That's actually quite funny! Also, since when did VeF stopped being developed? Even if I prefered M&T, VeF was also an awesome mod.
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That's actually quite funny! Also, since when did VeF stopped being developed? Even if I prefered M&T, VeF was also an awesome mod.
Apparently it is still being developed but they haven't updated the mod in a long time, making it incompatible with the latest EU IV versions. Only time will tell what will happen to VeF.
Cheers!
Chapter XXII – Russian Endeavor
Violence among the leading families of Turkey was a common thing. Everybody wanted more power. Often these conflicts led to instability. Turkey was lucky and it had so far never ended in a civil war. Less stable countries like France were had a higher risk of ending in internal conflicts. Mahmud settled the issues between the families usually via diplomacy. Rarely did he side with one family.
With Africa and South America in the hands of the Turkish Empire, Mahmud felt this urge to conquer the North America continent, too. His first target were the Aztec, Kiche and Colima.
These native tribes were easily subjugated which allowed him to focus on the Asia continent. On India to be precise. Westernized Delhi had such an ugly color on political map that the Grand Council received from a renowned cartographer that it was decided to attack them.
Delhi fought bravely and their military technology was far superior to Turkey's but that did not stop the Turkish forces to sack city after city. Turkey had no interest in taking any of these provinces, instead nine were given to Mahmud's subject Malabar.
At peace again, the Grand Council advised the sultan to make Polotsk as subject to replace Crimea, which had already been integrated. He agreed and Polotsk was released together with five provinces. They were the perfect vassal for a future campaign against Russia and Lithuania. But Mahmud felt that now was not the time for that. Instead, he waited another nine months for the truce with the French to expire to cut them further down in size. Russia could wait.
Mahmud was informed that the nobles have called an audit of the guilds. They found some accounting mistakes in the sultan's favor. Excellent news - More money for more buildings!
The salt mines of Bologna and Ferrara produced a large a mount of the country's salt needs., In the November of 1744, the local miners were striking for safer working conditions and higher wages causing a salt crisis. Even though the strikes ended after a couple of months, the realm suffered from this salt shortage for two years which decreased the overall production efficiency during that time by 10%.
On June 5 of the same year, the truce with House Capet had expired and Mahmud called for a Jihad against them. This pleased the clergy. War in the name of Allah was the most just reason there was. Only Avignon, a French vassal, sided with them. At the battle of Orleans, Turkey managed to grab an early victory with support from Liege and Brittany.
Not even half a year into the war, and the sultan was forced to focus on the Americas once again. Two of his colonial nations , Yeni Marrakesh and Yeni Istanbul, were having a colonial border conflict. Yeni Marrakesh had venutred into Moxos – a province of Yeni Istanbul – in search of new land and resources. Yeni Istanbul then as a reaction sent its milita to drive Yeni Marrakesh out but they got overzealous and pursued the settlers back into Cuzco, raiding and burning. The conflict then had escalated when Yeni Marrakesh send their milita to drive out the milita of Yeni Istanbul and carried out raids of their own into Moxos. Hamid Tayyar, governor of Yeni Istanbul was blaming the governor of Yeni Marrakesh, Recep Bali, and vice versa. It was like kindergarten. Mahmud had no choice but to sort out their differences.
In 1747, Russia won a war against the Golden Horde in which they forced them to release Georgia s a sovereign state. Turkey ceded the opportunity and declared war on their new, weak, ally-less neighbor as soon as they heard about this. Two years later, Georgia was no more. The sultan sent a thank you card to the Russian Tsar after the annexation of Georgia. 1747 was also the year in which the war with France came to an end. Liege received ownership of Artois, Cambray Chaumon and Reims. France ceded to Brittany Chartres, Limousin, Orleanais and Vendome. Turkey was given control over a few provinces on Cuba as well as the sunny island Mauritius.
Turkey waited a few years for their next major war. Three years to be precise. During those years the serfs tried to move out of the provinces and aimed to earn a living in the capital. This was creating turnmoil in the realm. The serfs belonged on their turf! In 1750 war was declared on Kostroma with the powerful imperialism casus belli. They were an ally of the Russians and the plan was to drag Russia into a war against Turkey. Declaring war on Russia directly was not an option given that they were part of an anti-Turkey coalition. The defenders had called upon over 220.000 soldiers. Sounds like a lot? That's nothing compared to the 1.3 million forces that the Turkish Empire and its subjects had.
Four years into the war, the sultan decided to continue the expansion in India. The war against the Russians was going slowly. So much land to occupy before any reasonable peace deal could be made. Tough luck.
Delhi was an easier target and the province could be fed to Malabar. At the end of the war, Delhi was left with just four cities – three on the coast of Gujarat and one closer to tge Himalaya region.
In 1756, six years after the declaration of war, Turkish diplomates had negotiated acceptable treaties with the various parties. Russia ceded four provinces to Polotsk and Khlynov ceded six provinces to them. Kostroma was forced to release Tver as sovereign state. The sultan was very happy with these three peace treaties. It was also a perfect timing because it left Turkey with seven months of peace before the truce with the French expired. Timing the wars the key to the Turkish expansion policy.
Just before Mahmud gave the order to march on Isle-de-France, he hired Fath Jang Tarki as general. He taught for many years at the military academy in Eskisehir and was considered one of the great military minds that Turkey had ever seen. His reputation reached way further than the Turkish borders. Tarki also made as an excellent general. It was a wise decision of the sultan to give Tarki the responsibility and privilege of leading an army. 68.000 men were under his command.
The war lasted only three years before all of France was occupied – unconditional surrender was demanded. After a week of debates among the Grand Council it was decided to force the French to cede all its colonial holdings in the Caribbean. Furthermore, Brittany's realm was extended by Berry, Bourbon, Milhau and Rouergue; Liege was given the provinces Barrois, Troyes and Franche-Comté to administrate.
Mahmud got old and his health got worse. Someday before France was occupied, he died of poor health and his younger half-brother Süleyman II took over as sultan. Süleyman's elven-year-old son, Cem, became the heir to the throne.
The military demanded a change policy towards Portugal. They controlled too many provinces next to Turkish ones – provinces that were claimed by Turkey! Widespread dissatisfaction with the sultan's failure to recover these claimed provinces were seeping the nation. A change of policy was needed to turn things around. However, a war was not in the air given that the Portuguese had managed to enter the anti-Turkey coalition again. Time was running out. There were only 106 years left to conquer the world...
Europe in the January of 1759:
- 1
Chapter XXIII – Birthplace of the Revolution
After the successful campaign against House Capet, the attention shifted to Asia. Ayutthaya had to be conquered. They were fairly large, ally-less and time was running out! The newly crowned sultan Süleyman called for war against the Hindu infidels. There was just a slight problem: Ayutthaya had military tech 46 – Turkey military tech 33. Unbelievable. No other country in the world had a higher military tech than Ayutthaya. Of course Turkey was many techs behind but even other, Western, countries had a far inferior tech. Denmark for example was at military tech 41, the Golden Horde had an even inferior military tech than Turkey and was stuck at 31. This was not fun. The Ayutthaya armies cut through the Turkish armies like through butter. Over 150.000 Turks were needed to kill their army. Good that manpower wasn't a problem anymore.
Once their army was defeated, it was quite easy to annex them. But then there was a new problem. All these provinces had to be administrated! 168.7% overextension to be precise. Solution: Release Ayutthaya as Sunni subject state. This meant that Malacca was getting integrated into the realm. They were no longer needed as vassal. The country with the most-advanced military in the world was now a Turkish vassal. Perfect. Immediately after a war with the useful overseas expansion casus belli was declared on Mongolia, a neighbor of Ayutthaya. Shan Yidu and Manchu sided with the Mongols.
The Merchant Guild was competing in Ceylon against merchants from Malabar, a subject of Turkey. The Guild was much more succesful which led to a conflict with Malabar. Süleyman decided it was best if the Guild kept a low profile in Ceylon.
Four years into the war, only 26% war score had been reached. Not good. At least a separate peace treaty was signed with Yidu that gave Ayutthaya two provinces bordering Shun. One of them was a coastal province so they were able to core them while fighting the Mongols.
Meanwhile Turkey was preparing for an invasion of Russia. The truce with them was about to expire.
On top of all of that, Turkey lost its sultan in battle, reducing stability to 0. Süleyman's 16-year-old son Cem was crowned sultan. He had no legitimate heir yet and the succession was in danger.
Cem proved to be a good administrator and quickly restored stability, allowing Turkey to proceed with the preparations for the invasion of Russia which was scheduled for January of 1764. News spread through Europe that the people had successfully revolted in France against the House of Capet. They became a revolutionary republic and therby the birthplace of the revolution. Scary having them as neighbor. Consul Pascal des Beriers was now ruling over Revolutionary France.
The day before war was declared on Russia, Turkey had settled for peace with Mongolia with a war score of just 32% but still managed to force Mongolia to cede 12 provinces to Ayutthaya. However, the goal to make them release countries was not achieved. Cem settled for this compromise.
Russia called in Flanders, Gotland, Halych, Hungary, Khlynov, Kostroma, Lithuania, Meissen and Muscovy. They had a lot of allies noticed Cem.. This was going to be a productive war given that so many countries entered it.
The battle of Moskva was fought in April of the same year and turned out to be the major one: 132339 Russians attacked the invading Turkish army which consisted of 159310. The battle was close but the Turkish forces under Conquistador Lefkeli won. 59440 Turks died and 63451 Russians. A brutal start for this war.
Flanders was the first party that was defeated. They lost all their provinces but their capital Pennyrile in the Mississippi area.
Cem had undertaken a set of measured to reform the military system of the realm. The tactical innovations included shallower and broader formations to maximize firepower, cross training between the army branches and light highly mobile field artillery. The new tactical doctrine was based on firepower and mobility, eschewing heavy artillery and slow-moving tercios. High quality troops were what Turkey lacked and so focused especially on those.
Exactly two and a half years into the war with the Russians, Cem pulled of a risky move. For the first time in Turkish history, did a sultan declare an anti-coalition war. The defending side consisted of 15 countries. But there was more: In September a war on Revolutionary France was declared. This was it. All or nothing. All subjects were put on aggressive focus.
By 1767, Khlynov had already ceded some provinces to Polotsk, Halych had been annexed and Meissen had been forced into vassalage. The wars were generally going in the right direction.
One year later, Gotland was annexed. Meanwhile in India things were looking good too, Turkey was on the winning side!
On September 1, 1770, the anti-coalition war came to an end. 34 provinces were conquered by Turkey and her vassal during this war. Furthermore Shan and Sukhothai were released as sovereign states. Münster, leader of the coaltion, and Cen agreed formally to an eight year long truce.
In December of the same year, a treaty was first signed with the French that reduced them two just two provinces and then with the Russians who released Finland as sovereign state, ceded two Swedish cores to Turkey and gave some land to Polotsk.
The Swish cores were used to release Sweden as Sunni vassal. The province Gotland was sold to Sweden for the sum of 0 ducats.
Cen began integrating his vassal Liege into the realm as he saw no use for them anymore.
The world in the February of 1771:
Europe:
Asia 1:
Asia 2:
Vassals: Sweden, Bremen-Verden, Brittany, Liege (being integrated), Meissen (non Sunni), Polotsk, Ayutthaya, Malabar.
A few comments
The campaign ends in the year 1865. This means we have 94 years left to conquer the world.
Pretty much every country hates me but my vassals (Meissen actually hates me too...)
Portugal refuses to die – I've been hunting them for centuries. First they had their capital in Lisboa, then somewhere in the Philippines and now in Eastern Siberia!
If the WC succeeds will depend on if I can come up with a strategy to deal with Mongolia and Shun. Their provinces are expensive to core because often high BT and increased core creation cost modifier. My vassal Ayutthaya is having major problems coring these provinces.
It will take 2 more wars to annex France because they have a vassal (Avignon).
A successful WC will also depend on whether I can time my wars right. I also ran completely out of ADM points. I am 11 techs behind in ADM, 1 tech ahead in DIP and 13 techs behind in mil. If you wonder why: I use my military points to assault fortresses. One assault costs 10 MIL – that's way too expensive in my opinion but I guess that's just tough luck.
We still have no heir to the throne.
My vassal Polotsk got screwed with a 1 / 4 / 2 ruler who has been ruling for over 38 years. This is why Polotsk is coring extremyl slow. They simply have no ADM. Malabar has a 2/5/4 vassal which is pretty much the same bad. Liege has 0/2/0. It seems my vassals are cursed with incapable monarchs.
My truce with Russia expires in 7.5 years; with the “old coalition” in about 7 years. I can only declare war on a “new coalition” consisting of Shun the Golden Horde and Mongolia. Three blobby blobs.
Cheers!
Chapter XXIV – Scandinavia Restored
Turkey began improving relations with Shan (not to be confused with Shun). Shan was a small country that had been liberated by the Turks in the last anti-coalition war and since they were followers of the true faith it was possible to diplo-vassalize them. For that to happen, an alliance was formed and a state marriage arranged. By April of 1771, Shan was officially a subject of Cem. They were in a perfect geographical position next to the mighty Mongols.
Dai Viet was another country that Cem wanted to have as vassal. They were a one-province minor bordering Turkey's vassal Ayutthaya and the hostile Mongols. They had no allies and so they were quickly annexed and released as subject together with seven additional provinces.
Korea was one of the few remaining independent countries that Turkey had no truce with so it was no surprise when the Grand Council advised Cem to declare war on them. After all, they owned provinces in Japan which had rightfully been claimed by Turkey.
Meanwhile news spread through Europe that Turrkey had claimed the title of Defender of the Orthodox faith. This was ideal because it allowed Turkey to drag the Russians into a war before the truce expired but first the Koreans had to be defeated.
In Nootoka Turkish colonist had founded a second settlement because they refused to live in the capital city of the province. People were flocking to that second settlement, which was good because more people meant more taxes.
The Koreans had trouble defending their holdings in Japan allowing Turkey to declare war on Perm, an Orthodox country. As Defender of the Orthodox faith, Russia honored their call to arms. This was ideal because Cem wanted to force the Russians to return some more Swedish cores.
At the age of 24, Cem became a father when his son Mahmud was born! The succession was safe.
In January of 1773, Turkey decided to declare war on Hungary after the truce with them had expired. They dragged Lithuania and Denmark into the war.
On November 19, 1774, Turkey signed a peace treaty with Korea that gave Turkey all Korean holdings in Japan as well as two province sin Eastern Siberia and six in their home region. This resulted in a total of 162% overextension. Turkey began the coring process right away but there was not enough administrative power to core all provinces which was a little problematic, resulting in lots of national and patriot sentiment among the non-Turkish population of the realm.
Denmark was also defeated and returned four core provinces to Sweden. This left Turkey at war with Perm & Russia as well was with Hungary & Lithuania.
A year later, Russia was defeated once more returning seven cores to Sweden. Furthermore, Perm was annexed and released as Sunni vassal.
Hungary was forced to cede five Ungvar cores to Turkey which were then used to release Ungvar as vassal. Hungary also released Moldavia as sovereign state.
After turning Perm into a vassal, war was declared on their neighbor Khlynov and her allies Muscovy and Russia. This war forced Russia once again to fight against Turkey. By passing truces was so easy. Russia simply had the wrong allies. Once again Turkey and her vassals began laying siege on their provinces.
The truce with Finland expired in 1777 and war was declared on them to feed Sweden their provinces. All the forts were assaulted and so by October of the same year all of Finland was under Swedish occupation. Consequently they had to cede all but their capital.
In the January of 1778, the truce with the coalition expired. A Jihad was declared on Norway l before they were able to rejoin it. A month later, war was declared on Orissa. In April war was declared on Bengal and her allies Golden Horde and Gujarat. In October of the same year, Turkey declared war on Revolutionary France with the goal to conquer Avignon and to feed Isle-de-France to Brittany. That would leave the French with just Forez. Soon after, Norway ceded six provinces to Sweden.
The war with Khylnov and Russia came to an end in June when the Russans returned six provinces to Sweden and Khylnov ceded eight to Perm. Muscovy was annexed by Polotsk. Orissa ceded three provinces to Malabar.
The realm had major problems getting enough recruits to fight against the enemy. More than 300.000 men were needed to reinforce all the armies. There were 0 manpower reserves left. A worrying situation – one that the sultan could not change.
Two years later in the January of 1780, war was declared on Moldavia and her ally Wallachia. Wallachia was annxed by Turkey, Moldavia by Ungvar. In March, Revoluionary France ceded Isle-de-France to Brittany and Avignon to Turkey. The Golden Horde ceded four provinces to Perm and one to Polotsk. Gujarat was annexed by Turkey.
On July 1781, Turkey came to peace again when a treaty was signed with Bengal. The Bengalis were utterly defeated and ceded five provinces to Ayutthaya and eight to Shan.
Sultan Cem wante dto expand into Mongolia and for that he declared war on Münster since both countries were among many others part of the anti-Turkey coalition. A couple of months later, the Truce with Hungary expired which led to another war with them and their allies Denmark, Lithuania and Russia.
Two years later, Denmark was forced to cede all provinces but its capital. These were distributed among Bremen-Verden and Sweden.
In 1784, an agreement was reached with Hungary. They ceded 8 provinces to Ungvar. Hungary's ally Russia ceded Kolomna and Velikiye Luki to Polotsk. Soon after a war was declared on Finland in which they lost their last province to Sweden.
In May of the same year, Münster negotiated a peace for the entire coalition in which New Portugal was annexed by Yeni Alexandria, Bulgaria was annexed by Turkey and Delhi was annexed by Turkey. Furthermore, Kostroma ceded 12 provinces to Turkey. Portugal ceded thirteen provinces to Turkey. The Mongols ceded one provinces to Turkey, ten to Shan and seven to Dai Viet. Shun ceded three provinces to Turkey. Kostroma ceded three provinces to Perm. Yidu ceded one province to Turkey.
To administrate these provinces, Ming and Avignon were released as vassals. The remaining provinces were cored but this process took a while and Turkey was still sitting on 175% overextension.
The world in the January of 1785.
A few comments:
There are 80 years left to play – not much.
My manpower pool is depleted. I need more than 350k to reinforce all my armies.
Shan is still a huge blob. If this WC fails then it's probably because I didn't manage to reduce their size.
Chapter XXV – No BBB in this World
Turkey had to get rid of its 175% overextension before conquering new provinces. National and patriot sentiment among the non-Turkish populationg grew rapidly. Nevertheless a war on Nogai and the Turkish Khaganate was declared. These provinces could be fed to Perm. The Turkish Khaganate also called in Chagatai into the war.
In October of 1786, Turkey also declared war on the Golden Horde since the truce with them had expired. The Golden Horde's capital was in Europe and territory held by Perm split their realm into two. The Asian part of the Golden Horde's realm was much larger but all these provinces were considered colonies and so Turkey used the colonialism causs belli on them.
One month later, Revolutionary France which owned just the province Forez, became the target of Turkish aggression. The province was occupied and annexed by Brittany. The Big Blue Blob was no more. Conquered. Gone. Sent to Oblivion.
Sultan Cem and four generals led the armies fighting the Golden Horde. They were making quick progress thanks to assaulting the fortresses before they walls were breached. Cem became ill during this campaign and his illness became worse and worse. He was returning to Nicosia but he never made it. In late December of 1787, Cem died and was succeeded by his son Mahmud III. Cem's daugther Zeyneb became Mahmud's heir.
Mahmud III continued his father's campaign against the Golden Horde and went to Eskisehir to receive additional military training.
In November of 1789, the Grand Council advised Mahmud to conquer the Norwegian islands Shetlands and Foroyar. This left Norway with just one province: Viken.
In the December of the same year, the Golden Horde had lost the war and ceded twelve low-value provinces to Polotsk and eleven to Perm.
Turkey began integrating its vassal Brittany since there was no use for them anymore after Revolutionary France had been conquered.
The following month, the realm returned to war when 120.000 Turks began marching on Gauda, the capital of Bengal. In April war was declared on Bhangi Misl and their ally Manchu. The Danes and Hungarians were conquered, too.
A scandal had erupted at the royal court and most diplomatic actives came to an end. This upset Mahmud and he bribed an advisor to take the blame. Then things started to quieten down again and the diplomatic acitivies resumed.
In January of 1772, Turkey declared war on Russia with the goal to feed more of their provinces to Sweden and Polotsk. Kostroma and Lithuania sided with the Russians. Peace was also made with Bengal which ceded some territory to Malabar, Shan and Ayutthaya.
By November, the truce with the coalition had expired and Turkey declared a war on Shun and her ally Manchu. It was a difficult war because of Turkey's technological disadvantage. Shun won most batltes in the early stages and it did not really help that the country was also embroiled in a war with the Russians but it was the smaller evil considering that both countries could have formed an even more powerful military coalition against Turkey. While Turkey was fightign those two super powers, a small army invaded Norway conquer their last remaining province.
At the battle of Bejing, Turkey scored a victory over Shun killing more than 20.000 of their men and annihilating the survivors later. Unfortunately Shun had many, many more soldiers but slowly Turkey was making progress.
The war with the Russians and her allies Lithuania and Kostroma was going even better by now. Kostroma had been forced in a separate peace to cede 12 provinces to Turkey. A single peace treaty was signed with Russia and Lithuania in the May of 1797 which made Sweden the sole country in all of Scandinavia. Furthermore, Russia ceded two provinces each to Polotsk and Perm.
One year later, the war with Shun came to an end after 36% War Score was reached. More was not possible without taking many more losses. Ming received five of its core provinces back. With the country being at peace again, sultan Mahmud began integrating his subjects Polotsk and Ungvar.
Even though the manpower pool was still depleted, no surprise given all these wars, Turkey decided to declare an anti-coalition war on Wallis. The coalition also included Teutons, Portugal, Münster, Chosokabe and Pattini.
In August, after the truce had expired, Turkey declared war on the Bengalis. Malabar, Shun and Ayutthaya were ready for more territory. Flanders owned one last provinces in the Louisiana region. It was conquered by Yeni Medina.
In March of 1799, Turkey also declared war on the Golden Horde which was embroiled in wars against both the Mongols and the Turkish Khaganate. Turkey's vassals greatly contributed to this war because Mahmud felt that his own military had to recover. He wanted to be prepared for a future invasion of Mongolia. Slightly problematic was that the third parties had already occupied a big chunk of the Golden Horde which Turkey was not able to conquer – at least not in this war.
Bengal had to release in August of 1801 Orissa as sovereign state after they had accepted unconditional surrender. Furthermore five provinces were ceded to Shan; three to Malabar and five to Ayutthaya.
Achieving more than 50% war score against the Golden Horde was not possible because of the Mongols who had occupied too much land already. So Turkey settled with it and incorporated Baku and Aran into her realm. The Golden Horde also ceded fifteen provinces to Perm.
By August of 1802, the war with the coalition came to an end when all coalition members but Wallis were annexed. Münster went to Bremen-Verden, all other provinces to Turkey. Increasing the realm's overextension by 288.8%. That's why Grand Councila advised Mahmud to release the Teutonic Order as vassal. 21 provinces went to them – many of them used to be Turkish cores but oh well. It was the only reasonable option. All other provinces were turned into core provinces which took 23 months to complete. Turkey began integrating her vassals Malabar, Bremen-Verden and Liege. Both were no longer needed. It was estimated that the integration of Liege was going to complete in 1816, the one of Bremen-Verden in 1825 and only in the May of 1833 was the integration of Malabar going to complete.
Asia in November of 1801:
- 1
Chapter XXVI – The Fall of Shun
The 19th century began with a massive war against Mongolia and the theocratic Manchu. The ruler of Manchu was Archbishop Dudu Mentemu II but was most confusing about them was that the was a Confucian Archbishop! The Grand Council had difficulties explaining this to sultan Mahmud. They never heard of such a thing and it made little sense to most council-members. Nothing strange with Mongolia's government form. They were a despotic monarchy and followed the same heretical faith.
Nobles demanded old rights pretty much immediately after the declaration of war. They wanted to regain certain lost rights of privileges. Mahmud rejected their demands.
Overextension was still a big problem, in a previous war Turkey had accumulated more than 200% overextension. In Iberia particularists and as well as Portuguese nationalists rose up. The particularists wanted 30% more local autonomy and the nationalists demanded an independent state. Their demands were unacceptable and so the army was sent to deal with them. What was funny about them was that mighty Mongolia had a 3x smaller army than the one the particularists had. (46.000 vs 137.000)
Ludwig van Beethoven was an Austrian composer and pianist that the sultan hired. Next to war, music was the sultan's great passion. With the financial backing of Mahmud, Beethoven managed to produce many great works. A golden era for culture!
By the summer of 1804, the over extension problem was solved because the newly acquired provinces had finally been turned into cores. However, many hundred thousand rebels were still rampaging through the country. So the situation was still not perfect. The rebels had to be defeated. At all costs.
Manchu ceded the provinces Gyeonggi in Korea to Turkey three years into the war and soon later an agreement was reached with Mongolia. They ceded nine provinces to Shan; returned five cores to Ming, ceded six provinces to Dai Viet and one province each to Ayutthaya and Turkey.
With the country at peace, Mahmud gave orders to his administrators to integrate Ayutthaya into the realm.
In February of 1805, Turkey wanted to reconquer Teutonic cores held by Lithuania and so a Jihad was called upon them. Kazimiera V of Lithuanians then called Kostroma into the war. Russia was the Defender of the Faith and was therefore also called into the war. A massive rebellion of over 120.000 Portuguese nationalists broke out in Lisboa. They sacked the city and also conquered the nearby province Ribatejo. In the woodlands of Beira Baixa a Turkish army under General Ohrili stopped them from taking more land.
Because of the depleted manpower pool, Mahmud decided to hire over 65.000 mercenaries from all corners of Europe. They contributed greatly to Turkey's war efforts but the sultan was critized for relying on them. Why? Because of their extreme cruelty. Afrer sacking a city they plundered civilians and sometimes even killed them. Mahmud's response to the criticism was: “Bellum se ipsum alet – Let them take what they want as long as they win the war for me!”
Three years into the war, Kostroma signed a separate peace treaty with Turkey in which was agreed that they ceded four provinces to Perm and one to Turkey.
Shortly after signing the treaty, war was declared on Orissa in which they were conquered by Ayutthaya. Soon a Jihad was called upon on Wallis but more importantly Turkey declared an anti-coalition war on the sole coalition member Shun but their ally Manchu honored their call to arms.
Manchu was quite weak and had to cede after two years of fighting their full annexation was demanded. The hostilities with Shun continued and a brutal war with many hundred thousand casualties was fought.
The war with Lithuania and Russia was also going well and five years into the war 100% War Score was reached. Separate peaces were signed with the two defending parties. Russia ceded three provinces to Turkey. On the one hand, that seemed like only litte territory was gained but the focus was on Lithuania.
Lithuania on the other hand had to return numerous cores to the Teutons and ceded even more provinces to them. Two provinces were, furthermore, ceded to Sweden. Russia had lost the title Defender of the Orthodox faith after suffering a defeat against Turkey. It was quite surprising that they were allowed to immediately reclaim the title.
News arrived in Nicosia that the tiny Turkish Khagnate had vassalized the Golden Horde which was at least four times their size which was not difficult if one owns only four provinces.
In the January of of 1812, Turkey declared a war on Bengal.
Four years into the war with Shun, 58% war score were reached and the majority of their realm had been occupied. The mighty Shun had fallen. Turkey pressed for more war score before reaching a peace agreement the following year.
Shun ceded 23 provinces, most of them cores, to Ming. They also ceded two provinces to Shan and six to Turkey.
Bengal was defeated in the August of 1814 and they ceded two provinces to Malbar, which was 74% integrated into the realm. Damin and Bihar went to Turkey; Lakhnor to Shan.
Mahmud gave orders to integrate Sweden and Shan into the realm.
Chapter XXVII – 50 Years To Go
There are fifty years left before the campaign comes to an end. This chapter will be different than any previous ones. Nothing “happens” in this chapter. Instead it is time to take a closer look at the situation and to discuss Turkey's next moves.
The coffers are filled with 901.000 ducats, prestige and legitimacy are high. Turkey's manpower has recovered half away and there are currently 820k recruits available.
Three out of eight diplomats are busy integrating Sweden, Malabar and Shan into the realm. The process of integrating Malabar is 77.2% completed. Sweden: 1.2%; Shan: 1.4%
The realm is quite pious with a piety of 73% which is quite bad for technological advancements. Religious unity is at 208% but there are still ten provinces which follow a heathen faith. No provinces are heretic which makes Allah very happy.
Sultan Mahmud could claim the title Defender of the Sunni faith which would increase moral of army by 10% but it would come at the cost of more expensive tech. Technology is quite problematic anyways because because the realm is currently very far behind with tech levels of 35ADM 48DIP 34MIL.
Especially being behind in military tech is problematic because it makes Turkish units extremly weak. Turkey's competitor Shun for example has military tech 47; Nogai is at military tech 50.
At the moment overextension is at 64.1 but all provinces are being cored.
Turkey is capable of supporting a total of 1748 regiments without penalties and currently has 1706 regiments. The navy is slightly smaller with a total of 1019 ships out of 1224 possible ones.
The monthly balance is +1.85k and income is 3.65k whereas monthly expenses are 1.8k. Army maintenance accounts for more than 70% of the total expenses.
Turkey is currently at war with nobody and has nine vassals out of which three are being integrated: Sweden, Teutons, Avignon, Meissen, Perm, Dai Viet, Ming, Shan and Malabar. Turkey has ten colonial nations in the Americas and Oceania: Yeni Istanbul, Yeni Nicosia, Yeni Alexandria, Yeni Mecca, Yeni Medina, Yeni Eskisehir, Yeni Granada, Yeni Marrakesh, Yeni Basra and … Breton Mexico.
The realm has a truce with Lithuania, Russia, Shan and Bengal. The Teutons are being subsized with 115.19 ducats per month. The subsidies are scheduled to end in the May of 2203.
Turkey is the target of the coalition of Kostroma and being embargoed by Golden Horde, Nogai and Turkish Khaganate.
Let's take a look at the map. We will start with Europe:
Most of Europe is already under Turkish control but there are still some provinces in the hands of independent countries. Lithuania owns five provinces; Russia owns thirteen provinces in Europe and Kostroma ten.
Africa:
Africa is completely under Turkish control. There are no uncolonized provinces left.
Americas: The Americas are completely under control of Turkish colonial nations. There are eighteen uncolonized provinces in North America and 0 in South America.
Asia:
Asia is a troublesome continent and there is still a lot of “work” to do here. Turkey's main enemy on this continent are definitely Shun and the Turkish Khaganate which had managed to vassalize the Golden Horde.
Jaunpur, protectorate of Bengal, owns one province in Asia; Bengal owns five. 54 provinces are controlled by Shun; 34 by Mongolia. Nogai owns two provinces; the Turkish Khaganate four and her vassal Golden Horde 33. Russia owns three provinces in Asia. Kostroma and Chagatai each two. There are no more uncolonized provinces in Asia.
(All numbers are estimate counts, it's possible that I missed a province here or there while I counted them)
Shun holds 25 core provinces of Turkey's vassal Ming which will make conquering Shun much, much easier. Many of them are high BT provinces and coring them would be a nightmare for sure. If I hadn't released Ming as vassal then this WC would have failed long time ago. Back in the days when Shun was even larger it was the only possible way to get them down to size in any reasonable amount of time.
What are the odds for a successful WC at the moment? I'd say about 65%. It will all come down to whether or not I will be able to conquer/feed Shun in time.
Another rather big obstacle is Russia. It took me a long time to take the provinces I already conquered and it will take even more time to conquer their remaining ones. Why? Because the Russians built lvl 7 and lvl 9 forts everywhere! It takes 45 artillery units to get a +5 siege bonus on a lvl 9 fort. This is a problem unique to VeF because in VeF you can build as many special category buildings as you want and so the AI decided to go crazy an build lvl 7 & lvl 9 forts everywhere. I don't like this at all because it makes lvl 7 & lvl 9 forts too powerful.
A few other goals I'd like to achieve:
I never managed to enact the national decision Unify Islam. In order to being able to enact it all of my provinces need to be Muslim and I am also missing Samarkand as province which I have to own. It also costs a lot of monarch power for a benefit that is not worth it anymore this late in the game but I still would like to achieve this. Maybe after I have conquered the world..
I'd like to have a complete Sunni world. For this to happen I will have to break the vassalge of Meissen because they are currently following a heathen faith called Anabaptism. I will not be able to integrate Meissen because they very much hate my guts. The Meissen opinion of Turkey is decreased by -851 thanks to aggressive expansion. It was a mistake to vassalize them in the first place. Once I noticed they were already a vassal.
If possible I would like to own every single province by 1865 including uncolonized provinces. This means I will also have to break the vassalage of Avignon. Unlike Meissen they don't hate me but VeF has a custom 5-stage process that you have to complete before you can begin integrating a vassal. This system must be broken for Avignon because unlike my other vassals they are not advancing to the next stage. Out of all my secondary goals this is the least likely one I'll be able to achieve.
I want to move my capital back to Constantinople if I have the administrative power to do so.
That's all for today. See you next time!
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Chapter XVIII – Ming Restored
Mahmud III called for a Grand Council meeting on New Years Day, 1815. They discussed Turkey's next move for world domination. Among the possible targets were Nogai, Mongolia and the Turkish Khaganate. Military advisor Said Oruc, who was an excellent quartermaster, made a plea to attack Mongolia. Nobody objected and so the issue was settled. That Mongolia had no allies were pleasing news. Since diplomatic power was low, the casus belli was not overseas expansion but Holy War.
Furthermore, the Grand Council advised Mahmud to send colonists to Abitbi and Ojiba – two provinces in Colonial Canada.
A pretender wanted to overthrow King Taiding V of Mongolia and he had made quite some progress before the declaration of war but then the Turkish army arrived and the pretender was killed.
The Grand Council had also urged Mahmud to call for war against Kostroma and her ally Lithuania. Mahmud valued the input from his advisors and so a Jihad was declared on them too. The Teutons took care of Lithuania all by themselves. They really wanted that territory – at least so it seemed.
At the battle of Furdan the entire Mongolian army was killed. They had assaulted the fort of a province that had been occupied by that Mongolian pretender and therefore were low on moral when General Tayyar and his forces attacked them.
Turkey partially relied on mercenaries in order to safe manpower which was still not fully recovered. Mercenaries, however, were very cruel and the war against Kostroma had shown some exceptionally vile behavior in occupied provinces. The mercenaries were unsatisfied with their wages which is why they robbed the civilian population, executed people in public and installed a reign of terror. Extortion by means of terror and tortude had become commonplace and Turkish mercenaries were feared for around the world because the stories of their cruelties spread beyond the borders of the war. Sultan Mahmud had did not really care about them being cruel. He quoted a Latin saying: “Bellum se ipsum alet!” meaning The war feeds itself. Mahmud allowed the mercenaries to take what they want from the occupied provinces.
In a separate peace treaty Lithuania ceded four provinces including the valuable trade port Riga to the Teutons, leaving them with just their capital city Vilnius. A week later, in February of 1817, Kostroma was forced to cede all but one of its provinces to Turkey and her vassal Perm. Five provinces each went to Turkey and Perm.
The war with the Mongols was going well and 82% War Score had been reached allowing Turkey to annex a lot of territory but because the wise sultan did not want to overextend his realm he waited another two years before negotiations for a peace treaty began.
In the mean time, he declared war on the neighboring Turkish Khaganate and her vassal Golden Horde as well as her allies Nogai and Chagatai.
Even though the Golden Horde was quite large, the four powers had together a tiny army of just 49.000 men. Turkey and her subject had more than 1.300.000 infantry men. An unequal war.
The Teutons faced internal conflicts beginnin in December of 1817. These lasted for many years and caused next to famines and plagues also rebellions. Some even tried to assisanted the Teutonic Hochmeister Paul I.
At the battle of Almaty, 60.000 Malabari soldiers annihiliated the entire army of Turkish Khaganate and her allies/subject. This made the remaining war quite easy. All that was left to do was carpet sieging their provinces and waiting for overextension to get down.
In August of 1818, Mahmud was preparing his armies to invade Russia. The two countries had a truce that was going to expire in late October. Many battalions were stationed along the Turkish-Russian and Permian-Russian border. In November the war was declared.
Malabar was integrated in February of 1819. Unfortunately, they had failed to core all their provinces which increased Turkey's overextension by another 70% and therefore postponed the signing of the peace treaty with the Mongols. Furthermore the integrations of Sweden and Shan were canceled in 1820 because of exactly the same problem.
Turkey was involved in too many wars and so when the truces with Bengal and Shun expired wars were not declared on them, allowing them to form a military coalition against Turkey.
In September of 1820, five years after the declaration of war, Turkey finally signed a peace treaty with Mongolia. This increased Turkey's overextension once again but decreased the size of Mongolia by a lot.
Mahmud died in April of 1821 and his sister Zeyneb became sultana of Turkey. Her son Mehmed became her heir. Zeyneb quickly ended the war with the Russians. The treaty stated that Russia ceded Mezen and Arkhangelsk to Perm; Staraya and Inkeri to Teutons; Ustuzhna, Ladoga, Bezhetsk, Torzok, Uglich and Onega to Sweden; Upper Oka, Elets and Obdorks to Turkey.
Zeyneb also ended the war with the Turkish Khagnate. Turkey annexed all cores belonging to Chagatai – some of them were held by the Golden Horde. Armenia, Kashmir, Kazak and Khiva were released as independent nations. Nogai was annexed by Perm. Turkey used the Chagatai cores to release them as vassal.
Turkey began integrating her vassal Ming. This seemed safe without causing overextension problems. It was estimated that it was going to take ten years. To continue increasing Ming's size, an anti-coalition war was declared on Bengal and Shun.
Two years into the war, 100% War Score was reached after all of Bengal had been occupied for a while but Turkey wanted to occupy more of Shun before making peace. The goal was to reconquer all cores which rightfully belonged to Ming. Once again the realm's manpower pool was depleted. More than 400.000 recruits were needed just to fully reinforce the armies and more than 2.100.000 men were needed to recover the manpower pool. Most of the casualties came form assaulting provincial fortifications.
In September of 1824, Turkey made peace with the coalition. Shun returned twenty three provinces to Ming, ceded four provinces to Shan and three to Turkey. Furthermore, Bengal ceded two provinces to Turkey. Finally Ming had been restored to its former glory!
Two months later, Turkey declared war on Kostroma and her ally Lithuania. The Russians refused to join the war even though they were the Defender of the Orthodox faith. The war was over by January. Lithuania was annexed by the Teutons, Kostroma by Turkey.
Turkey began integrating her vassal Teutons after signing the peace treaty. They had grown as large as they could.
Because Turkey had a truce with every independent country, the next two years were used regenerate manpower and to let the vassals core their provinces. Perm was suffering from negative stability. The reason for it remained unknown to Zeyneb but it caused some serious rebellions in Perm that had to be put down by force. Furthermore the vassalization of Meissen was ended. They were following a heathen faith and had refused to convert.
A few colonies were established in North America. Every uncolonized province had to be colonized eventually.
Zeyneb also gave orders to integrate Dai Viet into the realm.
In September of 1827, the truce with Russia had expired and in Novemebr war was declared. The goal was to annex them. They had been such an annoyance for too many years. It was going to take some time though to win the sieges of these lvl 9 forts.
The following year Mongolia became the target of another war. Zeyneb had called for a Jihad against them.
Amazing news arrived from Mongolia: The country was bankrupt! Bankruptcy decreased moral of all forts making it super easy to assault them.
A third simultaneous war was declared on Kashmir in March of 1829. Kashmir had only recently been liberated by Turkish forces but Chagatai had laid claim on their territory. Kashmir lost one of its two provinces to Chagatai. Armenia was also annexed by Chagatai.
Peace was made with Mongolia which ceded sixteen provinces to Turkey and one to Chagatai, leaving them with just three provinces. The war with Russia was going ok well but progress was made only slowly given that all these forts were very hard to take. Especially Kashin seemed impossible to conquer. Not only did that province hav a lvl 9 fort, it also had a march making every siege phase over 90 days long. However, 26% war score had already been reached and the fighting continued...
Diplomatic map of the world in 1830
A few comments:
Less than 35 years to go! The final showdown is near.
Those Russian forts are so hard to conquer... They don't contribute anything to the game. It just makes sieges very, very long but it doesn't really help the Russians in any way.
I'd say my chances for a succesful WC are 95% by now. Something really werird would have to happen to stop me from completing it.
Not sure exactly if I will complete it next chapter or the following. We will soon find out
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Chapter XXIX – A Unified Islam
The war with the Russians was still going on and the administration was busy coring the recently conquered provinces from Mongolia.
In Perm anti-government rebellions were quite common. General Piyale was sent to deal with them. However, his army suffered way more losses than the rebels. This was because of Turkey's severe lack of military technology.
In 1832, the integrations of Dai Viet and Ming were completed. Both countries were now a part of the Turkish Empire.
News arrived in Nicosia that a Mongolian rebellion had broken out in Golden Horde. A number of provinces had changed hands because neither the Golden Horde nor their overlord Thurkish Khaganate was strong enough to defeat the rebels.
Once every Russian lvl 9 fort fell their full annexation was demanded. Russia was no more! This heavily increased overextension but Zeyneb did not care. She wanted the Russians gone. Unfortunately the bloodthirst shown by Zeyned had ruined the reputation of Turkey in the eyes of the few remaining independent countries and some Turkish subjects started to question the legitimacy of such a ruthless sultana.
War was declared on the Turkish Khaganate and her vassal Golden Horde in April of 1832 and in July Meissen became the target of Turkish aggression.
Sultana Zeyneb decided to break the vassalization of Avignon. It seemed to be impossible to integrate them. Their ruler was also over 100 years old and the country was still at integration stage 1. Maybe it was better to conquer them later.
The truce with Shun and Bengal had expired in September and both formed a coalition against Turkey. War was declared on them with the anti-coaliton casus belli.
Meissen was occupied in May of 1833 but a peace treaty in which they were annexed was only signed the following year after overextension was under control again
While fighting against Bengal, Turkey also declared war on Jaunpur, a protectorate of Bengal. Since Bengal was not allowed to fight in two simultaneous wars against Turkey they could not “defend” them.
In December of 1833, Turkey made peace with the Turkish Khaganate. They ended the vassalization of Golden Horde, ceded Urgench to Perm and ceded Khujand and Taskhent to Chagatai. Golden Horde ceded five provinces to Perm and six to Chagatai. Both countries were left with just one province.
Turkey declared an overseas expansion war on Kazakh and her ally Khiva in January of 1834. By November both countries were occupied and a peace treaty was signed. Khiva was annexed by Chagatai and Kazakh ceded four of five provinces to Perm.
In April of 1836, peace was made with Bengal and Shun. The peace treaty stated that Shun released Manchu as sovereign country, returned one core to Chagatai and ceded four more provinces to Chagatai. Bengal ceded Guada and Limbuwan to Shan. Shan also received four provinces from Shun. Last but not least Shun ceded four provinces to Turkey. This left Bengal with one province and Shun with eight.
Kashmir was the only independent country which did not have a truce with Turkey. They owned just one province but it was quite valuable with a base tax of 8. Kashmir was located in the Himalayas region which made any form of military operations extremely difficult because the terrain was hostile and mountainous. Nevertheless, sultana Zeyneb sent an army of 68.000 men to conquer them. One siege phase lasted for 134 days! It was going to take very long to win this siege so Zeyneb gave orderes to assault the siege withotu waiting for a breach first. More than 40.000 Turks died at the siege but after just 209 days Kashmir became a part of Turkey.
Zeyneb waited until early November of 1837 before giving the armies the signal to march on Mongolia for one last time. Hostilities between two different branches of the Eskisehir-based military academy erupted into a conflict. One branch favored attack whereas the other was more of a defensive nature. Zeyneb believed that attack was always the best option.
In mid December of 1838 Mongolia was occupied and full annexation was demanded. Mongolia was no more!
Turkey began integrating her four vassals Perm, Chagatai, Shan and Sweden in 1838. This time annexing Shan and Sweden seemed safe and Zeyneb was sure that the integration was not going to get canceled once more.
The sultana called for war against Avignon, which many years ago used to be a vassal of Turkey, in the February of 1839. Avignon only owned one province and their army was quickly defeated. The Turkish forces laid siege on the province. Full annexation was demanded.
May 1 1840, marked an important date in the history of the Turkish Empire. It was the day on which sultana Zeyneb had unified Islam!
In June Zeyneb sent colonists to Arikara and Mandan – the last remaining uncolonized provinces in the world. She was truly the greatest sultana the realm ever had!
Diplomatic map of July, 19, 1840
Chapter XXX – All Good Things Come to an End
From July 1840 to January 1842 nothing happened. The time was used to core provinces but besides a few rebellions it was a quite time. Why? Because Turkey had a truce with all independent countries.
In January of 1842 a truce with the Turkish Khaganate and Kazakh expired. War was declared on them and they were annexed.
Right after was declared war on the Golden Horde. They had no army and only one province, which was annexed, too.
The truce with Manchu, Bengal and Shun lasted until April of 1844. They were the only independent countries left and so sultana Zayneb enjoyed two peaceful years.
Slightly problematic was that Turkey controlled 40.5% overextension worth of provinces which could not be turned into cores because they were “too far away”. They could only be cored once the vassals were integrated into the realm.
Not that it really mattered anymore but Turkey had finally researched a new cavalary unit called Toprakli Hit and Run Cavalry. Turkey was still 13 military techs behind but Zayneb did not give a darn. Bureaucracy ideas also advanced.
In June of 1843, the integration of Perm was completed. They accepted the irresistible proposal of integration. Turkey controlled now the Caspian Sea which increased trade income.
On April 11, 1844, Turkey declared a war on Bengal and annexed their remanning province Koch. In May a Jihad was declared on Shun and in June one on Manchu.
In October of 1843 Manchu was annexed, leaving Shun as the final target. Quite fitting. How many hundred thousands of soldiers had died in previous wars fighting Shun? They were next to Portugal and Russia the most annoying country that Turkey had faced ever.
The Turkish forces in Asia quickly made progress and occupied city after city. Shun was left with no chance and suddenly Zeyneb wished that all wars against them would have been so easily! It sure would have spared many Turkish lives. May 9, 1845 marked a historic date once again! Much more important than May 1, 1840, which was the day on which Islam was unified. May 9, 1845 was important because it was the day on which Shun was annexed. World Conquest completed!
Diplomatic maps May 9, 1840:
Ledger June 1, 1840
Sultana Zeyneb was enthusiastic when the news arrived in Nicosia that Turkey was the sole ruler of the world. She ordered a week of festivities throughout the country. A statue was built in her honor next to the famous statute of Osman Osmanli I, the founder of the dynasty that had united the Turkish Beyliks and conquered the world.
The Turkish administration had to core 178% worth of provinces. Many rebellions were the result of such high overextension.
Turkey improved her military tech further and researched a new infantry unit called Nazami Cedid infantry. These became the prefered type of infantry to kill the rebells. However, there were discussions among the Grand Council to whether to disband the military or not. Some believed it was no longer necessary given that there was no more independent countries left. Others argued that a strong military was needed to keep the Turkish Empire united.
In July of 1845, sultana Zeyneb became a powerful drug lord. A fitting title for a monarch that ruled the world!
Sweden was integrated into Turkey in June of 1846 and in August Chagatai became a part of the realm. Integration was a slow process. The only remaining vassal that had to be integrated was Shan. Their integration was about 50% through when Chagatai was integraed.
A problem was that Chagatai had been integrated a little too early. Briging the total overextension to more than 300%! Good thing that Turkey had to fight nobody else but those nasty rebels. Millions of rebells everywhere! Just because of the integration of Chagatai. Zenyeb was so happy that this happened after she conquered the world.
Parting Words
This campaign was started and completed many, many months ago. I somehow lost the last few screenshots and I apologize for that. Nevertheless, the world conquest has been successfully completed. Cheers!
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VeF has a modifier called 'powerful drug lord' that fires if you control a large portion of the opium tradeWhat do you mean she became a drug lord?
I hope someone is still here
This modifier is actually not very good because I think it decreases your national manpower. Don't remember 100% though
VeF has a modifier called 'powerful drug lord' that fires if you control a large portion of the opium trade
It should allow an Opium War Casus Belli on countries that embargo you, so you can appease the "oppressed" people and champion free trade.
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That would be funny. Opium WarIt should allow an Opium War Casus Belli on countries that embargo you, so you can appease the "oppressed" people and champion free trade.
Sounds like an excellent idea!
Thank you
Glad to hear that people are still reading this. Thoroughly enjoyed that campaign and writing the AAR was a lot of fun. Cheers!
Thank you
Edit: Here is a link to my Inkwell for those who want to see more of writings.
And a link to my current AAR: The Sun Never Sets