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EvilEmpire

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11. November 1444, George Skanderbeg stands atop his castle walls and despairs at the sight. Thousands of Ottomans are getting ready to lay waste to his known world.
He knows, capture will result in a long painfull death, seeing he was the one uniting the local warlords together against the Ottoman oppression.

His valiant army standing bravely manning the walls that keeps the Ottomans away from slaughtering a whole province.

Skanderbeg had foreseen this turn of events and had already sent out a few trusted men with torches that put the countryside ablaze to stop the onslaught for now.

But siege towers where already slowly being pulled from nabouring Ottoman provinces. Skanderbeg quessed he had about a month before the siege would surround the city and with food already being scarce he
found himself now in the sacred temple asking for divine favour. He prayed for just about anything. But alas to no avail it seemed.

Skanderbeg stepped out of the temple and into the sunlight. A strong beam of light blinded him for a second, when he could see again, a black eagle sat atop the castle wall. Skanderbeg smiled, but then the
eagle dropped something out of its claws, it slowly fell toward the ground, some kind of cloth it seemed. Skanderbeg plucked it out of the air before it reached the ground, the eagle had been carrying some torn banner.
Blue in color with some kind of tree on it. It was clear, that was the rest of an Urbino city banner.

Skanderbegs mind was suddenly galloping. He rushed back to the war room and his council. This would be no last stand after all. Glory had to wait!

The few ships at his disposal was now of vital importance. It was to be a complete evacuation. 2 diplomats was first out the door, heading out on 2 surprisingly fast fishing ships. One going to the kingdom of Naples with a plea for basing rights for Skanderbegs ships. The other diplomat was going to Urbino.

Skanderbeg had to split his army into 3 regiments to ferry them all out in time. The last of them out the door, one day before the Ottoman siege would commence.

Meanwhile in Urbino, the young Urbino King Da Montefeltro the third was still laughing, some hill tribe had declared war on him. His agents had scoured the countryside for any sight of an actual invasion. But he was pretty sure the only Albanian in his lands, was the one 12 feet underground now slowly decaying with his severed head. Suddenly the church bells from the harbour was clamoring, those crazy bastards where attacking from the sea, but they where outnumbered 3-1.
The king was at ease, of course his coffers where a little short on coin, so the army was not fully on alert, but he did like those numbers. The first day of fighting went well for the young king, but the day after that eastern tribe had matched his army in numbers and where outmaneuvering and out killing his army. Not a week passed by and the fight was over, Da Montefeltro was now a prisoner in his own castle.

Skanderbeg rushed his men, he knew he would stand stronger in a coming peace talk with the Ottomans, if he could conquer the Urbino lands before his ancestral lands where vanquished.

But Skanderbeg was already ahead of himself, 2 more diplomats where out the door. The eagle never did drop any flags of Mantua, but sometimes you make your own fate.
Mantua was well protected, not by the paltry Mantuan forces, but by alliances and with the mighty Austria keeping close eyes on its Holy Roman lands. But Skanderbeg was not only known for his leadership and tactical prowess.
But also for his cunning, the same cunning that convinced the Ottomans to make him governor 4 years earlier at the Sanjak of Debar.
Ragusa was a little noble republic, well known to Skanderbeg, it was rich in gold and poor in military prowess and it was allied to Mantua.
Same day as the young Urbino King was shackled and tossed into a tower, the march of the black eagle was in a straight line towards Mantua foolishly standing by the little republic when war broke out.

The Mantuan king Gonzaga and his army resisted to no avail, and was now sieged.
Meanwhile news of the capture of the Albanian province reached Skanderbegs ears. Some day he would return and on that day he vowed to take his familys lands back and put an end to the Ottoman Empire.
Even more troubling was the news that the pround Albanian navy/fishing fleet was suddenly engulfed in a fight with the entire Ottoman navy. And to make matters worse, now the newly claimed province of Urbino was sieged by the Ottomans.

Next on Skanderbeg, we see a new capital founded, peace with the Ottomans and alot of angry Italians!

Chapter 2: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?712910-Albania-11.-November-1444.-In-Skanderbeg-we-trust!&p=15996283&viewfull=1#post15996283

Chapter 3: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?712910-Albania-11.-November-1444.-In-Skanderbeg-we-trust!&p=16012628&viewfull=1#post16012628


Skanderbeg and the battle of Mantua:

rKrpEgK.jpg
 
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CatKnight

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I suppose this was the only real way for Skanderbeg to survive. Nice start!
 

EvilEmpire

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I've been waiting for someone to try Albania, it's a glorious strategy you have here! Though is there any chance of some screenshots for us? I know exactly what's going on so it's not really needed.

Thanks and ya will do.



Skanderbeg stood on the castle ruins of the once so proud Mantuan stronghold. Tearing it down one day, only to rebuild it the day after. But amidst the cheering soldiers, a messenger came running towards him.
That sure looked like bad news.

 
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EvilEmpire

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The message told of forces twice the size of Skanderbegs at the walls of Urbino. It seemed like the Ottoman vengeance was far reaching, across mountains and now even the sea.

Skanderbeg was surprised of the fury in which the Ottoman Sultan drove the hunt. But it was every bit personal.

Young George Kastrioti was a child of Lord John Kastrioti ruler of central Albania, but ruler only in name, seeing as Albania was a mere vassal of the far greater nation of the Ottomans.
As a young man he was given as a hostage to the Ottoman Sultan - the cost of being the first born and the price of continued peace.

In the palace of the Sultan, he was given every right and soon found himself converted to Islam and was given the name Iskander, meaning Alexander, alluding to the name of a very well known Macedonian.
He showed great prowess and skill and quickly rose to the rank of Beg. A rank that would later bestow his infamous name cursed by the very Ottomans that raised him.

George was mild mannered and kind. But a fierce warrior when leading his troops at the frontlines, well versed in intrigue from his years in the Palace of the Sultan and he had already spent 4 years as the governor of the Sanjak of Diber.

akA1m6n.jpg

________
ksQ5RvL.jpg
_________
____
ON5WQ8I.jpg
____

But right now he was sitting down, there was no way to escape the Ottoman grasp it seemed. Months passed, with Skanderbegs army growing restless with guard duties in Mantua.

AMTpVQ0.jpg


Skanderbeg was awoken harshly by his trusted cavalry commander Moise Golemi, the dashing young man speaking faster than his tongue allowed.
The Urbino people had risen against the Ottoman besiegers! Ottoman forces scattered by the sheer numbers. But the Urbinese people didnt stop there, they wanted to reinstate their naive young King.
Skanderbeg wondered how they would react when they found there King dead in the crypts below the castle and hoped the wrath wouldnt reach Mantua.

The Urbinese forces enraged that they where kingless, went into the Papal State of Romagna.

cdzhNUY.jpg


And while they where busy there, Skanderbegs forces retook the city of Urbino for a second time.

In Romagna Urbino sprang out once more and the peasant army went back to the fields. Skanderbeg saw his chance and declared war once more on Urbino.
The Urbinese forces actually bigger than Skanderbegs, so there was never any real battles, just Urbino trying to get their namesake lands back and the siege of Romagna.

IEPZv4p.jpg


Returning back to his council, they told of possible peace with the Ottoman Sultanate.
 
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EvilEmpire

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The peace talk with the Ottomans where hostile and with one demand, the surrender of the Albanian lands. But Albania was suddenly much more and after the first attempt at taking the new Albanian province of Ancona the Ottomans
where dealing with revolts so they never come back.
All Skanderbeg wanted to do was sail back and free his lands, but after the Urbinese freedom figthers had taken back the province of Ancona and therefore the city of Urbino, the small Albanian fleet had to go out into sea again and this time there was no retreat.
Not a single sailor was heard from again, the fleet that had saved Albania was destroyed, and to make matters worse Skanderbeg had no way of making a new fleet.

Control of Ancona was released from the Urbinese freedom fighters. Back in the city a big crowd of Albanians and locals where gathered and was cheering together, Skanderbeg stood among the crowd and was being thanked, but he would have none of that;

I have not brought you liberty. I found it here, among you.

And with those words the people of Mantua, Ancona and the rest of the Albanian army joined together.

lP1GHoB.jpg


Skanderbeg had dealings with the wealthy Venetians in the past and hoped they would support his coming fight against the Ottomans. Skanderbeg was met with nothing but disdain at the court.
But he learned of Venetian lands pillaged by a host of enemies. If the Venetians wouldn't give him much needed support, he would then take it himself.

Eff8lNl.jpg


The war of Verona was no war at all, the black eagle marched unopposed into mainland Venice, a small army of Venetians guarding the big trading port would never see action.

a5tBFvR.jpg


With Verona taken, the lands of Mantua - the now new glorious capital of Albania could finally be integrated together with Ancona.

An Austrian diplomat suddenly showed up, full of arrogance he handed Skanderbeg a letter. It was the same diplomat who had handed him letters requesting the lands he had forcefully taken, be relinquished to Austrian control.
Skanderbeg had laughed at the silly Austrians. But this letter was something else, and by the look of the Austrians diplomats smile, the contents much more than requests.
The letter was short and to the point, if Albania went to war in the Holy Roman Empire again, this time Austria would intervene.

But war always knew where to find Skanderbeg. A coalition of Italian nations, headed by Tuscany decleared war on Albania, vowing to throw them back into the sea.

CP2NNZW.jpg


The result would be a total rout of the coalition and Tuscany was forced to release all but its capital, which would include its newly conquered province of Rome.

It had now been 20 years since the black eagle had appeared before him in his darkest hour.

A5SNX5E.jpg


On this day it would make a return.
 
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EvilEmpire

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Ya its a well chosen color, atleast in this play through :)

The story of Skanderbeg cant be recreated in EU4, well not with a 1444 start at least. But ive tried re-mixing the story of Skanderbeg into this alternate reality.
Skanderbeg did spent many years at the Ottoman court (given as hostage by his family), he was of noble descent, was a military leader and governor doing Ottoman bidding.
Did go to Italy and helped the King of Naples (soon to come) and got financial help from Venice. And alot more!

Couple of errors:
Skanderbeg is 20 years at game start and that is wrong. Seeing as he was born in 1405. But very few people would complain over that fact :)
And at a point in the game a 5 unit rebel army sieged Mantua, but they found out I was Mantua (I think its because my capitol was there) so they actually joined my forces and became Albanian!

I made a couple of errors so far, I stopped the basing rights of Naples VERY late into the game, so that had cost me a pretty penny. And at some point I made a lot of diplomatic relations to walk to Ragusa, but never got to use it and would forget about its affect on my diplomatic points (I saw it when I looked at the picture later :) ).

Thanks for reading so far!
 
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EvilEmpire

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The dream of a united Italy lead by Skanderbeg into the abyss of the Ottoman Empire was sadly not to be.

The last battle of Skanderbeg

BdqPnTp.jpg


Firenze and Cremonese had already fallen and the siege of Siena all but won.

GC3aL9A.jpg


But a large revolt turned into a battle when they suddenly reached Siena, the fight was over quickly, but Skanderbeg lay dead on the field nonetheless.

qGwz23I.jpg


The end.
 

AliceK86

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Gahahahaha.

Sorry, what an inglorious end to such a good ruler.
 

RepublicanIV

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I'm Albanian myself so I love seeing an Albanian AAR. An interesting form of expansion into Italy. But remember that real life Skanderbeg wasn't a conqueror. In the west he was seen as a bastion of resistance against the Ottoman expansion and he saved his people. While he lived, Ottoman expansion ground to a halt, and it was thanks to this that the Italians had more time to prepare.

A cool fact: The Albanian forces were allied with Venice and the Papal State during the Ottoman-Venetian war.
 

gxxxim

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awsome!
 

GreatUberGeek

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Too late to comment, but this was really cool. I would love to see Ayuthatta, or really any Southeast Asian country.