Iron Phoenix

With that we end the first part of my Ironman Byzantium playthough. From here on out the frequancy of screenshots will vary. I already have quite an assortment of screenshots for what I've all ready done which is still alot yet but i wanted to take the time here to ask how the pacing is? Not every post will be about a single year and i do intend to gloss over alot of the next 10 years and not mention a lot of things If it doesn't have anything to do with important wars.

Even though it'll take some time to get to a point where I haven't done work i want to ask what people want to see out of this Iron phoenix? Do you want me to restore the patriarchy? Fight to westernize? Or simply try to find time to colonize when not beating up on turks?

aethel27 said:

when you fight the ottomans let rebels take the Greek lands so you can get them for no warcost
also at the end of your war with the ottomans manually call Wallachia and Serbia so you can vassalize them for funs.

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I've already moved past that point before the time of the first post. I'm not going to spoil it for you but i'm going to say some strange things happen during my attempt at that.

Byzantium At peace:

I'll be honest that war I was in before, totally weak and the reward? well it's not so great. Trebiznod is a great place to start if you're unsure how OE will react but i suppose depending on how it's used it that it does give you a safe landing spot near Anatolia. None the less it's well over and done and i can spend my next stretch of time waiting on boats to build by collecting myself and gathering tax.. I'm going to need tax, i don't want to have a runaway inflation issue because i start autoloaning. Now anyway we have to focus on peace time diplomacy.



What better way to make a hostile act against our largest neighbours. They only already hate us so it should be fine to irritate them. As any good byz player would tell you though these early years are not times when Byzantine can affoard long periods of peace

With my last ship being just enough to put me into debt while only having 4 gold remaining actions have to be taken quickly. It has only by some luck been that I have manage to time it's completion with the departure of the Army of Anatolia from greece... <.< i say this tongue and cheek knowing what is to come.

What is the strategy for this war you ask? Well i wasn't really sure. See athens will be protected by OE both because of guarantee and their warning on us and of course there's always a chance that OE allied with some large naval power, but we have galleys and all the Mediterranean is our playground but really what are we up against after allies get their first chance to join?

The Long Byzantine war of Athenian reconquest:



Ottomans, Athens, and The knights hmm? well that's good no naval powers joined in.. but kind of odd as i was expecting the Crimea to be in the mood to stomp face for some reason. This next picture is just for those who want to see me try to take on OE with rebels.

Side note: notice how i didn't call in my allies in the war. it had been decided that should my attention lapse and somehow a gap was made that it would be better to save manpower by having places where i could move within allied realms more then weak allies who would only contrib neg warscore should this worst case come to pass. A fact i would but regret.. and rejoice later.



See now this is why I choose for my war target to be Athens. It doesn't take much to Annex them and all you need is 100 warscore with the war target and then after that enough positive factors for the leading country of the opposing side to agree to this. I figured the amount of time it would take to get a positive even after sieging down Athens would give me pleanty of time for rebel captures to take over. Now all in all ever since EU3 i've used rebels to reclaim lands of Byzantine and i hadn't intended on anything different, Oh i did also call off my Cypriot attempts so i could have a diplomat free. Anyway lets move along to my fleet deployment, simple everyone knows how this go Mainfleet near enough to hold down OE's navy, maybe try to take a barque or two.. and as many blockades as is feasible. IE if the npc starts moving you've prolly stretched yourself too thin. Now lets settle in for a long siege of athens...



Well... Frick... not the word i said but you get the point. I knew this war was coming, more importantly i knew the triple alliance of minors wouldn't work out. Wallachia and Serbia never get along because of Bosnian agitation now to save a screen shot and to save time I'll just tell you now that i sided with Serbia and that wallachia did betray us. Remember how I said i'd regret my decision to leave them out earlier?

None the less the wars still carry on. Bosnia is agressing Serbia and i don't want that, helping a powerful serbia form is paramount to my future plans and should they loose this war they not only loose the only connecting county to their capital but also the momentum they need to be more then just your run of the mill serbia. The siege of Athens however can't wait and while i expect a year of siege minimum it also gives The Bosnian menace a chance to cripple my friend. None the less i wait it out, hoping to reinforce the Serbian lines before their position is too compromised.



Ok... That's not good. Serbia is getting beat and the siege of Athens has been going on for a year and a half almost... With no real improvment. It doesn't look like my men will be coming to the defense, perhaps i chose the wrong side?.. In retrospect a strong Wallachia or bosnia would of been just as competent an Ally. I just perfer serbia, it was the first kingdom i formed in ck2 and the first one i had win a crusade.. all this when both where actually difficult and mattered... I guess the war with OE takes priority... speaking of



Hi um.... Whoever you are. Najd wasn't it... Oh Crap WHY ARE YOU IN CHARGE OF THE WAR! At this time I was in quite a panic, having not seen Najd before I had started playing out new scenarios in my head. How did they take over the war? Are they bigger then ottoman? Do they have a doom stack ready that i can't see? And most importantly, How am i going to lower their war enthusiasm enough to get a good deal? I hadn't yet realized what that symbol by The OEs flag meant yet though.. or what it meant for the future of the campaign. All I knew was that a new big bad boy was in town and that he was just out of reach. Still we carry on with our siege, If we're to do anything it's to be in Athens first and greece second, we cant deal with the other side of mamluks.



Finally though we see progress in Athens. Before it was a simple impossibility to get the City to surrender, we just had to wait.. but with positive siege percents we now have a percent based chance that they could flip at any moment. I suppose in this you can remember simply that Athens was once known for it's impenetrable walls and mighty navy.. While that navy is long gone those walls still stand mighty and grand. Or so i said to comfort myself as i wait for a break, still confident my own fleet would protect me.



*Twitch....Twitch*.... I'm.. not even going to comment... Right.. now lets try to deal with the knights and carry on with the main war...?



Oh wait.. I can't do that yet... At least the money satisfies my tears! and lets me repay my loans! Yay me! Now i'll just siege Thessaly and be on my way, serbia can hold out right?



game.. I hate you.. You trolly... Trolly little game!.. Sigh... Anyway By this point it had started to dawn on me that Najd wouldn't gain war exhaustion like the others.. more importantly Since they're the senior in a union with OE i would have to mostly abandon the method i had intended to use to gain greece. Right now i need warscore because Najd won't let go of things as easily as a worn out OE. Maybe i'll luck out and i'll have a few counties defect while I have just enough warscore to take the rest. For now i spread out my blockades, Buy some stability for the tax mod, And seige down another few provinces. It goes well and the next few sieges are nothing compared to Athens..



Yay, our first heplers! only took them four years to rally. Seriously it's a good strategy but it's very tedious. none this less if i use a couple Greek cores for warscore and then albania that should just about be something i could take in one or two wars. I don't want to let this drag on, going for Athens has broken my personal will to fight but now i can push on



Whoa when did that happen? did OE eat candar while in a union and get to Trebiznod? The answer.... Nope they just went to war with Aq Qoyudid... this was not forseen. Right now the army of Anatolia is rampaging it's way through.. note: Army of ANATOLIA, Remember this name.



Finally and all three in the same time it took to take Athens almost. I really lucked out on the first two lets just detach a blockade and move the mass of our fleet to intercept the OE navy when they get ejected from port... oh wait.. what's that in Edirne.



DEAR GOD they moved fast I blink and the first thing i know is that i gotta bug out to serbia.. I'm REALLY glad I sided with serbia! Oh thank you serbia I will never doubt your usefulness again... But wait.. The army of Anatolia isn't moving... at all days pass, then weeks.. even months! The only thing that moves is a lone OE regiment who heads to albania and begins to siege. Now it's looking bleak. My momentary mistake may have cost me this war or even worse.. it may have cost me land.. Even still so long as i don't enter Ottoman or Byz territory they'll still let me be.. Just standing.. in those same two provinces.. At this point a decision must be made but what to do?

Toadsmash said:

Did I read that right? Najd managed to win the better half of a union with the Ottomans? This is a strange, strange world.

I'm not even going to touch the military advice. I'm too bad for that. >_>

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oh don't worry about advice. This is only the first half of a single session of gameplay.. Though thinking of that I wouldn't mind if people post their opinions after the fact. I know how this plays out and what happens in the end of this war and beyond. I wont lie it took nearly an hour of pacing to figure out what is the best course.. though looking back it was obvious.

Of Panic and Desperation:



... Looks grim Doesn't it. In the last post I regaled you with the tale of how the Eagle flew so High and crashed so hard. Not since the tale of Daedalus had there been a story so sobering or that could bring you back down to earth so hard... In short i was a fool to not notice that gap in the sea of Marmara. This however is not the time to let panic seize us, it can certainly be used to motivate us... but we must remember that we rule the seas. There must be something that can be done so that we may leave with our honor at least intact.

At the time There where no obvious choices. With a siege in Albania about to take back lands we had captured we would loose any momentum we had built up in the war. The first course of action that was thought up was to enlist the aid of new soldiers, the army of Anatolia may be strong but it's nearly all infantry. Byzantine can have up to 60% cav but it would have to be used wisely. The problem with this? Soon as we train these cavalry soldiers in Byzantine lands the ottomans break their stalemate and continue on into our lands, so we immediately drop the reinforcements and OE returns to their post. How about peacing out with The knights in a white peace? Effective and they accept... but it's still not enough of a change in warscore to force a favorable settlement.

The Grand plan:

The siege in Albania is now becoming a forgone conclusion. I know without albania i'll need at least a 15 percent change in warscore to escape on acceptable terms.. 15 percent.. Wait a minute don't i know where to get fifteen percent?



The answer had been staring at me all along.. But would it work? I've moved all my Serbian troops to this far eastern front. To the long forgotten battlefields of Trebiznod in a last ditch effort to reclaim my glory. Najd had taken note of this and my gains in Trebiznod where coming in fast but the army was trapped on the Aq Qoyudid boarder. You see the reason i hadn't thought of this before was that i was unaware that the war which allowed Trebiznod to be attacked had itself passed on.

Then however another cold reminder of my situation comes in

]

the change in the warscore puts me back some but the real trouble is that now the OE is defiantly moving and i don't know how many provinces i can afford to loose before my luck runs out. If only i had something to rally my troops and discourage the N-OE (as i started to call the Najd ruled Ottomans)



well... that aught to do it but i think that the ticking warscore hasn't quite tapped out yet maybe if i hold out a bit longer...



... well.. that was unexpected.. not only did the N-OE troops get stuck in a cycle of march and stop but Macedonia has defected, both raising the value of the already seized OE provinces.. and restoring my personal morale. Peace however beckons to the two realms and heavy hangs the head what bares the crown.. Though.. one final act before it is said and done



Ironic isn't it? After all that trouble holding the line and finding the weakspots in the enemy.. we finally have enough MP to get a tech that raises our understanding of Military tactics... and morale. Now however it is time for Peace...



What a peace it is. From all that this is what we get 3 provinces and a purse of gold. I had to wait a long time to get the peace I wanted but even then it was less then I desired.

Peace restored:

I was afraid that war would never be over. That i'd be waiting for N-OE to make a misstep or worse that the army of Anatolia would start an offensive that would wipe me out before my great gamble paid out. Now is not the time to dwell on such things and after 8 years of war it's time we focus on ourselves for a moment.



First up we need a new ambition and with our new acquisitions comes an oppritunity. We can now have a nearly capable army. One, that if fostered and cared for correctly, would be able to stand up to the Army of Anatolia in the field should i make a mistake again. Apart from that however we mostly tend to the regular machinations of state, the showering of Diplomatic Platitudes and the formal right of military access of byzantine troops into serbia. I'm not sure why but they let me in without one during the war... No matter and with the passage of time a new decision comes, this one more difficult then those prior...



It was a really tough call, but out of our three forms of power.. diplomacy seems to be the most expendable right now. With high stability comes comets and with comets come big trouble. On the other hand our admiral could die at any time and we need to outpace OE in the arms race so in the end it's decided that what is best for state is what's best for navy. Oh and about that war.. It's too insignifigate to matter, it ends quickly and in serbia's favor. We however have bigger fish to fry.. and we're not the only one who wants to party...



The drums of war are rumbling again. This time it's against an old... old enemy to the empire....

Apparently I will get access to my photo bucket back on the 22nd. on that date I will make all effort to get the pics rehosted and replaced with a different service. whether or not I end up continuing the AAR is still unknown. I really do want to start posting again and apologize for Photobucket's greedy attitude.

ok the pictures are rehosted and The AAR will continue. will just need to take some time to go through my screenshots folder and remember where the train of thought i had

Mistakes Where made:

In the past I've not always played the game as well as i know i could do and with the passage of time I can afford myself the luxury on looking back. One of those misstakes may have been letting that first playthrough last so long. Seriously I have screenshots up to 1478 and had already started late at night! That is probably the Genesis of this next mistake.



War is upon us once again all be it a little too quickly for our fellows in the Anti-Venetian coalition. I was ignorant to how coalitions behave and more importantly i ran off to war without seeing the state of affairs with the other coalition members. Hungary, bosnia, and Wallachia, where to have been on my side coupled with the newly strengthened Serbia... but in the end my haste made me blind to the fact that the coalition had formed for a reason because each of those three had cease fire agreements with Venice. Oh well, while i had hoped of crushing Venice with assistance so i could preserve my manpower but me and my friend Serbia don't have time for shenanigans.

The target of this war, Corfu. Ok so i probably could of picked better but it wasn't of much consequence as my ambitions where high from the start. The war played out as you likely expect it too, me waiting to send the formal declaration to coincide with the Venetian trade fleet coming out of port, Blockading Venice to trap her Armies on the island and beyond.



There you have it, Much like with Trebiznod the Venetians couldn't handle themselves for long and a peace was quickly made. Now you may concider this another misstake and in some respects it is but for the grand scheme of things this peace works out well. Most importantly what it does do is give me more time to collect tax and manpower from these two cores most quickly. I can't recall what situation Naxos was in, If they where part of the war and even for that matter if they where still a vassal but for some reason i did not at the time feel the need to grab them. We have peace.. and of the 13 years we've already gone through 11 of them if not nearly 12 where spent in war. We've paid little attention to state and with our new acquisition comes a greater need to focus on the comings and goings of the empire.

The "Long" Peace:

So without further hesitation we should look at our realm some.



ah...hmm Wheren't they orthodox at the start of this campaign? I can't beleive it took me this long to get to this point. I should of been dealing with venice sooner. If that's not bad enough i had only just come to realize that Epirus turned sunni as well? Still it's managable but untill we start focusing on our conversion rate we are pretty much guaranteed a bad time if we send missionaries What else is going on?



Well.. I seem to have forgotten about the knights, but my diplomats hadn't. It really is a welcome sight especially after that war with N-OE Union since it narrows my target list and will save my manpower and DP for the time being. Now i ask myself How are things going on the political scene...



Allright so this event has actually been happening quite a lot and untill this point has been an outright NO every time. No because we're small, No because we're at war, and No because i can't affoard the tax loss but times have changed. Territories have been gained, loans repaid, and even money collected from various sources to keep the empire strong. This all points to a time in the not so distant future where I can afford to let the reforms take place but sadly that point is still not here, We're getting there though.

And as time passes and the state of the empire becomes apparent I'm starting to feel good again. Really good in fact, Deals are made with Bosnia for an alliance the army is expanded, and Rhodes leads itself back to Rome.. Well.. Eastern Rome. As the wheels of time turn we find ourselves peeking in on other places and managing our time as best we can... really there's not much else to comment on for a time there was truly peace apart from a few odd things like Georgia deciding to distance themselves from the empire...

End of Boredom:



And that's exactly what I call this. The realm is stable and the masses happy. For some time have i waited for this day Everything else has been prelude to this. A Direct Conflict with N-OE, No patsies, no excuses, No mercy.