Balkan Empire

[Kraska]

Hello everybody

I've been thinking about this for a while and so I've decided to ask you. Would you like to see a Balkan Empire to the south of Danube?

I've seen that Kroatia, Serbia and Bulgaria have a pretty nice territorial continuum. I always try to unite those contries and from some kind of custom empire, but I think it would be nice to have some de jure empire. Kind of like the Slavic Union.
It should include Kroatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and even Bosnia if formed.

So what do you think?

 

[Ilion]

What?!!11! and diminish the de jure ERE? Heresy, I tell you!

 

[Geglash]

I agree that the souther Slavs are somehow neglected, a piece of meat waiting for the onslaught of the Romans, Venetians and nomads from the steppe, left out of that pure fantastical Slavic union. In reality, they asimilated their nomadic attackers and gave the Romans and all neighbouring coast lands huge headaches as pirates and conquerors.

But to get a hold on Serbia, Bulgaria and Croatia isn`t really that hard (compared to forming Slavic union). How about a decision chain to proclaim yourself an empire tier Tsar of (kingdom) when the Byzantines get to a lowpoint to rival the imperial title (as it happened), forcing the Constatinople emperor to reassume hold over Balkans or face prestige penalty? It would give the area even more fleshoutness within some historical frame.

 

[sreckom92]

De jure Balkan Empire is a silly idea, because we already have the Byzantines.
It would make more sense to create a custom Empire, but those require quite a bit of effort to form.
Perhaps a special decision to form such an Empire if you hold all South Slavic kingdoms?

 

[Caspian Mortis]

A formable Balkan empire (named after whatever culture you are, so if you're Serbian it would be called Serbia) should be able to be formed by holding all territory in the Balkan kingdoms. Creating this empire will make it de jure, but before doing so the Byzantine Empire is the de jure empire in the Balkans.

 

[Kraska]

What?!!11! and diminish the de jure ERE? Heresy, I tell you!

The ERE already has too many provinces. A bit of humbleness wouldn't hurt

I agree that the souther Slavs are somehow neglected, a piece of meat waiting for the onslaught of the Romans, Venetians and nomads from the steppe, left out of that pure fantastical Slavic union. In reality, they asimilated their nomadic attackers and gave the Romans and all neighbouring coast lands huge headaches as pirates and conquerors.

But to get a hold on Serbia, Bulgaria and Croatia isn`t really that hard (compared to forming Slavic union). How about a decision chain to proclaim yourself an empire tier Tsar of (kingdom) when the Byzantines get to a lowpoint to rival the imperial title (as it happened), forcing the Constatinople emperor to reassume hold over Balkans or face prestige penalty? It would give the area even more fleshoutness within some historical frame.

I agree with any gameplay events that would make the region more flavourful but I don't think the creation of the empire should depend on the Byzantines since they tend to be OP as hell (at least in my games). And it's true that getting Croatia and Serbia is not that difficult considering how fragmented they are but we need to remember that ERE has some provinces on the coast as well and Italy or Venice tend to get in the mix as well. As for Bulgaria, it really depends on how bad the Bulgarian Empire is doing and how fast the ERE goes for the grab.
I think it might be a good idea to make it mandatory to fully control all the counties of the kingdoms in order to form the empire. That should provide enough challenge.

De jure Balkan Empire is a silly idea, because we already have the Byzantines.
It would make more sense to create a custom Empire, but those require quite a bit of effort to form.
Perhaps a special decision to form such an Empire if you hold all South Slavic kingdoms?

I agree with the decision path. It would also be a lot easier than trying to form the Slavic Union where you basically have to unite two empires.

A formable Balkan empire (named after whatever culture you are, so if you're Serbian it would be called Serbia) should be able to be formed by holding all territory in the Balkan kingdoms. Creating this empire will make it de jure, but before doing so the Byzantine Empire is the de jure empire in the Balkans.

That's a good idea but I don't agree with having the empire named after the forming culture. A South Slavic empire would be a cultural union and the emperor or tsar would be aware of this. The name should be representative for all South Slavs and not for only one. Something like Slavonia would work pretty well in my opinion.

 

[SkyGreen24]

It would definitely be nice to see some changes around the Balkans, considering that there's not really that big of a chance that the Byzantines actually reconquer the Balkans, atleast from what I've experienced.
Maybe putting Croatia, (Bosnia), Serbia, Bulgaria under the carpathian empire could fix a couple of issues at once. It would make it harder for Carpathia to form, while also make it harder for the ERE to reconquer the Balkans, by giving them less options for CBs. Though then again, maybe the whole system of how the ERE gets motivated to reconquer its provinces should be worked on but that's going off-topic.
By using an existing empire you could simply have a name change depending on culture + possibly a CoA change.
It would work well as a Slavic Union equivalent, but south.

 

[Kraska]

It would definitely be nice to see some changes around the Balkans, considering that there's not really that big of a chance that the Byzantines actually reconquer the Balkans, atleast from what I've experienced.
Maybe putting Croatia, (Bosnia), Serbia, Bulgaria under the carpathian empire could fix a couple of issues at once. It would make it harder for Carpathia to form, while also make it harder for the ERE to reconquer the Balkans, by giving them less options for CBs. Though then again, maybe the whole system of how the ERE gets motivated to reconquer its provinces should be worked on but that's going off-topic.
By using an existing empire you could simply have a name change depending on culture + possibly a CoA change.
It would work well as a Slavic Union equivalent, but south.

That could work too especially since there is a pretty strong slavic presence in Pannonia as well, but that might make the empire a bit too big maybe? And it would of course need a new CoA and name because Carpathia makes no sense even as it is as at the present moment.

 

[Astaer]

You mean something like this?

 

[Kraska]

You mean something like this?

Yup, pretty much exactly like that, minus the name.

 

[Xillan]

I did some thing similar in a multiplayer game about a year ago my two friends started as the ERE and Bavaria ( which quickly reformed the Caroligian Empire as the HRE) and I was Bulgaria in 867, fended of the Magyar and by the end of my first character’s life held all of Caripathia, Croatia, and Serbia. I renamed the Empire Greater Bulgaria in reference to HOI4

Ps you could throw in Carinthia(?) (South Bavaria) but not de jute by default more like Pomerania or Egypt in the Slavic Union or Empire Outremer