Cranky Spartans - Byzantine AAR

As my troops withdrew from the conflict, the Iberians struggled on. Without my support their forces in Anatolia were slaughtered, but their ships retained control of the seas, despite repeated attempts by the Turks to secure the Aegean. Our finances, which had been left in a poor state by the war, were reinvigorated through the formation of a monopoly company. This gave us the funds required to rebuild our forces and embard on other projects, while we waited for the Ottoman truce to expire.


With that in mind, I decided to start another short, victorious war against the Venetians. There was no challenge involved. In fact, the most interesting thing to happen was for our troops to get a good view of some Ottomans and Iberians clashing across the border in Ferrara.


Our Austrian allies made peace with the Venetians in exchange for 175 ducats. We did the same shortly afterwards, in exchange for 55 ducats, trade power and a revocation of claims.

And then it was time to go to war with the Ottomans again! My, how time flies when you're slaughtering Venetians!

The Turks had made peace with Castile, but the war had cost them their entire fleet. Their Crimean and Algerian allies still had intact fleets, but I was confident my ships could take them. Much more important was the Ottoman army, which had escaped relative unscathed. Thankfully the Ottomans were already at war, this time in support of Crimea, which was under assault from Muscowy and Kazan. The Ottoman army was moving north, just across the border...


As our two armies clashed, the Pope chose to support our cause by declaring a crusade against the Ottomans. Which was nice 'n all, but I wasn't counting on that to win the war for us. Our Hungarian and Austrian allies were on their way, but it would take them some time to arrive.


Thankfully our forces emerged victorious, routing the enemy, who fled north into Crimea. Our troops set about besieging eastern Greece.

The Austrians were slightly delayed by the need to deal with a small band of Turkish troops who had somehow found themselves in the Alps...


Our forces wiped out a few more Ottoman regiments caught on the wrong side of the Aegean. Then I noticed that the Austrian fleet was fighting a desperate battle against the Algerian navy just west of Sicily.


Thankfully they won, removing a potential threat to our blockades. That left the Crimeans, who had problems of their own...


The Ottoman army suffered another crushing defeat, this time in Anatolia, as they were met by a combined force of allied troops.


After that, it was just a matter of occupying their provinces. They made a few valiant efforts to stop us, but victory was a foregone conclusion.


Unfortunately the French chose to once again take advantage of the Austrian's commitment to another war and launched an attack on Savoy. Archduke Ernst struggled to muster the troops to hold them back, but the majority of his forces were still in Anatolia. Thankfully I was happy to make peace at that point, having secured everything I wanted.


What's more, our efforts to spread civilisation and culture throughout the Empire were certainly paying off, as almost all of our provinces were Greek cultured.


Ours was a unified, wealthy empire with a strong army and navy and powerful allies. Things were looking good!

Chief Ragusa said:

About the best example of allies at war I've read in EUIV. Your allies and vassals were all solid, committed. It doesn't get any better than that. Now's the time to support revolts in the ottoman empire- Greek Patriots in Edirne
and Bulgarians in Bulgaria. Then some patriots over in asia minor.

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Doesn't seem to be an option. The option to support rebels seems to be a lot more limited since the 1.2 patch. I can usually only support a few peasants in the Ottomans, provinces, and even then just a handful the east.

GulMacet said:

Why didn't you take Adrianople too, for a land connection to Byzantium?

Also, how do you stand on giving the reconquered areas their old Greek names?

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You mean Edirne? Because it's the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which makes it much more difficult to seize. In any case, a land connection to Constantinople isn't too importantas long as I control the seas. As for the Greek names, there's a decision for that, I believe (restore the theme system), which you can take when you conquer the Ottomans, IIRC.

Added a contents section to the first post.

Chapter 9: Imperial March​

As our forces took up positions in our newly reconquered lands, they watched as Austrian troops streamed past on their way to fight the French. The combined forces of Ansbach, Savoy, Switzerland, Trier, Ferrara, Naples, Alsace, Wurttemberg and the Teutonic Order had barely slowed down the French advance. Was it too late for the Holy Roman Emperor to turn them back?


The Mamluks threw an insult at us, which we chose to ignore. Then Hungary did so as well. Ah well. To acknowledge it would be beneath us. Anyway, what's happening on the western front is far more interesting...


The Austrian army had arrived and faced off against the French. This could be one of the most important battles of the war. If the Austrians were defeated they stood no chance of stopping the French. If the French lost, then the Austrians could follow up with strikes against the siege forces scattered throughout the western empire...


The Emperor was victorious! The French army retreated, after suffering many casualties, while the Imperial troops split up, half moving north and half south, to begin driving out the enemy forces.

Of course, this was all mostly of academic interest for the Byzantine Empire. While we cheered our ally on, the outcome of the war probably wouldn't affect us much. Unless, of course, we decided to stab our ally in the back and attack a member of the Holy Roman Empire...


Attacking Genoa directly was risky, as it could pit us against Austria. On the other hand, Ernst II was busy with the French - now might be the best time to strike at him. Still, I looked for other alternatives. Genoa was allied with Venice - I could declare was on my old rival and then attack the Genoese as well!

Or the Genoese could refuse to answer their allies call to arms, leaving us with only the Venetians to deal with. Ah well. I quickly crushed the Venetian army and took Dalmatia from them.


This still left me with a mission to take Kaffa. The French and the Holy Roman Empire were were still slaughtering each other, neither able to get the upper hand. I probably wouldn't get a better chance to take on the Austrians, so...


The Genoese weren't able to put up much of a fight and my troops were soon laying siege to Corsica. I also dropped a force in Liguria, but they had to pull out when the Austrians moved in from the north.


Our fleets clashed off the coast of Cyprus, with the Austrians fairing amazingly badly...


For some reason, we broke our alliance with Hungary. I'm not sure what they did to piss off my people (throw a few more insults???), but I wasn't too bothered. While having the Hungarians as allies was nice, they'd only ever been moderately useful, with an unfortunate tendency to get themselves wiped out in pointless wars.


Corsica had fallen and our Iberian allies had troops in both Austria proper and the lowland provinces. Splitting their forces didn't seem the wisest move, but I decided to support their troops in the east. If we could take the capital, we should have enough warscore to enforce our demands.


Unfortunately the French had made peace, which would allow Ernst to concentrate his efforts on our forces. The real battles of this war were only now beginning.

With the fall of Kaffa the wargoal was in our hands. I could now concentrate all my efforts on taking the capital.


Unfortunately the Austrians began their counterattack by relieving the lowland cities, destroying the Iberian forces there. They were too far away for me to support and cost us valuable warscore.


On the plus side, Siena accepted integration. The first chunk of Italy had formally returned to the embrace of the Roman Empire. Moldavia soon followed, connecting Muntenia with the rest of the realm.


The first battle for Wien went well, with a small enemy force being driven off. I'd reinforced my army with a large contingent of mercenaries and more were on their way.


Unfortunately the Austrians threw more and more troops against us. We were forced to abandon the siege of Wien to counter one attack, which we defeated.


Again and again we drove them back, but they slowly ground us down. Finally they managed to bring their full force together and met the Byzantine army in the field. While our allies continued their sieges we fought bravely. Heavily outnumbered, defeat seemed inevitable.


Even as our troops fought on, negotiations commenced. The Austrian Emperor paid for peace and we withdrew our troops. Though we emerged victorious, taking Kaffa did not seem viable at this time. I cancelled the mission and considered my next move.


On the plus side, I now had a lot of troops, plenty of mercenaries and a reasonably large amount of gold to work with...

Hans Lemurson said:

Do you think you could have taken Kaffa had you played more defensively at the beginning of the war and waited for the "Byzantium Holds Kaffa" warscore bonus to tick up, or would Austria have come down on you too hard and caused too many losses to force your claim?

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I considered that strategy, but unfortunately the Iberians didn't leave me with much choice. Typical problem with AI allies - the tendency to get themselves killed, costing me warscore. The Austrians would then have come down and kicked my ass.

I was surprised that the French did so poorly. The Austrians were far more impressive than I had expected - despite being 20 warscrore down, they came back from the war with the Ottomans, kicked some French ass and then fought a two-front war effectively. Not bad for an AI nation!

As my troops returned home I received a new message - Kazan had declared war upon Crimea, drawing the Ottomans into another conflict. The Crimeans were already at war with Nogai and Chagatai. Though they were winning that war, they would be hard pressed to hold off all of their enemies and to help the Turks, should their old ally come under attack from the west...

Before declaring war, I convinced Qara Qoyunlu to agree to an alliance. Before I could ask them to join me in a war against the Ottomans, however, they went ahead and joined Kazan's war against Crimea! This was perfect. While they wouldn't actively help me, they would feed me valuable intelligence about the war in the east and fight the Ottomans, but any losses they might suffer would not impact on my warscore.


I declared war and marched on Edirne. My fleet took up a position in the Aegean, ready to meet the inevitable Ottoman counter-attack. My 40 ships - half of which were galleys - clashed with their navy, an equal mix of galleys, light ships and transports. I happily sat back and waited for the inevitable victory message...

...er, is my morale going down faster than theirs?


The mighty Byzantine navy had been defeated! For the first time in decades the Ottomans had managed to win a victory at sea, allowing them to control the Aegean. They had taken the Naval idea group and had better diplomatic technology, giving them a significant edge in morale and a better admiral. This was bad - they would now have the freedom to cross from east to west as they liked. I could only hope that they wouldn't risk running headlong into my entire military and would instead try to take down one of their other enemies first. Thankfully their army ran into some trouble while helping the Crimeans...


I began to build some more galleys and considered my options. Castile and Aragon had significant naval assets, if their ships were to come east and engage the Turks, my fleet could move in to support them. Unfortunately the Iberians were busy dealing with the Turk's Algerian allies, landing troops in Tlemcen and clashing with the Algerian navy. I noticed that a squadron of Iberian ships was about to be defeated by the Algerians, so I took a risk and managed to slip my fleet past the Ottomans (who were in port for repairs) and engaged them.


Castile and Aragon committed more ships to the engagement and every single Algerian ship was either sunk or captured. My ships retreated to Siena for repairs. The Ottomans then paid them a visit, blockading the port for a few days, before realising how exposed they were and returning to the Aegean.


The Ottoman's western holdings had fallen. At this point I could make peace with some gains, but I decided to push my luck a little further. I noticed that a combined Crimean and Ottoman army was engaged in Kazan - I decided to see if I could tip the balance against them.


As my troops moved north I split a few of them off to lay siege to the Crimean capital. The battle ended before I could get there, however, with the Ottomans and Crimeans fleeing in different directions.


There were some interesting developments at home as well. Hungary had offered to renew our alliance, which I accepted. I liked having an ally on our northern border, it gave me a nice sense of security. Unfortunately there was some bad news from Siena - a large force of nationalist rebels had risen to lay siege to the city. I couldn't spare the troops to deal with them, so I ignored them and continued with the war.

On the Crimean front my forces spent a few weeks hunting down the routed Crimean army. Eventually, however, I realised that trying to knock the Crimeans out of the war myself was taking too much time and required too many of my troops. They were no longer a threat, so I marched my troops back to Constantinople and prepared for an attack on Anatolia.

In the west, Algeria was beginning to fall to the Iberians.


The Ottomans launched a counter attack in Anatolia. The battle of Kutahya had begun. We had superior numbers on our side, but the enemy was led by Selim I Osmanli. My initial confidence of victory began to fade and I sent in more and more reinforcements to bolster my troops.

And then tragic news - the Emperor was dead! We were now in a regency (again).

Algiers agreed to withdraw from the war in exchange for a white peace. As the Iberian troops began to redeploy, Castile's fleet finally made its way east, where it was met by the Ottoman navy. Some of my own ships joined the battle and together we destroyed their entire fleet.


Unfortunately my forces were less successful on land. My troops retreated back to Greece... where they quickly put some of the lessons learnt on the battlefield to good use, training in new combat techniques and replacing some of their weapons. They would now present a much more formidable force on the battlefield.


Unfortunately the Sienese nationalists managed to take the city. I gave in to their demands rather than divert the forces necessary to drive them out, then launched another attack on Anatolia.

I quickly defeated the small force that I found on the other side of the Bosphorus. The rest of the Turkish army was busy fighting in Kurdistan.


At first it looked like the Ottomans would be defeated, but suddenly Qara Qoyunlu's troops abandoned their allies and left the lines. They had signed a separate peace with the Turks! Their allies were soon routed. Two could play at that game, however - Castile's troops had taken the Crimean capital. I offered them terms - our forces would leave them be, if they agreed to cancel their alliance with the Ottomans. With them out of the way we could concentrate all of our efforts on the Turks. My forces had already begun sieges in western Anatolia. The Ottoman army returned, hoping to drive us back yet again.

Qara Qoyunlu now requested our assistance in another war. I turned them down. I didn't want to get bogged down in another conflict... and I wasn't sure I wanted Qara Qoyunlu to gain a personal union with Crimea! I left them to sort it out themselves.


Our forces met Selim I in battle again, but this time our hussars drove him from the field. While some of my troops remained behind to occupy the west, the rest pursued the enemy, driving them further east.


Castile's troops landed in the south, applying further pressure to the Ottomans. Province after province fell to our forces, until the Turks finally gave in.


Bulgaria was free, leaving the Turks with just one province in Europe.

They are still dangerous - as demonstrated by the performance of their navy! They have the navy and quantity ideas, which offsets the manpower and force limit losses I've inflicted, so they can still field large armies. They're behind in military tech, but I'm guessing they'll catch up pretty soon. My main advantage is the sheer number and strength of my allies. Their own allies are fairly weak - while some could field reasonably large armies or navies, they're falling behind in tech.

Chief Ragusa said:

Bulgaria restored. They'll be eager to become your vassal. All peacefully. A guarantee of Ramazan/Adana wouldn't go amiss.

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Taking Bulgaria peacefully doesn't seem to be an option, their tax base is too high.

Chief Ragusa said:

There are several states you could force release out of the ottos, but the two largest are Karaman and Candar.

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Yep, and it'll strip them of most of their coastal provinces, crippling their naval force limit (even with the Naval group). That'll insure my dominance at sea, so I'll just have to worry about dominance on land.

Chief Ragusa said:

Can't believe you don't have the base tax to diplo-vassalize Bulgaria.

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Their tax base comes to about 17, not including any bonuses. I'm not 100% familiar with the formula, but I think that would put the tax basis necessary to reduce the tax penalty to zero would be something like 300. IIRC the penalty at the mo is about -79.

Chapter 11: Terms and Conditions​

The Ottomans had taken a beating, but I was now in a regency. I noticed, however, that Tuscany was at war with Ferrara, with whom I had reasonably cordial relations. After some diplomatic exchanges I forged an alliance and was soon ready to send the Tuscans an ultimatum - make peace or face our wrath! I of course hoped that they would refuse...


Dang. Oh well. Nothing for it but to wait out the regency. Jump to a few years later...


A great diplomat and administrator, Manuel the third should prove an able ruler.

The Mamluks had declared war on the Ottomans. I considered doing likewise, but decided to sort out a few other loose threads instead. The first of these was the Bulgarians. It seemed that they were under the impression they had been liberated with the intention that they would rule themselves! How silly. Of course their freedom came with strings attached...


As I prepared to declare war we received joyous news - an heir was born. Well, somewhat joyous... Theodorus may have been dropped on his head a few times....


Naples agreed to an alliance, helping secure my western flank. The Mamluks lost their war with the Ottomans, forcing them to give up their claims to Dulkadir. And it was finally time to subjugate Bulgaria.


The war was predictably one-sided. With a tiny army and no allies, the Bulgarians didn't stand a chance. Before the war ended, however, Venice declared war on our Ferraran allies, who asked for our assistance. The Venetians were allied with France, which worried me, so I considered refusing... and then I noticed that the Ferrarans had already called in a few other allies. Venice was now at war with half of the Holy Roman Empire, including Austria. I was confident that together we would be victorious.

And more news from the Holy Roman Empire - a new emperor had been chosen.


As we were now fighting alongside each other, the new Emperor was willing to forget our past differences and offered us an alliance. That alone made this war worthwhile. Bulgaria soon became my vassal and I considered my next move.

Our combined forces outnumbered the enemy greatly, but that didn't necessarily guarantee victory. Taking a closer look at the war, I found that the Austrians were concentrating on fighting the French in the north, while smaller forces clashed with the Venetians. I decided to focus my efforts on Venice, if I could defeat them the war would end and I could concentrate on my own concerns.


I first hunted down the broken remnants of the Venetian army.


I then noticed that the battle of Artois was still going on. This struggle had been going on for some time and had initially looked like a simply victory for the French. More and more of Austria's allies had joined the lines, however, and the French had steadily been worn down. Recognising the importance of this battle, I marched my army north and threw them into the fray.


With the French removed as an immediate threat, I turned my attention back to Venice. The fall of the city forced their fleet to clash with mine and I captured a few ships, the rest escaping to Friuli...


...which soon fell into my hands, forcing the fleet out again. This time the battle was far more conclusive.


The Venetians soon surrendered, losing two of their provinces to the Austrians. My old rival had been thoroughly crippled. Austria was my ally again. News from Iberia had reached us during the war - Castile and Aragon had been unified under the crown of Spain, allowing another of our allies to consolidate their strength. I had a great Emperor, a strong military, powerful allies, a reasonable amount of gold in the treasury and a realm unified in culture and religion. It was time to initiate some major reforms...