@ S0ny B1ack: I think with Pskov, you may be able to take a province from Novgorod during one of the times it's fighting Muscovy. But your right, it takes luck.
Thank you, and Iamwinterborn as well, for your replies.
My second MM game will be as Tripoli, the easternmost Berber state. It's probably the weakest of the four, since Tunisia's trade goods are about twice as valuable. However, I think it's starting position is better than Tunisia's with three avenues of expansion. I could try to take a province or two from the Mamluk's while they're being dismantled by the Ottomans, I could invade Tunisia if it's alliances with the other Berber states break down or I could invade Malta and Sicily if those islands become weakened by wars and rebellion, which is somewhat likely.
However, I need allies and the Ottomans are perfect in every regard. So my first of of international business is to get on their good side.
Before that, though, I get a choice of how to support the pirates.
Since this is my first time playing a Berber nation, I decide to go just short of all in. The tooltip for the third option was to big to read all of it, else I probably would have chosen it.
Slowly but surely I build up my relations with the Turks, it's not too hard since I'm such an active supporter of piracy. We exchange guarentees of military access, trade rights and enter a royal marriage. Offering an alliance rates as "Impossible", but If figure patience will pay off. My plan for the game is to hitch myself onto their star, becoming big enough for them to see me as a valuable partner without being too big to be a real challenge to them. Perhaps I can be their custodian of North Africa and the western Med.
While this is going on I get Bureaucrats in Tripolitania, Clergy in Cyrenaica, offer refuge to the Jews, and have my Sultan undergoe the Hajj. For those who don't know, the Hajj is a spiritial pilgramage to Mecca. I believe Muslims are obligated to perform it once in their lifetime. For a busy man like the Sultan to take the time is an act of extreme piety. It costs 25 ducats and the leader's absence has a negative affect on the economy, stability and the military. However, you also get
+5.0% prestige for 2 years, so I make a point to get it done.
I also start to experience piracy as a source of income. It happens seemingly at random, but with 6 ducats here, 10 there and sometimes even 20 it easily doubles my yearly income. There's a bit of a give-and-take, sometimes the ask for more money sometimes I do. One time I asked for more, they said no, I decided to withdraw my support in order to avoid a presitige penalty or angering the Turks. But then it cost 75 ducats to restablish the thing, so I think next time I'll take the prestige hit. <_<
Anyway, with the pirates help I was rich enough that when I got the "build up your army mission", I decided to go with it. Until further notice, my standard forces will be 2,000 cavalry and 4,000 infantry. Ideally I'd like to take Gabes, since it has Maghreb Arabic as it's culture. There are only two other provinces with that, and their on the other side of Africa. Gabes only has a base tax of two, which means when I get a core on it my total base tax can only be up to thirteen. My starting base tax is 9, so there's not much room for anything else. It's be nice to get Maghreb Arabic as a accepted culture, something about that mechanic makes me a little OCD. Unfortunately Tunisia is allied with Morocco, so I either need to strengthen my trust with Algiers so they'd support me in an agressive war, or wait until I have a land border with the Ottomans and count on their support.
Finally, on June 7th, 1458 my sultan died and I got my first full monarch: Yusuf I, who at 6-5-8 is pretty good. His reign will be marked by incessent warfare my Tripoli's neighbors and foreign wars on behalf of the Ottomans.
But the first trouble comes from modernization. Tripoli needs to move towards innovation in order to shake off 'Entrenched Past' which causes the usual loss of presitge, stability and advisors. I do luck out though, and get some event that offers me to pay money to increase manpower in one of my provinces. Something to do with making conscription easier, I think. Anyway, I managed to increase my max manpower by about a thousand, up to 4,700.
Then in 1466 I get to choose my fourth idea. Tripoli has National Conscripts, Seahawks and Church Attendence Duty. While I consider taking Excellent Shipwrights, I'm worried enough about my financial situation so I choose Bureaucracy instead. I'll probably take Excellent Shipwrights next so I can get rid of the modifier.
And now the Ottomans offer me an alliance! I happily accept, hoping this will ensure my survival.
Then on August 21, 1467 I get into my first war when the Mamluks attack the Ottomans. Hedjaz joins the former, I and Wallachia join the latter.
My plan is to take Libya in a seperate peace deal. It's only one base tax, but it's adjacent to Alexandria and that's a real price! Unfortunately the Mamluks capitulate before I can finish one siege. The Ottomans gain Damascus and Badiyat Ash Sham.
But then in September of 1470, the Ottomans attack the Mamluks again! I tag along, taking the nasty stab hit for the sake of gaining the trust of the Turks.
This time it's a nastier affair, the Mamluks are joined by Georgia, Adal, Ethiopia, Hedjaz and
Tunisia. On paper, the numbers are just about even.
Now, I figure that this war will last as long as the last one. Not enough time to take one province! So instead of wasting time fighting Tunisia's main force, Yusuf heads back to Libya where hopefully the Mamluks will be too busy with the Ottomans to worry about a "1 base tax" province. Fortunately I get "An Improved Defense" in Tripolitania, so I'm not worried.
The Mamluks learned from last time, they sent 5,000 men to stop me from taking Libya. I defeat them there, then pursue them to Alexandria with cavalry and smash them again.
After that I withdraw my cavalry back to Cyrenaica, since I'm worried about maintaining my forces. They attacked again in late Januray of '72, but the results were the same. Finally, on January 9th, 1473 the Mamluks recognize defeat.
...And then a week later the Turks declare war againts Morea. :wacko:
As an aside, during the initial war with Hungary the OE decided to settle for having Hungary release a bunch of nations. The resulting map is pretty interesting in my opinion.
But back to the war, you can see that Morea doesn't have the greatest allies, but they all stood with her against the Ottomans. Here's where the constant warfare was really working against the Turks, as you can see where they stood after two years of war with the coalition led by mighty Serbia.
Keep in mind this is after I took back Macedonia for them. Also not shown is George, besieged one province after another on their way to capturing Constantinople. (!) The Ottomans took back every province immediately after the Georgians left, but it was still impressive. In fact, it pains me to think I was saving the Turks from collapse, but it's necessary for Tripoli that I help them now so they can help me later. AI incompetence really helped the Turks here, if even Athens had gotten involved they probably could have eliminated the army the Turks sent against Morea. Then that army wouldn't have been able to move north and take of Montenegro, etc.
Never mind what would have happened if other Christian powers had gotten involved, or if the Mamluks decided it would be worth breaking truce if they could get their land back.
That's not to say the Serbs don't deserve credit for holding off the Turks for two years, though...
But the Ottomans are nothing if not resilient, and eventually they wear down the grand coalition of their enemies. Montenegro is annexed, Morea loses Achaea and Serbia gives up Prizen. This is after almost four years of warfare, ending on Oct. 14th 1477.
And then two weeks later, they declare war on Athens, with Bosnia leading the defense along with Switzerland.
Needless to say, the WE is getting annoying. But the Turks seem to realized they reached their limit, so they White Peace out with Athens the following January. This leaves a much more managable war, but it still takes another thirty months to subdue two-province Bosnia, most likely due to the Turks reaching their WE limit and having to deal with rebellions in Damascus and Beirut. I do my best to help, but those Bosnians are tough to subdue. King Tvrtko III is a horrible administrator and diplomat, but I'll be damned if he isn't a fine general.
I don't know why Tripoli's shield isn't on their, especially since it was Yusuf I who was in command. Anyway, in another four months after that Bosnia would cede Hum to the Turks. Counting from when the Ottomans attacked Morea, that's seven years of war. Fortunately the Ottomans didn't go and DoW someone else immediately afterward, so I get some R&R. I even get this nice event!
Am I wrong to think that getting extra base tax is worth almost anything, especialy this early in the game?
Unfortunately my break doesn't last for long, the Ottomans are back at it again on January 28th, 1482. Same old, same old.
This time the Mamluks are smart, and immediately send 9,000 men to Cyrenaica. My army still isn't back up to 6,000 because of the wars in Europe, and new regiments are being trained in Cyrenaica. Yusuf I is forced to hold the Mamluks at bay for a week in order to get the new soldiers to escape. With 9,000 Mamluks to the east and 7,000 Tunisians to the west, I decide discresion is the better part of valor and and peace out for 25 ducats.
After another five years of war, the Ottomans accept peace with the Mamluks in exchange for Al Karak and renouncing the core on Hawran. It's good that I managed to skip out on all that, because fourteen months later, on May 8th 1489, the Ottomans redeclare war and the whole thing starts over again.
Rather than face another large Mamluk stack, I go west and slip past the Tunisian army. while they're besieging my level 2 fort in Tripolitania, I'm besieging their level 1 fort in Gafsa with 4,000 infantry while my cavalry goes for Tunis. After a siege n' storm, I take the Gafsa.
...Unfortunately I forget that AI Berber nations can spawn whole stacks when attacked.
I try to contain the spawned army in Tunis, but am forced to retreat.
Another Tunisian army spawns in Gafsa, and quickly takes the province. Now both armies are marching to Tripolitania, tripling the size of the forces there. In their absence I retake Gafsa, and wait for attrition to take it's toll on the Tunisians in Tripolitania. It's around this time that Austria decides to roll back the Ottoman presence in the Balkans, and declares war.
I figure I'm safe from them, so I tag along. Meanwhile the AI shows it's legendary inability to deal with attrition. The twenty-four regiments besieging Tripolitania complete the siege, but are reduced to four thousand men.
We clash, and the AI shows it's other legendary ability to get great dice rolls. I roll a bunch of zeros on my shock phases, tieing them at the fire phase. They're still so weak that it takes a while for me to lose, and I take a good deal of them with me before retreating to Sirt. While recovering my army their I receive word of a conscript sortie in Cyrencia.
By timing it with my main army I'm able to break the siege of Mamluks and Yemenis. I head west, finding that the Tunisians decided to besiege Gaffsa rather than replenish their army. This will prove a costly mistake.
And then on June 19th, 1492 the uthinkable happens. Yusuf I dies while leading the siege of the Capital, leaving the promising 6-8-8 Mohammad I the next sultan of Tunisia. A month later the Ottomans make peace with Tunisia. With the Tripolitania returned, It is now time for Mohammad I bring the fight to the Mamluks. Here is the state of the world as we leave it here.
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That concludes this entry! As Mohammed continues the war against the Mamluks before fighting in the Balkans like his predecessor, will the Ottamon's relentless agression subside? Will the Mamluks be totally conquered during Mohammad's reign? Will he be able to expand a little himself? Tune in next week to find out!