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I've put in lots of playing over the last century and I have some 400-odd screenshots to savage before commenting on them. Expect another update in a couple of weeks!
 
I've put in lots of playing over the last century and I have some 400-odd screenshots to savage before commenting on them. Expect another update in a couple of weeks!

Sounds good.
 
I haven't exactly had the best four weeks on record, with lots of time off-line, but I'm now preparing the next five episodes, coming to a Byzantine AAR near here soon!
 
Just so people know where I am, I'm still working on the next few chapters of the AAR. Unfortunately, the way I set up my Photobucket directories (and thus the JPG names) requires me to know how many chapters each ruler will need to document their reign. This is the same with my Burgundy AAR too and is one of the reasons I take so long to get started with a new ruler.

On the plus side, I've nearly finished Frankensteining all the pictures for the entirety of Thomas's reign and I can guarantee an update soon!
 
Awesome! Moar Byzantines!
 
Just so people know where I am, I'm still working on the next few chapters of the AAR. Unfortunately, the way I set up my Photobucket directories (and thus the JPG names) requires me to know how many chapters each ruler will need to document their reign. This is the same with my Burgundy AAR too and is one of the reasons I take so long to get started with a new ruler.

On the plus side, I've nearly finished Frankensteining all the pictures for the entirety of Thomas's reign and I can guarantee an update soon!

If you still have the screenshots it would be great to see how the game turned out :)
 
Has it really been a month since EU3Noob posted? I must apologise for nothing happening in all that time (and next time, don't state any dates for me to utterly ignore)!

I have 200 years of screenshots, 50 of which have even been completed. I will post them, never fear!
 
Has it really been a month since EU3Noob posted? I must apologise for nothing happening in all that time (and next time, don't state any dates for me to utterly ignore)!

I have 200 years of screenshots, 50 of which have even been completed. I will post them, never fear!

Brilliant, thanks.
 
I'm liking this!

Subscribed!
 
Thanks for all your kind words providing the impetus to actually get this thing going again. I'll be polite and not mention that I last updated this four months ago if you don't! I'm now preparing a special double-issue to make up for my shameful lack of updates. :(
 
Chapter V - Does Your Regent Know?


Palaeologus_Dynasty.png
So we now have an eleven-and-a-half year-old boy called Thomas on the Byzantine throne and he has a bunch of advisers with (much longer) more typically Greek names. This is not a dangerous place to be in the slightest, right chaps? Chaps? Chaps!!

087Moroccopeace.jpg
Morocco makes peace with Wallachia and annexes Montenegro. I know nothing about its history, but I suspect it's one of the places that we really should own. Damn Mahomedans!

088Morepeace.jpg
We get peace with the Jalayrids and England beats Burgundy into sundering its relations with the eastern Mediterrean states. This is good news for us, as then perhaps we will be able to act unimpeded in this theatre. (Castle, air, get going.)

089NationalEpicIoannesV.jpg
Ioannes V has been dead for less than six months and he wasn't even a particularly good king, but they're already composing a national epic about him. Either the Roman Empire is filled with forelock-tugging nationalists with a rosy view of history or... No, wait, it's that, definitely.

090Noblerights.jpg
Thomas's nobles see a good time to get a bloc together and demand a bunch of old rights. The regents tell them where to go - they don't want to be answerable to the Emperor in a few years' time!

091Chobaniddeclarewar.jpg
This is not looking good. Alliances are there to reassure us, not be actually be used!

092Chobanidwar.jpg
The Chobanids, the Timurids, Oman and Baluchistan against the might (?) of Byzantium, Georgia and the Eretnids. The Georgians are doomed.

093Anglo-Wales.jpg
England seems to be doing better for itself now, whilst five months after we are called into the war, Georgia is promptly annexed. Yay!

094Pontusconverted.jpg
Pontus converts to the Orthodox faith, so the southern coast of the Black Sea is looking promisingly orangy-brown again.

095WhitePeacex4.jpg
After Georgia was annexed, the wars were very quiet, a lot of silence interspersed with the occasional half-hearted invasion. Eventually, the fighting is called off and uneasy peace reigns once more.

096Ambassadorarrives.jpg
Meanwhile, the adviser with the most unpronounceable name dies off and we replace him with someone whose name is suspiciously pronounceable instead. I think I've been staring at Greek names for too long!

097Transylvaniareleased.jpg
Eastern Europe is becoming impressively Balkanised. That should be my back yard, damn it, not merely reduced to some bit-part in Greece and Anatolia!

098Bailiffexecuted.jpg

The Regents execute a bailiff for being egregiously tyrannical. Other nations don't look well upon us anyway, so we need to keep our own people happy.

099Thomasinmajority.jpg

Our young king reaches the grand age of fifteen and undergoes a second coronation as Thomas, in God faithful, Basileus kai Autokratōr ton Rhomaion. Asia Minor won't know what's hit them!

100RegencyCouncil.jpg

I think that we can ignore the scurrilous court rumours that a teenager is already renowned for his drunkenness, don't you?



Palaeologus_Dynasty.png


Regency for Thomas Palaiologos
(22.03.1370 - 18.07.1373)

Autocrat and Emperor of the Romans
Strategos-Autokrator of Konstantinoupolis​
 
Chapter VI - I Have A Dream


01ThomasAndronikIV.jpg

Thomas Andronikos Palaiologos, painted around 1400 to commemorate Emperor Thomas's long reign.

100Milanneedshelp.jpg
Thomas has not even spent one year ruling on his own before his father's allies in Milan require the Empire's help with their trade war with Venice. Thomas reluctantly accepts and hopes for another quiet 'war'.

102ClaimsonSerbia.jpg
Demetrios Kydones, Mesazon (prime minster) under Ioannes V, manages to fabricate a claim on the Serbian province of Vlore. Thomas has great plans for Byzantine restoration and he rewards him by raising him to the position of Kanikleios (keeper of the imperial inkstand) as well.

103LandTech6.jpg
Our land technology improves slightly (always a plus) and our teenage monarch is painted as a ruthless power-monger. Between drunkenness and ruthlessness, some of the Byzantine court really don't seem to like their new Emperor!

104Yazgodconverted.jpg
The Eretnid people finally accept the worship of Kristos Pantokrator ("Christ, Ruler of All") and convert to the Orthodox faith. We are then somewhat inexplicably told that spies have succeeded in infiltrating our administration. If they're even halfway decent, how do we know that they're there?

105PapalStatedefeated.jpg
In other news, Aragon wails on the Papal State and the Chobanids beat up the Kartids. If they're not focusing on Byzantium, all the better!

106Eretnidalliance.jpg
The same day, the newly Christianised Eretnids reaffirm their alliance with us, but this does have the unfortunate side-effect that they can now have Holy War called against them by their neighbours as well.

107AquileiabeatsVenice.jpg
Our old enemy Venice is forced to cede a province to Aquileia, which interestingly doesn't affect our on-going war alongside Milan against them.

108Pontus-Sinopirebels.jpg
A major revolt occurs throughout Greek Candar in autumn 1375 which needs to be put down as swiftly as possible.

109Armeniadefeated.jpg
Unfortunately, whilst this is going on, Armenia is having its arse handed to it by the rampaging Mamluks. They are the terrifying monster that is used to scare Byzantine children to sleep - "if you're naughty, the Mamluks will get you!"

110Veniceannexed.jpg
Under the command of Megas Doux ("Grand General") Konstantinos Phouskamaki, the Byzantine navy hands the remaining Venetian ships another defeat. The final insult, however, is when Milan's armies triumph over La Serenissima and take the city of Venexia for their own.

111Manuelisheir.jpg
He might be rumoured to be a drunken power-monger, but Thomas is certainly no slouch in the bedroom department, fathering his first child, Manuel, at the tender age of seventeen and a half. To distract from these wild rumours, Thomas takes for himself the common moniker Porphyrogennētos ("born in the purple"), indicating a royal child of a reigning Byzantine Emperor.

112WarwithOttomans.jpg
Yeah, another of the Byzantine bugbears has decided that they want Eretnid land for themselves, though Milan, Trebizond and Wallachia come to our aid. Our alliance policy is finally working in our favour!

113Eretnidmarriage.jpg
Despite the Ottomans rudely interrupting the Christmas festivities, the planned royal marriage with the Eretnids takes place on schedule the day after Epiphany. If previous experience is anything to go, these wars tend to drag on for a long time.

114SeabattleofMarmara.jpg
It's only a small victory, but now we've proven that we can hold our own in naval matters against the feared Ottomans.

115Betteradministration.jpg
Despite a year of fighting in and around Anatolia, the talented advisers that Thomas inherited from his father and the council of regents has led to an increase in the middle classes and greater financial stability. Success!

116NavalTradeProdTech6.jpg
Another year passes and Byzantine technological improvement continues apace, despite the long months of blood and tears outside Konstantinoupolis's high walls.

117Izmirbeseiged.jpg
An almost-year-long siege of the Izmirian fortifications by our Wallachian allies concludes successfully.

118Ottomansonthebackfoot.jpg
A view of the battle theatre two years into the war, just prior to the fall of Izmir. The Ottomans have seized much of our eastern holdings, but our allies are keeping them busy in the west. Byzantium proper remains untrammelled by war as yet.



Palaeologus_Dynasty.png


Thomas Porphyrogennētos
Anno Mundus 6886

Θωμάς πορφυρογέννητος

Autocrat and Emperor of the Romans
Strategos-Autokrator of Konstantinoupolis​
 
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