Hello everybody,
You can go through the long ravings of a mad man, below, or you can just click this nice table of contents:
Table of contents
1. A bit of background on the "Wallachian situation"
2. And now we start rolling
3. Fast forward.
4. World War 0.
So, after my first game as Byzantium, non-Ironman, I decided I should jump straight into the pit. Byzantium was no walk in the park, even without Ironman, but this time I wanted to be really hard core.
What does hard core mean? Wallachia Ironman.
Now, you might think why is Wallachia really hard compared to a lot of the OPMs mentioned. Well... it's because:
The third game was going quite well - I reached 1478 when I decided to experiment - I attacked Bosnia under Otto warning. Of course, I got my head chopped off.
The fourth game was going even better - annexed Serbia, vassalized Bosnia, annexed Bosnia. Never had money for investments, was always close to bankruptcy. But the map looked nice and things were promising.
Then the Peasant's War hit my ally - Poland. They were almost stomped by rebels when some of them poured into my capital (that's why it sucks to have your capital near the border ). They managed to conquer my capital before I pushed them back.
And that's when things became surreal, because of me and because of Paradox
I broke the alliance with Poland - another note to self: always have at least 1 bigger ally around you at all times. Unless you're really big and/or strong.
Otto came barging in. My country became an archipelago. Poland also came barging in and stole my main "island".
Rebels started spawing in my country for all sorts of reasons. And that's when this happened:
This is madness! No, this is Protestant Wallachia!
Why? Because some of the rebels in my all orthodox country decided to become protestant.
And when Poland came knocking and asking for a Catholic country, I had to become catholic. After they left I turned protestant to at least have the same religion as 2 of my 5 remaining provinces.
And then I threw in the towel:
Anyway, notes so far:
1. Money is very important - you're a poor country and advisors are just a waste of gold most of the time. Loans and inflation can kill you.
2. When going to war, never bring a knife to a gun fight. Aka come with at least 3-4 troops more than the enemy. Even then you might lose!
3. Get at LEAST 1 major ally. And never let him go, whatever your plans are.
4. Have a lot - I mean a ton - of patience. Expect anything major to take 50-100 years, on the brink of bankruptcy.
5. You're a border country between several big empires. Even when they seem to fall (10000 rebels versus their 20 troops), expect them to bounce back. I don't know where they get the manpower, but they do. 0 manpower now, 12000 manpower when I checked again in 6 month's time (Poland).
6. Paradox, how can orthodox can become protestants? Do you know we have no Pope? I never heard mass protests against any Orthodox church.
Has anyone managed to survive as Ironman Wallachia until 1821? Without relocating or something?
Secondly, if one of your neighbors blobs hard in the first 100 years and you're behind in tech, can you surivive? Or are they bound to invade you?
You can go through the long ravings of a mad man, below, or you can just click this nice table of contents:
Table of contents
1. A bit of background on the "Wallachian situation"
2. And now we start rolling
3. Fast forward.
4. World War 0.
So, after my first game as Byzantium, non-Ironman, I decided I should jump straight into the pit. Byzantium was no walk in the park, even without Ironman, but this time I wanted to be really hard core.
What does hard core mean? Wallachia Ironman.
Now, you might think why is Wallachia really hard compared to a lot of the OPMs mentioned. Well... it's because:
- you're in stuck in between several regional/world powers (Ottomans, Poland, Hungary)
- none of those powers have the same religion as you
- you have 2 poor inland provinces
- all those neighbors have missions involving vassalizing/annexing you
- you're in the Eastern tech group so more expensive tech
- all those neighbors of your that could potentially hate each other are buffered by you and other smaller states (so they love each other until they stomp you)
- did I mention you're really poor?
The third game was going quite well - I reached 1478 when I decided to experiment - I attacked Bosnia under Otto warning. Of course, I got my head chopped off.
The fourth game was going even better - annexed Serbia, vassalized Bosnia, annexed Bosnia. Never had money for investments, was always close to bankruptcy. But the map looked nice and things were promising.
Then the Peasant's War hit my ally - Poland. They were almost stomped by rebels when some of them poured into my capital (that's why it sucks to have your capital near the border ). They managed to conquer my capital before I pushed them back.
And that's when things became surreal, because of me and because of Paradox
I broke the alliance with Poland - another note to self: always have at least 1 bigger ally around you at all times. Unless you're really big and/or strong.
Otto came barging in. My country became an archipelago. Poland also came barging in and stole my main "island".
Rebels started spawing in my country for all sorts of reasons. And that's when this happened:
This is madness! No, this is Protestant Wallachia!
Why? Because some of the rebels in my all orthodox country decided to become protestant.
And when Poland came knocking and asking for a Catholic country, I had to become catholic. After they left I turned protestant to at least have the same religion as 2 of my 5 remaining provinces.
And then I threw in the towel:
Anyway, notes so far:
1. Money is very important - you're a poor country and advisors are just a waste of gold most of the time. Loans and inflation can kill you.
2. When going to war, never bring a knife to a gun fight. Aka come with at least 3-4 troops more than the enemy. Even then you might lose!
3. Get at LEAST 1 major ally. And never let him go, whatever your plans are.
4. Have a lot - I mean a ton - of patience. Expect anything major to take 50-100 years, on the brink of bankruptcy.
5. You're a border country between several big empires. Even when they seem to fall (10000 rebels versus their 20 troops), expect them to bounce back. I don't know where they get the manpower, but they do. 0 manpower now, 12000 manpower when I checked again in 6 month's time (Poland).
6. Paradox, how can orthodox can become protestants? Do you know we have no Pope? I never heard mass protests against any Orthodox church.
Has anyone managed to survive as Ironman Wallachia until 1821? Without relocating or something?
Secondly, if one of your neighbors blobs hard in the first 100 years and you're behind in tech, can you surivive? Or are they bound to invade you?
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