The War - First Steps
I was determined to try and manage this war better than my previous one. Firstly I made sure of the safety of my privateering fleet and sailed it safely to Caligari, where it met up with my home fleet. Again all my ships are involved, apart from my trade fleet. However I did not appoint an admiral - which was intentional to begin with but then I kept forgetting to later, which was not.
Then I researched Military Tech 30 and selected Drill Infantry, which seemed most appropriate for reasons or roleplay if nothing else. Truth be told I am never entirely sure what factors are best to consider from a strict gameplay perspective. Of note the Mamluks begin at only Tech 29 - which means my units should be considerably superior. I didn’t check however which idea group they selected at Admin 29, and to be honest I still haven’t checked as of writing. I probably should.
I then set my five armies to march down to Greece, but spaced them out about one a month. This was to avoid them travelling together in tandem and wasting lots of troops and drill to attrition - something that happened last time.
Once again this is a war of Greece, Austria, myself and my vassal marches against the Mamluks alone. Unlike before the Mamluks actually have some manpower - about 180k worth of it. My own manpower is about 240k (my max is 290k). The Mamluks still employ a large number of mercenaries, which I wish to avoid for rp reasons of keeping up my professionalism.
I am the banker for the war. At the start I have a fortune of fifty-five thousand ducats and a monthly balance in excess of 200 ducats. I start off my giving Austria four thousand ducats; Greece, Normandy and Nevers two thousand ducats; Bremen fifteen hundred ducats; and Novgorod a thousand ducats. I disperse extra funds at several points during the war (and pay off more Gascon debt by the by).
Finally I Infiltrate Administration, so I fight the war with knowledge of Mamluk troop movements.
The War - Ankara and Icel
The first battle of the war happens between Greece and the Mamluks in June, and ends up as a Mamluk victory as they outnumbered the Greek troops two to one. However they then split their army up a bit allowing me to catch a significant portion by itself
This results in a very satisfactory stackwipe. The Mamluks defeat the Greeks besieging Ankara, but I manage to snag another Mamluk army in Tekke. Smaller, but another force send to oblivion.
This provokes a defensive battle in the same province where the Mamluks initially attack with a very artillery-heavy force. The victory is costly for us - but even more so for their artillery. I also begin a siege of Ankara myself. Note the Mamluks have a 6/6/3/3 general. This fellow will be the bane of my existence this war. Not that I have bad generals (and indeed, I end up firing one who only had 1 fire for one better balanced) but this chap really annoyed me.
Of course the Mamluks started to recruit wildly - more than once during this war I was confronted by a sight like this:
I have now moved my fleet - 40 heavies and 60 lights - to Crete in case any naval opportunities present themselves. On land we need to take Ankara and Icel to move forward. I should note that the fort at Sinop that was Level 2 in the last war has been brought up to level 8 by the Mamluks. In November 1788 the Mamluks force the Austrians to abandon their siege of Icel, but I move in and then allow me to begin a new siege. I research Offensive Idea 5 - Engineer Corps (+20%) siege ability - which will be very useful. My aim is to leave a “spare” 100 MIL points to use for depots or siege barrages, which I end up using somewhat frequently. I do not unlock another Idea during the war.
In January 1789 the Mamluks attack my force besieging Ankara, and though we turn them back it is a costly battle.
The next month, whilst the Austrians defeat a Mamluk army in Konya the Mamluks attack Ankara again with a very artillery heavy force. We turn them back - but again at considerable cost. To be honest I had some really bad rolls during some of these battles. Thank you for my allies.
As a reward, however, Ankara falls the next month. I also research Admin and Diplomacy Tech 30. My siege of Icel continues and a Norman force makes a move on Sinop. In general the fall of Ankara moves the war forward in central and eastern Anatolia - but the fight for Anatolia is far from over as the Mamluks are moving over two hundred troops into region.
A note on the above screenshot. The 130k Mamluk troops in Karaman look like they are marching into Konya, but they are actually marching into Aksaray. During this portion of the war these misleading marching directions gave me no end of headaches. That force in Tekke however is wiped out however. I spent a goodly portion of the war looking out for isolated Mamluk armies, and whilst I am sure there were opportunities I missed I achieved quite a few successes as well. Actually there were two Mamluk armies destroyed in Tekke because the AI let one army marching to reinforce to get movement locked. In short May saw me obliterated over eighty-thousand Mamluk troops.
Meanwhile a large battle was being fought in Kirshehir with troops from all over pouring in - I sent reinforcements too. Whilst it was going on I received a notification that Ming had attacked Bengal.
The butcher’s bill for the battle was surprisingly even - but this felt at the time like a very significant victory.
We were rewarded in June when Icel fell - the border was ours. The war could now move properly forward. The forts at Sinop and Sivas guarded the north and eastern extent of Anatolia, but with the fall of Icel we could now advance into Syria along the southern route. I also trapped and annihilated another Mamluk force in Karaman.
The War - Into Mesopotamia
Just as in the last war this war was defined by the forts. Mamluk territory in Anatolia, Caucasus, Levant, and Mesopotamia is generally very well fortified. Very few areas are now covered by a fort’s zone of control. In the last war though it felt like a lot of the battles happened on the forts themselves (Bolu being the glaring exception). This war though felt different, like a lot of battles happened all over. For reference here is a map of this next theatre of operations, with the forts highlighted.
Sinop is mostly hidden so I have tried to indicate it. What is different in this area from the last war is that Trebizond exists again. On balance I think that helped us because it prevented the Mamluks from sending attacks on Sinop from the Black Sea coast. Everything was funnelled into the line between Sivas and Habab, but from Adana was could make spoiling attacks in Ayntab - which I was about to do here and successfully eliminated a 29 thousand force.
What can also be seen are columns of Mamluk troops that were trying to relieve the siege in Sinop, marching up through Sivas. In a very costly battle they are eventually caught at Kangari and turned back.
Before the year ends we get news from China - apparently Shun has broken away from Ming. A delayed Mingplosion? I think more aided by their war with Bengal as the mandate is nearly at 100 once more.
And so we move into 1790. In two years of year - effectively eighteen months - my manpower has decreased by 100,000. The Mamluk manpower has fared worse being under forty-thousand from a peak of 188k. Of course they have also been recruiting mercenaries like crazy. We are besieging Sinop, Habab, and Sivas, and the Mamluks are attempting a second relief of Sinop. In this map you can see the retreating soldiers of their first attempt fleeing past Habab. You can also see one of my armies recuperating safely behind the duo of captured forts.
That Mamluk army near Sinop is wiped out at Kastamanou, and turns out to be almost entirely cannon. Meanwhile a Mamluk attack on the forces outside Habah is seen off with losses. It is that 6/6 general again. The Normans have abandoned the siege of Sivas and we finally take Sinop in April 1790, and Habab follows days later. This makes Sivas the centre of attention. A small Mamluk stack (20k) is wiped out when one of my armies renews the siege of Sivas. My most impressive stackwipe follows a month later in Ayntab. Notice the battle due to be fought in Kayseri.
Kayseri turns into an allied victory - though one I am not a part of. I wipe a smaller force in Ayntab (again - that province has a lot of battles, not all of which I’ve recorded). Meanwhile further north Novgorod wages a lonely war in the trans-Caucasion part of the Mamluk Empire. I don’t want to focus too much up there - I never take part - but Novgorod proves very distractible for the Mamluks who keep sending forces to chase them off, but plucky Novgorod always returns. It is just about the perfect “Peninsular-style” campaign I have seen waged by the AI in EU. Not planned, of course, but it was a constant thorn in the Mamluk side.
Then in October Sivas falls. It is time for the next stage of the war.
The War - Three (and a half) Theatres
The fall of Sivas signals the final fall of Anatolia. The earlier fall of Habab had already thrust the door to Mesopotamia ajar - it is now blown open, as is Armenia. During the earlier stages of this war the “front” was only three or four provinces wide - it now expands and I tend to think of it breaking down into three distinct theatres, as pictured below.
So what are we looking at? From south to north.
In the Levant Front I have moved one army to the next fort in the Levant called Dimashq - which I have used a barrage to soften up. Seizure of this fort should stop the main route that Mamluk reinforcements have been moving into the fight in Arabia (marked with the red arrow) - though even now they have started to re-route through Arabia has allied forces have poured into Mesopotamia.
Talking of the Mesopotamian front there is a line of provinces, marked with blue squares, not affected by any forts zone of control. Allied forces have, as you can see, exploited this and in due course move on to take the series of forts to north-east of the rivers. I have three armies in this front, two of which are essentially in reserve able to support any of the other three “front-line” armies. One of my armies in about to start sieging one of those forts mentioned earlier.
Further north still we have the Armenian front, where I have my fifth and final army. The double forts of Erzurum and Oltü make any progress here slow going to say the least. The mountainous terrain make it a place I don’t really want to have to fight, but I can’t ignore it, because it is an avenue by which the Mamluks might flank the Mesopotamian forces.
Further north still we have the “and a half” front of the Trans-Caucasus. As can be made out the Mamluks at this snapshot have sent a significant force north to chase those 20k Novgorod troops. At no point, however, do I venture that far north.
Another note - at this point I now have only about 60k manpower remaining, and husbanding that precious resource becomes increasingly dominant in my thinking. Two final map notes - ignore the white circle. It was an error which I only notice after I had saved the map. The yellow circle is Al-Quds (Jerusalem) - call it my personal wargoal.
We move into 1791 and Dimashq falls. You can see from the below I have temporarily abandoned the Armenian front to concentrate on some battles in Mesopotamia. My army in the Levant moves south to the next fort. However this also now opens up an unfortified route along the cost to the Nile Delta, and to Cairo. I send an additional army into Egypt to make the most of this opportunity. From those battles we manage a stackwipe of a 50k army.
Meanwhile in the New World Skapaflo is victorious over Revolutionary France. They do not end the revolution, but they do take territory. That is at the end of May, and for reference my manpower now stands at 50k nearly exactly.
In June we get my only naval action, and a defeat. I had tried to catch a Mamluk squadron of ships, but then forgot about my fleet, which in turn got caught by the superior Mamluk main fleet. I was lucky though in that I escaped with only eight heavy ships lost. The Battle of the Nile it was not.
Cairo falls in August 1791 - there is another fort on the coast at Alexandria but the rest of the Nile valley, all the way down to Ethiopia is open for the taking, with no significant Mamluk forces. Myself and my allies start to exploit.
An altogether tougher fight takes place at the other end of the war, at Erzurum, where I reinforce an Austrian force besieging the fortress that had gotten attacked. A victory, but again at cost. Fighting in mountains is not nice. Also now the Mamluks have finally gotten to Tech 30, lessening our troop advantage.
As we move into 1792 we get news from the other side of Asia, where Japan concludes a war with Russia for most of what was left of the Russian Far East. Closer to home we have taken Alexandria, Erzurum, and several Mesopotamian forts, and our troops are advancing through Sudan and into Ethiopia, when a series of large revolutionary revolts break out through the Mamluk Empire. The Mamluks are hurting, and whilst they can still throw more mercenaries at us, I happen to realise their cash reserves (measured about 8k at the start of the war) are gone and that they appear to be in debt.
However, I am hurting too. After another costly battle (not screenshotted) I actually merged two of may armies together (which mostly meant merging the infantry). This left me with four armies (one of which was mostly dispersed carpet sieging the Nile valley) and an artillery siege train.
The truth is tried to restrict my fighting during the final year of the war. I wanted to protect what manpower I had left.
Oltü falls in October 1792 and that appears to be the final straw for the Mamluks, who agree to a peace in November 1792. Greece takes a string of provinces, but I get nothing. I must admit to being a bit disappointed there was no economic sanction in terms of war reps or fine. Three nations were released, a one province Aden and Qara Qoyunlu, and a four province Ajuuraan.
The “bill” though is possibly the most extensive I can remember in an EU game of mine. I usually avoid these sort of wars.
It does show though how hard-fought a contest this was. When peace arrived my manpower was down to seven thousand. It can seem like a string of victories, and an endless march forward, but I never felt to have mastered the Mamluks, in this war or the last.
The Start of the Peace
Now came the business of getting everything back home - which took quite a few months. I played the game through to January 1794. As a parting shot, as it were, I Sabotage Mamluk recruitment. The loss of territory reduces their lead on Ming, but does not end it. At long long as I get Offensive Idea 6 - Grand Army - and a 20% increase in my own force limit. My manpower situation stinks, and if I had remembered at the time I would have setup State manpower edicts. Something to do at the start of the next session. I also need to rebuild the regiments I lost. I am going to change my army format to 30/2/32. Then we shall see about getting a sixth army.
Two final world events. When I as going through I neglected to mention the conclusion of a war between Silesia and Bohemia which saw Silesia expand aggressively. They were forced by Austria to hand Praha back, but even so.
Lastly Lithuania concludes a war with Gazikumukh, expandings its border to Khorasan. They have really become a resurgent power.
The truce with the Mamluks runs out in 1805 - so I hope to have one last large war with them. This time I really want to be in the driving seat if at all possible.