Americas. It was good to know that even if Alexandria focused on the Indian Ocean, the Americas would not be entirely left to the Schismatics.

The year is now 1626.
To be continued…

Enewald: I don’t have any plans for the Americas anyway. Maybe I will if some parts of California are left when I get cores in Oceania.
dinofs: Seeing minors get colonial empires is always fun, but I’d prefer if they were a bit more continuous instead of all over the place.

Thanks for the replies!

The Pharaohs Return: An Alexandrian AAR
Chapter Twenty Five: An Old Rival Returns



Continuing the colonial policies, Ioannes ordered the removal of the remaining Muslim rulers of Aceh. In the process, he brought the Empire into war with almost all of the notable nations of the East Indies as well as Persia yet again.



Significant investment in the fleet had paid off, as unlike the conflict with Kandesh, the Alexandrian fleet was able to easily dominate the seas and crush the local flotillas.



With no way to reinforce the defenders on Aceh the rest of the island easily fell to the invaders. Alexandrian influence in the East Indies was further secured.



Meanwhile the war with Persia had resulted in a stalemate and ceasefire as usual. However, this brought up a worrying point about insufficient forces considering the financial superiority the Empire held over their Muslim neighbours. To ensure that Persia could be properly beaten on the battlefield the Armies of Jerusalem and Armenia would be permanently garrisoned on the border and become the first armies of the Empire to be equipped with full artillery regiments.



There was a very pleasant surprise when the Herakles arrived unexpectedly in Notiosi. The expedition commander had taken it upon himself to cross the Pacific from English Mexico and so had finally given Alexandria a circumnavigation of globe.



The tiny Orthodox kingdom of Yemen had been effectively under Alexandrian dominance for a century. It only took a small application of force to get them to make it official.



War broke out in the Mediterranian as Savoy made a move for the island of Sardinia. Alexandria opposed them, and the Emperor realised this was a perfect opportunity. Milan, Holy Roman Emperor, held sway over most of the nations of Northern Italy, which was one of the things that had halted the earlier conversion efforts. In this war they had no chance of intervention, allowing the army to bring the true faith to the Catholics.



After forcing the Pope to sally his fleet to assist there was nothing the Savoyard alliance could do to take control of the seas. Invasions of Tuscany and Mantua began, while Sicily and later Savoy itself were blockaded.



Ironically, the Counter-Reformation began to die down around the same time. It was emblematic of the present situation of religion in Europe. It was no longer about the faith; instead religion was just another political weapon that the three main Christian blocs used against one another.



While the war in Italy went on, other political machinations were afoot. Austria had never recovered from losing the Imperial crown to Milan and now it had lost another. The Byzantine Empire had taken the political weakness of its foreign king as a chance to declare independence. They marked their freedom by invading Trebizond, eager as they were to assert their newfound strength. Alexandria stepped up to oppose them and prevent them from reclaiming the title of strongest Orthodox empire.



It was lucky then that the armies had received upgrades. The new cannon were put to good use against the invaders of Trebizond. However shortly after this the Greeks brought their own artillery onto the front and evened the odds.



The Byzantine army held numerical superiority on this front, as although Alexandria had more troops they had to defend the far flung empire as well as fight the war in Italy. Without an advantage in cannon any longer the usual strategy of bypassing the enemy army was necessary. Trebizond was used to keep them bogged down while Anatolia and Georgia were invaded.



In the East Indies many of the islands became home to prisoner settlements where undesirables from across the Empire were shipped. Some wanted the more open lands of Notiosi to be home to these but this was vetoed by the true believers in the government that considered it the promised land.



Mantua and Tuscany were converted to Orthodox at the point of a sword and only then was Savoy granted a ceasefire.



The artillery proved very useful in besiefing the lands of Anatolia and Georgia. Alexandrians forces had made far more progress than their counterparts, and on top of that the Alexandrian Empire had a lot more strategic depth than the Byzantine.



Rather than risk losing any land in a treaty, the Byzantines quickly gave up their claims to the lands of Trebizond and paid reparations. Alexandria was once again confirmed as the dominant of the two empires.



The invasion and resurgent Byzantium had done enough to spook the rulers of Trebizond that they sought ever more protection from the Emperor. Ioannes took this chance to finally incorporate them into the Empire fully. Now that the Empire held territory in Anatolia, perhaps it was time to aim in that direction and bring this rivalry to a proper end.

The year is now 1633.
To be continued…

World Update: 1633



-Kandesh only needs four provinces to form Marathi, its Hindustan-type nation. However, one of those belongs to Portugal which naturally I'll oppose.
-Except I just saw that they've started colonising the Philippines and New Zealand...maybe I'll let Kandesh have their fun.
-Novgorod and more so Muscowy are pushing eastwards. It's nice to see the Russians doing that for once instead of Bohemia or Poland or whoever.
-Looking at it from the full view, Savoy's empire seems second only to England's! I should've taken advantage of that in the war and tried to grab some colonies.

Enewald: Persian East Africa I’d be happy to, but Ethiopia and Adal would have to wait until Imperialism, which is still a way off.
morningSIDEr: That’s what I’m aiming for, unfortunately that means I let a good chance slip me by as I was too focused on Europe.
Malurous: As long as we’re allies I can’t do anything, and having an ally in the west is too valuable to give up over a couple of colonies. If they ever happen to betray me though…
Boris ze Spider: I don’t have any CB that’ll allow me to take Anatolia cheaply, so it will have to be done slowly and piecemeal for the moment.

Thanks for the replies! Sorry that this update took so long, I’ve had a very busy week.

The Pharaohs Return: An Alexandrian AAR
Chapter Twenty Six: Colonialism Closer to Home



The acquisition of the crown of Trebizond gave the Emperor an excuse to begin another massive expansion of the military, adding a whole new army, the Army of Trebizond to the frontline in Anatolia. That this meant an increase in borrowing from the national bank did not matter too much.



The Herakles was continuing its adventures with a tour of the Philippines. It unexpectedly discovered that Portugal had established a colony in the island chain, but as they were an ally and because no real effort had been made to claim the region beforehand there was nothing that could be done.



The remaining gold mines of East Africa were conquered with minimal effort. The region was now mostly pacified, at least until conflict with the Persian colonials occurred.



Speaking of Persia, their homeland was being torn apart by Kandeshi armies. However the cost to the Indian invaders was immense as the many discontent minorities of the subcontinent had taken the chance to rise up. The once indomitable Kandeshi Empire was looking extremely shaky.



England took the chance to expand its foothold in eastern India further.



Unfortunately there was little Alexandria could do to join in on the action. Portugal convinced the Emperor to have Burgundy, currently involved in a massive war with Bohemia, excommunicated to justify invading and weakening the present wealthiest nation in Europe. The problem was that this would drag in the Holy Roman Emperor and countless other minor nations thus occupying the Empire’s attention entirely.



Portugal did most of the fighting on land, but Alexandria was definitely dominant at sea. The Holy Roman Emperor’s navy was crushed as it attempted an invasion of Portugal. With the largest fleet wiped out the navy was free to patrol the Mediterranean and just keep the many enemies in from ever reaching Alexandrian shores. After several years the war ended with no real gains on either side.



The army was needed for something much more important than guarding beaches. For a long time Georgia had been considered part of the Alexandrian sphere, but large parts of its territory were under Byzantine occupation. Thanks to a technicality (since it’s in Asia but neither of us are), the Georgian regions were considered colonies that were free game for a colonial empire like Alexandria. War was declared.



The largest battles of the war occurred at sea, when the patrolling fleet was intercepted by the far larger Byzantine Navy. Much to the surprise of everyone, superior numbers did not carry the day and in fact much of the Greek force was obliterated. The most common theory was that the Byzantine Navy was far behind in technology, leading to the more modern Alexandrian ships dominating. The defeat caused uproar in Constantinople amongst those who had thought the navy unbeatable. (8 WE in one battle? Ouch! I think that’s the worst WE gain at once I’ve ever seen.)



The Byzantines were unable to silence these cries and ultimately had to sue for peace as the Alexandrian navy approached the city itself to open up the way for the army to reach it. They gave up part of their Georgian territory and the strategically important region of Sebasteia. The forts there held up the troops advance, but now they would do the same thing on Alexandria’s side.



For some reason, the quiet war with Milan that was still going on in the background caused a large number of people to flee from East Africa to the East Indies. Presumably they only wanted to get away from the exhausting gold mining operations. (Ah, the weirdness that having the capital in Africa can cause…)



To the disappointment of many, Kandesh managed to stabilize while the Empire was busy in Europe. While they lost the Deccan the majority of their remaining territory was pacified and ready to hold off any opportunists.



With the increasing number of cannon being fielded by the army a place was needed to store munitions properly. The first proper arsenal of the Empire was constructed in Diamientia. More would begin to follow in regions where the armies were assembled.



Five years passed in the blink of an eye as most of the Empire focused on building infrastructure and the East Indies colonies. The time had come to liberate the rest of Georgia.



Superior army and navy won the day once again. While the army swept through Anatolia and the steppes, the fleet put most of Greece under blockade. This time around, despite having rebuilt, the Byzantine Emperor was too afraid of backlash to even attempt sallying his fleet.



The remainder of Georgia was freed and Byzantium’s relations with their important allies like Austria and Muscowy were severed.



Almost immediately negotiations began to return the territory to its rightful owners. Ioannes had no intention of advancing in the steppes, which he considered part of the Muscovite sphere of influence. This was a major olive branch to the Russians who had so far refused any attempts at forming an alliance.



Between acknowledgement of Russian dominance over the Tatars and returning the Georgian territory to Georgia who Muscowy had a close relationship with, they finally agreed to sign the treaty. An extremely powerful Orthodox bloc now stretched from Siberia to Africa, ready to display to the schismatics who was truly greater.

The year is now 1644.
To be continued…