CHAPTER V: TIMURIDS
Part 4: The Sound of Fur Flying (1525-1530)
Grinding to Glory
It is January 1525 and we're at war with a moderate sized coalition over the last piece to our puzzle, Upper Doab. Conquer and core Upper Doab, and we can form the Mughal Empire who should be strong enough to be a moderate pain in the butt for the rest of the game.
First we must face down our coalition however. Delhi and Jaunpur are already occupied, while Gwalior and Multan are sieged. The last piece of the puzzle is the Oirat Horde, who had the audacity to send some 24 regiments over the border in my direction. Some ten or so are sieging a total of four border provinces, but 14 are huddled in one mass chasing one of my retreating armies.
There is hope though! The 'other' retreating army, under Shah Rukh, has reformed and picked up reinforcements. They number 17 regiments and take off in pursuit.
While we wait to see who will win that particular race, I go ahead and take Trade Idea 3-Merchant Adventures (+25% Trade Range). I have enough Dip points to be able to afford that and a modest peace, so why not. This also gives me Timurid Idea 1-Timurid Architecture (-2% Prestige Decay). Apparently we build our huts to last.
Later in January Jangladesh finally turns Sunni following a series of blind taste tests. Mewat (which we took from Malwa) cores. Apparently bordering a cored province makes the process of coring go much faster, because Central Doab cores instantly. Now Upper Doab is truly the only thing in my way.
Gird (Gwalior) falls, and so perhaps it's time to appeal to the Oirats' sense of survival and peace out.
Or perhaps they'd like to die in anguish and misery instead. Fine. We're Timurids. We're good at pain and misery.
So, February comes. First, Multan falls and the Oirats effectively stand alone. Then, Shah catches the Oirat army.
It's not as easy as it may look: Killing those two artillery regiments is going to be hard. I chase them into Kashmir: They keep going, but we do defeat a smaller siege army. It also gives some of my southern forces time to catch up. We then begin our counterattack towards the Oirat border while Abu Said, commander of the other defeated army, rallies and begins moving eastwards again.
Not everything goes well during these frenzied few months: In March Uighurstan falls to the Oirats, while Gazni falls to Khorasani nationalists. Abu's diverted to deal with the latter, while Shah continues his counterattack.
Through the summer we continue holding the initiative: Abu finishes off the rebels, then leaves a sieging army while Shah kicks the Oirats out of Kashgar, leaves a sieging army of his own in Uighuristan, and advances into Oirat territory for the first time.
Then, the greatest
potential challenge to my reign begins: 18 regiments of Delhi nationalists in Central Doab. Shah's fully committed to the Oirat campaign, while Abu's army is too small for a head on fight. I have no choice but to hope our defenders hold out while both armies head for Oirat lands. Slowly the warscore is ticking in my favor, but will it be enough?
By October the counterattack begins in earnest:
And almost ends there. The Oirat army defeated earlier has rallied and is on the move back to the front. Shah meets them in open battle at Urumqi. We win...but lose 9.4K men versus 6.1K on their side.
We can't afford this. Sending huge armies into the eastern steppes may be necessary, but between that battle and the attrition we're going to reach the point we can't recover. The Oirats still don't want peace, but it's getting closer. We move 5K mercs into Uighurstan (if they get annihilated, no biggie), another 2K into Hofan as the Punjabi army has mysteriously wandered off, and the rest of both Abu and Shah's army sits in Kashgar. We briefly have visions of luring the Oirat army in, then sending the whole army crashing down on them.
In January 1526, another 18K rebels join the force in Central Doab, bringing them up to 36. Central Doab promptly falls. We check: Three years before the province defects to Delhi if nothing else changes, but how am I going to kick out 36 regiments?
Yep, time for more mercenaries.
In February Uighuristan is retaken, and still the Oirats won't consider peace - though now the difference is only five points. Nationalist rebels in Kabulistan decide this is a great time to be an *** about things and revolt. We reply with harsh measures in the most problematic remaining provinces, and using Admin points to raise our Stability to 2.
Through the spring and summer of 1526 we play cat and mouse, with two moderate Oirat armies on one side, and my attriting but still huge doomstack on the other. They move towards Uighuristan or Hotan, I counterattack, they back down, I back down. It's almost like a dance.
In September 1526, it becomes a dance of victory!
Of course, I now don't have the admin points to core Upper Doab right away, but that's okay. I have other fish on my plate. Hi guys? Remember me.
Notice that's only 18K near Central Doab. The other 18 wandered into Gwalior, and now that the war is over they are officially 'Not my problem.' I grin a nasty little grin. It's sort of like when I'm driving to work, and I notice some **** in a faster car pass me - but I know that their lane is about to merge with mine. That's not my problem either, so I let him sit there stewing because I'm not letting him back in.
Sometimes I wave.
Once in awhile they try to muscle in. That's when I remind them my old SUV is bigger and stronger than their shiny compact, and if they continue this will happen:
Silence
For the next 2 years, 8 months we do not fight a single battle. None. No huge coalitions, no tiny rebellions. At first I don't notice. I'm still busy recovering - catching my breath as well as our country's.
First, we begin coring Upper Doab. It's scheduled to finish in October 1531. Good enough: Spend the rest of the turn getting the Timurids ready, then by January 1530 even the AI can't mess this up.
Our armies are...depleted. Towards the end we consolidated regiments left and right, and now stand at 27 regiments of 57 maximum. We hire 8 mercs to bolster our armies in case of a sneak attack that never comes. By October Central Doab is ours again.
In February 1528 our armies are once again at full strength, and our manpower pool begins building. This lets me start trading out mercenary infantry for the much stronger Shasmir Infantry. It's now that Shah passes away, and I actually feel a moment of remorse like I rarely do for these fictional bits of information. Shah was a great general, defeated only once and saw me through any number of battles. Perhaps it's fitting that he dies now, with the army recovered and on the verge of transcending beyond our Timurid past. He will forever be one of the greatest of the Timurids, free from competition once we become Mughals.
The coalition against us, which one month after the war's end featured Gujarat, Delhi, Chagatai, Oirat Horde, Jaunpur, Multan, Nepal, Gwalior, Orissa, Equestria, and several Eve Online guilds, begins to settle down again, and I'm grateful. Years of war and Allah knows how many mercenary regiments have strained our coffers to the breaking point. Indeed, I have to think long and hard before taking what would normally be a no-brainer decision:
Still, we're doing well enough that by May 1529 I stop building more regiments. We have thirty: 9 Shashmir Infantry, 5 Eastern Archers, 14 Eastern Steppe Cavalry (6 of them Mercs), and 2 Bronze Mortars (1 Merc). We could keep going, but no. No, save some money and manpower for the AI to work with when I leave.
It's around this time that it all starts to feel surreal. I'm not sure I have the linguistic skills to explain .. see, I was nearing my twentieth year here in Timurid territory, and I spent over seventeen of them in near constant war. Four 'real' wars, and I have no idea how many rebellions. Constantly marching armies west and east, north and south. Sometimes it wasn't far from a click fest, even with frequent use of the pause key. There were times it had been so frenzied that I forgot what it felt like to catch my breath, look around the screen, have everything I wanted (or could reasonably have).
The best analogy I can think of is to pretend you're an airplane pilot in a storm. Winds knocking you left and right, poor visibility, the very real danger that the ground is down there
somewhere, rain beating on your wings, lightning, then all of a sudden you break through the clouds. That's how I felt now, that I'd somehow broken through, that my two years of peace were somehow the AI's way of congratulating me for outlasting it.
It was ... peaceful.
And it's now January 1530, and I know it's my time to go. I didn't quite finish what I set out to do, but all the pieces are in place. The Timurids have strong allies, a strong enough army to deter attack, Upper Doab will core inside of two years, and then... Yeah, close enough. Good enough for one lifetime perhaps. I'm ready now Johan. Take me to Byzantium or Gotland or even New Jersey.
Yes, there. Can you hear it? Johan's voice.
"Not yet."
Johan's Dice
Reign: 20 years
Roll: 5
Needed: 5+
Continue?: Yes
