Post your MEIOU empires!

[aeriic]

I am currently playing a game as Friesland. My fifth ruler just ascended to the throne and I inherited all my personal unions going instantly from ten provinces to thirty-four provinces. Before this ruler I had directly inherited two Monferrato and Meissen during my first Regency Council. When the current HRE dies, I will become the HRE. I got all my personal unions peacefully except for using the Claim Throne cb on Brunswick, the Fabricate Claim cb on Wurrtemberg, and a Succession War with Bohemia for Luneburg. I have all of my current provinces cored. My second, third, and fourth rulers each had administrative and diplomatic scores of seven or eight, but my current ruler's highest score is a six and my heir's has a military score of eight but low scores for the others. Here is a list of my rulers and the length of their rule:
Willem II 1337-1359
Maurits I de Dampierre 1359-1366
Regency Council 1366-1381
Johan Ernest I de Dampierre 1381-1425
Albrecht II de Dampierre 1425-1448
Willem V de Dampierre 1448-





France's original dynasty died out so they lost cores that they didn't directly own. They were then continuously excommunicated but only now start falling apart. Aragon has four provinces in Greece, the Roman Empire rebelled in Greece after being conquered by the Ottomans, Portugal has provinces in Cyrenaica, and England has Alexandria.

[-Hiki-]

Wut you have Austria and the Milan region aswell, nice .

[gigau]

Aeric, you know, Bavaria is a sweet spot... you should consider setting up residence there

[leppuno]

This is my Aragon Empire, I ate Naples that ate the Papal state and most of Greece.

Some points:
1. Egypt didn't look like that until recently, It was more colorful than that.
2. That green strip is not Hedjaz but Zanzibar.
3. Provence, Sweden, and Modena under PU since forever.
4. You can also see an itsy-bitsy Finland up there too.
5. Bulgaria almost formed but Hungary and Wallachia was no fun.
6. Ethiopia got eaten by the Mamluks a long time ago but now owns most of Eastern Africa.
7. Mali and Kanem Bornu Alliance is the deadliest force in Africa. Still no match for the Iberian Alliance though.

[gigau]

Nice looking Ming, albeit possibly a bit late on historical schedule

[calol61]

The Anglo French Union, 1447 AD



History:
In 1361, Edward III claimed victory over France and the French Crown. This monuments event led to 65 years of English rule over France until Edward's great-grandson Henry IV Plantagenet proclaimed the Anglo-French Union in 1426. Now ruled by his grandson Edward IV, (regrettably Edward the Black Prince died 2 months before his father, resulting in Edward's son Charles acceding to the throne) The seeks to expand its power on the continent.
The Free Duchies (vassals)
-Alba (Scotland)
-Munster
-Tyronne
-Montfort
-Orleans
-Blois
-Valentois
-Province
-alcen or soemthing like that, the little blue one in lower aquitaine

[Zzzzz...]

Isn't the Anglo-French flag a bit redundant? The English flag is already quartered with the three lions and the fleur-de-lis.

[omnipotentatus]

Omg, what is Castille doing in Skåne, and what an abomination southern Italy is, parts controlled by naples, aragon, sicily and what appears to be either Arborea or Portugal and impressive that the Roman empire has survived and control more territories than they start with.

[calol61]

yeah, I find the union flag redundant too, it would look better with just the quartered lions and fleur-de-lis, and yes castille is in skane. So where should i go from here castille, my ally, and i pretty much run europe at this point. Ive got half a mind to jump into italy, conquer everything and then release it into a couple vassal chunks and then release the vassals and see what happens. Im also thinking about rushing into the HRE and playing bad boy so the emperor can get authority and reform and eventually form the HRE.

[Samilou]

I confess the borders don't look optimal. They used to be beautiful until I made these incursions into Caucasus and the arabian peninsula.











I am indirectly guilty to that mess in Russia through my force conversion of a then already fully catholic and dominant Novgorod.

[GregElSho]

Novgorod has a great tendency to turn catholic in MEIOU, it seems. I wonder why.

[YF-23]

Novgorod has a great tendency to turn catholic in MEIOU, it seems. I wonder why.

Is it really such a surprise? They sit right next to the Teutons, and the purging of heresy CB makes it very easy for them to forceconvert them.

[GregElSho]

I know it's almost everytime because of teutonic force-conversion. I'm rather wondering about the difference in design compared to vanilla and the philosophy behind it.
Is it rather plausible for the teutons to convert the republic, sufficently to warrant a change in design that will render it quite systematic?

[YF-23]

Looking at the country and CB files of MEIOU and vanilla, I think it's mostly accidental.

Vanilla's requirements for the CB include having Unam Sanctam, and MEIOU changes that to be either having Unam Sanctam, being Emperor, or Defender of the Faith. The problem isn't on that specific bit, however: Vanilla grand campaign starts you off with no NI, so when the Teutons get to the tech level for it they can pick whatever; however, they first historical idea is Unam Sanctam, which they get assigned immediately in MEIOU since you start at a high enough level to have an NI. Also, whereas vanilla maintains the full 100% cost for demanding religious conversion (meaning 50 warscore), in MEIOU that cost is cut to 75%, meaning you only need 38 or so warscore to force convert with the CB. If either of these issues is mitigated we could see the Teutons forceconverting their orthodox neighbours happen more rarely, though I'd say the main issue is the availability of the CB rather than the peace cost.

[gigau]

1/ I never saw the Teutons convert Novgorod in any of my games. So i guess there a big part of luck into it.

2/ How unlikely is it ? It was one of the goals of the Knights to bring the Russians back to the Pope... although it's true that the last historical attempt dates back 100 years prior to MEIOU start.

[Samilou]

1/ I never saw the Teutons convert Novgorod in any of my games. So i guess there a big part of luck into it.

2/ How unlikely is it ? It was one of the goals of the Knights to bring the Russians back to the Pope... although it's true that the last historical attempt dates back 100 years prior to MEIOU start.

I don't know if it was the Teutons who did it, as it could very well have been Finland or Poland instead, but I find it quite likely that the Teutons did it. One can probably find the answer in my save game or in an older screenshot.

This is not the first time I see Novgorod converted though, I've seen it in each one of my 3 long-term games with MEIOU. I have also never seen protestantism grow anywhere near the scope it historically in MEIOU. At least it was fun to see orthodoxy under assault, so I could properly RP a defender of the faith, instead of just conquering land everywhere, forcing Hungary, Austria, Finland, Kiev and Novgorod into conversion.

[YF-23]

1/ I never saw the Teutons convert Novgorod in any of my games. So i guess there a big part of luck into it.

2/ How unlikely is it ? It was one of the goals of the Knights to bring the Russians back to the Pope... although it's true that the last historical attempt dates back 100 years prior to MEIOU start.

1. It happens consistently for me. I'd say it's 50/50 but unless I'm playing in the area or meddling with the Teutons I dare say Novgorod getting converted is more likely than them retaining their faith.
2. It shouldn't happen consistently but rather rarely. Honestly what's frustrating is seeing religious orders survive well into the game and thrive even though the age of crusades is long over.

Granted I haven't played much recently, but I would say I have a large enough game sample under my belt.

[gigau]

We agree... it should be rare. I'll see to it.

Regarding the resillience of the Order, i'm well aware. I'm not sure however on what i can do to model this, except possibly by giving them a trait once Lithuanian has converted from paganism.

[YF-23]

We agree... it should be rare. I'll see to it.

Regarding the resillience of the Order, i'm well aware. I'm not sure however on what i can do to model this, except possibly by giving them a trait once Lithuanian has converted from paganism.

Oh, I like this idea, if you make it more generic: Large, large penalties on religious orders that do not border heathens.

[tHy]

After spending days and days with Magna Mundi, I finally got Divine Wind some weeks ago and thus found time to try the new MEIOU (tried it once loooong ago...) and was very surprised to see that the small cute mapmod had developed into a full-fledged mod. And after playing some games now I noticed I like the gameplay very much, not as strictly historical like MM it is far more forgiving for any kinds of "what-if"-scenarios.

Currently I'm playing my first attempt in the HRE, and wow, this is difficult. Soooo many things to consider at every turn...but with an easy starter (Bohemia) and a good portion of luck I got things together quite well for the year I'm in, I think.
Europe:
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/763/unled1xx.jpg

Holy Roman Empire (and world):
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/7...oh14669281.png
It's not easy to make out, but I tried to highlight some things:
-HRE domain is marked by thin white/black border
-Vassals are marked with a thick black border and are embossed
-Bohemian demesne and personal union states (Milan, Hungary, Halych-Volhyna) are marked with thick black/white borders and are embossed

I had a fairly good run with capable kings as well, and the one moronic heir I had luckily went hunting (he had 3, 3, 4 stats...he probably held the boarspear the wrong way around ) and thus I'm pretty much in a royal marriage with everyone in the HRE and several beyond. I was bound to gain some personal unions, and I got some good ones as well (Milan was a total surprise, though).
I also decided to go pretty harsh on the warfare front and when France attacked a HRE country, I put down the full wrath of the Empire. With some clever maneuvering I could use the still-ongoing French-English War for my advantage and conquer several key territories, forcing the French in a two(three?)-front-war which soon caused several of their full armies to be routed and vanquished in pursuit. As in my last games France always managed to drive off the English very easily, I wanted to see what a little handicap will do to their conflict and forced them to release some vassals. After that I didn't touch things over there again, and France was smart enough to not invade Imperial territory again. However suddenly all the other neighbors saw their chance at glory and ganged up on France, crippling it intensely, each taking quite some bites, especially England which some twenty years later diploannexed Guyenne (which was just liberated by me in the first war... ). After this France was ravaged by insane revolts (risk was at 30-40%) and fell to pieces. After my truce ran out I seized the chance and decided to take the remainder of France (was still collapsing every couple of months...) under my protection and vassalized them, even sending an expedition corps to help appease the rioting realm. It now is a stable and again-powerful buffer zone to the west of the HRE. England expaned more and more in Southwest France in the meantime, covering all of Guyenne and then some, meanwhile almost conquering all of Ireland and forcing Scotland into a personal union. So I decided to cut them back to size as well after they engaged themselves in the Liberation-of-Provence-war (read below for that) on the wrong side, forcing them to liberate Albret and Armagnac, largely splintering the remaining English holdings in France.

My personal expansions were focused on Poland and Hungary where I always waited for good opportunities to strike, as both often allied with Lithuania, who early on became the fearsome powerhouse they still are...but some wars Lithuania didn't help their allies with, so I seized those opportunities to flank my engaged eastern neighbors...plenty of "good" missions provided me with sufficient casi belli to keep the infamy down.
The Silesian start-vassals were all diploannexed one after the other. Saxony was inherited surprisingly soon. Bayreuth/Nürnberg was the only HRE state I brute-annexed so far (I didn't know the penalties for stealing HRE territory before...), some others were vassalized after they dared supporting enemies of the Empire...

Also I won all elections of the Emperor except one (Brandenburg snuck it after a high-infamy war of mine...) and just about a dozen years ago I managed to push through the first reform, which to my surprise granted me an "Imperial Ban" casus belli on all non-members holding Imperial territory. That was pretty nice and I immediately used them to bring several territories home (namely Northern Denmark [no idea why they are in the HRE, I guess Brandenburg did sth. up there] ) and two provinces in the Provence, and forcing Navarra (which covered all of Normandy and some more to the east) to release Artois as an Imperial state. Another pleasant surprise was that I get insta-cores on all the Imperial territories liberated in "Imperial Ban"-wars. Nice, I just don't know yet if it's really "MY" territory or Empire-territory...meaning if I get to keep them forever or if they switch once the HRE throne moves to another nation. Still, this insta-coring led to "Provencial" now being an accepted culture...while Saxon still isn't . Also, when I liberated both Jutland and Noerrae Jutland in a single war from Denmark, I only got a core on one of them (just one event fired). Not sure if this is intended?

Oh yeah, and just for the fun of it I decided to use a mid-stage "defender of the faith"-thing to reestablish the Kingdom of Jerusalem and take Gaza and Nabulus as my own place at the sun. Even with no ships I managed to get all transit countries to grant me military access and I could just march all the way....even the Ottoman Empire waved me through . I exploited a civil war in Egypt, with the Mamelukes being attacked and strongly weakened by Syria, Makuria and Tripolis, all of them having declared independent shortly after another. A pity there is no event chain for the Jerusalem thing, I only got a single event asking me If I wanted to reestablish or not, nothing more. It also would make more sense if the created Jerusalem would be put under vassalage or at least get great relations with me, instead it was just completely unrelated to me, I even got a "Reconquest"-casus belli on it .

All in all: I love MEIOU. Such a multitude of possible developments, not only for me, but for the AI as well. And almost all of them seem plausible and "smart", making for a very lively but still authentic ahistorical world (albeit the sadly still VERY lacking Shogunate, which to be honest was quite a dissapointment, even after I managed to unite Japan with Hosokawa in a huge infamy-slugfest).