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Hahaha, what a great ending :D Are you going to boo the minstrells out of Liguria or will you have to take more drastic measures ;)

I found, in-game, that I had to throw rotting fruit at them before they would go away. Luckily, the 1300s aren't known for mass media, otherwise they might've drawn an even larger, nastier, filthier crowd.

Savoyards also wanted their piece of Limoncello!

It's a historical reality, I guess. The Savoyards in this game don't seem very ambitious, but they do have a lot of problems with organized crime.

Naples seems to have a thing for wasting good opportunities. Now, where did I see that before? Ah, I don't remember.
Anyway, It's a very interesting concept for an AAR; I will surely follow.

Thanks for following!

Interesting plot for your AAR InvisibleSandiwi, an unlikely path but I still like it :D

Do you plan on getting EuIV and trying to do the same thing there?

Once I get a computer that meets the minimum requirements for EU4, I'm certain to obtain it. I might try to do the Genorussia trick there as well, but I probably won't do an AAR about it.

Next update coming either today or tomorrow, depending on my work ethic.
 
Schtschi with pasta... a most tempting combination :D
 
Schtschi with pasta... a most tempting combination :D

I suppose it is, but as today's episode proves, we're still in the Borscht belt.



Episode 4: Rise of the Genukraine (Genorussia, Embryonic Stage)

"This is where the millstone began to gather momentum." - Vasilli Montagna, in his 1728 book, "The History of Stavropol"

Ambrogio Durazzo had come into office promising economic expansion and, in the last 8 years, spent more time expanding the internal markets of Genoa than the external ones - a task he left to wealthy merchants.

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Currently, he was engaged in a race to break Candarese control of Stavropol before Liguria was overwhelmed by Savoyard peripherals. He granted the official Savoyard military access to his country in the hopes that they would cause less damage (if they ever decided to enter) than their "criminal" element, but it was of little use.

Perhaps one of Durazzo's greatest reforms was the funding of the Genoese courier yachts, which allowed Durazzo to partially administer the Republic while overseas. Most of the day to day decisions were made by Antonio de Ferrari, who had gained substantial influence once everyone (read: Marcellino) stopped throwing knives at him.

On the diplomatic front, the Venetians were proving to be excellent allies, as their patrols sunk most of the small beys' fleets before they could post a threat to anyone on the other side of the Black Sea.

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When Ambrogio returned to Genoa proper on the 28th of September, 1381, the "Brigand Band" had become even more popular, to the point of threatening the ports. This could not be allowed to continue, because Durazzo could not stand woodwinds.

Unfortunately, it took several months (and the coincidental rise of a rivaling Genoese minstrel group) to dissolve the band's fan club, after which it was back to the Black Sea to enforce Genoese order. Luckily, the bey of Candar lacked the resources to defend themselves.

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As negotiations to hand over Kouban (and therefore Stavropol) were enforced, Durazzo sent a letter to the Ottomans suggesting that they take over administration of the local petty beys so that such an event would not occur again.

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And so, the long process of pacification began, as Durazzo struggled to assimilate the Crimeans and Caucasians that had recently been brought into the realm.

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Such a task began to occupy rather more time than the Doge had hoped for.

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Luckily, the people of Azow were impressed by the performance of the Genoese military; their local missionary claimed it was the work of God, education was rather limited in those days, and things fell into place. Soon, the city was calling for the blood of local heathens.

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Genoa went back to war yet again in 1384, joining much of the rest of Eastern Europe and many of the Golden Horde's neighbors in such. Truly, the wolves were circling.

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Meanwhile, Genoa's corporate investments were beginning to place large amounts of funds in the nation's war chest, further strengthening Durazzo's reputation as a ruler.

I got frequent dividends from this until 1388, when it expired. I renewed the decision afterwards.

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In contrast to previous wars, the Genoese army was able to occupy massive swathes of land, but much of this was again due to collaboration with disloyal aspects of the collapsing Horde. For instance, when one of the Horde's few remaining regiments nearly destroyed the Genoese expeditionary force, Durazzo was able to save thousands of his men's lives by calling on the services of one of the pretenders to the Khan's yurt (which was beginning to fray).

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As the war dragged on, Durazzo sent his troops far deeper into the Horde's lands than ever thought possible, at one point even penetrating into the gold fields of Saratow, and nearing the border of the Russian principalities. Durazzo's mind was filled with visions of glorious conquest, and he had to be talked out of attempting to push further northeast.

Once he'd been brought back home, Durazzo forced the Horde to grant him a land corridor between the two major Genoese exclaves (since control of the area around Stavropol created a land connection between Kaffa and Azow), and made some idle remarks about a Crimean 'autonomous zone', much to the confusion of the Khan (who had always preferred decentralized, autonomous rule in the first place).

The Crimean people didn't understand such talk about nation states either, deciding to ignore it and continue paying nominal suzerainty to the Golden Horde while they still existed.

As Genoa began to formally administer its conquered territories, the Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order came to Liguria, proposing an alliance.

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Given the generally questionable relations between Genoa and the Teutons' neighbors in the Novgorod Republic, they were seen as a potentially useful ally...

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...and Durazzo was quick to accept the Grandmaster's proposal.

Genoa had learned much about warfare on the steppes from recent campaigns - even as their equipment gradually improved, the Hordes' soldiers were still able to inflict disproportionate casualties on the Genoese due to their choice of tactics and regular access to horses.

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It was with this in mind that when the Teutonic alliance was signed, an Italian expatriate in the region (Gianpiero da Novi) was brought back in order to provide his teachings about military science.

Throughout the late 1380s, the Genoese economy continued to grow by investing in foreign adventures, although as the nation's holdings in the Black Sea grew, ever larger portions of Genoa's human capita were invested there. Azow, in fact, was becoming a major nexus of manufacturing (although it still relied on Stavropol as a market), and a place that attracted many locals seeking things no city had the right to provide. Ambrogio was on one of his frequent business trips in the area when, in the midst of a crowded market, he saw a beautiful lady and decided he had to impress her somehow. In any other case, this may have included the use of the word "hello", but then he saw what appeared to be a gruff, smelly looking man grope her for no apparent reason. Normally this might've resulted in a situation where Durazzo or someone similarly dashing would've had to rescue the lady, but a few solid punches later, the lady subdued her attacker. She then lifted him off the ground and slowly walked towards the staircase outside the belltower of Azow's local Catholic cathedral (courtesy of Durazzo).

"Help! She's going to throw me off the balcony!" shouted the newly created "mansel" in distress. Durazzo could not allow this utterly despicable act to occur, but the indecision created by his desire to protect the laws of Genoa and his attraction to the aggressive woman stalled him for almost a minute. Luckily, the rest of the people in the market were even less able to cope with this turn of events, so the Doge was able to shout "I'll save you!" and rush to the rescue.

In the height of the bell tower, the lady was gradually lifting her victim, whose screams of horror and dismay masked Durazzo's approach, and the eventual burst of Italian obscenities when he reached the top of the staircase and saw what was about to happen. In desperation, the Doge took a flying leap, clung to the bells, which fortunately swung in the right direction to allow Durazzo to jump off, and begin to demand the unhanding of the brute.

Unfortunately, by the time Durazzo had finished his sentence, his feet were at least a meter away from any solid ground... as was the rest of his body. His bloodcurdling scream as he plummeted to the ground was only the second of the day (as the woman had kept her composure), and it was followed by a wet thump and awkward silence. At this, the lady lowered the man to the floor.

"Now your nephew can finally become the Doge. Happy?" she said.

"Very much so. Here is your reward-" began the man, who pulled out a coin purse and was about to lose a handsome sum before-

"Drop the money! You need not ransom yourself for safety!"

After Durazzo had died, half a dozen men scrambled up the bell tower, seeing that the unfortunate accident had at least given them a chance to prove their own bravery.

"I... uh... stand back, brutes, or the Tartar gets it!" shouted the lady, pulling out a rapier from the cleavage of her dress. Unfortunately, to prevent accidental disembowelment, it had been scabbarded - in the five seconds the lady needed to remove her blade from such, her head flew off her body and out of the tower.

All the apparent victim (Giacomo de Ferrari) could think at the moment was that he was glad he didn't have to pay for having the Doge removed.



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When Donato de Ferrari (the son of Antonio Maria and the aforementioned nephew of Giacomo) became the Doge of Genoa, he had to spend much of his early time in office insisting that the Genoese government was a meritocracy in which any competent man could become Doge, and that the position was not in fact limited to a few exceedingly powerful families. Unfortunately for Genoa, Donato's experience in politics was almost nonexistent, seeing as he'd spent most of his time writing chivalric romances for noblewomen to swoon over.

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"I'll show them!", he said when he found out that the rest of the council was mocking him for this behind his back. "I'll destroy the entire Tartar rebellion that's fomenting in the backyard, and then I'll write a story about it!"

Durazzo's habit of paying the local warlords to backstab the Golden Horde was not without its problems, as said warlords were often the first to suffer when Genoa annexed land. Giving out military commissions and government offices only could satisfy so many of these; the rest took up arms against their new-found benevolent Genoese overlords.

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The borders of nations continued to evolve around the republic, as another former irritant of the Genoese - the Ottomans - suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Mamluk sultanate to their south (adding to their misfortunes at the hands of Byzantium). Meanwhile, the Urbinese were, after decades of submission, on the verge of destroying the kingdom of Naples... assuming that the Serbians didn't slaughter their monarch first.

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Donato de Ferrari ignored these developments because they weren't taking place within the borders of Genoa. Furthermore, he took steps to strengthen Genoese fortifications in order to make Genoa a less attractive target to its neighbors.

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As usual, the Golden Horde functioned to disrupt these policies (due to its rapid collapse and informal partitioning at the hands of locals), and Durazzo launched another mission of conquest against it (more accurately, the breakaway khanate of the Zaphorozian Host) as soon as he could legally do so, leading many to question why Genoa signed peace treaties in the first place . This was very quick to boil over into the Golden Horde's actual territory.

Even compared to the last war, this was not very much of a glorious crusade and more of an extremely painful partitioning, bordering on butchery, with mad scrabbling from within and without the Horde to take territory.

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For the moment, Genoa kept its territorial desires comparatively modest, having already forcibly incorporated the Zaphorozian rebels into their state.

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Unfortunately, the Crimean khanate complained when the Genoese decided to install a puppet khagan, so their independence was short lived, so much so in fact that the Crimeans didn't have the time to organize their own army. This lead to a massive series of rebellions in the overseas almost beyond the ability of the Genoese to control. de Ferrari's solution, unusually for a Doge, would not be to throw money at it...


Russian region province count: 3 (up 2 from Episode 3 from Zaphorozia + Kharkov)
 
I like it.
Eventually you will conquer Italy through Poland and Austria.

I could, but I'm not sure I want to. To get decent borders if I did that, I'd also have to conquer the rest of the Balkans, and after that there wouldn't be much point in stopping until I'd completely dominated the entirety of Europe. I suppose it wouldn't be bad for the overall power of Greater Russia, but I'll see what direction I take once I've performed my national unification.

A quick, "filler"-type state of the world post should be up in less than an hour... substantially less than an hour, even.
 
State Of The World In 1395

First, a look at the world map.

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It's a bit wacky, but that's nothing new. Some highlights:

Yes, that is Wales in Scandinavia. The extreme northern parts of the country start off uncolonized in the latest versions of D&T, and there's not much to prevent the locals from taking over; in this case it first was colonized by Pommerania, who then lost it to the Welsh. To be fair, Wales is still in a personal union with England, so I think they seized it.

The existence of "successful Byzantium" has come at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, and it's allowed the Balkans bloc to not instantaneously die from Ottoman intervention. The Byzantines are also trying their hand at overseas imperialism by extorting a few provinces from the Tunisian Hafsids.

In light of Ottoman failure, the Mamluks will probably remain the premiere Islamic power in the region.

I note with some consternation the existence of Mega-Adal in Eastern Africa. They'll probably devour the rich goldmines of Mutapa and then wake up 200 years later with a hangover and a severe technological disadvantage and massive inflation.

India and China have not stabilized enough for me to declare winners in the region, but given how horrific China usually ends up, it's a wonder that anyone is even remotely contiguous. It probably won't unify any time soon, though, given what usually happens in Death and Taxes.


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Our economy is doing fine, as I take increasing steps to improve our trade ability and conquer land for tax/production income. It also doesn't reflect the bonuses I've recieved from trade stations. Inflation isn't a huge problem yet - eventually I'll probably institute a national bank and/or a master of the mint to fight that.

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The Horde is suffering, although it took us a while to be able to take advantage of it.

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Most subjects of the Republic of Genoa are Tartars now; we have yet to conquer any Russian culture provinces. We've had minor success converting the non-Catholics at best, although as our resources improve we should be able to increase the intensity of these programs.

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Historically, our income hasn't been that great, but it has improved substantially in recent years, especially after the conquest of Kouban/Stavropol.



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Genoa's borders are a bit oddly shaped, but we at least have our name written on the map in a recently large font, which will only get larger as we expand our holdings.

Personally, I'd say this AAR only really began to took off (from a gameplay stance) once the Golden Horde began to properly collapse. Obviously, I'm not the only person who benefited from this - many of the Russian principalities have taken a province or two. Either way, I now have at least a foothold from which I can launch further expeditions into Russia proper. From here on until I finish the unification, it's basically going to be a northern slog.

I tentatively plan to remain Catholic, at least for now. I don't think I can force-convert Genoa to Orthodoxy without cheating. If it turns out I can, though, I might. While it would cut down on my colonist income amongst other things does have its perks, such as lower stability costs, slightly higher tolerance of heretics (good for continued military operation in Europe, particularly if I go for parts that historically were part of the Empire) and less conversion gruntwork. When I reach the Reformation, I might take up either Protestant or Reformed (Calvinist) theology, more likely the former because Russia needs every ducat it can get from taxation and production. It depends on a variety of factors - for instance, I'm probably not going to convert if I get very deep into Siberia by the time new religious options become available.
 
Episode 5: Stepping on the Steppes

"I read in a book somewhere that the people of the Crimea are uneducated and smell bad. The latter I can't do anything about, but maybe we can educate them?"

It was dinnertime at the Doge's palace, and Donato de Ferrara, the current doge of Genoa, was entertaining guests. He was of the opinion that if you couldn't throw a book at a problem, you couldn't solve it. Considering the illiteracy of the period, it was no wonder that he was sort of a pessimist.

"Isn't throwing a book at someone going to hurt them rather badly?" quipped Simon Qutughqan, a Crimean native, an opportunistic convert to Catholicism, and by virtue of being mayor of Stavropol, the most prestigious of the men at the dining table.

"You're supposed to read the books, not throw them. That's how literacy works," Donato responded, indicating he wasn't quite in the mood for this sort of debate.

"But Doge, don't you realize most people can't read?"

"Teach them how, obviously. Education problem solved."

Qutughqan didn't respond to this. The way he saw it, the only book worth reading was the Bible, and you could always find a clergyman to read it to you if necessary. On the other hand, Donato had a very limited tolerance for dissent from his subordinates (never mind the disproportionate sizes of Genoa proper and its overseas dominion), so this opinion went unexpressed.

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And so, de Ferrara labored to improve the human condition at the eventual expense of his ability to rule as a despot.

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His search for new ideas to make Genoa ever stronger did not extend into religious affairs, as orthodox Catholicism was increasingly enforced in the overseas bureaus of Genoa.

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The first fruit these two apparently incompatible doctrines would produce was the formalization of local steppe warfare theories into something that could actually be taught to the average soldier. This was another reason for Qutughqan's prestige, as it had allowed him to finally put down one of the larger rebellions in the region.

"I call it a gulyay-gorod, which is a term I knacked from the Russians. It should easily stand up to cavalry charges. I wouldn't use it against opponents with cannons, but since when do the locals understand how to fire a cannon?" Simon Qutughqan explained when unveiling one of his more important devices... a series of wall-mounted wooden wheels that served the purpose of communal shields.

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"Yeah, whatever. Use it," responded Donato. His attention had begun to wander when one of the waiters at his fancy banquet delivered (along with a succulent pork roast) a thin ledger full of scrawled obscenities and disturbing numbers.

Genoa was having trouble balancing its budget, and many people claimed Donato had overextended the missionary system. The only solution in the short term (beyond calling back some of the missionaries) was for Genoa to mint as many coins as it could; the substantial gains from trade stations that the Genoese had gained in recent years were going through a dry spell for reasons unknown to their operators.

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Given that many of Genoa's merchants were illiterate (even if they could perform simple mathematics), this policy occasionally resulted in the occasional profit by misinterpretation of the books - such as the incident in 1398 when a simple child's doodles of animals were mistaken for a divine insertion of the Virgin Mary's image onto paper.

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Fortunately for Donato, a few of the local Muslims believed this story, after he'd embellished it into an epic poem. After some time, the Christian community of the Crimea was dramatically strengthened, and all because they didn't understand how books worked.

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While Donato's "Give a hoot, read a book" policy was very popular with artisans, it remained unpopular with the theologians of the Republic. Simon Qutughqan even acted in direct defiance of these ideas by (on the advice of the priest that had hired him) forbidding the locals to actually own their own Bibles.

Meanwhile, the conquest of the Golden Horde continued unabated (at least when it wasn't placed on hold due to ceasefires and diplomatic wrangling), but soon, a mysterious power far to the southeast sent an ambassador to Stavropol claiming intent to protect the Horde-

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"Are you one of those heathen Muslims or something? Get out, and tell your chieftain not to interfere in the affairs of Christendom."

The problem with Christians during this period was that they did not take a very cosmopolitan view of the world around them.

Note the rebels. Lots of nationalism and Islamic zeal, although after I passed the Advancement of Religion act, I was able to convert at a decent rate.



As the war slowly dragged on and hemorrhaged the ever shrinking resources of the Golden Horde (who were contemplating changing their name to "The Great Horde" to make themselves look cooler), Donato decided to visit the battlefront and spread his literacy program to the soldiers. It nearly worked, as the Genoese Expeditionary Force found de Ferrara's chivalric romances quite to their liking - soon, soldiers were asking de Ferrara to sign their books-

"What the hell? You wrote your name larger in that other guy's copy!"

One of the GEF's lieutenants (little more than a large pile of flesh carrying a pike) was now towering over the Doge.

"Make mine bigger. Now," the lieutenant insisted, opening up the book in a rather ungraceful fashion, pointing to a scrawled signature, and ripping out the page it was written on. To his credit, Donato did not flinch, but onlookers suspected from the way his right eyelid was twitching that his patience was limited at best.

"Dude! That's the Doge! You can't boss him around like that!" shouted an onlooker.

"I'll do whatever I want, private! If you want to complain, you can just leave the army!" That was too much for Donato, who immediately knocked over the table while standing up.

"Nobody is leaving the army! This book signing is over! Also, have the man who attacked me stripped of his rankthlbgh-" he began to say. Unfortunately, though, his body suddenly gave out from under him, as the lieutenant had impaled him with his pike and severed his spine. At this, Donato realized he only had a few moments left to say something spiteful, but before he could think of anything, he began to gag and splutter, as the lieutenant stuffed the crumpled autograph into his mouth.

By now, the lieutenant's superior (Captain Francesco Doria di Melfi) had reached the site of the (now unfortunately canceled) book signing.

"Did you just... I mean... how could you... uh... you're going to..." he tried to say.

"I killed the Doge, yes. That means I must be made the new Doge," responded the lieutenant, showing absolutely no understanding of how Genoese politics worked.

"What? That's ridiculous! You'd be the worst Doge yet! I ought to withdraw your commission."

"You do that, and I'll have you arrested."

The lieutenant pulled out his auxiliary weapon (a cutlass) and threw it into the air.

"For my first act as the new Doge-"

Unfortunately, he hadn't been paying attention to his weapon, which landed upon his head, pierced his skull, and caused further unpleasantness for everyone involved.


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And so, Francesco attempted to stabilize the situation by declaring himself Doge, much to the interest of his men, the eventual amusement of Qutughqan, and stern disapproval of de Ferrara's council, who wanted to keep the "succession" inside the merchant class. To be fair, Francesco was fairly popular with the Genoese army, having lead many of them not only in the overseas domains, but in the citystates of Italy.

"Well, I'm sure that if they don't like it, they'll muster up their own army and march deep into the steppe to stop us," the new Doge claimed when someone informed him that disregarding the proper electoral channels might not be a great idea. He mentally decided to return to the question once he'd secured another victory over the Horde. The council allegedly elected their own Doge to handle Genoese matters, but his name has been forever lost to time.

Meanwhile, the Timurids continued to prove their dominance of the Middle East by sending absolutely no help to the Golden Horde, because the Horde had no land in that area. Sailors on the recently discovered Caspian Sea swore that when the weather was just right, they could hear what appeared to be an Uzbek translation of the Qur'an on the wind, but that was about the limit of their influence beyond their homeland.

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In fact, they seemed to have internal problems of their own, as one of the small tribal kingdoms they'd steamrolled to build their alleged power base decided they didn't want to be part of the Timurid Empire.

Because nobody actually could be bothered to help the sad remnants of the Golden Horde, they went unprotected for some time...

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...before the withered Ottoman Empire, thirsty for some sort of prestigious revenge decided they would at least try.

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Fortunately for Genoa, the Turks had some serious foreign affairs they needed to work through.

It's worth noting that Muslim countries get a special "Defend Islam" modifier when at war with Catholics if they're the target of a crusade. I believe it's roughly similar, except without the prestige, and obviously without any Papal influence. I think the intent is to reduce the odds of countries like the Mamluk Sultanate having their territory violated by every hungry little European minor.

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In the process of the war, as Genoese troops marched ever further northeast, Francesco came across many isolated treasure troves - most likely, they'd been created by Tartars trying to make a bit of a nest egg for themselves, which meant they were full of cultural relics ranging all the way from Poland in the west to China in the east, with large quantities of gold providing necessary roughage. Unlike many of his companions in the Genoese Expeditionary Force, he was able to resist their shiny call and distributed the spoils somewhat equitably to his soldiers. The soldiers, having no use or understanding of the baubles beyond their reflective surfaces ended up selling them in order to buy farmland from the various displaced 'citizens' of the Horde; over the next few years that would lead to sedentarization and the potential development of an important breadbasket in the coming years.


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In the end, di Melfi settled for the gold deposits of Samara (which had been, only 20 years ago, considered the edge of the world), and a corridor from the farmland of Saratow to strengthen Genoese interests in the area The gold came in handy in more ways than one, as he was now able to bribe the Genoese council out of their objections to him.

Thusly, the office of the Doge took a turn away from its early plutocratic origins towards military strongmen, at least for a few years.

By now, Genoa's overseas possessions gave them substantial influence in local Italian politics, and Francesco di Melfi was interested in exercising that power, even if he spent more time in the overseas per hour of his life than any Doge before him. On his first trip back to Genoa, a man accidentally bumped into him.

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Upon finding out that the man was from Parma, he immediately vowed revenge on the entire city-state, and within days, Italy was ideologically split in twain.



Again, I'm not inclined to actually take provinces in Italy, but keeping a sphere of influence handy doesn't hurt.
 
To make the AAR a bit more interesting:

Start making Settlement polices in Crimea and change your capital to Kaffa :)




(This is Sarcasm ok?)
 
To make the AAR a bit more interesting:

Start making Settlement polices in Crimea and change your capital to Kaffa :)

(This is Sarcasm ok?)

But Kouban is so much richer! Don't look at me like that.

More seriously, based on this episode (and the one that comes after this), my first capital change will probably be to Kazan, or Murom. This is subject to change primarily based on culture, cores, and other various things. But the important thing is that I've actually began beating up on the Russians (all in the name of becoming one!). Update coming between 2 and 3 PM EST... I think.
 
Episode 6: Novgorod Approacheth!

The last three doges of Genoa had met unfortunate ends. The current one wished to avoid such a fate.

"From now on, the general of the Genoese Expeditionary Force will have a voice in the Doge's council. It is essential that the military be allowed some say in domestic matters, since it is only by our efforts that Genoa has reached its current heights of prosperity," Francesco Doria de Melfi decreed.

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Francesco felt that he owed Camillo Cebá a favor. Camillo had been in charge of military affairs prior to his usurpation of the Doge's office - for not objecting to his newly subordinate position, Camillo now had a substantial role in the "new politics" Francesco was pushing.

"Furthermore, once a Doge is elected, his sons are barred from the office, although his grandchildren may attempt the post."

It sounded honorable, but de Melfi had suffered a ghastly crotch injury early in his career, and was feeling petty. Upon hearing of this, the local business magnates began teaching their sons to lie about their patrimony.

"There will be no further decrees today. I am going to shove Parmesan down the throat of the duke of Parma!"

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Parma was a petty fiefdom compared to the might of Genoa, and Francesco intended to demonstrate this.

On the 13th of January, 1403, Pietro Spinola (who was Francesco's deputy in Liguria) received a severed head in the mail - it apparently belonged to the Genoese ambassador to the Papal State. It was wrapped in a piece of fancy parchment upon which the word "no" was written.

"They declared war on us, didn't they?" Francesco asked when informed of the insult.

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Indeed, the Pope had declared war on Genoa, although it was the Pisans who took the brunt of his Holiness's anger, initially.

As the "home" front burst into war, Catholicism saw a minor victory abroad as the Zaphorozian Tartars of Cherkassk had a nervous breakdown in light of impending Genoese transit.

"Sich! We have to make them think we're Catholic, or they'll kill us!" one of the local, blatantly Islamic sergeants charged with peacekeeping told his master.

"Indeed. Begin slaughtering pigs and releasing their blood into the nearby streams," responded the chieftain of the local tribal unit.

"That's not enough! They tried that in Kyzyl, and the Genoese massacred them!"

"Very well. Mix the pigs' bones with the rest of our waste."

"They tried that in Azow, and it didn't work either!"

"Uh... apply food coloring to our slaughtered lambs to make their meat look more like pork?"

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This was what happened when a steppe of people didn't actually want to convert, but had to protect themselves.

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The excommunicated Duke of Burgundy decided to take revenge on Christendom at this point by assaulting the Swiss Confederation - Francesco, being the honorable fellow he was swore to protect the Swiss once the Italian peninsula had been subdued.

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Parma and Milan fell quickly - Milan, in particular, was a good source of tribute that suffered particularly at the hands of the Venetians (although it was Genoa who dictated terms).

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When the Sicilians offered to end the war, General Cebá was quick to scramble his forces for Dijon, which the Burgundians didn't bother to defend.

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Later, the Teutonic Order moved to attack the Mamluks and asked for Genoese assistance. Francesco offered it, but he secretly vowed not to interfere except in an emergency, such as a successful Egyptian invasion of the Baltic.

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In 1405, Francesco attacked the Khanate of Kazan, hoping to subdue and convert further Muslims in the area.

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This did meet with some objections from the local steppe nomads, but there wasn't much they could do about Genoese interests in the area, at least according to di Melfi. Kazan was overcome within days.

After a few battles, de Melfi had the epiphany that he didn't like being Doge very much, and that there was little point in retaining the title since he'd spent most of his term slaughtering Genoa's enemies.

Therefore, when Spinola visited the Doge's office on the 12th of December 1406 in order to give out a status report, he found a half-finished letter of resignation on Francesco's desk.

*Who's going to replace the Doge?* he thought.



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Due to the candidacy going through the proper channels, a new Doge was quickly elected - enter Giovanni Battista Adorno, a rather boring cloth merchant who'd never gone further abroad than Florence.

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"The world is ugly. We should make it prettier by taking over the Candari enclave of Sarkel," he informed the Doge's Council, idly spinning an (inaccurately painted) globe of the world around. This was not particularly deserving of the title of "war".

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Further north, Genoa was increasingly butting heads with their rivals in the Republic of Novgorod - the current border roughly corresponded to where the Russian forests gave way to the Tartar steppes, but as the Novgorodians sought to extend their markets, they increasingly spilled over into Horde land.

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Adorno's first real policy decision as a doge was to introduce a new currency to Genoa using the gold of Samara as its base. Generally, people didn't like their previous forms of money becoming obsolete, so a few feeble complaints were registered amongst the merchants.

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During this period, the long-standing Orthodox community in Poltava gave up their resistance to missionary efforts - in the local neighborhood, the Poles hoped this would help subdue the Ukrainian independence movement, but the Russians saw this as an insult to their faith.

"Converts are running low. We must raid the Golden Horde's lands yet again!" Adorno claimed, and it was planned.

Meanwhile, in the palace of another merchant prince, the aggressive expansion of Genoa (which had previously gone ignored or mildly chided) broke the composure of the Novgorodian merchants.

"Their wars are religiously motivated! The closer they get to us, the more likely they are to attack. The Genoese spent 30 years evangelizing a false faith in the Ukraine-" spluttered Nikifor Tokmakov, the Knyaz of Novgorod, the most powerful man in Russia, obscenely wealthy even by the standards of Italy, and best described in ways that didn't quite resemble royal titles. Further evidence of his desires were his chair that wasn't quite a throne, in his manor that wasn't quite a palace, in the trading-post-that-wasn't-quite-the-capital-of-the-Russian-lands that was Novgorod, because Moscow had larger churches and more artists.

"Calm down. We need merely show them that their aggression will not be tolerated. Their soldiers are thinly spread, and our numbers are superior. We may have to extend some tolerance to the Muslims in our realm, but it will be worth it," the Knyaz's advisor responded. Miklos Zapolya had earned his political power by managing Tokmakov's investments. Like everything else in Novgorod, he was rich, but definitely not a noble, no matter how much he wanted to be one.

"Miklos, you're the level headed banker that's brought us prosperity. Let's bring the deluge down on the Italians."

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Novgorodian merchants had penetrated as far as the Indian subcontinent in their quest for riches. What did a few Italians hope to manage against them?
 
These doges seem to die rather violently...must be a career hazard. Oh well!
 
Even though EUIV is out, I'm still reading these fora. I've found this to be a quite entertaining read, keep up the Geno-Russian ambition! And try not to get "elected" Doge, it seems to be rather a health hazard.
 
These doges seem to die rather violently...must be a career hazard. Oh well!

Most of them, for sure. The guy who seized power in the rough equivalent of a military coup, though (Francesco de Melfi), was able to ragequit and rejoin the army.

I seem to have a thing for violent ruler deaths. It happened quite a bit in my first AAR, and if I retain any sort of "elective" government, it'll probably stay that way.

Even though EUIV is out, I'm still reading these fora. I've found this to be a quite entertaining read, keep up the Geno-Russian ambition! And try not to get "elected" Doge, it seems to be rather a health hazard.

I'd also argue that the average Doge thinks the wealth and prestige of the position is worth the potentially shortened lifespan, at least while corruption puts a substantial amount of Genoese funds into their pockets.

Thanks for reading!
 
Episode 7: Novgorod Is A Paper Tiger

In Liguria, the atmosphere when Novgorod declared its protection of the Golden Horde was one of hilarity.

"What are a bunch of vodka drinkers going to do to us? Better tell the Teutons they have an opportunity to root out the heretics on their borders, just in case," Cebá told the Doge.

"Very well. Let the Teutons join our glorious war."
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The Genoese coalition had a larger and more advanced army than the Novogorodian coalition, but whether Genoa's allies could handle the logistics of shipping their troops into the area remained up for debate. Genoa alone was not necessarily as well endowed with soldiers.

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While Genoese operations in the former lands of the Golden Horde had been going on for some time, the Pope's decision to officially support the operation, along with the early pillaging of the Khan's yurts at Sarai made military operations in the area far more enthusiastic than they otherwise would have been.

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Either way, there was a great deal of anti-Russian feeling in the country at the moment, so that when the prince of Ryazan claimed his distaste for the war, Doge Adorno took at it as a personal insult.

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Once further land had been secured from the Horde, Adorno took time out of his schedule to overreact to the vague threats emanating from Ryazan.

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"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Cebá complained, but his complaint was ignored. After all, he was too busy shoving a pike into the flesh of a Russian soldier of uncertain nationality.

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The alliance with the Teutonic Order was paying off, at the very least, as the Teutons were more than able to project military force into Novgorod's territory. In February of 1412, Novgorod proper was sacked. The Teutons promptly proved their piety by committing atrocities.

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While Adorno only demanded a small amount of their territory (Kazan proper) and some Novgorodian wealth, it was enough to break any informal agreements the two governments had with each other over the partitioning of the lands of the Horde, and definitely enough to strike fear into the hearts of Novgorodians, so long as the Teutons remained friendly.

Kazan is my first Russian culture province, and therefore my first candidate for a capital.

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The Genoese continued to march through the Russian forests (and therefore through a maze of tiny principalities), spreading fear and Catholicism as they marched.

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Later historians would comment that if Ryazan had assisted Novgorod in the first place, they might not have had their territories violated.

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In other violations, Byzantium called upon a decades old treaty with Genoa to coerce assistance out of them against the Tunisians, who had decided they did not want Byzantium violating their territorial rights.

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While the Tunisians were not able (or willing) to call their Turkish allies into a war against Genoa, they did represent a threat that Byzantium had to work through, and therefore a mild annoyance to the doge of Genoa.

Adorno mostly ignored the war, though. After the military successes of recent months, the Doge felt it necessary to rehabilitate his country's reputation.

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For this, Adorno called the now underutilized spooks of Genoa to arms and bribed a local to pretend he had royal blood. With the money, Mustafa Sassi was able to secure the momentary allegiance of thousands of peasants.

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Just as Genoa was attempting to get out of the war, Byzantium asked them to join yet another war - Genoese support was again, limited at best, although the Greeks managed to do quite well for themselves.

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Francesco's Law (as the decrees the previous doge had made were now known) struck again when Cebá called for the expansion of the Genoese Expeditionary Force to 30,000 men. It seemed Cebá was grooming a local Tartar as his successor, and wanted the guy to have some combat experience before he formally took over the reigns.

Cultural imbalances aside, the fact that this passed over Adorno's complaints of inadequate funds suggested that the law was fulfilling its purpose, at least. In an attempt to counteract this, Adorno expanded the Doge's council yet again with a 'department of experimental diplomacy' run by his own crony (Ambrogio di Fornari).

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While the general and admirals of Genoa increasingly came from the massive overseas, the rest of the government was still usually sourced from Liguria.

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These two developments lead to a burst of crazed monarchism from the old Durazzo family - while this occasionally worked in the rest of Italy to place new princes and kings on the throne, it did not in Genoa. The long glorious Durazzo family had ascended to the throne of Naples, and when Giovanni, the current heir to the throne learned of Adorno's policies he attempted a small, unsuccessful coup in the Crimean. He really didn't have the resources to pull it off, given the gradual but steady expansion of the Genoese Expeditionary Force.

"War" with the Golden Horde still continued, but at this point it was more a question of how quickly the Genoese could set up governates in their territories without attracting international hatred. This time, the Mordvins (a minority within the Horde) were the target of Genoese interest.

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Some time passed without jingoistic expansion, but eventually, the principality of Ryazan broke the trade treaties Genoa had forced upon it. In their defense, they were unfair and beneficial only to Genoa, but according to Adorno, such behavior was inexcusable under any circumstances. It was all just an excuse for disproportionate retaliation and senseless discrimination against Russians.

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In an attempt to intimidate the Russians, Genoa invited all of its allies to the war... which didn't work, causing nearly the entirety of Russia to pour over Genoa's borders - although a disproportionate amount of effort came from Moscow.

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Ryazan's previous terms were made far more draconian , although most of the other Russians got off lightly, beyond the obliteration of a few thousand fighting men or something otherwise. Again, he didn't pay much attention to the war, since it was really little more than a matter of petty squabbles in the forests and steppes of Russia. Ignorance of military affairs was fast becoming Adorno's trademark; one that could potentially backfire on him if his generals weren't competent.

After that, Adorno decided that further expansion into Russia wasn't yet necessary, and turned to solidify the local infrastructure.
 
Muron now is enclaved... who is the moron now?

sorry, I have been wanting to do this dumb joke for years and had to wait for the crowd to move to EUIV to do so...

Anyway, I was going to suggest that you go for Riga, but it is way too far. Is there any CoT nearby that might be interesting for the trade league? In Timmis, maybe?
 
Muron now is enclaved... who is the moron now?

sorry, I have been wanting to do this dumb joke for years and had to wait for the crowd to move to EUIV to do so...

Anyway, I was going to suggest that you go for Riga, but it is way too far. Is there any CoT nearby that might be interesting for the trade league? In Timmis, maybe?

Man, what a muromic joke. My eyes fell out of their sockets and I think they're probably bleeding as well.

Trade leaguing is basically something I do to fill out warscore, which means it's good for prestige, at least. On the other hand, it doesn't really add a lot to my trade income, since most of the people who are easy to force trade leagues on are small, and most of the people who are big don't see major changes in where their provinces trade. I probably won't see a big jump in trade income until that wonderous day when I annex the city of Novgorod, and more generally I will probably be getting ever more of my money from taxes and production. If I weren't going for a national unification as immensely huge (and slightly out of the way) as Russia, I'd probably get more from the trade leagues.

Also, Riga isn't a CoT in Death and Taxes' 1356 start, so it's probably safe from me unless the Teutons collapse... or I decide I need a better ally. Given that they occupied Novgorod during the first war, I'd say either of those likelyhoods won't be for a while.
 
Episode 8: The Joy of Shah (How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Move To Ryazan)

When Giovanni Adorno announced his self-strengthening plan to the Doge's council, they laughed harder than they had since Novgorod declared war.

"Nothing personal, Jeffy! We just finished placing bets on how long you'll be able to resist taking land from the principalities... or the Golden Horde," said Pietro de Melfi, who was the mayor of Corsica. As such, this meant he did little more than collect a (large) salary. Adorno didn't like him very much, and he was considering abolishing the post so that he could visit the island without feeling like he'd been subordinated to the whims of

"Our holdings in Rus are larger than even Poland's, but they are very weak. If we take too much land without developing, we will become weak," intoned Adorno.

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Given that Genoa was now capable of fielding a respectable army (although not as large as many of the other nations of Europe), this suggestion confused and dismayed Adorno's underlings.

"But Genoa is-" one attempted to say, before another interrupted.
"We're very-" said the second, only to be preempted by a third.
"What the hell is-" shouted the third, yet he ran out of steam as Adorno began speaking under him.

"We are surrounded by dangerous enemies on all sides. Liguria is becoming weak, and our trading partners look to London or Venice where they would initially look to us," Adorno claimed.

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Liguria is still an okay center of trade, but my efforts have been focused on Russia, not Italy, hence the decay. We'll see how it goes.

"Yet we have thousands, if not millions of Tartars under our command! We must exploit them for all they are worth!" Adorno felt he was speaking too passionately, but in his defense, the anguished spirit of Marcellino Larrea was haunting the room for inscrutable reasons. As if to agree with Adorno, a precariously placed bust of Simon Qutughqan (another casualty of time) fell off a shelf and shattered.

"First, we must take power back from the Tartars and bring it back to Genoa," Adorno said. While these sentiments were entirely appropriate for the era which Adorno lived in, he had made the mistake of expressing his sentiments to the people he wished to disenfranchise.

"You can't take away my power, man! How will I govern Kamyshin if I'm not allowed to?" Enter Julius Shaja'a, yet another Tartar convert who was quick to italicize, while still managing to press a weak claim to the throne of the Timurid khanate in his meantime. Luckily for Adorno, he was the only significantly non-Italian in the room that day.

Marcellino's ghost had left the premises, and Adorno was now confused and slightly sheepish about how Julius had resisted him.

"I... uh... forget it. You can be the mayor of prosperous Stavropol if you shut up and don't oppose me on the rest of this," Adorno said.

You'd think Julius would have more of an attachment to Kamyshin, but instead he just silenced himself and didn't oppose Adorno's centralizing policies.



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Adorno enacted his novel policies by doing exactly what his successors had done - he raised new infrastructure in the overseas realms. At home, he attempted to bring Liguria a measure of security by ingratiating himself to the Pope. Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to take advantage of his new policies.

In April of 1421, Adorno decided to take his much-desired vacation in Corsica. It became the first time he'd ever gotten on a boat.

"Hey, this is actually kind of cool! Everybody look at me! I'm sailing on a boat!" he said, as it pulled out of Liguria's harbor.

"Sir, with all due respect, we are trying to ensure your safe passage to Corsica," said the ship's captain. "If you could please keep your outbursts to a minimum..."

A short splash later indicated that Adorno had taken up his doge's right to kill as many people as possible. Luckily, the captain could swim, so after a few seconds of confused sputtering, he swam back to the docks.

*There goes my career,* he thought.

A few days later, while sitting around the docks and haphazardly looking for work, one of his former crewmates found him.

"Have you heard the bad news? The Doge is dead! His ship capsized in a terrible storm," he was told.

"Big deal. I could've handled that storm if he hadn't kicked me off his ship."

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The Doge's council dutifully elected another one of their own in Adorno's place. Carlo Mella was the owner of a winery in Kaffa, and therefore one of the many men to make their fortune once Christianity had taken hold beyond the Volga... or so it seemed.

"I have a confession to make," he said in his introductory speech to the Doge's Council. A few eyebrows were raised.

"I lied about my ancestry. I am not an Italian! I am actually..." And here the Doge stopped to rip off a fake mustache. This was apparently rather painful, as he spent a few seconds jumping up and down and cursing in the Tartar language.

"Ow. My real name is Miran Shah! I am actually a Tartar, and I am proud of it! If any of you have a problem with that, then feel free to leave."

Stunned silence. The Doge looked at his audience and noted that they seemed a bit less Italian than he'd expected.

"You think we care? Get back to work," responded Pietro de Melfi, who was probably the most stereotypically Genoese person in the room now that the Doge had been outed. Miran sighed, furtively picked up a ledger, and began summarizing it for the council. A few minutes later though, when he was done going over the figures and attempting to make sure his underlings had understood him, Pietro's hand shot up into the air.

"Uh, is it okay if we still call you Carlo?" he asked.

"No."



Like most of the Tartar elites governing on behalf of Genoa, Miran had a claim to one of the many Mongol successor states. In this case, it was the Nogai Horde. However, since the Nogais were poor and had access to very marginal land at best, Miran had better things to do than press his claim. For instance, the Italian peninsula was in uproar about Shah flagrantly not being Italian, and in the first few months of his term, the Doge had to work especially hard to convince everyone he was a good Catholic.

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At the least, it was good training, and at best it meant renewed loyalty from Europe proper, as the locals interpreted Genoa's overseas success as a victory for their religion... one worthy of a reward.

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To further build upon this perception, Miran launched a program to gather up the finest diplomats and ambassadors in the overseas into a diplomatic bureau.

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In the short term, this also meant the world at large was willing to accept Genoese claims about their territory.

"Adorno was a moron. We've got to expand more, not less!" Miran Shah said to his cabinet.

"Where shall we go?" they asked, almost in unison.

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"Eh, let's knock out out a minor Russian principality. They aren't fit to rule their own lands."

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It was a good time to strike - Novgorod was attempting to expand towards the east, and coming into conflict with the Kazakh tribesmen.

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They were unable to prevent the rapid usurpation of Ryazanian power (which of course had never been substantial); the question still remained as to whether they would accept it or not.

Novgorod, of course, was heavily opposed to Genoese expansion, and they showed it with an aggressive invasion of the borderlands.

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If there was one advantage to the fighting, it was that it moralized the home front more than expected - an artist named Donato della Rovere gained sudden fame for his paintings of Russia... or what he imagined Russia to be like, having never been there. Either way, he soon received patronage from the Doge himself.

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In the meantime, Genoese troops continued their insane journey north and east, even when the Teutons decided they'd had enough and took over Ingermenland. One day, they woke up in an unfamiliar arctic land with no recollection of why they'd decided to go there.

"What have we done?" a random soldier moaned. A few years later, della Rovere would begin painting arctic landscapes, but for now...

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Miran Shah continued Adorno's policies of centralization, causing a small revolt of disenfranchised (yet still rich) Tartar mayors who hadn't figured they could buy back their positions and make up the difference with newly increased salaries.

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After some time, Shah claimed that Novgorod's hinterland was far too cold to bother with, and decided to punish the republic for its involvement in other ways.

To understand what the hell he was thinking, we have to look at the now annexed principality of Ryazan. Since Moscow's eastern breakaways (Nizhny Novgorod and Murom) were being granted internal autonomy in return for enacting some forced conversions and otherwise giving token concessions to the Genoese Expeditionary Force, it was the only reasonably intact apparatus in the overseas that wasn't Genoese in origin.

Usurping a country's administrative apparatus is apparently a rather common practice. The Greeks apparently did it with the Persians when Alexander the Great decided to come in and wreck their day, the Rashiduns apparently did the same to Persia, the Ottomans took on a lot of Byzantine institutions, and so forth. Miran Shah merely saw the massive size of the domain he'd gained as a result of his electoral success and decided it needed a better administrative capital. 30 years ago, it would have definitely been Stavropol, but the rapid northern expansion of the republic meant it wouldn't be much of an improvement over Liguria, especially given the poor roads of the region.

Therefore, when the Habsburgs in Austria got word that one of their loyal subjects was leaving the Holy Roman Empire for the depths of Russia-

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"They did WHAT?" Anton I, the Holy Roman Emperor shouted. It took a while to calm him down.

Miran Shah's official excuse for packing up for Pereslavl was that the aggressive expansion of the English into France presented a severe threat to the sovereignty of the Genoese Republic. Unofficially, he figured the queen of England had no interest in the Italian peninsula proper, much less an ability to project power in the realm, and that Ryazan would be an excellent forwards base to strike at the heart of Russia.

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Technically, he would've preferred to raze Novgorod and bring up a new, Genoese city in its place, but that was for the future.

Currently, I have 4 Russian culture provinces to my 15 Tartar culture ones. Assuming I don't end up taking over too many Tartar culture provinces, I should be able to enact a cultural shift by conquering the rest of the Russian states, and maybe taking a few opportunistic provinces from Novgorod.



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Either way, Liguria was likely to fall into mediocrity over the next few decades, and the Russian forests were a far less forgiving environment than the Mediterranean coast, but there wasn't much to do about it. Other nations - primarily Castille and England were rising... still others said Genoa was also russing, but they just didn't know how to spell.

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To distract the locals from the upheaval associated with the changes in the Genoese state, Shah made renewed calls for the Christianization of the steppes - forcibly, if need be. The steppes still didn't like this, but what were the people who lived in them to do? With the more rebellious aspects of the Genoese state out pillaging hapless Nogai shepherds' fields, Miran was able to rapidly build up a Genoese governmental apparatus in Ryazan, and he gradually convinced the members of the Doge's council to follow him.

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To deal with the ever growing Catholic population in the region, Miran Shah also funded various ecclesiastical positions, including a new 'Archbishop of Russia'. The Pope didn't necessarily like this, but he agreed to look away if the Papacy was given jurisdiction over who was elected to the position. It increased the amount of money Shah had to take out of the budget for bribes, but this was seen as an acceptable solution for all parties involved, especially since Genoa still wielded significant power on the Italian peninsula through its clients.

One could hypothesize Genoa was built on compromise, but it would be a blatant lie. The Genoese owed their empire to almost a century of aggression, occasionally tempered by intrigue.



While Genoa is successful, I have some depressing news. Recently, I've been having some severe computer problems - my laptop's fan no longer works. Luckily, since the hardware's power consumption and heat output is low, the thing isn't entirely bricked, but were I to attempt EU3 (or for that matter, anything that requires significant computing power), it would probably shut down from overheating before it finished loading. In other words, I can't continue gameplay for an uncertain amount of time.

I could, however, create some narrative/historical filler like I did for Nostalgia Freaks, or I could otherwise experiment with the format of the AAR using my savefiles (which I can upload if there's any interest) or whatnot. Either way, any suggestions would be appreciated. Assuming no further issues, I should still have some sort of content ready each week, so don't assume this AAR is on hiatus or terminated just yet.
 
Too bad, I really like your progress. I would like a non-gameplay narrative but would that not conflict with the gameplay as soon as you start playing again?

I've been giving it some thought, and I think the best option for non-gameplay updates for this AAR would be to write about various historical figures in the game universe, like advisers, generals, pretenders, etc. I would probably not be constrained by timeframe, so anything from 1356 to the in-game date at the time of writing would be fair game.

Anyways, a status update: I now have a new and better computer. Based on its possession of an Intel HD 2500 graphics adapter, I theorize it could run EU4 on low settings, although I'd need to try the demo first to see whether I need to add a discrete GPU or not. EU3 will run fine, of course, while Victoria II runs so much faster that it's a wonder I ever tolerated the gamespeed in the first place. Since it took a while to set my new computer up, I don't have enough time to do an update this week, but I plan to have an update next week (that of September 30th).

9/23/2013 edit: Europa Universalis 3 is now re-installed, but my latest savefile (1431) seems to be garbled beyond all repair; I'm going to blame the overheating issues for that. The latest I have is 1421, where I put our friend Miran Shah in charge of the Republic, and it appears to be stable. I'll keep you all informed.
 
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Episode 9: The Return of the Revenge of the Joy of Shah

"Yes! Yes! I am the dodgiest of the Doges!"

Miran Shah was having a rare moment of arrogance from the new capital in Presmyzl.

"I am the cheese! I am the best ruler in the nation! I am better than Venice, the Hanseatic League, and Novgorod combined!" he shouted from the rooftop of the former prince of Ryazan's favorite palace.

"I decree that the Genoese Republic will last at least a thousand years-" continued Miran, before he was interrupted by a shadowy figure who had apparently joined him on the rooftop. Miran suddenly felt very small.

"EVT_DESCRIPTION_446982554", a colossal voice responded, in tones of metal and rotting earth.

"Oh no! A demon!" Miran took a few steps backwards.

"MAJAPAHIT JOINS THE EMPIRE."

"Hey, that's not so bad."

A few more steps, though. Unfortunately, the last one landed upon nothingness, and Miran began to fall.

"Wait a minute. Satan would not take a form so blindingly obvious-"

*SPLAT*



"What the hell? That was a stupid dream," Miran Shah mumbled when his fatal plummet ended more comfortably than expected. Instead of experiencing horrendous pain as every bone in his body shattered, Miran merely felt a sudden jolt as he involuntarily sat up in a comfortable bed.

A few minutes later, outside his quarters, Shah was trying to impress upon a manservant how bad of an idea it was to follow one's dreams.

"Most people's dreams just don't make any sense at all!" he claimed.

"Really? Just last night I dreamed I was the king of England," responded Miran's servant.

"Indeed. How could you become a king? You'd have a far better chance becoming the Doge of Genoa."

"I'll have to think about that. Enjoy your first day on the job."

"First?"



"God! I'm so angry, I could curse... Genoa's enemies!"

It was 1421 again, and any ideas Miran had executed in his dream had long since been forgotten because he'd never picked up the skillset for lucid dreaming.

Certain elements of the past remained familiar, such as the dangerous nature of England and Castille, and the ability of the Teutons to flank the Novgorod Republic. Others had subtly changed.

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"Tell me. Has the Black Sea ever looked this beautiful?"

Miran was traveling by cog to Stavropol for 'administrative' purposes, and he could not keep his eyes off the sparkling water of the sea.

"Well, there was this one day in 1399 where we disemboweled a bunch of Muslims and threw their corpses into the water. I have to say, blood on the water is an amazing sight," responded the captain of the boat. Unlike Adorno, Miran Shah was not likely to throw him overboard.

"I'm sure."

"You were expressing interest in extending our colony to Ryazan, right?"

"Not any more. That was just a fever dream. There are almost certainly better ways to grow. I'll find them, and we'll all benefit."
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Ryazan would be independent for a few days longer.



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Miran devoted the first (real) year of his time to encouraging economic growth, like a good orthodox Doge; part of this entailed stabilizing the local currency.

As he worked on that, he began to realize that despite the total disarray of the local steppe hordes and their ineffectual khans, there were still wide swathes of nomads that could launch petty raids into Genoese territory.
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With that in mind, Shah decided what little remained of the Golden Horde had to be destroyed at all costs - Astrakhan was the last territory of substantial value controlled by the Horde, primarily due to its connection to the Caspian Sea. The successor states in the east had little interest in Genoa, and were best described as self-centered, so Shah hoped this act of aggression would secure the southern part of the colony.
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In retrospect, the area had been quite secure, as Novgorod sought to establish influence in the remnants of the Horde's territory, just as in Shah's dreams.

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They would later pull out, claiming Ufa to be a worthless backwater, but for now Genoa's resources were diverted to new causes, like the defense of the Byzantine Empire from the Hafsids.

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Genoa's assistance in this regard was mostly maritime, and partially provided for by the state's Italian puppets.


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The Khan of the Golden Horde's holdings were now limited to a few scattered yurts at best.

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Meanwhile, through a mixture of fraternity, mutual assistance, and coercion, Genoa's Russian allies were becoming increasingly essential to the proper functioning and prestige of the steppe colonies. Shah expressed his desire to incorporate them more formally into Genoa.

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Generally, this meant exposing their elites to the capital and showering them with riches; sometimes this meant they never left, although sometimes this meant they tried to take over... ineffectually. One problem was that the Tunisian war was a resource sink that, while not particularly large, was often used by the Doge's council to justify any sort of procrastination ("I need to buy groceries when I get home... but... uh... the Greeks need that food for their soldiers, so I'll do it tommorow...").

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Finally, though, in October of 1429, the last Russian stragglers from Tunisia returned home, and Shah formally signed the paperwork that wrested the last bits of independence from Nizhny Novgorod.

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After this, Murom asked for the violation of their own independence, but Shah was not ready for this; in fact, he may have swung too far in the other direction. For this lack of assimilation, Miran received several bricks through his windows. The first few came from disaffected Russians, but increasingly the locals decided this was a good way to correspond with Shah.

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Several people were banished from the realm for such senseless vandalism.

But by far, the real effect of Nizhny Novgorod's annexation and formal incorporation into the realm was Genoa could now claim themselves the 'true' Novgorod to the outside world... native Russians would still laugh at them at best and draw their swords at worst.

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It was still (misused) as justification for further war.

This time, the (Veliky) Novgorodians were able to draw a competent ally in the giant Kingdom of Poland. Shah shrugged it off until he was informed that the Poles ruled over almost as much territory as he did. To top it off, old greying Camillo Cebá committed suicide upon hearing of such a coalition raised against Genoa. In his defense, he was frail and tired of antagonizing Genoa's neighbors.

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After a few tentative raids on the Polish border, most of Genoa's resources went towards combating the Russians, leaving the Teutons to handle the Polish. Apparently the Polish feared the mostly Balto-Prussian stock of the Teutonic Order more than they let on, as they were willing to call off their allies in return for Genoa taking different concessions than initially expected.

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Better concessions, too! Attacking Novgorod with my handy Trade League CB gave me a core on Perm via mission, which would be worth acquiring only once it culture flips to Russian... which it did as the war ended.

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Miran's main diplomatic success during this period was to begin a further 'northern realignment' by signing an alliance treaty with Sweden; a country that most likely hoped Novgorod would decline at least so they would not have as many border troubles. With the question of Novgorod rendered momentarily irrelevant, Miran decided to turn his attention eastward.

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One of his diplomatic overtures to the small Siberian khanate went horribly wrong, and instead of trying to fix it (which he might've had they not been Muslim), he decided to extend the Genoese border. A village named Kurgan was swiftly occupied and swarmed with Catholic missionaries, much to the discontent of the locals.

It was becoming increasingly difficult for Genoa to maintain order in the furthest reaches of the Russian 'colony'. Even with the growth of the bureaucracy and the suppression of nomadic lifestyles, it simply took longer and longer for communications to pass from one end of Genoa to another. These problems were especially marked once one got to the Ural Mountains.


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While advances in naval technology promised to cut travel time from Genoa to Stavropol substantially, the overland routes presented a problem. Would Miran pull upon his nightmare to breathe new vitality into Genoa, or would the inevitable recentering of the Republic have to wait?



Well, I wasn't able to recover my old savefile, but EU3 runs very quickly now, so it wasn't too much of a bother to get back to where I was.