http://imgur.com/JXesQ
The grand Greek Empire of Athena ! Soon to probably be eaten up by ethier the increasingly aggressive Hungarians or the nasty English with their aspirations for Mare interum naval domination !!
I know it's not a particularly impressive empire but it's the first time I've motivated myself to play DW through as I didn't like it as much as HTTT at first sight, starting as a OPM surrounded by Byzantine & Italian powers and the might Ottomans wasn't fun.
After much prostituting myself to the then-superpower Venice and then in turn, the still ever strong Ottomans I managed to cultivate a triumvirate between the three of us, one that suprisingly lasted to this date, and is pretty much the only reason Venice still stands (I couldn't bear to stab them in the back when my ferraran allies demanded me too, thus I sided with Venice and saw the short lived Ferraran Empire crumble to dust.)
The Ottomans have destroyed Byzantium ofcourse and along with much of the Eastern European world began to colonize the fallen Golden Horde and Nogai tribes, France has largely been held firm by Burgundy and as a result England has prospered dramatically, as you can see. Scandinavia is an odd one, with Finland formed and Denmark still extremely strong. At the moment the two greatest powers are Hungary (HRE) and Lithunia, pretty much the only Orthodox power left in existence with the exception of the smaller Russkies and the broken Georgian states - I was converted to Catholicism forcfully by the papacy in the early 1400s when theyheld a large Italian and North African empire, although it has slowly crumbled the remants can be seen west of tunisia.
My main objective now is to find somewhere to expand to, I have made part of Sicilly Greek cultured and Lower Italia & Neriopolis are currently being settled, Rhodes & Cyprus are on their way to being converted and the other halve of Sicilly is vassilised. Malta is still being built up.
Economically I am fairly poweful, holding monopolies over Genoa & Venice. Nearly all of my provinces are fully built up and militarily my Navy is the strongest in the eastern med.
However I admit I am reluctant to expand against Venice, who I feel a somewhat illogical attachment to due to the fact they have stuck by me for so long and my existence is the only thing that has kept their once massive empire from totally fading into obscurity. the case of the Ottomans is again, a reluctance to break our strong relations but also a fear of the immense strength they possess. Nonetheless eastwards may be my own option as I do not want to expand any further North in Italy than Mantua or indeed any further west in the Med than perhaps Corisca.
England keeps Diplo insulting me though and they have in the last 5 years aggressively attacked many Med. countries, taking Sardina and parts of North Africa, despite my naval strength the threat of the 100 ship strong english navy makes the quivel with fear D:
Any ideas?
EDIT: Any idea how to change ones username? Signed with facebook and it bugged and gave my username as my actual name, not that I min just feels odd.