Anyone else enjoying the new aztec timing? Also some questions

[Arkabeth]

So here I was, chilling in Ireland and thinking I'd take it easy for a little while, maybe hoard up some money to make some walls to keep the pesky vikings from nabbing all my goodies and some hospitals to prevent people from losing face too much . . .

Holy smokes. I haven't experienced the Sunset invasion before, but from what I heard they'd usually end up parking their doomstack in a backwards corner of Europe after coverting to Christianity. These guys got shit done though!

I admit I indirectly helped them ; when they showed up, I surrendered as fast as I can to prevent them from sacrificing any of my relatives they could get their hands on. Luckily most of the higher ranked relatives I had were parked in England/Wales or my capital, which they never reached before I surrendered.

After the surrender, I misread the truce timer as being 1 year instead of 10, and insta swore fealty to the emperor dude. After taking a look at the 200k doomstack of D00m and seeing how it took 0 attrition, I thought "heh, one easy assassinate and they poof", so I instantly started plotting the emperor's demise. One interesting thing (which I didn't know at the time), is that it seems there's no easy way for the emperor to revoke my king title even though he may dislike my character for being a foreign infidel. . . Or I don't know actually. Anyway, I started plotting the emperor dude's downfall, and after 1-3 years, loads of bribing and some failed attempts, he finally bit the dust. Bad news was that the d00mstack remained unfazed. Oh well, over to plan B.

(In hindsight I'm quite puzzled why neither the first characters, which, in spite of being a likable guy with 26 diplomacy, hasn't been sacrificed to the snake god or whoever after swearing fealty. I'm quite sure they have been under the negative opinion threshold. I guess it's only adversaries who they are at war with they can sacrifice?)

In any case, the situation seemed grim at first, with the emperor dude revoking almost all of my vassals. Luckily he let me keep a duchy in Wales I had intended to use as second merchant republic, and I figured that while the emperor dude had an immensively strong army, he didn't seem to bother with asking me to refrain from reclaiming the counties in Ireland he didn't personally hold. Thus I could slowly start rebuilding my powerbase.

After peaking more closely at the aztec culture about how they have to go to war to not lose prestiege and such, and their generaly behaviour, I assumed it would only be a matter of time until their d00mstack wore itself out by bashing their skulls against castle walls. I guess it may be a scope of 100 years though, unless the atzecs find some clever way to get to make war on France or the Umayyad. Until then I'm hoarding up my money as I'm kinda scared about the stability of my realm as a whole if some lunie emperor suddenly decides to go on a revoking spree or finds a way to usurp the Kingdom of Eire title (How do you usurp a kingdom title anyway?).

If anyone is wondering how the frack the Aztecs ended up in Byzantine, basically I somehow managed to get a matrilinear marriage with a byzantine prince, and he ended up inheriting a bunch of land which the aztec emperor dude revoked, which gave the emperor access to declare invasion of Greece. Also now that I think about it, is the invade kingdom CB limted? Perhaps I again unintentionally helped the aztecs by murdering their emperor(s) so their invasion CB got refreshed.

The doomstack has currently been reduced from 200k to 140k, so I have to bide my time yet.

The 98% infamy and coalition of christians, norse and muslims look nice though.

PS: Oh and I refuse to let my character covert to Aztec culture or religion.
PSS: Can I only ask the pope for invasion of duchies, and not kingdoms? (if I break off the fealty that is)
PSSS: I guess people don't really mind me swearing fealty to the aztec emperor dude, unless I somehow overthrow him and gain the emperor title (and thus inherit the infamy?).

 

[Xinkc]

PSS: Can I only ask the pope for invasion of duchies, and not kingdoms? (if I break off the fealty that is)

If I remember correctly (I might be wrong because I'm in the middle of my morning coffee) the Catholic invasion CB is only given when you're much smaller than the target. There might also be a realm size limit as well.

PSSS: I guess people don't really mind me swearing fealty to the aztec emperor dude, unless I somehow overthrow him and gain the emperor title (and thus inherit the infamy?

Yeah, threat is tied to the title.

Anyways, this seems like an interesting way of dealing with the Aztec. By the time they've arrived I'm often a large, blobby, frequently holy warring or crusading empire. Since the Aztec have no horses when they come, they have a hard time against a comparably sized force... especially with holy orders.

 

[Tom013]

If I remember correctly (I might be wrong because I'm in the middle of my morning coffee) the Catholic invasion CB is only given when you're much smaller than the target. There might also be a realm size limit as well.

Or you have a claim on the title. Weak claims allowed, which is what makes it (albeit very conditionally) useful.

 

[Arkabeth]

If I remember correctly (I might be wrong because I'm in the middle of my morning coffee) the Catholic invasion CB is only given when you're much smaller than the target. There might also be a realm size limit as well.

Holy sheeet. I thought I had to wait for the 11th century for crusades for kingdom titles, but it seems like, due to my meddling with the byzantine and the fall of Constantinope, the pope can declare a Crusade once the year reaches 900! I think I actually have to do it just no matter what the odds are, just ... because DEUS VULT!

(I may have to "gift" Constantinople back for it to work though but shhhhh)

Yeah, threat is tied to the title.

Anyways, this seems like an interesting way of dealing with the Aztec. By the time they've arrived I'm often a large, blobby, frequently holy warring or crusading empire. Since the Aztec have no horses when they come, they have a hard time against a comparably sized force... especially with holy orders.

One of the issues with dealing with them is that most of Europe is sorely lacking in the boat tech department, so as long as the main Aztec army is parked in Ireland/GB, they have no way to get troops there, even if they have decent numbers. I'll have to manage to get a war on the Aztec area in the byzantine. Ironically it may be better if I hold on to Constantinople until the crusade becomes eligible, just so I can ensure that it doesn't end up with some non-aztec vassal.

There was a popup about how the Aztecs had mastered the use of the horse some time ago, though I doubt that actually changed the composition of their existing event troops.

I kinda wonder about the other event popups though. There was a popup about the import of potato, sugar and cacao, about how the Aztecs had a gargantuan war in their homeland and, a popup about smallpox spreading back to their homeland, but I don't know of the popups actually had any effects in game or if they were just fluff.

Thanks for bearing with me through the wall of text by the way, I know this post has been quite ranty.

 

[Myblobsbiggerthanyourblob]

They have popped up in my most recent game in 840 but have been very passive so far- by 885 they only have Ireland and 3/4 of Wales.

 

[Nakanja]

I'm in a similar place right now. This is the first time I'm seeing them become a major threat. In my last game, an AI-controlled Holy Roman Empire had all of Spain, France, and Germany, so when the Aztecs landed in Brittany they were like "nope" and didn't go further than that.

This time, I was King of Bavaria and managed to become emperor of a normal-sized HRE, but lost everything except the kingdom title, two vassals, and a barony due to majorly failing the succession. I eventually managed to take back most of Bavaria, but then this happened:

I'm managing to survive though, since i had my chancellor raise the Aztec Emperor's opinion of me to 100 hoping it would make him leave me alone. It didn't work, but after he conquered all my land except one county and I swore fealty, he liked me enough to give me land and vassal transfers.

So now I have a realm consisting of one French county, random vassals scattered around England, France, and Germany, and a capital right across from the HRE emperor's where I'm close enough to wave at him and say "how is firing me as your chancellor in favor of Glitterhoof working out for you?". I'm attempting to take Bavaria for the third time because I've managed to hang on to the kingdom title, occasionally getting interrupted when the Aztec Emperor upsets the Coalition of Everyone and big angry stacks end up stomping through my land. Then the Black Death showed up.

 

[Arkabeth]

Then the Black Death showed up.

Nice, I find it kinda invigorating to see them actually invade and not become the silly fad I had envisioned. It's a shame the doomstacks are immune to diseases and such, kinda strange to see them stomp through all kinds of terrain and weather and diseases with no casualties. Do you know if they actually despawn any time? They are still around more than 50 years after they arrived in my game.

Also, how big are the defensive pacts against you? My emperor had 98% at max, (50% from Scottland, 50% from Greece, 1% from various).

Edit: I think one of the reasons why they stop up may be if they get too many vassals and don't know/don't care to make big duke/king vassals. That or just getting rekt by big blobs with calvary I guess.

Anyway, I scratched the "crusade plan" after I realized that I couldn't get a crusade declared before first becomming independend somehow, and I couldn't become independent when the doomstacks would just eat up my entire realm the moment I protested.

So I went another route: raising a master schemer, and then after honing my skills at various random courtiers for years, I went after the emperor. Within 2-3 attempts, I managed to abduct him. From there, all I had to do was to make an "Overthrow Emperor dude" faction, demand abdication, and when he refused, instantly win the war and dispose him.

It was almost too easy, with the one caveat which was that his original heir, who inherited some counties and a duchy, inherited his doomstack. I didn't realize the doomstack would go to him, but after a few bribes and my chancellor setting up personal office at his court, and he didn't seem willing to rebell against me. Meanwhile I started plotting his demise; I was listed as his heir, which meant I would be in controll of the doomstacks. Things didn't go as smooth though, as the years passed and he stayed alive and well.

Meanwhile, my aztec vassals were getting antsy about a Irish Christian dude sitting on the throne, for whom none of them had voted for (I was the only one in the "Overthrow" faction, as they were all part of "X for Emperor " or " Increase council power" instead). Naturally they started banding together against me, and soon the whole empire was in riot.

Luckily I had planned for ..eventualities, namely I had around 5000 saved up after 30 years of plotting from after the Aztecs arrived. After 5 years of waring with mercenaries and shipping between Ireland and the Byzantine, I finally managed to beat back the final rebels, having aprox 1000k remaining.

At just that moment, my assassination plan finally bore fruit, and 130k troops were now mine. Suddenly, I could revoke all I wanted without anyone daring to protest, and I stripped every single infidel in my realm of their rank, replacing them with loyal vassals of the right religion (and preferably Irish culture). Although it was a tedious proccess, the realm is now seem super steady with homogenous religion and and almost all Irish.

My only problem is that my dynasty is pitifully small, partially because of the bloody Syphilis the Aztecs brought with them, as well as liberal use of relatives as spymasters/commanders. I'm alsto having some slight troubles with vassal limit since I haven't created any kings or big dukes, but it will all be OK once I get imperial law after some years of law changing.

Incidentally, I think some of the Aztecs ended up with a -2900 modifier for "revoked title". Of course, none of the Christians give a damn (like I mentioned above).

 

[Nakanja]

Nice, I find it kinda invigorating to see them actually invade and not become the silly fad I had envisioned. It's a shame the doomstacks are immune to diseases and such, kinda strange to see them stomp through all kinds of terrain and weather and diseases with no casualties. Do you know if they actually despawn any time? They are still around more than 50 years after they arrived in my game.

Also, how big are the defensive pacts against you? My emperor had 98% at max, (50% from Scottland, 50% from Greece, 1% from various).

Edit: I think one of the reasons why they stop up may be if they get too many vassals and don't know/don't care to make big duke/king vassals. That or just getting rekt by big blobs with calvary I guess.

I didn't check their defensive pact size, but it must've been pretty big at their height. They eventually lost due to crusades and failed wars. Now things are mostly back to normal, aside from Castilian France, Irish Germany, and the Aztecs still holding on to England after converting to Catholic.

I wonder if their behavior has to due with their CB that targets kingdoms. At first they always preferred to attack large realms that they could take whole kingdoms from at once while completely ignoring Iberia, which was a bunch of tiny realms that would've been easy for them. They only started attacking smaller targets after failing against Hungary and losing most of their troops, which was when their fortune started to reverse.

 

[MrParadux]

In my game they appeared sometime during the 9th century and conquered the Iberian Peninsula, France, Germany and Italy and are still sitting on around 100k event troops and 150k troops in total. The year is around 1000 now and I haven't been able to push them back yet. Even the Mongols have joined the defensive pact against them

 

[Helios Panoptes]

I was a bit disappointed because i thought "Random" was you didn't know if the Aztecs would be invading or not.