Alexios I – Welcome to the thread! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed what’s come so far, and yes, that’s my plan—wait till the last of the trinity passed and make a joint reign summary for all of them.
RGB – Arghun didn’t bring all his steppe cavalry to Persia, he brought what he could get on short notice—Altani’s
tumen. He’s still got plenty in India and the rest of his empire. Caspian Pass’ losses are more damaging to this campaign than his whole realm.
FlyingDutchie - The
tumen got savaged, but Arghun still has a huge force--and there's a major siege ahead, where all those infantry will be useful... Quite a few Persian soldiers got out (even after losing 30,000, there were 70,000 survivors), but rallying them and forming them into a cohesive army again will be the problem...
Laur - Depends on how much flying he plans to do.
asd21593 - If Gabriel or Alexandros can somehow salvage the remainder of Nikephoros' army, the Persians still have 120,000 in the field once Gabby's men show up. The problem is that unless something drastic happens, Alex is going to be pinned up in Isfahan, while Arghun will be free to send some men to block the passes over the Zagros, knocking Gabriel out of the equation...
Sergei Meranov - I'm not as quick as I used to be... a regular job and a whole slew of other distractions has slowed it down...
Frozenwall - That would be the biggest magic trick of Gabriel's life... he's got 50,000 people in Mesopotamia, the last cohesive field army in Persia. There are 70,000 survivors wandering around, and his capital to defend. Somehow, Gabriel has to:
a)Get his smaller army across the Zagros Mountains
b) Defeat the Mongols in detail, or
c)Rally the survivors of Caspian Pass to join his forces, and/or
d) Meet Arghun in the field, and pray and hope for the best.
His best case scenario is Arghun splitting his forces. If Arghun keeps his army together, however, Gabriel's going to have major problem--even if he attacks while Arghun is sieging Isfahan, the odds are daunting.
Qorten - Isfahan has been one of the two 'capital cities' of Gabriel's Persia (the other, obviously, being Baghdad), so it is extremely large and extremely well defended. Any siege of the city is going to last a while...
Kirsch27 - I got a social life is the big thing that happened... :rofl:
Enewald - If he lives. Basil's martial was even higher and he came close to dying shortly after the start of his martial career...
Nikolai - Essentially.
I used to get 2-3 updates per page. Now its one per page, sometimes every other or every third. The current pace seems to be a stable one though! As for Alex and his cape—I’m not so sure that bright purple velvet is that chic. Then again, my own boyfriend says I have no fashion sense, so take the criticism as you see fit. :rofl:
Carlstadt Boy - It's not rude at all! My updating has slowed down greatly... once per week is about the norm now, instead of the 2-3 times per week of the first year. New goal is to get it finished before CK2 comes out.
Vesimir – It’s doubtful the Turks would come like that—if they do, it’ll be with reduced forces. The Turks are split right now, as there are many who think the prospect of the Caliph being formally under a non-Christian ruler is dangerous and heretical. It’s a big enough issue that a schism could result…
AlexanderPrimus – They’ve officially and fully supplanted the Turks and the French as the Big Bad Guy. The Empire is simply too powerful for another single realm to be a real threat, aside from the Mongols…
Zzzzz… – Its more of a question… will Alex show that 21 is rooted in strategic sense and tactical wizardry, or is it rooted in simply being a killing machine? The former could pull a victory together with a paperclip and some glue. The latter would just die in a spectacular, possibly heroic fashion… Alexander the Second, who enters lore for being promising and dying at such a young age? We’ll have to see!
armoristan - Not really a hoss, more a charismatic ‘good cop’ to Nikephoros’ sarcastic ‘bad cop.’ Nikephoros is clever enough to negotiate, he’s more than clever enough to have used his laconic reputation (and his nephew’s more… loquacious one?) to his advantage. To bad he’s gone now…
Next update is partially done… it will probably be finished slowly. My boyfriend saved up his money, and bought me both
Civilization V and
Empire Total:War yesterday. Needless to say, I haven’t accomplished any writing since! :rofl: If I can pry myself away, looks like the update will be ready, on schedule, Thursday or so…