King of the Greeks: An IES AAR

_Arcadian_ said:

Oooh, an IES scenario AAR! Nice start. Zimisces, eh? That's the name of my King in my Hellas game too. But mine's in 1557 in the GC after a revolt... Seems like a popular name. :rofl:

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Thank you. IIRC, the historical leaders of the IES have randomly-generated names. Don't want you to think I stole a name from your great AAR, which was the inspiration for picking Hellas.

A few months passed, in which Andronicus stubbornly refused all offers of peace. In May, the Cretans deposed Andreas and Stephanos I of Crete became Stephanos I of Morea as well. At first, this seemed a blessing, for did this not eliminate one of Jannus's most powerful enemies? In June, Nerio entered an alliance with Corfu, and so declared war on his brother.

In 1422, Zimisces attempted two landings on Corfu with 12,000 men, both of which failed. However, both landings had reduced the tiny army of Corfu to less than a thousand men, and so the third landing in early 1423 was a success, and Corfu was sieged, and then taken in October of 1423.

On Christmas day of 1423, Jannus disembarked from a royal frigate and rode to Kerkira, where Andronicus surrendered Corfu to him. Jannus was now king of Hellas and Macedonia, and duke of Corfu.

The next year, some 35,000 Greek and Bulgarian troops invaded the Kingdom of Ionia. The troops disembarked on Khios, where advance scouts had told them the Ionian army was encamped.

Zimisces watched as his men unloaded supplies from the ships. It had been nearly a week, and they still had not found the Ionians! Marshal Erdody, commander of the Bulgarian contingent, had interrogated the peasants of Khios, but they either genuinely did not know the location of the troops, or they were assisting them. Some transports arrived from the west carrying supplies, or so Zimisces thought. As the ships pulled up to the harbor, hundreds of men jumped from the decks onto shore and began fighting with the Hellenian sailors. Zimisces swore. An ambush! A stray arrow took Zimisces in the eye as he was rallying his men, and he died an hour later. The battle quickly turned into a rout, and the Hellenes were forced back to their ships. Zimisces had severely underestimated the genius of the Ionian commander, Stauracius, and so he was killed by his father's own men.

In September, as the king was planning another invasion of Naxos, the Apulians and their allies the Sicilians declared war. The Italians fared very poorly, as Argyrus scored victory after victory against them in the Ionian.

In February of 1426, Stauracius was finally defeated, after numerous failed invasions, and Naxos was besieged. In April, the Italians finally realized their folly and surrendered ten chests of gold to Jannus, who gladly accepted.

Naxos was taken in March of 1427, and the colony of New Ionia in North Africa was taken in August. Jannus considered putting his nephew Konstantinos (for Nerio had died in the siege of Naxos, and his son had been crowned king of Ionia) to the sword and taking his island kingdom, but his reputation had suffered enough from the annexations of Corfu and Macedonia. He decided instead to take his colony and make a vassal of him, to add to his kingdom later.

And thus, Jannus ended eight years of constant warfare, having greatly expanded the breadth of his realm.

Strangely enough, Ionia and Crete had remained at war the entire time. This would prove to be good fortune, for the Cretans put Konstantinos to the sword and made Ionia part of their realm. Jannus declared war against Crete in 1428, knowing that "liberating" his brothers' lands would not tarnish his reputation amongst other kingdoms.

Morea was immediately besieged. Belisarius, a son of Zimisces, banded together with other young nobles and raised nearly 20,000 troops for Jannus's service (An extremely lucky Enthusiasm for the Army event). These men besieged Albania, for the treacherous Albanians, having forgotten the aid given them by Jannus, had joined their Cretan allies.

In February of 1429, Jannus used the distraction of the war to consolidate royal control over the country (+1 Centralization). Nafplion was taken that October, and those troops, led by Jannus's son Diogenes, besieged Naxos the next month. Albania was taken on Christmas Eve, and the Albanian king offered Jannus 87 chests of gold for peace, which he accepted.

Jannus himself led the army which disembarked onto Crete and besieged Candia. Ionia was taken in July of 1430, and Crete and the Cretan colony of New Morea were taken the following February and May. Peace was made in May. Jannus received Ionia, Morea, New Morea, and 75 chests of gold.

VPeric said:

Nice start! Since this is the IES, I reccomend you get quite a few screenies .

BTW, has everyone noticed there are lots of IES AARs starting??

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Thank you. What do you think of my writing style?

Anyway, since you requested it, this is the extent of Jannus's empire after his victory over Crete:

Jannus decided to put down his sword for a while, to rebuild. His country was exhausted from a decade of nearly continuous warfare. Inflation was at 10.2% from years of minting money to fund his wars. It was time to focus on infrastructure and building a stronger economy. Once again, however, fate had other plans in store for Jannus. The infidel Turks of Antalya, Anatolia and Kastamonu, who had absorbed the lands of some of his friendlier cousins in Thrace and Smyrna, declared jihad against him. He called upon Bulgaria for aid and made preparations for war. The following day, the Italians of Malta annexed Crete.

Argyrus defeated three giant Turkish fleets in a row in the Aegean, allowing Jannus and Diogenes to cross to Smyrna, which was besieged. The Bulgarians defeated 8,000 Turks in the Battle of Thracia and besieged Constantinople.

In January of 1432, the heathens of Angora declared war on Anatolia, crippling the Turkish alliance. Smyrna was taken in July, and Antalya was taken in May the next year. Jannus went on to besiege Thrace. In August, the Turks made one more last-ditch effort to beat back the Greeks and Bulgarians. 16,000 heathens from Anatolia and Kastamonu crossed the Dardanelles and engaged 40,000 allied Greek and Bulgarian troops on the 24th. In two weeks of fighting, the infidels were annihilated.

Thrace was taken in November, and Jannus and Diogenes besieged Anatolia. In December, the powerful heathens of Nuyssaybin joined the Antalyan alliance, but to no avail. The Turks were already doomed. The following January, yet another heathen nation, the great Tatars of Azov, joined the Moslem alliance. Anatolia was taken in June. Jannus received Thrace and 50 chests of gold from Anatolia in August of 1434. Antalya surrendered Smyrna and an astounding 475 chests of gold in December. On the same day as the Antalyan surrender, the Bulgarian king was "convinced" of the might and glory of Hellas, and swore fealty to him. Having humiliated the Turk, Jannus became determined to give Hellas a few years of peace, at least.

In February 1436, the Emir of Angora absorbed Anatolia and Antalya. In March, the Succession Crisis was sparked when Jannus made his son Stephanos heir to the throne, passing over his older brother Diogenes. Diogenes had the support of Belisarius and other influential nobles of the court, many of whom were ministers in the king's cabinet. Diogenes threatened war, throwing much of the administration into chaos. Lines were drawn, factions were created, and there was an assassination attempt on the king. The king eventually restored order by having many of Diogenes's supporters executed, including Belisarius (Political Crisis event).

In May, Bulgaria declared war on Kosovo. Though the king honored the alliance, he quickly made peace, fearing a revolt if Hellas were not given time to recover from nearly fifteen years of continuous warfare. The Bulgarians quickly overran Kosovo, as the little kingdom was poor and had but 3,000 infantry to defend itself.

Years of peace followed. The king further consolidated royal power, to prevent another incident like the Succession Crisis (+1 Centralization). In November 1440, Albania was admitted to the alliance, and the Albanian king was also convinced to swear fealty to Hellas. A talented young noble named Stratiococus was given a command position in the army on the first of January in 1441.

In June 16th, 1442, Duke Argyrus, the petty baron who had served the Royal Navy so long and faithfully, died. He was buried with full honors on the royal estate.

On August 3rd, Bulgaria declared war upon Banat. Though he honored the alliance, Jannus did not wish to take part. Instead, he sought to claim Crete from the Maltese, so he declared war on Malta on August 10th of 1443, and he did not ask his vassals to take part. On September 26th, the king of Banat offered Jannus a white peace. He accepted, though he did not think it would save him from domination by the Bulgarians, who had captured one of his provinces and were sieging the other two.

Jannus disembarked from his transports onto Crete with 23,000 men in October. He engaged the Maltese commander, Gaete, who had 14,000 men under his command. Both sides suffered 2,000 casualties, and Jannus was forced to retreat. The fleet returned to Hellas to get reinforcements. A few Maltese galleys were encountered and sunk.

10,000 Morean infantrymen were drafted and loaded onto the transports in March, 1444. The troops disembarked in May, and were driven back several times over the following months. Jannus returned to Morea to draft more troops. While there, he received a message that the island kingdom of Rhodes had declared war. Jannus thought this was foolish. The Rhodians had no allies, and their kingdom consisted of a single province. Regardless, he called his vassals into battle. It was at this time that Jannus, feeling the effects of his advanced age, surrendered the reigns of state to his son Stephanos, who became king in all but name.

Late in 1446, Jannus finally captured Gaete and forced him and his men to surrender. A tough nut indeed, Crete and its defenders had finally been cracked at the cost of 12,000 men and six galleys.

In January of 1447, the Rhodians strangely accepted white peace.

In May, Crete was captured, and the army unloaded onto the colony of New Ionia to capture the Maltese colonies of New Crete and Benghazi.

In October, Albania rather foolishly declared war on Carpathia, a local superpower. Jannus honored the alliance, but he decided not to commit any troops to the fight.

In February 1448, the native Africans of New Ionia destroyed the settlement and slaughtered all of the colonists. Jannus annihilated them in vengeance.

In January, Jannus boarded his transports and disembarked on Malta, which had no defenders. The next month, Jannus enabled reforms that would improve the training and equipment quality of his soldiers (+1 Quality). Valletta was captured on New Year's Eve, 1449, and on New Year's Day, Malta surrendered Crete and its colonies.

In July, Aleppo, a powerful Orthodox kingdom of Armenians, joined the alliance. In August, Cyprus also joined the alliance.

A year passed quietly. On January 5, 1452, Jannus died. Stephanos was crowned a week later, and so became King of Hellas, Macedonia, Crete, and Egypt; Duke of Corfu; and Count of Thrace and Smyrna.


Hellas one year after Stephanos's ascension.

In October, war broke out in Asia Minor, with Turk slaying Turk. A year later, war broke out in the Balkans as well. During the summer of 1454, several Turkish emirs declared war on Aleppo, but strangely, the Armenian king of that nation did not ask his allies to join him.

1455 saw quiet colonial expansion and warfare between Catholic schismatic heretics to the north, as well as the promotion of a talented young noble named Argyrus to generalship. In 1456, the king of Cyprus saw the error of his ways and pledged fealty to Stephanos, becoming his vassal. Later that year, Aleppo ceded Daghestan to the increasingly powerful sultan of Angora and fifty chests of gold to the emir of Taurus.

In February of 1457, Aleppo declared war on Angora. This, of course, negated the peace settlement, and the government of Aleppo suffered accordingly, but the king was intent on revenge, and this time he invited his allies. The treacherous Romanian kingdom of Dobrudja, seeing an opportunity, signed a pact to divide the Balkans with its Moslem Turkish allies, and so Dobrudja declared war on Bulgaria just a few weeks after Aleppo had declared war on Angora and Taurus.

The Turks enjoyed some initial success, having plugged the Dardanelles with a large fleet of galleys, but were eventually defeated in August. One year after the war had started, Argyrus annihilated a Moslem horde in battle outside the walls of Constantinople.

On February 23rd, 1458, Banat joined the Turko-Romanian Pact and declared war on Bulgaria. Hellas honored the alliance call five days later.

In April, the Turks besieged Smyrna, but they were quickly routed. Later that month, the emir of Taurus turned on his erstwhile ally and declared war on Angora. In May, Stratioticus besieged Bursa in Anatolia, while Argyrus besieged Ankara itself in October.

In February of 1459, the king began to give some support to private business ventures (-1 Mercantilism). In March, the king accepted peace with Angora in exchange for fourteen chests of gold. It was a paltry peace, certainly, but the sultan had drained his resources in fighting Taurus, and so he had nothing left to offer.

Fresh troops were drafted and sent to combat Banat and Dobrudja in the north in May. In July, a small colonial militia was created to put down several native uprisings.

September saw a major battle in Rumelia between evenly-matched armies of Greeks and Romanians, each side putting about 30,000 troops into the field. Argyrus suffered a major defeat, losing some 15,000 men, while the Romanians lost 7,000. On October 4th, the aristocracy convened a meeting of their Senate and voted not to allow the king any more tax money for the war. On October 8th, the king had hundreds of Senators bribed, blackmailed, and assassinated. It was a decidedly effective, if heavy-handed, show of the king's power. ("Nobles demand recovery of former rights" event. I chose "Execute the Traitors".)

In January 1460, 56,000 Greeks, Albanians and Bulgarians attacked the 23,000 Romanians in Rumelia. Although the military genius of Pitesti, the Romanian commander, saved the Romanian army and even gave them victory, they lost some 14,000 men. Pitesti retreated to Dobdrudja with a handful of men, leaving behind the bulk of his army to act as a rearguard. The rearguard was promptly annihilated by 38,000 Albanians and Bulgarians.

At the head of 17,000 men, Argyrus and Stratioticus destroyed the Romanians fifteen miles outside Silistra, reducing Pitesti's army to a couple thousand infantry, who promptly retreated to the province of Wallachia. In July, 30,000 Greeks and Bulgarians annihilated Pitesti and the remnants of his army.

August saw the Battle of Sofia, in which Albanians and Bulgarians scored a resounding victory over a large army from Banat, nearly annihilating it.

In December, the king of Albania capitulated to the demands of the king of Banat, surrendering the province of Croatia and 86 chests of gold. White peace was signed between Banat, Dobdrudja, and Hellas the following January.

VPeric, Kaigon, Braedonnal--thank you for your comments.

Sorry for the lack of updates. They should be more regular in a week or two, which is when I start a new quarter of school.
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Literally days after the Stephanos put down his sword, Albania called upon its allies for help. Istria and Carpathia, two of the more powerful kingdoms of the Balkans, had declared war. Weary of fighting, every member of the alliance--including Hellas--dishonored the call to war. The king then reformed the alliance, retaining Hellas as its head, but safely leaving every member but Albania out of another Balkan war.

In January 1462, some traveling merchants in the Cypriot colony of New Cyprus chanced upon a chain of oases where rare spices grew. This had the effect of explosive population growth in the colony and making it a major center of trade in North Africa. (New center of trade opened in Sinai.)

On June 22nd, 1462, Stratioticus died of a minor outbreak of plague that also claimed several hundred other Greeks.

In September, Stephanos's Minister of Finance reported that the kingdom had enjoyed the best harvest in living memory. ("Excellent Year" event, which, given my fairly high inflation, was excellent indeed.)

A year passed quietly. In 1464, Artavasdus, a brother of the king, was given an admiralship and command of the navy. He brought with him 20,000 infantry. Artavasdus was extremely popular, and as such, he attracted many young men into the military ("Enthusiasm for the Army" event).

Swollen as it was with so many new recruits, Stephanos decided to put the army to some use. Off the coast of Asia Minor was the hostile island kingdom of Rhodes. Stephanos desired Rhodes for use as a naval base in the Eastern Mediterranean. The island kingdom was wealthy, but bereft of allies and suitable defenses. Stephanos declared war in late April, and men immediately began unloading onto the island.

The tiny Rhodian fleet was sunk in a short battle in May, but Argyrus's army was initially beaten back onto its transports. In July, the Albanian king, who was unable to maintain peace of any length, asked his allies for assistance against the Italian kingdoms of Apulia, Sardinia, and Malta.

In March 1465, Nerio I of Rhodes was killed in battle, and the island was put under siege. In December, construction was started on a winery in Naxos.

In February, the emir of Taurus declared war on Hellas. Every single one of Stephanos's allies answered the call to war, which made the emir a foolish man indeed, for he had no allies. In a series of battles in Smyrna over the next six months, Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians succeeded in repulsing the formidable Turkish horde. In November, Rhodes was finally taken and made another province of the empire.


Shortly after the capture of Rhodes, resized at VPeric's request. (If it's still too big, let me know.)

VPeric said:

Nice updates! As for the resizing, its excellent. Just barely fits Plus, almost no visibility/quality is lost

One Q: You've only got Greek culture, right?

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Yes, but as Kaigon says, I have the opportunity to get Slavonic and Italian.

Kaigon said:

Calanctus; Have you been lucky?
I would also like to recommend a conversion of the Italian peninsula (an orthodox crusade? ) if an opportunity is given...
On to my question: What's your BB?

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Unfortunately, I have not been lucky. I haven't looked at the culture-adding events and won't be able to until morning, but it was my understanding that you had to own a core province of that culture to get it as a state culture. Right now, I've only got Greek provinces.
My BB isn't too bad. I waited to annex Rhodes so I could keep it down to manageable levels. It's around 10 or 11.
As for an Orthodox Italy... Don't spoil my plans, damn it!