The Moors are back in town! A Granada AAR.

[Masse I]

Prologue


Night is falling in the city of Granada and in the Alhambra Palace Sultan Muhammad VIII is just about to go to bed, when suddenly he hears an unfamiliar sound behind him. He spins around and what he sees fills him with terror. It is a big black shape with eyes of fire. This figure in black points at him and totally horrified the Sultan quickly turns around and starts to run for the door.

“Stop!” A thunderous voice filled the room. “Why are you running Muhammad, great ruler of the Moors, I mean you no harm.”

So powerful, is this voice that the Sultan, without wanting it, stops dead and for a short moment just stands there, unable to move a limb. Then he slowly and very carefully turns around.

“Wh, wh, who are you and wh, wha, what do you want with me?” he asks, trembling with fear.

“I am Gabriel, the Archangel and I greet you Muhammad, Sultan of Granada,” the black figure answers.

The Sultan stares at the figure with disbelief. “You are not an Archangel. Angels are supposed to wear white garments not black. Black is evil and death.”

Now it’s the black figures turn to stare at the Sultan with disbelief. “It really takes a human mind to come up with such a stupid idea. Black is nothing but a colour among many, many other colours, and that’s about all that there is to it. It has absolutely nothing to do with good or evil or anything like that. It’s just a colour, you know. It also happens to be my favourite colour, which explains my outfit.”

“But what about that fire in your eyes?” the Sultan asks, not entirely convinced.

“Well, what can I say? I just think it goes so well with all the black, you know. Anyway, let us get to the point. I was sent here by Allah to bestow you with a holy quest. You Muhammad, Sultan of Granada, and your lineage have been chosen to be the ones to rid the world of this heresy that is called Catholicism. You must not, however, look upon the poor Catholics as your enemies, because they are not evil by nature. It’s just that for almost a thousand years have their rulers misled them and deceived them. Therefore, be merciful to the people, have pity on them and teach them about the one true faith. Their rulers, on the other hand, you must under no circumstances show any mercy but dispose of as soon as the possibility arises.”

“But will not the Catholic kings have some objections to me converting their subjects?”

“Of course they will. That’s why you will have to remove them from their thrones and incorporate their lands to your realm before starting the conversions.”

“How am I going to do that?”

The Archangel closes his eyes, easy now Gabriel you are an Archangel; Archangels are virtuous and patience, even when facing stupidity in its purest form, is a virtue, he thinks for himself in a successful attempt to remain his calm. “Well, you have an army. Use it.”

“But Granada is such a weak and poor country compared to our Catholic neighbours and our army is much smaller than theirs as well.”

“Sad but true. Your country is weak but you Muhammad are not. You, my friend, are a giant among men, intelligent, courageous, strong. Certainly a gifted man like you should be able to lead even a weak country like yours to might and glory.”

“That’s a really good point,” the Sultan says, very pleased and a bit more convinced than before.

“And remember, Allah in all His might and wisdom, has chosen you for this hard and quite dangerous task. He wants you to succeed and as long as you keep your coarse on the quest, he will never abandon you. And with Allah by your side you surely can’t fail”

“Oh what a glorious day! No, I will not fail,” the Sultan cheers, now completely convinced.

“Good, now go to rest.” Gabriel waves his hand and the Sultan falls down on his bed, asleep.


Heaven, about a second later.

On his return to heaven Gabriel is greeted by Allah and his brother Jehovah.

“Welcome back Gabriel, we compliment you for a job well done.”

“Thanks Mr A and you too Mr J.”

“You enjoyed this little assignment quite a bit, didn’t you?” Allah says.

“Sure did Mr A. You see, normally, we angels are not allowed to lie at all, but this time, I was not only allowed, but also ordered to do exactly that. I just had to make the most of it.”

“You sure did. Actually, we were a little anxious he would not believe you. Especially that part about him being a giant among men, it was such an obvious lie,” Jehovah says.

“Yeah, you should know about that J. After all, you choose him for this task. You coward,” Allah grunts.

Jehovah laughs. “You can’t blame anyone but yourself A. You were so damn cocky and went on bragging about how your guys where much better than mine and so on and so on. So I came up with this heavenly idea, that one of your guys, of your choice I remind you, should get 400 years to try to eradicate one of the religions of my guys. But you just couldn’t stop being cocky, could you? You claimed it would be way to easy if you were to select a guy for yourself and urged me to pick one for you.”

Allah grinds his teeth. “And of course you picked the worst possible candidate for the job, a witless, incompetent, utterly stupid moron, who ruled a pathetic little country, bordering a much mightier neighbour. It’s not fair.

“Of course I did, and I’m sure you would have done the same for me my dear brother. Stop whining now; it’s not very godlike you know. By the way Gabriel, when you told him that Allah would always be by his side, were you aware of the rules then? Neither me or A are allowed to intervene in any way. ”

“I sure know that Mr J, just another lie to cheer the poor guy up a little. I felt he very much needed it. May I ask you two a question that popped up in my head after meeting with Muhammad? When you created Man, couldn’t you have made them a little less stupid?”

“Hey come on Gabe, give us a break here, we’re not perfect you know,” Jehovah replies.

“Besides, it was our first try to create something. You really can’t expect us to be a hundred percent successful in our first try, can you?” Allah adds.

“Sorry guys, meant no offence. Just one more question, that part about killing all the Catholic leaders, did you really approve of that Mr J?”

“Approve of it? I most certainly did. After all, it was my idea, you know:”

“Your idea, but why?”

“You know how I have always talked about the meek inheriting the earth and stuff like that. Well those kings and dukes, popes and bishops or whatever they call themselves, they are a living contradiction to the word meek. Whatever bad happens to them, they have for sure deserved it.”

“I see. Now if you excuse me I’m going to see my bookie.” Gabriel heads for the door.

“Who are you going to put your money on Gabe?” Allah inquired.

“Sorry to say it Mr A, but having met your guy in person, my money goes with Mr J. What’s at stake between the two of you by the way?”

“Next time there’s a virgin to be conceived, the winner of this bet will have the pleasure to do it,” Jehovah says with a dreamy look on his face.

Gabriel whistles. “Wow, that’s an awesome price. I mean that Mary-girl was one hot babe, wasn’t she?

Jehovah smiles. “She sure was Gabe. Or what do you think A?”

“Shut up!” Allah angrily turns his back on the other two. “If only that lousy Xerxes had conquered those pesky Greeks I would have been the one,” he mutters.

Jehovah laughs. “Get over it A.”

“Shut up!” Allah reaches for a rubber band from his desk and shoots it at Jehovah.

“A bit grumpy today, are we? Well, got to go, see you later A.” And with a swoosh Jehovah is out of the room, leaving his brother alone to ponder over the unfairness of life.

[Masse I]

This is just a prolugue, the first part of the AAR will be up sometime this weekend.

The settings:

Version: EEP 1.3.1 (I think)/first part is played with the 1.06b2 patch, the rest will be played with 1.06b6.

Difficulty: Very hard/coward

Scenario: gc1419

Country: Granada

[Stroph1]

Rid the world of Christians. Interesting premise. Are the Orthodox lands on the chopping block, too?

I will be reading....

[Seidita]

I like this one its funny. Keep it up.

[Masse I]

Originally posted by Stroph1
Rid the world of Christians. Interesting premise. Are the Orthodox lands on the chopping block, too?

I will be reading....

No, Catholicism is the sole target here.

[Cockney]

“Hey come on Gabe, give us a break here, we’re not perfect you know,” Jehovah replies.

Classic.

Looks like a good AAR in the making, playing Granada isn't easy, it requires judgement, skill and a large helping of luck.

[Masse I]

Originally posted by Cockney
Classic.

Looks like a good AAR in the making, playing Granada isn't easy, it requires judgement, skill and a large helping of luck.

It's a fun nation to play. I read through your AAR and I liked it very much. Hope I'll do as well as you did.

[Masse I]

Nice to see I have at least three readers.

The next part of the AAR won’t include very much game play, as a matter of fact it only concerns the very first day, so all I do is to reduce the size of my army, lower maintenance and adjust the DP-sliders. This part means to introduce some of the more earthly characters into the story. However the next part will see a lot more action I hope.

Thanks for reading and any comments are welcome.

[Masse I]

Here is the starting positon for the not so great kingdom of Granada:

Provinces: 2
Treasury: 75 D
Stability: 2
Merchants/year: 1,4
Settlers/year: 0,4
Diplomats/year: 1
Missionaries/year: 1,8
Supportable Amount: 11000 troops/7 ships
Army: 15000/2000
Navy: No
Diplomatic status: No alliance. Is a vassal of Castile.
Monarch: Muhammad VIII (4, 4, 4)

Domestic Policies:
Aristocracy: 7
Centralization: 2
Innovativeness: 3
Mercantilism: 9
Offensive: 5
Land: 4
Quality: 2
Serfdom: 7

Granada, 1/1 1419:

[Masse I]

1/1 1419

On the first day of the new year 1419, Sultan Muhammad VIII assembled his councillors to the Alhambra Palace for a matter of uttermost importance. When the nobles, tired and weary after last nights festivities, arrived in the royal audience chamber, they were greeted by a very upset but grim-looking Sultan.

“My dear friends”, he said, “this very night a true miracle happened, the Archangel Gabriel came before me and bestowed me with a quest.”

He then went on and described his meeting with the Archangel, very carefully leaving out the part where he, totally horrified, tried to run away like a chicken. When he finished a great silence filled the chamber as the assembled nobles stared at him with disbelief in their eyes, exchanging worried looks with each other. Oh no, not another hallucination, they seemed to think. The silence lasted for only a brief moment and was followed by its opposite as the perplexed nobles regained their composure and soon the whole chamber was in an uproar.

Some hours, and a lot of explaining from the Sultan, later the assembly ended and Mustafa Masrur, the Chancellor of Foreign Affairs and many other things, returned to his office accompanied by his fosterling, pupil and assistant Ishmael Ghazi.

“So young Ishmael, sum up the most important matters that were discussed and decided today, and give me your opinion of them.” Mustafa sat down in his chair.

Always tutoring, Ishmael thought. But as he was pretty used to it, having spent more than ten years by Mustafa’s side, (Ishmael’s father, a captain in the Granadian army, gave his life to save the royal Chancellor when he was assaulted by a band of robbers. To honour his saviour, Mustafa adopted Ishmael, who was only seven years old at the time, and began his training, so that the young boy, one day, should be ready to replace Mustafa as the Sultan’s most trusted Chancellor.) he had no problem to give his beloved foster father what he asked for.

“First the Sultan told us about his latest hallucination and his intention to let it be the guiding-star for him, and all the rulers of Granada in the future, to follow. And when you and the other chancellors realized that he was serious about what he said then you lost it and went nuts.”

“But you didn’t, I noticed,” Mustafa interrupted, “you kept your calm and if I’m not mistaken I even think I saw a content little smile on your face”

“No, you weren’t mistaken, you never are,” Ishmael continued, “but I’ll come back to my personal feelings later when I’m done with the summary. When you all had calmed down a bit, the following questions and proposals were raised. First, Emir Ibrahim objected that our army is too small and if we want to conquer any land at all, we need to recruit more troops. To that, our not so bright Chancellor of the Treasury, Abdullah Moktar, answered, exactly as you had instructed him, that our current financial situation don’t allow for any new recruitments at all, rather the contrary, we desperately need to make a large cut in our military expenses if we want to avoid bankruptcy. And you were worried about what our catholic neighbours, and so called protectors, would think, if we declared that we mean to rid the world of their religion and suggested that we kept this as a secret agenda.”

“Care for some orange juice?” Mustafa asked, reaching for a carafe and a goblet.

“No thank you. The Sultan quickly agreed with you that for the moment it would be wisest not to tell anyone about his quest. It took a lot more arguing to convince him about the necessity of disbanding 6000 of our infantry and cutting our army maintenance down to 50 percent. Especially since an outraged Emir Ibrahim, strongly opposed any cut down at all. Finally, the Sultan wanted our economy to be strengthened and for that we need more merchants willing to go abroad to trade. Therefore, it was decided that we should loosen up our mercantilistic policies a bit, even though it may cause some unrest for a while.”

“An excellent summary, as usual my dear Ishmael,” Mustafa complimented, “now what do you think of all this?”

“Unlike the rest of you, I have to say I was kind of thrilled when I heard the Sultan describe his hallucination. Ever since you showed me all those old maps of Granada at its peak of might and glory, have I dreamed of the day when our nation once again shall rise to be strong and powerful. Now, with the Sultan believing that it’s his quest to conquer Catholic lands, I feel that that day will soon be here. I know you’re not very fond of this idea and you would very much prefer if we kept a low profile and continued to pay our yearly tribute to the Castilians. But that is only because you’re an cautious old fool of course.”

“You on the other hand, are a young rascal with your head too filled with ambition, leaving no room for the brain,” Mustafa replied in a harsh voice that didn’t go very well with the smile on his face. “What about the decisions we made?”

Ishmael returned the smile. “I agree with all of them. I had my doubts about the disbanding of our infantry, but after you showed me how severely crippled, our economy would have been if we had kept them, I realized it’s the only way. And I strongly believe that trade is one of two ways to go to help up our economy, the other way is, of course, expansion.”

“On that we disagree as you know, well that’s it for today. You may go now,” Mustafa said.

“Just one more thing, why do you have to cover for that incompetent fool Abdullah Moktar, he’s supposed to be Councillor of the Treasury but doesn’t know anything about economics. Every single idea he has presented to the Sultan has come from you but he gets the credit for it,” Ishmael complained.

“You see Ishmael, Abdullah’s father was a good friend to the Sultans father and that complicates things quite a bit. At least he is well aware of his shortcomings and he knows he must never talk to the Sultan without consulting me first, which means that whatever I tell him to report to the Sultan, he does report to the Sultan. That way I control the finances without the other nobles whining about me having to much power.”

“I still don’t like it very much, but I guess I have to live with it, for now.” Ishmael bowed and left the office.

[Arilou]

Nice. Keep up the good work!
I was going to write a Granada AAR myself, but somehow it got lost...

[Seidita]

I hope that disbanding was the right thing to do? But then i have never played Granada.

[Alkar]

Interesting read, I wonder if you can make it through, preferably without going bankrupt. Any thoughts already on a strategy?

*subscribes for this AAR*

[Cockney]

Disbanding troops is the last thing I'd do as Granada, but it's great to see people trying new things

[Masse I]

Originally posted by Masse I
However the next part will see a lot more action I hope.

Thanks for reading and any comments are welcome.

This quote unfortunately turned out to be untrue. As you'll see in the next part there is a war coming. My plan was to include at least part of the war in this post, but as I've been rather busy the last days, I haven't had as much time to write on this AAR as I wanted.
Now however, everything is set for war, so soon there will be some action.

[Masse I]

4/5 1419.

After the assembly things seemed to go back to normal again, the days passed by and turned to weeks, the weeks turned to months, and nothing of importance happened. Ishmael, who had seen a bright future coming for him as well as for Granada, was growing impatient and even doubtful. The stupid Sultan has most probably forgotten all about his “quest” already, he used to think. Then, on the fourth day of the fifth month, something finally happened. The Sultan called for another assembly. Ishmael hurried off to the audience chamber and arrived just in time to slip in before the doors were closed.

“My dear friends,” the Sultan said, “last night a messenger from the evil Juan II, king of Castile, requested an audience. Since I had more important matters to tend to I asked Mustafa to meet with him. Now Mustafa, oldest and wisest of friends, tell us what that bloody Catholic king in Madrid had to say.”

“Yes my Lord. To make quite a short story even shorter, king Juan proposed that we, his loyal vassals, should enter a military alliance with Castile, so that we would be even more protected than before by the mighty Castilian armies.”

Sultan Muhammad stood up, enraged. “That bloody bastard,” he shouted, “if he only knew, that I have been chosen by Allah to rid the world of his stupid religion, he wouldn’t be so damn supercilious. I’ll never join an alliance with him or any other Catholic king and I don’t want to pay any tribute to them either.”

“Well spoken my Lord. Let king Juan pay for this insolence with the blood of his compatriots.” Emir Ibrahim stood up and struck his fist to the table.

“I agree,” Abdullah Muktar said hesitantly, always eager to please the Sultan (unless Mustafa had instructed him otherwise).

Hearing the Sultan’s outburst, Ishmael felt revived, he hadn’t forgotten his quest after all and now it seemed that Granada’s first step towards might and glory wasn’t far away. Then, the long years he had spent at his foster fathers side took control of him. He quickly calmed down and started to think the way Mustafa had taught him to. For some reason, his eyes were drawn to the large map over the Iberian Peninsula that covered the wall right behind the throne. Then it suddenly struck him, this was the chance for him to prove his worth to the Sultan and to help his country once more prosper as it had in the past. He tried to rise from his chair to speak but he couldn’t, his legs trembled so much they just wouldn’t bear him. He sunk back to his chair and took a deep breath. Come on, get your self together, it’s now or never, he thought trying to compose himself. Another deep breath and the trembling stopped. He rose.

“My Lord, may I most respectfully voice a differing opinion,” he said with a loud but rather nervous voice.

The chamber fell silent as they all stared at him with surprise. This was the first time he had ever opened his mouth during an assembly.

“By all means, let us hear your opinion young Ishmael,” the Sultan answered with a smile.

At least he knows my name, Ishmael thought. “Thank you my Lord. Everyone in this room knows that we must hate king Juan of Castile for being an evil Catholic. However, king Juan doesn’t, he believes we are his loyal vassals and I say, let him believe so for the moment. Let us join his alliance and keep paying him tribute. Why, you wonder? Because, whether we like it or not, Castile is the most powerful nation in Iberia. We wouldn’t last long against its might if we followed our brave Emirs suggestion and went to war. Instead, let us take advantage of the might of our neighbour and use it against one of our two other enemies, Aragon or Portugal.” Ishmael silenced and looked at the Sultan who seemed rather pleased. Now comes the tricky part, he thought before he continued. “The best part is, that I strongly believe that with the help of the Castilians, we can fight and win a war with the army we have today. No need to spend a lot of money, which we don’t have, on recruiting new soldiers”

“My Lord, this is madness!” Emir Ibrahim couldn’t keep silent any longer. “We can’t march to war with just 11000 men, we need at least twice as many soldiers.”

“Which we can’t afford,” Ishmael continued. “My Lord, if the brave Emir doesn’t believe we can fight this war with the funds available to us, that leaves you with two options. Either you could just forget all about it or you could put someone who believes, in command of the war effort.”

Once more, the chamber fell silent as they all stared at the young man, who before this day had never spoken a single word in the assembly and now came up with such a bold request.

“You little brat, who do you think you are!” Emir Ibrahim, now furious, flew up from his chair.

The Sultan waved with his hand. “Silence! How old are you, my young friend?”

“I’m 18, my Lord.”

“A very brave and ambitious young man it seems.” Muhammad smiled and turned to Mustafa. “You know the boy my old friend, can he do it?”

At first Mustafa had been infuriated as Ishmael had clearly stepped out of line, but when he heard his young fosterling speak up for himself in front of the whole assembly, his anger soon faded and gave way to a new and much stronger feeling, pride. He looked fondly on Ishmael and noticed the pleading look in his eyes. “My Lord, he is a most able young man. If he says he can do it, I can assure you he will succeed.”

“My old friend, your advice has always been for the best in the past and I shall put my trust in you this time as well. Inform the Castilian messenger that we accept his kings’ proposal. Ishmael, you are now in full command of the coming war, don’t fail us.”

Emir Ibrahim, now totally enraged, left the room without a word, slamming the doors shut behind him.

“Thank you my Lord,” Ishmael bowed, his heart full of joy and excitement, “I won’t fail you.”

“Now, who will we go after first, Alfons V of Aragon or João I of Portugal,” the Sultan asked.

“Well my Lord, I’m afraid we can’t go after either of them right now,” Mustafa answered.

“Why not?”

“We have no diplomat available my Lord, and we need one to declare war.”

“What? Why don’t we have any diplomats? King Juan just sent us a diplomat and if he had one I want to have one as well.”

“The problem here my Lord, is that they are Catholics and we are Moslems. I’ve been studying the most recent research made on the topic and it clearly indicates, that the Catholic nobility is much more likely to bring forth willing diplomats than their Moslem counterpart. An odd detail is that the Orthodox nobility, being Christian and all, don’t get any more diplomats than we do. So clearly, it has something to do with Catholicism as a religion.”

“What’s the reason for that? It’s not fair.”

“Nobody can tell my Lord, only the Gods know the answer to that question.”

Heaven

“Hey J, we’re Gods, right?”

“Yeah, we sure are A.”

“Do we know why my Moslem guys and your Orthodox guys gets less diplomats than your Catholic guys?”

“We haven’t got a clue A.”

“That’s what I thought. He’s right you know, it’s not fair.”

“I can’t argue with you on that one but that’s life, I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

After the assembly, Mustafa and Ishmael met in the office as usual. Ishmael was as excited as he was happy when he entered the room.

“Hey, I really want to thank you for your confidence and support, it meant everything to me. Without it I would never have had this opportunity,” he said sparkling with joy.

“I’ve no confidence in you, you’re nothing but a young rascal with to much ambition and to less brain,” Mustafa answered with a big smile. “However I’ve very much confidence in myself and my abilities as a tutor. After all, this is exactly the kind of situation I’ve trained you for and I’m sure you’ll do excellent. I can tell you this, I’ve never been so proud as I was today and it was all thanks to you my son. One thing made me concerned though, you just got yourself quite an enemy in the good Emir.”

“Thank you father, but don’t you worry about old Ibrahim, when I have won this war that soon will come, I think he’ll be history in the eyes of the Sultan.”

“He most probably will, but even if he loses his title as Emir and his place in the Royal Council, he’ll still be Ibrahim Abencerrajes, head of the most powerful noble family in the country. Not a person you want as your enemy I tell you.”

“Maybe not, but lets not worry about that for the moment. Now it’s time for some celebration I would say."

[Alkar]

Ah, quite a savvy strategy allying with your biggest neighbour, the Castillians, then going after some other nations and when you are strong enough just stab them in the back.

[Masse I]

4/5 1419.

The next day Ishmael started his preparations for the upcoming war, he inspected the troops and sent out spies to both Portugal and Aragon to gather more information, before he decided which of the two countries should be the first to be incorporated to the glorious Granadian Empire he planned to create. However, once more the days started to pass, as days normally do. May turned into June and yet no diplomat were to be seen anywhere near the Alhambra Palace. For each day, the Sultan got increasingly impatient and irritated and when, in the last days of June, a message from king Juan announced that Aragon now was a part of the alliance, he got furious and spent more than an hour yelling about how unfair everything was and how he wanted to have a diplomat too. For Ishmael, the news made his decision a lot easier as only Portugal remained as a target.

The months went by and in September, as no diplomat had showed up, Mustafa and Ishmael really started to worry about the Sultans mental status. Then it happened, another message was recieved from Madrid, proudly proclaiming that Aragon now was a vassal of the mighty Castilian kingdom. Hearing this, the heavy burden of the injustices of life, finally became to heavy for the poor Sultans shoulders to bear.

“It’s not fair,” he yelled, frantically turning against one of the robust stonewalls of the Palace. “It’s all your fault,” he shouted and pointed at the wall. “But now you’re going to pay!” Using his head as a sledgehammer, he assaulted the poor and most innocent wall, in an attempt to break it down. His attempt was not very successful though and only resulted in the Sultan knocking himself unconscious.

This incidence was the only thing that broke the monotony for the rest of the year of 1419.

1420

1/1
The Sultan was somewhat pleased when 17 ducats of yearly taxes were brought in to the treasury and to strengthen the economy even further, it was decided that a tax collector should be promoted in the province of Granada. However the lack of diplomats were still a great annoyance to the Sultan and even Ishmael began to feel a little frustrated as he was itching to get his war started.

1/2
One month later loud cheers where heard from the Alhambra Palace, at last a diplomat had reported for duty and the Sultan was happy again. Ishmael, also very happy and excited, wasted no time and on February 7, king João I of Portugal received the declaration of war in his palace in Lisbon. The same day both Castile and Aragon declared that they would honour the alliance and assist Granada in its rightful struggle against the Portuguese oppressor. Then nothing happened. Five months after the declaration of war, the Army of Granada, 11000 underpaid and ill-equipped men (9000,2000), led by colonel Asaba, still hadn’t moved.

[Masse I]

War vs Portugal, April 10 1420

[Masse I]

1/8
The Sultan, quite puzzled by the complete inactivity of his proud army, summoned his councillors
to find out what was going on. When all had gathered Emir Ibrahim immediately burst out in anger.

“I warned you My Lord, this young upstart has absolutely no idea how to wage a war. Has he lost his courage, dares he not meet the enemy on the battlefield, I demand an explanation.”

“My Lord,” Ishmael turned to the Sultan, calmly ignoring the enraged Emir. “I can assure you that everything goes according to plan. The key to victory in this war is patience not great battles. Let me give you a short summary of the war so far. Since mid-April, king Alfonso V of Aragon is besieging Porto with his army, assisted by some troops from Tlemcen who are also at war with Portugal. In May, there was a battle in Tago where 14000 Portuguese defeated 10000 Aragonians. In the beginning of July, Castilian troops moved into Oporto to assist king Alfonso in his siege while Portugal moved an army of 16000 men into Estrameduras, leaving another equally large army waiting in Algarve.”

“This is madness, you can’t win a war without battles,” the Emir cried.

“True, but you have to choose wisely which battles to fight, especially when so heavy outnumbered as we are,” Ishmael replied, not very successfully trying to avoid sounding too scornful.

“Very well,” the Sultan interrupted, “I trusted you before when I gave you command of this war and I still do. However, the good Emir has a point, sooner or later, we have to use our army, haven’t we?”

“Absolutely my Lord, as soon as the Portuguese moves their troops out of Algarve, I’ll be informed and then our army will move in there and seize control of the province.”

“Good, don’t waste more time here then young Ishmael, you have a war to attend to,” the Sultan ended the meeting.

Two days after the assembly Ishmael cursed, when he was informed that Tlemcen had signed a peace with Portugal, paying 75 D in indemnity. This would certainly make his task even harder; nevertheless, he kept his confidence, this was his war and he meant to win it.

15/8
Finally, the news arrived; the Portuguese army in Algarve was on the move to Estrameduras. Ishmael immediately, saddled his horse and rode in full gallop to the quarters where he met with colonel Asaba.

“It’s time my good colonel, make your men ready and march without further delay to Algarve and breach the walls of Elvas. And don’t forget my orders”

“Never, ever, engage in battle with the enemy unless you have superior numbers on the field,” the colonel repeated his orders. “To be honest Sire, with our current equipment, we wouldn’t stand much chance against an even numbered Portuguese army, so these orders will be easy to follow. One more thing though, would it be possible to pay the men full wages, at least as long as we’re at war, it would really help to improve their morale.”

“I’m afraid our poor economy don’t allow for that kind of luxury my good colonel,” Ishmael answered, “just stay out of battles as much as you can and everything will be fine. Bye for now and may Allah look kindly upon you.”

“Thank you very much Sire.”

15/9
A messenger from colonel Asaba reported that the Army of Granada had arrived in Algarve without meeting any resistance. More worrying is the 27000 Portuguese in Estrameduras and the 8000 in Tago.

1421

1/1
Despite two peace offers from king João, where he demanded a few ducats in exchange for peace, the war raged on. The siege of Elvas went on but colonel Asaba was now really anxious about the Portuguese army of 22000 men in Tago. A messenger from Madrid reported that the Castilians had failed to drive the enemy out of Estrameduras, 16000 Portuguese still laid siege to Badajoz.

14/2
Great news arrived to the Alhambra Palace; Elvas had fallen. The Sultan was overwhelmed with joy and pride, at least until he was told by Ishmael that the war was far from over. The Portuguese still had large armies and would not give in that easy; only a few days later they proved Ishmael right, when they captured Estrameduras from Castile.

2/3
The Portuguese army from Estrameduras (10564/328) engaged the Army of Granada (8909/1982) in Algarve and colonel Asaba, following his strict orders, immediately retreated to Andalusia and from there moved on to Estrameduras. Encouraged by that, king João, three days later demands 18 D for peace but to no avail.

3/5
Words from king Alfonso reached Granada saying that he had, at last, captured Porto. At the same time, 32000 Portuguese, under the command of Infantes, stood outside the walls of Elvas.

2/7
Some 9000 Castilians marched into Estrameduras and colonel Asaba leaves it to them to recapture their own land, leading the Army of Granada to Tago instead.

16/7
Ahmed Zegries, head of the wealthiest merchant family in Granada and, since long, a loyal supporter of the Sultan, requested an audience.

“My Lord,” Ahmed bowed, “the Zegries along with some other rich merchants, wishes to express our strong support for your effort to expand the borders of our glorious realm. Thus, we have decided to donate 50 D to help you bring this war to a happy end.”

The Sultan looked very pleased. “From the bottom of my heart I thank you, Ahmed Zegries, for this most welcome gift. Rest assure that your kindness and patriotism won’t be forgotten.”

19/8
Sultan Muhammad, still happy over the merchants’ gift, decided that it would only be fair, for the rest of the population to contribute to the war effort as well and war taxes were raised. First there was some unrest, as the people didn’t think very much of these new taxes, but in a few months everything calmed down.

The Army of Granada (8279/1856) was now besieging Lisbon, while 28000 Castilians tried to take back Estrameduras from Portugal and Infantes, now with a huge army (47000 men), still worked to recapture Algarve.

3/9
Colonel Asaba and his men easily scattered 5000 fresh Portuguese recruits in Tago and the brave Moorish soldiers celebrated their first victorious battle.

7/11
The Castilians leaves Estrameduras in Portuguese hands, possibly because the troops were needed to quell a rebellion in Murcia.

2/12
The Sultan was enraged to hear that Infantes had breached the walls of Elvas meaning that Portugal was back in control of Algarve. The peace proposal from king João the very next day, demanding 51 D, didn’t make the Sultan any happier as he thought of it more as an insult than a serious proposal.

26/12
To further dampen the Sultans mood, the army of Infantes (10344/1851) forced colonel Asaba to leave Tago, sending him and his army back to Estrameduras.

1422

29/1
On a request from colonel Asaba, Ishmael ordered 1000 infantry and as many cavalry to be recruited in Granada.

1/2
This evening there was a great feast in the Alhambra Palace, to celebrate the wedding between one of the Sultans cousins and the oldest son of a prominent Moroccan noble family.

27/2
When Ishmael received news that Infantes, along with the entire Portuguese army of 48000 men had marched into Andalusia, he wasted no time and ordered colonel Asaba to march to Tago.

5/3
The Army of Granada fights off 3000 Portuguese greenhorns outside the walls of Lisbon.

1/5
The new recruits are ready to use and are sent to Tago without further delay.

15/7
A few months ago, a young Moorish nobleman had asked the Sultans permission to wed the daughter of the Sultan of Tlemcens youngest brother. As it would strengthen the bonds and improve relations between the two countries, the Sultan had told Mustafa to make the necessary arrangements and now it was all done. Another great wedding party were held in the Alhambra Palace and everyone was happy.

18/7
In a fierce battle, 26000 Castilians defeated the now 33000 men strong Portuguese army in Andalusia, before they moved on to Estrameduras.

16/9
The Sultan wanted more money and to the discontent of the people, war taxes once more were raised.

26/10
Infantes and his army (29838/1369) arrived in Tago and the heavy outnumbered Army of Granada drew back to Algarve, where Alfonso V stood with 7000 Aragonians. The Portuguese followed and the brave Moors retreated even further to Andalusia, from where they started to march to Tago, for the third time in this war.

1423

2/1
The Sultan wed away yet another young nobleman to improve foreign relations, but since all these festivities were getting rather expensive, the groom was put on a ship and sailed of to Tunisia for the marriage and everyone was happy. With the exception of the poor people of Seville that is, cause the same day their city was surrounded by 27000 Portuguese soldiers led by Infantes.

3/3
The Army of Granada (6954/2392) marched into Tago and wiped the floor with the 1000 troops of cavalry that tried to stop them. However, there was now to few soldiers left in the army so no siege could begin. Therefore, back in Granada, Ishmael ordered 2000 new cavalry to be recruited.

9/4
The people of Seville can be happy again as Infantes for some reason broke the siege and wandered of with his army elsewhere. But one mans gain, is another mans pain and pain was surely felt by some of the 20000 Castilian soldiers that were defeated by the Portuguese army in Toledo.

23/4
The Army of Granada got some reinforcements when 3000 soldiers from Aragon arrived in Tago and the siege could start.

1/6
The combined Granadian/Aragonian forces in Tago had no problem to repel an attack from 1000 fresh cavalry. Six days later, the new recruits in Granada had finished their training and were sent to Tago. In the meantime, 20000 Castilians laid siege to Badajoz, eager to take back Estrameduras, while Infantes, having marched his army around the Peninsula just to find himself defeated by a bunch of rebels in Murcia, finally ended up in Valencia with only 15000 soldiers remaining of his once so great army.

7/7
For a second time, the wealthy merchant Ahmed Zegries paid a visit to Alhambra to meet with the Sultan.

“My Lord,” Ahmed bowed, “I have noticed a big weakness in our great state, the absence of a war fleet, to protect the ships of our merchants from pirates. Therefore, as head of the Zegries-family, I decided to finance the building of two great war ships. They are now completed and I give them to you as a gift.”

The Sultan looked very pleased. “From the bottom of my heart I thank you, Ahmed Zegries, for this most welcome gift. Rest assure that your kindness and patriotism won’t be forgotten.”

19/8
Two more weddings were coming and this time it was serious business. The Sultans sister was going to marry the youngest son of Murad II, the Sultan of the great Ottoman Empire. Sultan Muhammad was thrilled and to finance the greatest feast in the history of Granada, he came up with the brilliant idea of raising war taxes. The other marriage wasn’t of the same importance, one of the Sultans cousins’ nephews was sent to Cairo to wed some distant relative to the ruler of the Mameluks.

11/9
King Alfonso V marched into Tago and told colonel Asaba that from now on he was in charge of the siege. Rather confused, Asaba sent a message to Ishmael, who got furious and ordered his army to break the siege right away and march on to Algarve.

11/11
The walls of Valencia were breached by the Portuguese.