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. I though maybe your list was meant to be read as "last choice first, first choice last" but it seems you have changed your mind. Is that how you vote in elections too? Anyways it doesn't matter, I'd play any country. Except Epirus.
Anyways it doesn't matter, I'd play any country. Except Epirus.
Yes! No. Actually... do I have to stick to one answer?
Nah, I do like Sicily a lot... probably also because it's cold out there and they have like 17°C right now. Problem is, they get strong waaay too quickly while with Jalas we would probably face an uphill battle for the first 150 years or so (unless we manage to inherit the Ottomans and Mamelukes).
Retrograde! VOTE.
I'm starting to get restless.. How about we just start if Retrograde hasn't voted in the next 2 days ?
I agree, I'd say let's start tomorrow, Taylor's got the first turn.
Can I change my vote so that Jalays come up first or would that be unfair?
Yo. Hard difficulty, random lucky nations, low aggressiveness, everything else standard. What are we gonna call it?
Ok I finished my turn. It was rather short and uneventful, as my monarch died in 1405. I stole three days from the next person because I didn't push pause quickly enough so sorry about that (tip to self: make it auto-pause when ruler dies). Download here!
I'll post the AAR later (I'm about halfway done already).
I'll post the AAR later (I'm about halfway done already).
Nice, Hawkiee's up, right?
I suggest adding a fairly large link to Taylor's AAR post (when there is one) to the first post of this thread so that anyone who follows can see easily where the actual AAR starts.
As soon as the final thread name is decided just say the word and I'll rename.
I suggest adding a fairly large link to Taylor's AAR post (when there is one
) to the first post of this thread so that anyone who follows can see easily where the actual AAR starts.As soon as the final thread name is decided just say the word and I'll rename.
Ahmad Jalayrid (1383 – 1405)
On November 27th, 2011, the following document was found on a builing site on the outskirts of Baghdad, written in medieval Arabic and believed to be at least 400 years old.
I am Ahmad Jalayrid and I am the ruler of Baghdad and surrounding areas.
How I came to power I do not know; all that happened before the 14th of October of 1399 I seem to have completely forgotten. I have asked my advisers about my past and they have assured me that my reign has been glorious indeed; but when I ask them about any details, they start giving evasive answers and avoiding my eyes. I have let the matter be, since whoever I was before is not who I am now.
That is, if I am to believe the people that surround me. They tell me I have changed since my fall. They tell me that I seem to see things more clearly than most. And they're right, I do see things that other people don't seem to see. Not that I have visions or anything. It's more that when I look at the world, I understand the influences that its elements have on each other. I see the mechanics of the processes that go on. I know the rules of the game, so to speak.
I knew right from the start. I woke up, head spinning and lying in the sand next to what must have been my horse, with men looking at me with worried faces – and I knew: We need to form more alliances, and an alliance with The Mamluks should be beneficial to us.
I also knew that should we succeed in forming such an alliance, we would gain prestige, and prestige has many positive effects, such as better trading opportunities for our merchants and more probability of vassals accepting to be annexed by us. Not that we have any vassals, or trading opportunities to speak of, but still.
But that was only my first thought. My second thought was the realization that I could, and should, change my country's policies and my third thought was that I should look into which national advisers I could hire for my court, since none of the three vacancies were currently filled. “Bring me to my palace,” I said to the men gathered around me. This they did. I turned out to be a skilled horseback rider and we turned out to be only half an hour outside Baghdad. As soon as we arrived in my palace, I set to work.
First of all, I centralized the government by revoking some powers of local rulers.
As I expected could happen, a pretender promptly rose up in arms against me, but I was not too worried about this since they were outnumbered and I somehow felt that I was a decent military leader.
Then I looked for some national advisers but only found a Master of Mint named Yasir Sa'id. I felt I did not need advice on spying:
Next, I took a look at our finances. They were rather depressing.
Our income was low; and the only province that was worth anything (Iraq-I-Arab) was of a religion other than our official state religion.
Like half of our provinces are, by the way.
I am not a Muslim. This may come as a shock to the readers, but believe me: when you see what I can see, you will know that none of the religions of my day can be correct. I do however believe in a supreme being. One of the things I am certain of is that the world I live in is designed. Just looking at how well-balanced everything is, how the mechanics interact and influence each other – this cannot have originated if not by design. Furthermore, I am certain that this designer must favor Europe. Provinces there are closer together and richer; armies are larger, and nations develop faster than anywhere else in the world. Alas, our nation is not European. We'll have to make the best of it despite the uphill battle we will face. I have kept all these ponderings a secret since the people around me seem rather intolerant to other beliefs than their own. On the outside, I am as devout a Muslim as there ever was.
Anyway, I digress. I haven't mentioned yet that in that time we were at war with one of the greatest warriors there ever lived, Timur the Lame.
This was unfortunate, but I had a feeling that if we groveled enough, we would be able to gain a peace without much cost.
For the rest, we were in fine shape diplomatically; most nearby nations liked us (probably because they didn't fear us). To get closer to the Mamluks I send them a royal marriage proposal. I did the same with the Ottomans (for the same reason) and Yemen (which I thought would also make a good ally since, in the event of war, they could attack Hedjaz and Najd in the rear). We had plenty of princes and princesses here to marry away so I was able to keep up sending royal marriages proposals for quite a long time.
And so ended the first day in the office that I can remember. I then rounded up the army and set out to defeat the pretender (Karim Zaman, he was called). The next day, I got the message that all our royal marriage proposals had been accepted (our messengers work fast!).
Two days after that, I got an alliance proposal from the Ottomans, which I gladly accepted.
Algiers, however, who proposed the same, was rejected (I later accepted because they kept insisting).
I tried to gain an alliance with the Mamluks, but each time I considered proposing one, I knew that it would be Impossible.
(Don't ask me how I know these things, it's too difficult to explain.) Meanwhile, I chased the pretenders around a bit until they were finally destroyed in their home province of Karbala.
The eastern front had in the meantime been rather quiet, with the Timurids being distracted by their other enemies. They did, however, pass small armies through my country on their way to the northwest. I decided that a good way to put pressure on them was to destroy these small armies, which I promptly started doing.
I tried the same in Sharizor, which is part of the Timurid Empire, but almost lost my army when a Timurid army came south from Hamadan. It was only a glitch in the Rules that saved me: the fact that when you defeat an army at the same day that a reinforcement army arrives, these reinforcements also flee.
(continued in the next post)
On November 27th, 2011, the following document was found on a builing site on the outskirts of Baghdad, written in medieval Arabic and believed to be at least 400 years old.
I am Ahmad Jalayrid and I am the ruler of Baghdad and surrounding areas.
That is, if I am to believe the people that surround me. They tell me I have changed since my fall. They tell me that I seem to see things more clearly than most. And they're right, I do see things that other people don't seem to see. Not that I have visions or anything. It's more that when I look at the world, I understand the influences that its elements have on each other. I see the mechanics of the processes that go on. I know the rules of the game, so to speak.
I knew right from the start. I woke up, head spinning and lying in the sand next to what must have been my horse, with men looking at me with worried faces – and I knew: We need to form more alliances, and an alliance with The Mamluks should be beneficial to us.
But that was only my first thought. My second thought was the realization that I could, and should, change my country's policies and my third thought was that I should look into which national advisers I could hire for my court, since none of the three vacancies were currently filled. “Bring me to my palace,” I said to the men gathered around me. This they did. I turned out to be a skilled horseback rider and we turned out to be only half an hour outside Baghdad. As soon as we arrived in my palace, I set to work.
First of all, I centralized the government by revoking some powers of local rulers.
Anyway, I digress. I haven't mentioned yet that in that time we were at war with one of the greatest warriors there ever lived, Timur the Lame.
For the rest, we were in fine shape diplomatically; most nearby nations liked us (probably because they didn't fear us). To get closer to the Mamluks I send them a royal marriage proposal. I did the same with the Ottomans (for the same reason) and Yemen (which I thought would also make a good ally since, in the event of war, they could attack Hedjaz and Najd in the rear). We had plenty of princes and princesses here to marry away so I was able to keep up sending royal marriages proposals for quite a long time.
And so ended the first day in the office that I can remember. I then rounded up the army and set out to defeat the pretender (Karim Zaman, he was called). The next day, I got the message that all our royal marriage proposals had been accepted (our messengers work fast!).
The eastern front had in the meantime been rather quiet, with the Timurids being distracted by their other enemies. They did, however, pass small armies through my country on their way to the northwest. I decided that a good way to put pressure on them was to destroy these small armies, which I promptly started doing.
(continued in the next post)
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(Ahmad Jalayrid, continued)
Sharizor showed me that, in the end, there would be little I could do against the Timurids if they decided to move against me in force. Our nation could only afford to sustain a mere 6000 men. When a 12000 men army led by Miran Shah started besieging Bahdad, there was nothing I could do but wait.
Luck was on my side. By the time Miran actually succeeded in taking the city, my faithful allies, the Ottomans, had arrived with two large armies. One of these defeated Miran and chased him out of my country, and the other started besieging Baghdad to liberate it.
The Timurids, hoping to gain a favorable peace with Baghdad still under their control, offered peace treaty in which they demanded a huge monthly tribute. I naturally rejected.
Meanwhile, grateful to the Ottomans, and hoping they would stay a while longer, I decided to grant them military access to our country.
Around this time, Timur the Lame died. His successor, struggling to maintain control over his huge empire and seeing that I was more trouble than I was worth, agreed to a peace on the 8th of March 1401. The only condition of the peace treaty was that I should publically grovel for peace in front of the Timurid ambassador. This I did, hurting our prestige but saving our country.
After this was over with, I immediately started to work on improving the country. First of all, I decided that to rule over Arab people, the ruling class should start speaking their language and living by their customs.
Many of the ruling class were rather upset by this but I payed them no heed. I appointed Hassan Mansour as national adviser as I expected his paintings to stabilize the country.
Next, I decided that my subjects should embrace the Sunni version of Islam, starting with the people of Baghdad (because this province was the most valuable to us), so I sent a missionary there to start pressuring people into accepting this. I was much lauded for this decision, because the mission was so successful that after only half a year of it, most people in Baghdad were of the Sunni persuasion.
In light of my previous note on my religious convictions you may wonder why I bothered with converting people to a religion I don't believe in. The reason is that I am officially a Sunni Muslim. Provinces that are not of the official state religion have many disadvantages, including, for example: lower tax income, higher stability cost, higher revolt risk, etc. Sounds like I'm rambling? I don't mind. I do not expect you, or anyone else, to understand. Few people ever seemed to do. But I know what I know, and I know that same-religion provinces are good.
The Mamluks had been very unwilling to enter an alliance for some reason. And so I decided that I should take a different goal, namely to save the Iraqi people in Sharizor.
Should I succeed in this, it would bring the excellent benefits of Sharizor instantly becoming one of our "core" provinces, plus it would make the nations in the world forgive us for some of the past illegitimate land-grabbing we might have done by then. For now, however, Sharizor was part of the Timurid Empire, with which we had a truce. Not that we would have been able to gain it from them had there been no truce: the Timurids were doing surprisingly well in their war against the Ottomans and Mamluks.
And so the years slowly went by, with me not having the opportunity to do much. I sent missionaries to Karbala and Mosul. I promoted our national unity in Iraq-I-Arab and Basra (I decided that spending our magistrates on expanding the bureaucracy was not worth it yet, since it would be quite a while until we would be able to build buildings). We completed regaining stability in October 1403.
Still, not all resentment had left apparently, since in June of the next year it was discovered that some of the nobility had allied with the government of the Hedjaz.
I have no idea what my nobles or the Hedjaz had to do with Europe, but there you have it. Another indication that the designer of this world was most interested in Europe. Anyway, I would have loved to go punish them for their insolence, were it not that their provinces are dirt-poor and they seem to be allied or guaranteed by half the Muslim world. The same (that is, the dirt-poor argument) goes for the other provinces at our southern border. So I decided that, especially since a renewed war with the Timurids seems inevitable, territorial expansion southward would, at least for now, mean more trouble than gain. In August, the Mamluks included us in their sphere of influence.
I could not decide whether that was a good or bad thing. Only time will tell.
This is where the document ends. Other historical sources tell us that soon after these last events, on the 3rd of May 1405 to be precise, Ahmad Jalayrid was succeeded by Walad Jalayrid as ruler of the Jalayrid dynasty. The sources are unclear about the nature of this succession. Some state that Ahmad died a natural death on the aforementioned date, some claim that he was killed by an assassin, and others hold that he simply vanished from the face of the earth altogether. As of now, historians have not reached a consensus on the matter.
------------------------------
For the statistics-lovers:
Income went from 3.5 to 4.8,
Army remained at 6k,
# of provinces remained at 6,
No tech levels were made,
Stab went from +0 to +3.
(am I forgetting anything?)
Sharizor showed me that, in the end, there would be little I could do against the Timurids if they decided to move against me in force. Our nation could only afford to sustain a mere 6000 men. When a 12000 men army led by Miran Shah started besieging Bahdad, there was nothing I could do but wait.
Around this time, Timur the Lame died. His successor, struggling to maintain control over his huge empire and seeing that I was more trouble than I was worth, agreed to a peace on the 8th of March 1401. The only condition of the peace treaty was that I should publically grovel for peace in front of the Timurid ambassador. This I did, hurting our prestige but saving our country.
After this was over with, I immediately started to work on improving the country. First of all, I decided that to rule over Arab people, the ruling class should start speaking their language and living by their customs.
The Mamluks had been very unwilling to enter an alliance for some reason. And so I decided that I should take a different goal, namely to save the Iraqi people in Sharizor.
And so the years slowly went by, with me not having the opportunity to do much. I sent missionaries to Karbala and Mosul. I promoted our national unity in Iraq-I-Arab and Basra (I decided that spending our magistrates on expanding the bureaucracy was not worth it yet, since it would be quite a while until we would be able to build buildings). We completed regaining stability in October 1403.
This is where the document ends. Other historical sources tell us that soon after these last events, on the 3rd of May 1405 to be precise, Ahmad Jalayrid was succeeded by Walad Jalayrid as ruler of the Jalayrid dynasty. The sources are unclear about the nature of this succession. Some state that Ahmad died a natural death on the aforementioned date, some claim that he was killed by an assassin, and others hold that he simply vanished from the face of the earth altogether. As of now, historians have not reached a consensus on the matter.
------------------------------
For the statistics-lovers:
Income went from 3.5 to 4.8,
Army remained at 6k,
# of provinces remained at 6,
No tech levels were made,
Stab went from +0 to +3.
(am I forgetting anything?)
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Just came home from work, will download the save and have a look at your current progress Will probably start tommorow when I get home from school.
Will probably start tommorow when I get home from school.
That was quick. An excellent beginning... no great changes but a solid foundation. I guess your successor will have to bear the blunt of the Timurid assault soon again, but hopefully they will be busy with their internal turmoil.
I'll add links to the different chapters to the first post. Hawkiee, you ready to take over?
Btw., how about this title: 1001 Sultans - A Jalayirids Succession AAR? Pretty much the best I could come up with - any other suggestions?
An excellent beginning... no great changes but a solid foundation. I guess your successor will have to bear the blunt of the Timurid assault soon again, but hopefully they will be busy with their internal turmoil.I'll add links to the different chapters to the first post. Hawkiee, you ready to take over?
Btw., how about this title: 1001 Sultans - A Jalayirids Succession AAR? Pretty much the best I could come up with - any other suggestions?
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Yup, I'm ready, posted that right above your reply
I have no issues with the name. Won't be able to come up with any better names. So, okay with me.
I have no issues with the name. Won't be able to come up with any better names. So, okay with me.
Good work.
Not sure what our plan is against the Timurids. Been a long time since I've played vanilla but I seem to recall them usually overrunning large chunks of the middle east and/or India. I suppose I'm glad that I'm not next
Not sure what our plan is against the Timurids. Been a long time since I've played vanilla but I seem to recall them usually overrunning large chunks of the middle east and/or India. I suppose I'm glad that I'm not next
Just a reminder - you can't get around the 20 screenshot per post rule by multiple posting - you have to leave at least 1 hour between updates or its counted as a single post
^ Gosh, I seem to be breaking all the rules here without knowing it. I'm sorry, I won't do it again
Actually, they often start collapsing right from the start. In this game, however, they're doing much better than normally. Let's just hope that the "admit defeat" peace will work next time too. Btw, there is still an Ottoman army in Iraq, which might be able to fend off some Timurids.
Good work.
Not sure what our plan is against the Timurids. Been a long time since I've played vanilla but I seem to recall them usually overrunning large chunks of the middle east and/or India. I suppose I'm glad that I'm not next
Actually, they often start collapsing right from the start. In this game, however, they're doing much better than normally. Let's just hope that the "admit defeat" peace will work next time too. Btw, there is still an Ottoman army in Iraq, which might be able to fend off some Timurids.