The Rise and Fall of Ryazan

Prologue To Book 1
Compiled by Ivan Chaikovsky, Grand Historian of Ryazan in the year of our lord 1419 for his majesty Fedor III

A great chapter in our history has begun, as you, King Fedor III have declared a claim as Tsar of All The Russias. You will no doubt face hard times, but we must overcome and stoke our claim. Ryazan shall triumph or crumble trying.

To the west lies the massive Lithuania. It would be folly to even think of making advances here in our current state. To the north lies the Muscovians. They are a medium-sized nation, but with a strong army. They are currently engaging the snowy kingdom of Novgorod in combat. To the east lies the barbarous Goldern Horde, our overlords. If we are to strike out, we must cancel our vassaldom to them one day as they are extracting money from us.

The wisest step at the moment would be to gain military access through Muscovy. Then we should attack one of the small kingdoms such as Tver or Pskov. I doubt they could face up to us with a strong army, although the siege could provide a problem.

Our first duty, however, is to make sure the economy is ready for this great leap forward. I am sure you can succeed in managing Ryazan where others have failed.

Yours Humbly,
Grand Historian Ivan Chaikovsky X

The Dream

The Dream

As the New Year dawned, Ryazan was a weak and small nation south of Moscow. Fedor III, the monarch of Ryazan, knew he had a tough job ahead of him. His quest, above all was to convert all the squabbling Russian kingdoms into one great nation, with him and his descendants as King.

During 1419, one of these squabbles turned into a major war as Muscovy raised its armies to invade Novgorod. Novgorod also had troubles with Sweden, Denmark and later, Pskov. Despite extreme courage, Novgorodian soldiers were beaten back in the war, losing Kola to Sweden and the next year, Olonets and Archangelsk to Muscovy.

Meanwhile, Tver had managed to get in a war with Lithuania. This was a major problem to Ryazan who had planned to get military access through Muscovy and then invade Tver themselves. Tverian soldiers performed well, even defeating a small Lithuanian army south-east of Tver, but ultimately lost and had their domain added to Lithuanias huge empire.

During all this, Ryazan was having troubles with money. They were losing 4 ducats a month despite Army Maintenance being temporarily lowered. In 1420, Ryazan gained access to the Novgorod market and began trading there, but money problems still occured. In 1421, A baliff was promoted to help combat the financial problems. As 1422 began, the map of North-West Russia looked like this:

Walter Model said:

Ain't it a coincidence that my AAR was called The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and this is called The Rise and Fall of Ryazan

Click to expand...

Total Coincedence. I havent read your mentioned AAR, but now you mention it, I shall take a peek