Here's my Byzantium through 1691 (1399 start):
I'm gearing up for a push west, starting with Spain, having taken Unam Sanctum as my last NI. That will allow me to finally finish my mission to conquer Sicily after about 150 years, as I recently took England's half, plus Malta in a recent war.
My Vassals are Bosnia, Persia, Oman, Adal, and Modena. Bosnia I will probably diplo-annex soon. Persia, Oman, and Adal are all "manufactured" vassals, and converted to Orthodox. Persia is, by itself, a top 10 economy and fields an army of over 40 regiments. Oman is a top 20 economy. Modena I picked up in my war with England. I had planned on annexing them until I discovered that they owned the Azores and several American colonies.
It was awesome having quality vassal armies in my recent war against Georgia and Austria. (It was Georgia who declared war on me - how stupid was that?) It was nice seeing them swoop in to do the dirty work of besieging cities and cleaning up straggler regiments while I chased down the main armies. Persia probably could have defeated Georgia without any help from me. It was even more amusing seeing Adal besieging Wien.
Muscowy/Russia has been my friend and sometimes ally for most of the game. We tag teamed the Golden Horde early on, and after turning south to take on the Timurids I made peace with the GH to let the Russians have at em, and they made the most of it. They hit a major snag in the early 1600s when their army was decimated and most of the country went into revolt, but they were able to survive it and reclaim most of the lost provinces. I was able to claim most of their Middle East provinces thanks to the revolters.
France was the major power of the 16th century. I had several wars with them in the early-mid 1500s that I was only able to survive due to my ability to destroy their Navy. Their army would have shredded mine. As it was, I was able to take two of their provinces in Naples and free a couple of Italian OPMs from their grasp. Starting around 1600, France started to suddenly disintegrate leaving the area a mess of minors within 25 years. Vijayanagar seems to be doing the same thing at the moment after controlling most of India.
I was in a precarious position in the 1500s due to lagging tech compared to the West. Fortunately, neither Austria nor Castille/Spain showed any interest in attacking me. I was able to complete Westernization in the 1540s - fortunately my Emperor with 8 ADM held on long enough (he ruled for 41 years.) But he didn't last long enough for me to modernize, and 56 years of rulers with 3 ADM followed. That not only prevented my from upgrading my army, but also crippled me expansion-wise as the low ADM pushed me above the 'Overextension' modifier limit for a brief time, even after my planned release of Persia. I was finally able to Modernize in 1614.
I'm gearing up for a push west, starting with Spain, having taken Unam Sanctum as my last NI. That will allow me to finally finish my mission to conquer Sicily after about 150 years, as I recently took England's half, plus Malta in a recent war.
My Vassals are Bosnia, Persia, Oman, Adal, and Modena. Bosnia I will probably diplo-annex soon. Persia, Oman, and Adal are all "manufactured" vassals, and converted to Orthodox. Persia is, by itself, a top 10 economy and fields an army of over 40 regiments. Oman is a top 20 economy. Modena I picked up in my war with England. I had planned on annexing them until I discovered that they owned the Azores and several American colonies.
It was awesome having quality vassal armies in my recent war against Georgia and Austria. (It was Georgia who declared war on me - how stupid was that?) It was nice seeing them swoop in to do the dirty work of besieging cities and cleaning up straggler regiments while I chased down the main armies. Persia probably could have defeated Georgia without any help from me. It was even more amusing seeing Adal besieging Wien.
Muscowy/Russia has been my friend and sometimes ally for most of the game. We tag teamed the Golden Horde early on, and after turning south to take on the Timurids I made peace with the GH to let the Russians have at em, and they made the most of it.
They hit a major snag in the early 1600s when their army was decimated and most of the country went into revolt, but they were able to survive it and reclaim most of the lost provinces. I was able to claim most of their Middle East provinces thanks to the revolters.France was the major power of the 16th century. I had several wars with them in the early-mid 1500s that I was only able to survive due to my ability to destroy their Navy. Their army would have shredded mine. As it was, I was able to take two of their provinces in Naples and free a couple of Italian OPMs from their grasp. Starting around 1600, France started to suddenly disintegrate leaving the area a mess of minors within 25 years. Vijayanagar seems to be doing the same thing at the moment after controlling most of India.
I was in a precarious position in the 1500s due to lagging tech compared to the West. Fortunately, neither Austria nor Castille/Spain showed any interest in attacking me. I was able to complete Westernization in the 1540s - fortunately my Emperor with 8 ADM held on long enough (he ruled for 41 years.) But he didn't last long enough for me to modernize, and 56 years of rulers with 3 ADM followed. That not only prevented my from upgrading my army, but also crippled me expansion-wise as the low ADM pushed me above the 'Overextension' modifier limit for a brief time, even after my planned release of Persia. I was finally able to Modernize in 1614.
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