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HabemusZlatan

I hate video games
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Feb 24, 2011
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This is my first AAR, and what better country to start to do AARs with than good old Byzantium?
Rules: Normal difficulty, low aggressivity (AI is already pretty suicidal at low), infation on.
I've used the missionary cheat a couple of times, but that is mostly because going innovative is extremely unforgiving in MEIOU (and innovative is needed to westernize).

P.S. This is not a display of skill, I'm pretty much an average player and I've tried to be as roleplaying as I could.

Part 1 : Between a rock and a very hard turkish place

In the year 1354, the Roman Empire was nothing but the shadow of its former self.

Holding only a handful of cities in the northern half of Greece, the Empire was the target of the expansionist ambitions of the rising Ottoman Beylik, not counting the Bulgarian kingdoms of the north and the Serbian Empire.
Financial and Military situation was dire, with the treasury almost empty and a Military force that collapsed after countless reforms and that ended up relying mostly on mercenary troops than trained native soldiers.
However, history taught us that the greeks did, in past, recover from a similar situation, that lead to the fall of the Latin Empire and the restauration of the Roman Empire itself.
The point of most interest is the date of 12 January 1356, when the Ottoman beylik formally declared open hostilities with the Roman Empire.
As we all know, the Romans were utterly unprepared for the conflict, being greatly outnumbered by the turk forces. At this point, the only solution the Basileus could think of was to block the turks at Constantinople, avoiding contact with the enemy forces and sezing the former roman city of Gallipoli, that the turks left naively unguarded, while leaving the economy in a sort of "full war" assect (full minting).

With this solution, the Romans could stand the turk "attack" as they were blocked in the outskirts of Constantinople, unable to make any progress or to defend their possetions in Greece. In fact, after a long siege, the 12 january 1357 Gallipoli felt.

In the attempt to break the blockade, the turks called their Crimean ally but with little result. Constantinople stood and the turks were blocked in Anatolia, unable to do anything nor to obtain a decisive victory against the Roman navy, which was reinforced during the war with every boat available in the entire empire, including commercial galleys. Incredibly enough, the sheer number of ships was able to avoid the turks to land in Gallipoli from Smyrne.

With the war on an empasse, the Epirote despot, with the alliance of the Vlach king, decided to exploit the Roman difficulty and declare war.
This was a terrible error on the Epirote side, as with the danger of a complete annihilation something moved in the Roman behaviour, and a well organized army of roughly 12000 regulars was ready to be fielded against the invaders. This time, a blockade wouldn't be good enough to defeat the enemies, and the Basileus himself appointed the general Pavlos Gabras in the defence of the territory, giving him the lead on a 7000 men strong army.



Thessalia and Ioannina were swiftly taken, and a 4000 strong army led by Andreas Miklurakes was sent as a reinforcement to intercept the Epirote army.



With the complete destruction of the Epirote Army, the Romans could ask for a vantageous peace offer, which led to the restitution of Thessalia to the Empire and the promise of the Epirote despot to not intervene in an eventual war between the Romans and the crusader state of Neopatria. Date is 17 july 1361, the turks are still blocked in Anatolia.



The meeting with the Vlach king resulted in the return of the pre war conditions.



The Romans, after this important victory and being able to keep the Turks away, felt confident enough to wage war against the crusader state of Neopatria. Moldova and the bulgarian kindgom of Tarnovo anwered the call at arms. Tarnovo will have a major role in this war, as the Moldovian forces were nowhere to be seen and only gave logistic help to the bulgarians, actually leaving the poor and weak despotate of Neopatria alone.
The decisive battle was fought in Rodopi in the October 1364, and the Romans, who used turkish based cavalry effectively, were victorious and forced the invaders to retreat.


On the south, the Neopatrian despot fled to Sicily after the fall of Patras, leaving his former possessions to the romans, who conquered another piece of Greece.


The Tarnovian defeat in Rodopi lead the Lajos of Hungary to attack the bulgarian kingdom. Finding little resistance, Lajos promptly occupied the bulgarian territory.



Lajos settled for the entirety of the bulgarian treasury as his tribute for the war. This lead the Romans, who were still at war with the Tarnovian, to lead an invasion.



The invasion was wildely succesfull. With little resistance found, Ioannes VI decided that the Turnovian state would from this moment be integral part of the reborn Roman Empire. The Bulgarian king, incapable to defend his holdings, accepts.



With this victory, the Empire was able to buy peace from the Moldovian Kingdom with a token gift, granting their superiority and swearing to not intervene in the Moldovian affairs should they collide with the Romans'.
Meanwhile, the war against the Turks was still continuing but both parts agreed that it was no use to keep fighting. Given their inability to keep Gallipoli, the turks accepted the Roman offer to sell them the province for a good sum of gold. The Turks accepted.



The date is 23 August 1364, and here ends the part 1.
 
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Great beginning!
By the way, here was my MEIOU Roman Empire
a5ki9k.png
Holy war is really great for reclaiming Africa for the Empire!
 
Nice AAR, funnily enough I'm playing a Roman Empire game in MEIOU as well, but I started as Georgia. I heartily recommend it to anyone who wants a challenging first 100 years or so followed by wild glee as you go conquer all your cores :p

Great beginning!
By the way, here was my MEIOU Roman Empire
View attachment 36570
Holy war is really great for reclaiming Africa for the Empire!

Why go for Africa, only Alexandria and Cairo are worth anything much. Persia and Iraq are far richer prizes!
 
Part 2 : Byzantines are young and good looking

With the recent military victories, the empire itself felt the worst was over. While still regarded by the latins as the "Empire of the Greeks", the Romans acquired stability and credibility once again. The recent annexation of the Bulgar kingdom of Tarnovo, while considered infamous by most latin rulers, showed that the empire was now a power in the balkans region. On the other hand, these victories paradossally gave a great hand to the corrupted and inefficient Roman rule. The afflux of Bulgarian and Latin counselors and dukes helped the Basileus to get rid of many Strategos and Dukes that were, in fact, conspirating with the other noble families to get rid of the Pailalogos dinasty.
This new efficiency helped the economy to recover, the population to stay more under control and gave an overhall better image of the Empire to the latin world.
The improvement was so sensible that the Constantinople Patriarch declared that "God [...] recognised Ioannes as his Vicar and Lieutenent".



With peace, the Basileus was finally able to attend more diplomatic matters. The relations with the other Orthodox powers, namely the Empire of Serbia, the Principality of Muscowy and the Novgorodian Republic, were hugely improved by the efforts of the imperial diplomats. The diplomatic missions were so succesfull that a former Constantinople military student of Novgorodian origins, Dorofey Stigrin, offered his services to the Roman court. He was assolded and assumed the greek name of Dorotheos Nofikoroupoulos.



With the new military counselor, financial secutiy and a more efficient ruling class, Ioannes IV started to work to a reform to the military system. Given the inefficiency of the Pronoia system, that lead the once mighty army of the empire to be composed mostly by mercenaries, Ioannes thought that the re establishment of a reformed and modern Themata system would give the empire military stability once again. After months of work, the Themes of Thracia, Strymion, Macedonia and Thessalonike, every one ruled by a Strategos, where institued.



With the institution of the Themata system, the military needed however to move to a more professional and "roman" system of recruitement. A Military Drill (first idea) was made obligatory for all the serfs and burghers living in the Themata, which was costly but granted a great advantage to the Roman army over his enemies in both Anatolia and Europe. To counter this unpopular decision, the basileus renewed the weekly receivement with the serfs and institued a poor's mass in Constantinople which was founded by the Imperial treasury itself. The population rejoiced, even if this made the greeks look weak.



Not everything was going smoothly however, and a greek teacher in the Modena university, during a lecture of greek, let slip some vital information on the Roman military and bureaucracy. While being in good faith and wanting to display the reborn power of the Roman Empire, the Emperor saw this lecture as a menace to the Roman peace. In fact, after knowing these details, the Aragon crown decided to cut the roman expansion by declaring war to the independend despotate of Athens, effectively posing it under the Aragon protection and rule while giving them some decree of independence. The teacher, whose name remained unknown, was lately found dead in his house of Modena. This caused some unrest in the country and almost caused a war between the Modena duchy and the Empire.



This, however, didn't stop Ioannes from attacking the athenian duchy. The war was fast and uneventful, with the empire conquering Athens in less than a month. The expectation for a strong Aragon retaliation went missing, since the Castillian kind decided exploit the situation and declared war to Aragon. The Castillian - Aragonese war saw the first to achieve a total victory, and among the treaties there was one of most interest to the Empire - The Aragon crown would renounce on all their claims on the Athens duchy, which was left in the Roman control. On 25 November 1367, Athens became officially a Roman city. The Theme of Hellas was instituited.



The aragonese, not being able to continue the war, accept a simple cease hostility as peace resolution from the Romans.



This hastily accepted rough peace was however later explained as the Castillian king proclamed himself King of Castilla, Leon and Portugal. The Dual Kingdom of Castilla-Portgal was born.



In the emperor plans, however, the expansion and reclaiming of the old imperial lands was not over. Seeing himself rising in ranks among the powers, the Romans decided to pose an end to the Achaia Duchy and to rightfully reclaim those lands for the Empire again.
In 21 January 1370 war was officially declared and occupation started. The Republic of Genoa, the Kingdom of Georgia, the Epirote Despotate, the League of Lezhe, the Empire of Dobrogea, The Kingdom of Moldavia and the german freiestadt of Stettin moved in defence of the small Greek state.



While the situation looked dire, most of those countries were not able at all to intervene phisically in war. Genoa was blocked by the Mongol Hordes, Moldavia didn't obtain crossing rights from Wallachia and Stettin was only nominal part of the war, not partecipating at all. The Romans still had to fight the combined epirote, albanian, bulgarian and achaian forces at the same time.
On 18th June 1370 however, the Achaian state ceased to exist. The Theme of Peloponnesus was instituited.



During the war, the bulgarians of Faristrion started to agitate, as the war was felt by them to be against their Dobrotchian brothers, and menaced to revolt. The Faristrion duke dealt with the situation giving the bulgarians citizens rights on par with the greek citizens, avoiding thus a bloodbath and an unnecessary distraction for the troops, who were all fielded in war.



The Epirote aggression transformed itself in a Roman invasion. Swiftly, the Roman army controlled all of epirote territories. Unable to continue the war, the Epirote duke decided to pay a harsh tribute to the romans, renouncing at their claims over Thessalonika, cutting relations with the Pincedom of Vidin and the Empire of Dobrogea, paying a sum of 2500 perpers and, lately, ceding the control of the Angelokastron area. The theme of Nikoupolis was instituited in the area.



Given the increased territory of the empire and the discovery of being not technologically at par with the latin countries, the emperor decided to give substantial financial aid to philosophers and universities, resulting in a more innovative society



The Genoans, who were leading the diplomatic operations, made an offet to the Romans. They would cease hostility if "The Greek Emperor gifts the Republic with the same amount of gold granted by the Epirote duke". The emperor accepts, as peace was needed once again to recover from the war.



The years passed unevenfully until on 12 october 1374 the Serbian Emperor claimed to be the true Roman Emperor and insulted the Roman throne, calling it "A weak and old greek man who plays to be the Emperor". This was not received well, and the population itself started to call for a war. And war was wageg against the Serbs.
This was an unexpected event, since the previous Serbian prince, father of the actual emperor, was in good relations with the Empire. Seeing the madness of his delcarations and the legitimacy of the Roman claim, the Serbian allies don't answer the call. Serbia was alone against the Imperial wrath, and uncapable to defend.
The reason behind those insults were, however, in the reustaration of the Serbian Empire by the current prince who, after a disastrous defeat against the Hungarians, saw the Roman Empire as a simple target for expansion, as they did the same thing to the Albanian league of Lezhe, this time victoriously.



The regions of Ohrid and Makedonia were swiftly sieged by the Roman Army, who started to look impressive and was able to field 27000 full trained men.
The Serbian army was promptly defeated and completely destroyed in the first battle.



The bad timing of the Serbian insults also caused a good number of rebellions in the country. On 9 December 1375, the Serbians prince accepted a harsh peace offer from the Romans, and was forced to cede the territories around the cities of Skoupoi (then Skopije) and Ochrida (Then Ohrid) and to renounce on their claims on the Thessaloniki region. This was a great victory for the empire, who kept expanding in the balkans. After this victory, Ioannes IV was nicknamed by his folk "Boulgaroktonos", namely "bulgar slayer". The themata of Bulgaria was also institued.



With this victory, the Emperor felt confident and strong enought to start thinking in the recovery of Anatolia. The Turks were still stronger than the romans, but since God was clearly in their side, the people rejoiced at the news.



And here ends part 2.
 
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Awesome, if I may say so. Where will you go after defeating the Turk? Reestablish the Empire in Europe, or go the way Alexander did, and conquer Asia Minor, Parthia, Media, Transoxiana, Mesopotamia etc?
 
I've never seen a MIEOU game before but this looks great. How's MIEOU compare to MM?

It has a lot of the same 'backbone' so to speak with the SRI AI and religious minorities and many of the events will be familiar. The map is really fantastic and the trade goods system is brilliant even compared to MM's much better than vanilla trade goods. Balance in the latest version of MEIOU is kind of all over the place since it was released in a rather unpolished state due to user demand. MEIOU lacks mechanisms that MM uses to prevent the player from running away with the game in the first 100 years such as the event-based coring system, Administrative Efficiency, and the difficulty of religious conversions, but there's work being done to add similar systems.

So overall MEIOU feels to me more like a vanilla game with the new map and a lot of cool stuff on top of it compared to MM which is more like its own game since you just can't play it like you can unmodded EU3 or you lose horribly.
 
I've never seen a MIEOU game before but this looks great. How's MIEOU compare to MM?

MEIOU still needs work. The National Ideas are completely and horribly imbalanced, and various decisions have no difference between vanilla and mod, really - but it's definitely a fun mod worth checking out.
 
Awesome, if I may say so. Where will you go after defeating the Turk? Reestablish the Empire in Europe, or go the way Alexander did, and conquer Asia Minor, Parthia, Media, Transoxiana, Mesopotamia etc?

We'll see about that ;). Main objective though is the restauration of Basil's empire at his max extention, meaning a lot of expansion in the balkans.

I've never seen a MIEOU game before but this looks great. How's MIEOU compare to MM?

I prefer MEIOU mostly because it feels more like the vanilla game and it's much less unforgiving, while still being more difficult if compared to the vanilla version. You should try it and see for youserlf though.

Perfect start, there! You could try using smaller screenshots of only the things of interest, though.

Now all you need is the Two Sicilies forming. :rofl:

Hah, we'll see about that. About the screens, it's already painful for me to choose between the tons of useless screenshots I made, but I'll try it in the next update :p

Now, let's update this AAR!

Part 3 : We like Islands

The recent succesful wars granted the Empire an economical and artistic rebirth. While the art was still heavily rooted to the classical medieval greek style, Ioannes commisioned various mosaics and paintings in the churches of the empire. The most notable one is a gorgeous mosaic currently found in the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople, which represented the Pantocrator Christ leading the Roman Army in its earlier reconquest with the help of the emperor Ioannes. The work is probably the most extended mosaic in the world and testifies a more "latin" stylistical outcome, with proportions and perspective being more refined. While the role of the emperor as the "Christ's Lieutenant" was still heavily emphasized, the mosaic represents more mundane scenes than the other mosaic in the very same church. It's also the most recent addition to the church.



While the reconquest of the Anatolian land was the main objective of the Roman military campaign, the Emperor didn't feel safe with the venetian presence in the greek isles, most notably in the Euboia and the Cyclades. Having recently built a navy worthy of this name, Ioannes decided to finally revenge the sack of Constantinople by waging war to the Venetians. The Venetians, knowing that they wouldn't be able to defeat the now mighty roman army in open field, calls for a catholic countries alliance that will be known in history as the "Venetian Crusade". While the concept of crusade was by now outdated and did not have the same weight it used to be, the Catholic kingdoms of Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Alsace, Brandeburg, Salzburg, Tirol and Halych-Volhyna answered the call.



The strategy adopted by the roman force is what we could call in modern terms "Island hopping": By concentrating strong forces in the islands and by moving hastily troops after having conquered the lands the Roman could get a land advantage even if facing the strongest enemy navy. This strategy was also used by the venetians, who tried to block the Roman transports by attacking them and tried to seize roman land as fast as they could. Incredibly, the early naval results depict a Roman victory, which heavily mined the venetian morale.



It would be an isolated victory, as the venetian hastily regained their naval edge winning numerous battles in the aegean while the Romans concentrated their naval effort on transporting troops and defending their gains. After the fall of Euboia, the island was heavily fortified and a standing garrison of 7000 men was left.
During the war though, given his old age and a quasi-constant military campaign regime, the Basileus was suddenly taken ill. People feared for his death and Ioannes, to avoid further problems and given the delicate situation of the country, decided to give more power to the Strategos and the Nobility. This also stopped some of the military reforms Ioannes was working on.




This did not stop the war, with all operations being lead by Ioannes' son, also called Ioannes. While the venetian navy was recovering after a long battle, the Prince decided to invade the cyclades islands, who were left unguarded. The siege was eventually won and granted another point of advantage to the romans in the aegean sea. While having a clear advantage in the sea warfare, the venetians were unable to obtain a decisive victory and failed to avoid Roman landings, who used smaller fleets composed mostly of transport ships to exclusively land troops while blocking the main venetian fleet with their war galleys. Even if the greek fire lost its effectiveness in battle, it still posed a great threat to the Venetian morale. The Hungarian lack of intervention was later explained, as they were at war with the Bohemian kingdom. Even if they achieved a victory, this left the hungarians and their polish allies unable to make any efforts in the crusade, giving only logistical support to the Croats and the Venetians. The technological superiority of the Venetian navy also gave the impulse to the Basileus to fund more scientific academies, this giving the empire a even more innovative focus.




In the final months of 1384, most of the partecipating countries decided it was not worth to continue a war they were not fighting. Most of the landlocked countries, and most notably the Kingdom of Poland, accepted a return to the status quo in change of peace. the 1 Decenmber of the same year, the Romans succesfully attempted a landing on the island of Crete, after various tries. This was the event that decided the war, as the venetians were not able to defent their major holding in the aegean islands.



The harshness of the war started to show his sign, as the city of Gallipoli was cought by a plague that definitely decimated the population. The emperor institued a hospital on the place, trying to improve the situation as much as he could.



The war, on the other side, was finally ending. With the succesfull occupation of Krete and the destruction of the invading Venetian army in the Cyclades, the venetians were ready to admit defeat. As a price for the victory, the romans imposed the annexation of Euboia and the Cyclades and the restituition of some of the goods looted by the venetians during the sack of Constantinople.



This ended the fallimentary Venetian Crusade and the egemony of the Most Serene Republic in the aegean. After this crushing defeat, the Hungarian king signed a return to the status quo, this officially ending the war.
The aftermath however left the economy of the empire in shambles. To recover, a brilliant master of mint was assolded to improve the treasury and fighting the rising inflation.



The prestige that came from the war did indeed improve the image of the empire in the eyes of the world. The most impressive feat was, indeed, the superbly trained and organized Roman army.



The next step taken by the emperor was the annexation of the Morea fief. While being a faithful and reliant ally, the country was too weak to resist eventual invasion by foreign powers and could have represented a menace to the refound integrity of the empire. By the integration of the small fief, the Empire became once again the dominant force in Greece.



This however caused a minor grief between the emperor and his brother, who used to be the despot of the native Pailalogoi land. He accused the brother of being a "ruthless powermonger" and refused to cede the fief until he was given some other compensation. The emperor reassured the brother and gave him the role of Strategos of the Peloponnesus thema, relieving the previous rules. This caused some problems in the empire, and several unrest was registered.



The brother, however, demonstred to be a good ruler, effectively governing his Thema and found that the previous strategos had accumulated a wealth of 50000 perpers in his private coffers, money that was the result of taxation and rightfully belonged to the state. With this new wealth (and the deat of the previous strategos), the empire faced a period of economical wealth that resulted in the expansion of the navy, better equipment for the army and the building of several new buildings.



The new wealth and prestige did also help foreign relations of the empire, which had gained the friendship of the powerful Principality of Muscowy and the wealthy Republic of Novgorod, who proclaimed themselves "Friends and allies" of the reborn empire.
With his back covered, Ioannes decided the time to recover Anatolia had come.



Date is 27 March 1394, and here ends part 3.
 
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Well I guess one reply is enought for an update.
P.S. Sorry for not resizing the images, but I didn't have the time to do that. In the next update I promise sensible reduction.

Part 4 : It's time to get seriously ahistorical

The Roman invasion of Ottoman territory is viewed by historians as a bold and risky move. While the power of Constantinople was again rising and the Ottomans were facing internal problems, a single error would have caused a defeat and the definitive end of the Roman Insurgence. It is also true that the Ottoman rise in Anatolia was caused by the very same matters, Roman decline and internal revolts, and clearly the Emperor at the time thought "If the mongols did, why counldn't we"? The most important, and perhaps decisive, battles were fought in the outskirts of Izmid, in the modern Nikomedia, and Thessalia. In both cases, the Turkish armies were completely wiped out, due to a better preparation of the Roman armies.



Meanwhile, a rebellion started in the Nisia islands, who led to the defection of the little archipelago to the Roman empire. The Genoese government asked for the restituition of the islands, but the empire refused.



After having secured Nikomedia, the Romans attempted a landing in in Smyrne and, after having defeated the forces gathered there, started to siege the city. Izmid had already fallen, and the succesfull invasion of the Ottomans land was seen as a sign that God was finally smiling back to the Romans. With those lands seized, the romans could focalize their efforts in trying to take back Nicea and the other lands that were stolen by the Ottomans in the recent past. Also, a more permissive policy on freedom of thought was allowed, since most of these lands had been mongolized by their former
Turk overlords.



Another notable victory was obtained in Bolu, against a huge force led by the Sultan himself. While being outnumbered, the roman forces were able to resist and inflict pesant casualties to the enemy. This was perhaps the battle that decided the war in favor of the romans, who had, in truth, never been defeated once by the mongols.



In the meanwhile, the war against the turks was seen in the latin world as a sign of devotion and of the power of Christ. The Holy Roman Emperor himself, Jiri I of Bohemia, offered war subsides and pledged alliance, as they probably saw the Empire as a buffer from the Turk invasions and this victory as the tide turning in favor of christendom. Useless to say, the Emperor accepted the offer.
Meanwhile, the Ottoman allies, namely the Hafsid Sultanate and the Khanate of Crimea, abandoned their ally signing a white peace, leaving the Romans the freedom to push deeper in Anatolia without having to stop their constant landing in the greek islands.
The war was won, but the Romans found themselves terribly exhausted by the war and in effect they were uncapable to continue further. Having captured the coastal city of Samos in the meanwhile, the romans decided to end the war when they were still winning. The turk sultan was willingly to cede Nikomedia, Samos, Smyrne, Nicea and the sum of 225.000 perpers. With this victory, the Romans were again able to enter in Anatolia back again. The date, 14 February 1397, is seen as the historians as the beginning of the "Roman Resurgence", and is still National Day in modern Romània.




With the conquest of their lost anatolian lands, the romans started to make huge reforms and to "de-mongolize" the former turk territories. The Optimaton and Samos themes were restored. The increasing of territories and the turkization of most Anatolian people caused some problems to the Empire, but with the refound organization and with some exceptional individualities, the empire overcome the difficulties and integrated the lands in his bureaucratic system.



The alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, however, caused more grief that benefits as a non fully recovered empire had to oblige his alliance in a conflict between Brandeburg and the Bohemian lord himself. This lead to the war some Catholic countries who invised the HRE, including the temible kingdom of Hungary, now sharing a border with the Roman Empire, and the League of Lezhe. The newely born Princedom of Montenegro also intervened in the war.
While the Hungarians proved to be formidable enemies, the same couldn't be said of the Albanians, who were heavily defeated in their homeland and, after their cities had been pillaged by the Roman forces, pledged vassallage to the Roman Empire, effectively becoming a tributary state to the Empire.



This, in practice, ended the war to the Roman side, as the Hungarians weren't able to push forward in the northern Bulgaria and the Romans didn't have the strenght to invade the Serbian lands in Hungarian possession. White peace was signed, to much rejoice of the greeks, who eventually saw this war as "mildly successfull".
In the following peace, the Empire saw its wealth grow and reach some kind of stability. The Emperor exploited these developments by proclaiming the rebirth of the "Varangian Guard" as his personal body guard. While this unit, mostly formed by 'Rus and Norse people, didn't disappear in these years, it had become something more like a common mercenary force. Due to the renewed friendship among the Russian kingdoms and the recent victories, more people coming from the Russian lands wanted to join the famed unit, this time as regulars of the Roman Army.



The image of the empire in the latin world never stop grewing, and their standing in the western world almost returned the one they had under the Komnenoi dinasty. Even their vassallage of the Albanian League was saw as a "legitimate" and even "compassionate" by some rulers. The only kingdoms opposing the legitimacy of the Roman claim in Albania were the Kingdom of Naples (who, in truth, had some claims in Epirus), the Crown of Aragon, the Most Serene Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa.



The reborn friendship between the latins and the greeks culminated into the use of western clothing and use among the Roman nobility. Jousting tourneys were instituited, and the son of the Emperor himself partecipated and obtained good results in them, which was unusual among the Roman nobles, and caused both hostility and mistification of the image of the "Prince of the Greeks". The most recurring legend is that "Ioannes the Young" was so strong that most of the greek and latin knights couldn't wield his tourneament spear and buckler, legend most verily already used to depict Alexios Komnenos but that shows the love his people showed to the prince, who was thought to be the ruler of the empire "de facto", being also co-emperor since his major age.
This lead to a smooth passage of rule when Ioannes VI, the Bulgar Slayer, died of old age on the 1st December 1409. His son became emperor with the name of Ioannes VII, and was swiftly nicknamed "The Young", even if some sources refer to him as "charming and affable, mostly fond of the latin lifestyle, he was a brilliant orator and a stubborn diplomat. His speech and apparence were so divinely armonious he could have restored by talking what the Angeloi lost fighting". He was a good general and a brilliang warrior too, but his most remarkable gift was his absolutely stunning statist ability. "He was born to rule Rome" said of him Herakles Phocas in his "De Romanii Imperi Historiae".



A new age has begun, and here ends the fourth and final part of the chronicles of Ioannes VI Palailogos.
 
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Very nice work. One small note: It wouldn't be the Nisia region. That area is called Nisia Aigiasou I think. Which means Aegean Islands. Nisia just means islands..

The actual AAR itself is excellent. Keep up the good work.
 
Damn, Trebizond is gone. If not, I would advise you to reconquer it... a base in the Pontic region seems useful. What about Cyprus? Can you reclaim that one?
Also: The story is really well written!
 
My understanding of Byzantine Greek is imperfect since I never got formal education in it, but in Demotic Greek, the region would be Nisia Aiyaiou using the most recent transliteration. Alternatively Nisia Aegaeou. The Theme was Aegaeou Pelagos (Aegean Sea) although it was centered in the North Aegean and Sporades.
 
Good progress.

As was said, "Nisia Aigaiou" means "Aegean Islands". I suggest you refer to them as "Lesbos and Chios" as these are the two biggest (and perhaps only notable) islands in the province.

Also rename "Samos" to "Smyrna", Samos is an island not too far away from the city of Smyrna, but regardless, gigau derped when naming that one. Even though he's been told repeatedly through versions.

(and you should really do something about the pictures, perhaps fix the old ones, trying to load the whole first page brought my internet to a halt, I had to stop the loading and reload every image in the last update individually)