The Eternal City - Byzantium AAR

From a high tower window, the Emperor looked westward surveying his domains. His great city was completely enclosed by formidable walls. He could see the Forum of Constantine, the Harbour of Eleutherius and beyond was the Triumphal Way and the Golden Gate on the Wall of Theodosius. But this emperor's domain did not extend very much further, for this was Constantinople in the year 1419, the seat of an empire long in decline and if he had cared - which he did not - to cast his gaze eastward the Emperor Manuel II would have seen across the Bosphorus the encampments of the Turkish Sultan, the latest in a line of rulers whose power had grown as Byzantium had declined. He began to ponder the situation: how was it that he, God's own servant, was on the brink of ruin while the power of the heathen Turk waxed? Why was his power so meagre compared to his pagan Roman predecessors who claimed to rule the World?
Footsteps interrupted his thoughts and he turned to see two men approaching, a servant by the name of Paul and his chief advisor and old friend Demetrios. The Emperor turned back to the vista of Constantinople.
"What does the future hold for us, Demetrios?"
"I cannot say, my lord, nor can any mortal man, and I think that is probably for the best."
"What have your heard the people say? What future do they see?"
"Opinions vary, naturally.... there are those who believe we are doomed; there are those who believe it but are resigned to it, even saying 'better the Sultan's turban than the Cardinal's hat' and there are those who simply have faith that the New Rome can never fall."
"Then, Demetrios, let us be numbered among those who have that faith. It will be my task to see that neither cardinal's hat nor sultan's turban triumphs. It is time to make our first move, and it will be against the last remnant of the poisonous legacy of the so-called Fourth Crusade."

In September 1419, with the Ottoman Sultan preoccupied with a war against the rival emirate of Candar, what remained of Byzantium's once formidable army disembarked in its remaining possessions in the Peleponese and marched north against the Duchy of Athens, a portion of Greece in the hands of a French ruling dynasty. The small army of that state was crushed and Athens besieged. Fleets sent from the Duchy's Italian sponsors in Florence and Modena arrived too late: the war had already moved onto land and Athens fell the following June. Its French rulers were expelled and Achaea, along with the rest of Morea was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire. The Florentines at first refused to accept this, supporting the claims of the exiled Duke of Athens, but the arrival of Byzantine forces at the gates of Florence and their defeat of the city state's own forces placed them under siege and they agreed to give up all support. They were forced to hand over the Duke who was exiled again to France. The last of the Latin states in the East was back in Constantinople's hands.

Luckily the Ottomans opened the game by DoWing Candar instead of me or Athens. While the Turks were away, I invaded and annexed Athens and managed to land troops in Tuscany (not sure what happened to the Tuscan fleet - presumably it was looking for my fleet in the Sea of Marmara or somewhere) and beat their army decisively three times. Their ally Modena helpfully just sat there and watched and I got 50d indemnity out of the Italians. So far so good, but how long before the Ottomans finish off little Candar and attack me?

Thanks for all the comments.

Does the basic events zip package work with unmodded 1.07? One thing I've thought about is that Byzantium never gets the CoT in the way that the Ottomans do if they take Constantinople, no matter how well they may do.

Fresh from victory, the Emperor Manuel II and his advisors knew they could not afford to rest on their laurels. Sitting in private in one of the smaller palace rooms - one chosen because it commanded a view East facing the Sultan's lands - they now talked of breaking their ties with the "other empire" in Trebizond and creating a new alliance.
"The so-called emperor in Trebizond," began the Emperor, "can never truly be our friend. His is a throne which should no longer exist and he knows this. It is a marriage of convenience, if you will, this alliance. More to the point, his army is tiny and poorly disciplined. If, or, no, let us say 'when' the Turks make their move, they will be no help at all."
Demetrios nodded: "We need new allies, and it seems to his imperial majesty and to that we can only look in one place."
"The Vlach nations," said the Emperor, "are our best hope. No nation hates and fears the Turk more than Wallachia and Moldavia, and to that end they have made their own alliance and the Wallachian Voivode, Dan II, has no intention of being a Turkish vassal. Additionally, they seem to have the backing of Hungary in this."
An elderly man, from one of the wealthiest families in Constantinople, began shaking his head. "Hungary again! Catholic Hungary! If Trebizond cannot be our friend, the Magyars cannot but be our hated foes! They desire to make us hear the Latin Mass even more than the Turks desire to make Haggia Sophia resound to the muezzin's call..."
"We don't propose an alliance with Hungary," the Emperor interrupted, raising a hand, "but it is good to know they will not allow a move against us from the North. We send ambassadors with such gifts as we can afford. War cannot be long in coming, I fear."
* * *
Ten years later, Manuel was dead. Another Emperor, Ioannes VIII rode through Constantinople with the advisor who had served his predecessor, Demetrios. It was not a triumphal procession. Many buildings were ruined, broken or burned. Cannon had damaged the walls of the Palace itself and it had not been repaired. Ioannes and Demetrios, like all the people of the empire, had come to understand well the meaning of the phrase "a Pyrrhic victory". Yet victory it was.
"You have served my family faithfully and for a long time, Demetrios," said the Emperor, "but I am afraid your reward is merely to join your Emperor in poverty. The state is bankrupt. Our gold coins are silver and our silver coins are tin. And Constantine's city has come to this..."
Demetrios replied, "Some years ago, my lord, your predecessor looked from his window at his city and swore this: 'Let us have faith in the Eternal City. Neither the cardinal's hat nor the Sultan's turban!' You have fulfilled that oath. Constantinople will be rebuilt, as great as it ever was. Let your majesty, too, have faith."


In February 1425 the Turkish Sultan Murad crossed the Bosphorus and laid siege to Constantinople. The Empeor Manuel II, however defeated the Ottoman vanguard, outflanked the invaders and crossed the Bosphorus himself, capturing the important city of Bursa before re-crossing the straits. Moldavia and Wallachia joined the war and drove the Turks from the Dobrudja region. Constantinople's walls were breached in October and the Sultan's armies poured into the city, but the defenders fought on, escaping across the straits into the walled suburb of Galata and twice launching assaults from there aimed at recapturing the city. It was not until April the following year that Galata itself fell. The Emperor Manuel died on campaign, succeeded by Ioannes VIII who refused to capitulate, instead leading his army on a rampage through Anatolia, and using the treasures salvaged from Constantinople to buy the services of Italian and Albanian mercenaries who launched their own campaign to drive the Turkish armies out of Macedonia and Bulgaria. With the tide of war turning, the Emperor returned to attack the Turks and drive them out of Constantinople in January 1427, capturing the Ottoman capital in Adrianople at the end of the year in spite of dissent in his army which threatened to undermine the whole campaign. Help arrived from an unexpected source when a large force sent from Rhodes by the Knights of St John sailed into Salonika harbour and joined battle against the Turkish forces, defeating them and advancing North into Bulgaria. In 1428, with the fall of Smyrna to Byzantine forces, the Sultan admitted defeat and sent his son as emissary to the Emperor. He agreed to the surrender of Macedonia to the Byzantines and to restore to Wallachia the coastal lands taken from Mircea the Elder. As the price for receiving back Bulgaria, he was forced to agree to end the devesirme system there, which had long been resented. Ruinous though the war was for the Byzantine throne, it was the first time since the disaster of Manzikert 350 years earlier that territory had been taken from the Turks.

As usual when you load a saved game, the AI has everyone declare war on everyone: Bohemia, Poland and Lithuania all gang up on Prussia, Prussia gets help from Pommern, Bremen, Holstein, Mecklenburg and the Teutonic Order; Sweden and Denmark declare war on Novgorod and Muscovy decides to join in too, England and Burgundy attack Eire, Brittany attacks Burgundy, Portugal attacks Granada, Lorraine and France attack Burgundy. As part of this round of declaring war, the Ottomans declare war on me. Fortunately my relations with Moldavia and Wallachia, bolstered by small bribes and RMs are good enough for them to join in on my side without hesitation. At this point I must confess to a little cheating: I did use "Richelieu" to get Wallachia to actually start moving its armies immediately, rather than building up more and more troops in order not to use them, as AI allies sometimes do...
Took out a loan immediately and raised a mercenary company in Thrace, began moving to attack Smyrna. Saw a ****ing huge Ottoman army heading there, changed my mind, defeated a smaller invasion, then moved off to besiege Bursa. Took out another loan, built troops, raised another mercenary company in Hellas and attacked Macedonia. After a great deal of running around by both sides, myself and the OE ended up holding each other's capitals. The Ottomans having captured Constantinople then split up their huge army into manageable little pieces soon crushed by my Romanian friends. The remainder cross the straits to kick me out of Bursa, while I run off to pillage and capture more of their provinces, in the middle of which I get the "Corruption" event. I slide over the stability budget (not a problem, by now I've had to take out more loans and will be going bankrupt anyway, so all tech investment is worthless) but the stab hits ensure an annoying revolt in Rumelia, distracting the Wallachians. By now the Moldavians have agreed peace for a small fee. The war is looking a very even contest now, but I can't let it drag on and on with impending state bankruptcy.
Having played a few GCs before I never thought I'd be glad to see the Knights, but I cheered at the screen when I saw them DoW the Ottomans and land nearly 10,000 men in Macedonia. I finish the siege to get Constantinople back, squish the Ottomans in Macedonia with all 3 of my armies and then move on to Smyrna, which falls in August 1428. The Sultan has only about 5000 men left, and surrenders at this point. My terms: Macedonia to Byzantium, Dobrudja to Wallachia (so my ally can't be eliminated from the game by one unlucky combat result). I feel much safer now. Bankruptcy follows in 1429, resulting in a scary 25% inflation already - but it's still better than being part of the Ottoman Empire!

Stnylan - Don't worry, the Ottomans are well in hand. Heh, heh, heh...
Farquarson - the poor Tunisians! At least Byzantium gets decent monarchs to start with...
Anyway - on with the tales from Constantinople...

Demetrios' faithful service continued for less than two years. On the morning of the 9th of February 1437, a distressed young messenger came to the pavilion of the Emperor, on campaign again against the Ottoman Turks. His most trusted advisor had been found strangled in his tent nearby. The unknown assassin had made good his escape. The Emperor Ioannes gazed down at the floor in obvious distress for a moment, fists clenched, then sighed.
"The Turks are responsible for this," he said coldly, "and he will be avenged. Send the body back to Constantinople, where he will be buried in the Monastery of St. John of Stoudion. The siege continues of course. Send our greetings to the Dragon, and assure him our resolve is not shaken."
What the Emperor feared most was that this was not the action of Turk at all, but that of a jealous family of the Empire itself. Others would clearly think so too, in spite of what he had said. At all costs, if the Empire was to continue, such corruption and bloody intrigues would have to be brought under control.
The Turkish garrison of Varna was determined and supplies could be received through the harbour. The siege dragged on for months, but the outcome was inevitable. Ioannes would not relent until the Ottoman state had ceased to exist. Then it would be time for other matters.

The final blow which crippled the once so formidable Ottomans came ironically not from the Christian West but from the Turkish Emirate of Karaman, which was beginning to take control of Eastern Anatolia. Fearing that the thwarting of Murad's plans to take Constantinople might cause him to turn East instead, the Emir Taj-ad-Din Ibrahim took the side of his neighbour the Emir of Teke in a quarrel with the Ottomans, raised a formidable army of his own and attacked Angora. When news of this reached Constantinople, the Emperor needed no encouragement to further damage his weakened rival. An expedition into Bulgaria was at first defeated, but a larger force crushed the Turkish armies at the battles of Elena and Belozem. Byzantine forces then turned South, crossing the Bosphorus and capturing Smyrna. The Emir of Karaman captured Angora and reached the Black Sea Coast. Wallachia was now ruled by the formidable Vlad Dracul, a member of the Order of the Dragon sworn to fight against the Muslims. In December 1437 he followed his ally across the Bosphorus, captured the Ottoman capital and took the Sultan himself hostage, ransoming him for a great sum of gold and winning his promise never again to fight against Wallachia. The Sultan Murad was never released, however, but instead handed over to the Byzantine Emperor, in whose custody he was obliged to hand over almost half his entire territory including all of Bulgaria and the whole coast of the Aegean and the Sea of Marmara.
With no armies left to oppose them it was a simple matter for the Karamanli forces to overwhelm their enemies, and Murad had no choice but to order the gates of his capital opened for Taj-ad-Din Ibrahim's triumphant entry. Only a small Ottoman rump state remained, with Murad's authority extending only across a few towns around Bursa. His premature death in 1444 left the throne occupied by the 12 year old Mehmet whose brother had died the previous year. Ioannes promptly declared himself regent for the young Sultan, and when this was resisted, a formidable army was despatched to enforce the declaration, which soon overran the remaining Ottoman domain, effectively incorporating it into the Empire.
Dramatic events elsewhere soon caused the Emperor to return to Constantinople and begin a new struggle, however.
The exact circumstances surrounding the conflict between the reviving Byzantine Empire and Venice are not clear, but it seems that the Venetians resented Byzantine control of the passage between the Aegean and the Black Sea and decided to blockade ports under imperial control. However, though its navy was powerful, the Venetian armies, still reeling from defeat in Italy, were no match for those of the Emperor and his Wallachian allies. The forces of Venice's client state, Ragusa, were driven from Nish and Ragusa itself fell in April 1447, which prompted an expedition by forces loyal to the Pope to occupy the city. Byzantine forces captured Euboea and Andros and captured the city of Spalato before sacking Trieste and approaching Venice itself. Following the death of the emperor his successor Konstantinos XI sent messengers to his enemies to see what they might offer to save their city. In 1449 the government of Venice was forced to ransom back the captured territories for a sum of a twenty thousand ducats and the return of many important treasures looted from Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204. The Byzantine army departed warning that, "The evil you have done us has not yet been avenged."


The Empire at the Death of Ioannes VIII

Karaman declaring war on the Ottomans was just what I was hoping would happen: all the Turkish nations fighting each other. I was never going to get a better chance to start grabbing back all the Byzantine cores. DoW on the Ottoman Empire, which good old Vlad Dracul was delighted to join in - making straight for Bursa without me having to type "Richelieu". After capturing Smyrna and beating up the modest OE forces Rumelia was besieged. Meanwhile, the Karamanli Turks conquered Trebizond (bah!) and still had 17000 men left to take on the nearly defenceless OE. Angora and Kastamonu fall to them in due course. In the middle of the war I get "Assassination of a Noble" (which is what the little intro piece is about, of course) but having decided to stay Orthodox my Stab recovers quite quickly with my backward, superstitious, gullible and blindly obedient Innovative 2 population - which also helps with the frequent raising of war taxes. Finally the grandsons of the original besiegers capture Rumelia and move on into Bulgaria, which falls late in 1437. Now the Wallachians capture Bursa and accept 175 for peace. I start my own siege, and thanks to my new leader with his siege bonus it falls quickly. The Ottomans still refuse to hand over territory, and won't make peace with Karaman... it looks very frustrating, then suddenly the OE offers peace, giving me Smyrna, Bulgaria and Rumelia, which is more than I was aksing! I'll take it! Karaman moves in and captures Bursa, and with their 100% war score, demands Kastamonu, Angora, military access and some money. Result: a one province Ottoman "Empire", heh heh heh! This has worked out very nicely.
In game terms, of course, Murad didn't die prematurely, but pretty much as soon as the truce expired I invaded again, defeated the rebuilt Ottoman army and annexed them to complete rather an amazing reversal of fortunes. My DoW also provoked a weird AI action: despite having NO ARMIES AT ALL Venice declared war on me! As soon as Bursa was captured I typed the event code in to create the CoT in Thrace as if I'd been the Ottomans capturing Constantinople (fair's fair...) and embarked on the easiest war I've ever fought. I was up against a total of 1000 infantry newly built in Ionia, plus 3000 Ragusans in Kosovo (Venice and Ragusa seemed to have lost every last man sent into Italy in their previous conflict). Invade Ionia, and Vlad Dracul shows up there with a rather excessive 37000 men to assist in the siege, while I take first Kosovo and then Ragusa. With the 100% war score I demand Kosovo, all their money (175) and military access so I can attack the rest of Venice's possessions. Dalmatia falls and I proceed to besiege Venice while the Pope takes pity on poor Ragusa and decides to besiege and annex it. Eventually Venice agrees to peace for 250d - thank you very much! Hmmm... now Karaman is being crushed by Ak Koyunlu...

Thank you one and all!
I think it's been luck as much as good play. The first bit of luck was the Ottomans going after Candar immediately to give me a breathing space which I used to knock out the D of A. Once the Ottomans were damaged, their policy of "mixing it" with the other Turks doomed them. The second bit of luck was the weird Venetian DoW which handed me a lot of money and Kosovo.
Machiavellian - Venice remains the main threat; Hungary, unless they gain a large ally like Austria or Lithuania (Poland's now been gobbled up by Lithuania, Bohemia and Prussia) can be outmatched by my army plus that of my Wallachian and Serbian allies, but Venice is hard to defend against because they have control of the seas. At this point in the game, only Trebizond is worth having by going East, the rest are all wrong culture Turks and others, who'd permanently slow me down research and stability-wise even if I were able to somehow convert them to Orthodox.

"I am afraid the Emperor may not last the night..."
The voice of the physician was more than a little worried. Disease was spreading through the camp and had already claimed the life of the famous Genoese general and master siege engineer Giustiniani Longo the day before.
"We had better call Lord Demetrios, his brother... it will be time for him to assume the purple if there is indeed no recovery," came the weary reply from the young senator Prokopios. He dismissed the doctor and turned to Basileios who was in overall command of the campaign to recapture Trebizond with the Emperor too weak to issue orders.
"It is surely to be hoped," he said to the general as he gazed over the the encampment of the army, "that this war will not last any longer and that less... exciting times will follow, please God. Lord Demetrios is not a soldier, nor does he have a head for diplomacy."
The old campaigner nodded."Once we cross the Halys, our goal will not seem to far off. We have already defeated the Emir's forces in several battles, and the Mamelukes of Egypt are laying waste to the portions we have spared."
The two men went their separate ways. Prokopios signalled for the doctors to return on his way out, on his way to bring the news to his next emperor.


Having defeated Venice, Konstaninos moved his armies East to intervene in another quarrel between the Turkish emirs. Karaman and Teke were at war with Ak Qoyunlu and were losing; to the South the armies of the Mameluke Sultan were also marching against Karaman. The war was long and bloody; Giustiniani Longo, an Italian from Genoa elevated to high rank because of his expertise in siege warfare, had two sieges of the Karamanli capital, Larende, broken. Konstantinos had to turn back from Kastamonu to defeat an invasion by the Emir of Teke. It was not until the Autumn of 1455 that Trebizond was finally recaptured from the Karamanli Turks following the deaths of both Giustiniani and the Emperor while on campaign.

The Emperor Demetrios, who succeeded his brother in 1453, was unambitious and content to devote his energies to placing the empire's civil and military organisation on a sound footing. His only venture onto the battlefield came in 1462 when an ultimatum was delivered to the Knights of St. John that they should vacate Rhodes, which it was claimed they had always held only so long as it pleased the Emperor. The Knights refused, and a large fleet was despatched, only for it to face defeat and dispersal at the hands of the Grand Master of the Order, Pierre d'Aubusson, who might have been victorious had he not embarked on a daring but doomed venture: promised help by Georgia, a small fleet carrying two thousand knights managed to slip through the Bosphorus undetected and land near Trebizond, but the help from Georgia never materialised and the Grand Master and his army were driven back onto the beaches and slaughtered. The siege of Rhodes lasted over a year before the Knights finally surrendered their stronghold. Admiring the courage of the defenders, the Emperor allowed them safe conduct off Rhodes. The Empire was at peace for the remainder of his reign.


The war against Karaman I thought would be easy because they'd been put under severe pressure by the Sheep and the Mamelukes, but they must have had a large war chest because they kept building new troops at an alarming rate. It dragged on for five years! I had to completely retreat both my Konstantinos' and Giustiniani's armies back to Anatolia for reinforcements at one stage before finally capturing Taurus and Kastamonu and then (after both my leaders died) managing to take Trebizond. I only asked for Trebizond in the peace deal, but even with a 31% war score Karaman twice refused - these Turks don't know when they're beaten...

I've been spoilt by the high quality of my monarchs so far, but in 1453 Demetrios comes along with his 3 diplomacy, 4 admin, 3 military ratings. Don't want to do anything ambitious, I think I can just about manage to conquer Rhodes, especially with rebels appearing there every few years and bringing down the Knights' governments. I've nothing against the Knights but Rhodes is Greek and Orthodox, so it must be mine! I saw out the remainder of this not very good monarch's reign doing absolutely nothing except improving the fortress in Macedonia and promoting a couple of tax collectors.