Be careful what you do against Persia, or I may become a very displeased and disgruntled reader, even though I clamored for a Balughals to Mughals attempt!
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Be careful what you do against Persia, or I may become a very displeased and disgruntled reader, even though I clamored for a Balughals to Mughals attempt!
I sure hope that the people in Geneva won't hear this! ....Oh, wait, they don't know about me yet! Close call!
Jokes aside I won't do such a humilating peace in each peace deal. But this time it was so...fitting. It called out to me.....
Didn't know about the Aristocratic Ideas; I guess I need to keep an eye on them. I still think that +Coring Cost ideas are dumb. But fortunately I took the better provinces (the gold mine!!) off of them already and sandwiched between Malwa and me they can't expand anymore. And if all things fail I feed them to a vassal and make them revoke all cores but the one on their most worthless province.
Be careful what you do against Persia, or I may become a very displeased and disgruntled reader, even though I clamored for a Balughals to Mughals attempt!
Hm...I'm not sure. Depends on what I plan to do before going for my grande finale. I might, for example, attempt to Silk road, but this would lead to Persia's complete annexation. Or I might push for the finale right after forming the Mughals, but that would massively shorten the length of the AAR. Since I mostly started this AAR because of you I'd like to hear your opinion about that matter - but maybe you should rather PM me about it. In the end it's always the same question: "What do I do as soon as I am a blob?"
By the way, I'll most likely give you the next update later today. Small spoiler: It will contain 20% more pictures then the last updates. Second small spoiler: It will cover 4 years of gameplay. I guess some of you might figure out what that means.
5) Hey there Dehli, ya?
January 12th, 1463
The celebrations are over, it is time to act once again. The Sultan of Mewar went back towards his home country. We made sure to send Our messengers towards the country, informing the people of the return of their Sultan. And of what We made him do while he was yet a prisoner of Ours. We wonder how long he will keep his throne?
The reformation of Our realm into a Tribal Federation brought its downsides, namely the rising influence of Our local Tribal Lords in Our external affairs. Some of them try to ally themselves with our vassals, promise them independence if they were to help them overthrow Our divine rule. While the Hinduist people from Jaunpur are immune to such shenanigans - We freed them from the Multani yoke, after all, and even let them stay Hinduist - Our vassal Jaisalmer is less trustworthy. Thus We begin to formally integrate them, reducing the Sultan of Jailsamer into a mere puppet of Our own divine will, controlling the country Ourselves in the near future. The disasters that happened in Jaisalmer during the last war might or might not have played a part in Our decision....but only Allah and We know about this.
June 21st, 1463
After the Lords felt their vaning influence over Jaisalmer they turned towards one of Our "allies" instead. Yemen, ever a thorn in Our side and as useful as sand to Us, gladly accepted their so-called "representative delegation" and went into secret talks with them. We, fortunately, bribed some of the Lords to tell us about the talks that took place there. The news were shocking! The Lords wanted to install a Yemenite heir on Our throne, removing Our son Mir Mehrab from the line of succession, claiming he was not of Our sacred blood! On the other hand that potential heir agreed to keep the status quo in Baluchistan, leaving the Tribal Lords in power and giving up any future claims on Hormuz and the Arabian peninsula for good! This was the last grain of sand that made the barrel break: We immediately sent Our own diplomats, officially ending the so-called "alliance" between our nations and preparing for the expulsion of the Yemenite concubines in Our land, thus ending all and any royal ties our two countries ever had. We know that Our local Lords will be furious about this - after all, their grand plan just dissolved into nothing - but this is of no concern to Us. We are to lead Baluchistan to glory and will NOT be held back by those old fools in Our capital!
February 10th 1464
We crave for war! But there is not much We can do right now. The integration of Jaisalmer still needs Our full concentration; with the process still in its first days there is much room for "interfering parties" to disturb the progress. We must be wary of such actions.
A short while ago a delegation of "Desert guides" arrived in Our capital. They claim that the business is not going well; with Baluchistan ever-growing, more and more of the merchants that use to cross the desert are Baluchistani citizens and thus protected from the "special treatment" outsiders get from time to time. This is a concern for Us as well, since these guides are yet the basic of Baluchistani "trade" and they pay Us nicely for being able to do what they do best under Our "protection". But we assured they that with Baluchistan rising to power and getting richer, more traders from the Middle West - Arabia and Anatolia - will cross Our country and thus the business will thrive again sooner or later.
April 14th, 1464
A chance for war might be nearer than We thought. Diplomats from Jaunpur arrived in Our court lately, talking about the recent changes in politics in their land. Their new Monarch seems to be a bit more on the aggressive side, especially against their arch-nemesis Delhi. Who coincidentially also hold many provinces that were former Punjab territory. We see an opportunity there...
....Unfortunately there are yet two things that prevent Us from executing our plan. One of them is Persia, Delhi's sole, yet strong ally. We need a counter-weight against them. Our alliance with Khiva shall prove to be that counter-weight, yet they are still not fond enough of going to war on Our side. So We sent Our diplomats to change their point of view a bit. The second problem is that the Sultan of Jaunpur is yet not convinced to ally Us, strangely enough. But for this We have a solution as well: With the goldmine of Mewar funding Our Empire We finally have enough money to hire a specialist - in that case, Kumbar Mirrani. He is a well-educated and, until now, unemployed fellow who knows the Sultan of Jaunpur like he was his grandfather. With his aid We hope to secure an alliance with Jaunpur within a month. And then our two nations will strike the Dehlians where it hurts them most!
June 19th, 1464
Having the alliance with Jaunpur secured there is only one thing left for us to do: To pay of Jaunpurs debts! We know that this is quite anti-climatic, but the Sultan had to spend much money on building up his forces for the upcoming war. Or, as Our spies tell us, he spent too much money on soap and operas. Two things We do not have here in Baluchistan: What does one need soap for when there is no water? And nobody is rich enough to visit an opera anyways. In any case, Our gift of 100 ducats should be enough to solve their financial issues and allow them to join Us. Unfortunately our ally Malwa refused to aid us in this struggle, apparently they are too absorbed in integrating one of their own vassals and too much in debt as well. But We just don't have the money to pay off their debt as well. But honestly, how come all our neighbours are heavily in debt? It is not like we are in Southern Europe here!
August 1st, 1464
The war against Delhi has begun! Our first action was an attack on the Nagaur capital, dissolving the troops of Dehli's trusted vassal. Now We need to decide what to do.
This war is a very strange one: Several nations experience a two-front war. Persia is sandwiched between Our country and Kihva, Dehli has to face Jaunpur and Us at the same time. Meanwhile Baluchistan is right in the middle between Dehli and Persia. Seeing at the equal numbers of the fighting parties this should prove to be interesting: Despite Our technological advantage over Delhi (but not over Persia) We might lose the war once the Persian and Dehlian forces join arms. We must prevent this at all costs! At the same time Dehli stands no chance once Jaunpur and We unite and crush them. But a fast Persian invasion might not allow Us to go for such strategies...this should prove to be an interesting war! And hopefully We ourselves will experience the first battles and sieges while directly leading Our troops as well!
October 14th, 1464
The first battle is won! After Our Jaisalmer vassals united their army with Ours We finally had enough men to strike our foe. Spies had reported that the Dehlian army was seen in Multan near our vassal Jaunpur's army sieging the fortress of Lahore. We could not allow them to disrupt that important siege so We rallied Our troops and went north. We barely managed to arrive in the province before the enemy forces were able to leave, striking at them while they were in disarray. Led by General Kuko (who claimed that participating in that battle were too dangerous for Us) managed to strike the Enemy forces in their back - right where their General was situated. He was cut down right where he stood. The enemy lines then fell into disarray when Our infantrymen, hungry for glory in battle, tried to follow them and began to cut the enemy soldiers down. If not for a sudden Cavalry attack to protect the fleeing troops and which cost Us many men (foools who only thought about looting the enemy camp) the whole army would have fallen. Yet, while we lost around 1,600 soldiers the losses on the enemies side were even more grave: Far more then half of their cavalry, sacrificing themselves to protect the footsoldiers, and 3000 infantrymen were killed by Us. This should hamper the offensive abilities of the Dehlians quite a bit.
And this is much needed. On Our western front the Persians begin to overrun Our provinces. This is due to Kilva not yet participating in this war and due to Our land not having any fortresses in that area. We currently wait for the Jaunpur troops to arrive and plan to throw the Persians back into their homeland before We continue to overtake Dehli - this should show the Kilvans that Persia is not invincible as well and might make them finally use their troops to distract the Persian forces.
But this task will be up to General Kuko. Seeing that Our forte lies in besieging fortresses, finding sneaky ways to demoralize people (for example "dance lessons" for Our prisoners of war which they then have to show off in front of the enemy walls) and weakpoints in the structure of the walls We decide to take a batallion of men and join Punjab in Lahore. This should decrease the amount of time needed to capture the fortress and it will allow Us to keep an eye on the Dehlian army while Our main army is not around.
March 24th, 1465
News reach Us from Chabahar. It took our army months to reach the Persians, but for some reason they had decided not to attack any other of Our provinces. It might be because of the harsh winter that we experienced...even the deserts can become quite cold, especially at night. On the other hand this gave us an excellent opportunity to throw them back to where they came from, especially they did not send a battle General but rather a siege one.
The result was disastrous - for Persia. Instead of hiding behind the walls of the city and waiting for the reinforcements to arrive they chose to attack Our forces head-on in Our home territory, outnumbered 3:2. Only after half of their army, 6,500 men in total, had been slain did they retreat back to Persia. Their retreat allows Us to besiege the Persian border fortress of Bam, hopefully reducing their enthusiasm to help their Dehlian friends.
At the same time news from Kilva reach us. According to their Sultan they hadn't attacked the Persians yet because they had forgotten where their swords and bows were! Their local traditions seem to include that every warrior buries his sword somewhere while not at war, so that their children won't kill themselves playing with these weapons. And to preserve them, as We were told. While We whole-heartedly agree to this policy it feels a bit strange to start fighting more then half a year after the war began....We are not sure whether to fully trust these repors.
September 25h, 1465
A messenger from Dehli arrived a few days ago. We first thought that they were about to surrender, now that Lahore has fallen and Punjab controls most of their country, but instead the messenger began to spout nonsense....which sounded quite like the things the Mewar diplomat had told Us a few years ago. This time, however, We know that they insulted us! If they want to add fuel to the fire, then so be it! We will make them regret not surrendering right away! After all, everyone has to bow towards Us!
Freshly recruited Nagaur troops have begun to occupy Jaisalmer lands, but We are not too concerned about them yet. Our main army ist still besieging Bam and it will surely stay there for a while. What We are concerned about, though, is the Persian army about to attack our ally Kilva. They promised to stay and fight, so that We have more time to finally occupy Bam, but it is a battle they will most likely lose horribly. Unfortunately we cannot aid them as we are too far away. May Allah strengthen their hearts and swords, so that the heathen Persians will not be able to put a dent into their army!
October 29th, 1465
They fell, but fought heroically! Stationed in a mountain pass they managed to hold off the superior Persian forces for about a month before they had to retreat. A smaller battallion of the Persians had found a way around the mountain pass and was about to encircle the defenders. They had to flee hastily, losing many men on their way back to Kilva, but killed many Persians while they were defending before. The main Persian army, despite winning the battle, is demoralized and in no condition to fight any longer. This should make them more willing to negotiate with Us in a while.
February 1st, 1466
Still no end in sight! Dehli stubbornly refuses to give up. We control all of their fortresses, including the capital itself (which is currently held by Jaunpur), but they simply won't accept our terms! They also managed to rally an army of 11,000 men, including forces from Nagaur, and siege Jaisalmer right now. Jaunpur's army is currently retaking land Dehli occupies and occupying the remaining Dehli lands, thus weakening our forces in Bam. We might need to leave the occupation unfinished if Dehli continues to struggle,
At the same time, the war led to much corruption. The Lords of the Federation, in Our absence, managed to take ressources that were planned to be used for the war and enriched themselves instead. This will not be tolerated! We are right now on our way to Quetta, ending that corruption with an iron fist (and two Freimen battalions recruited for this war). This might shake up the country a bit, but We will benefit from it in the future. So it has to be done.
May 14th, 1466
A regrettable loss! Around April We were informed that the Dehlian army was marching north, towards the province of Jangladesh. This province had been occupied by them half a year ago and was about to be liberated by our trustworthy Punjabi vassal. Unfortunately their troops were no match for the Dehlians and due to communication problems the nearby Jaunpur forces were not informed of these movements. At once did We send a messenger towards Bam, ordering our main army to aid the Punjabis, leaving behind the siege (which was not getting anywhere since January!). Alas, they were not fast enough. While our forces were on their ways the enemy leader attacked, firing volleys of arrows and bolts on our allied troops. They went for a cavalry charge to retaliate, killing most of their regular infantry in the process, but were still decimated by their superior firepower. By Allah, We swear to avenge them, they will bleed for these cowardly, unmanly tactics!
June 15th, 1466
And how they bled! The Dehlian army is no more, their territory wide open for us to attack. Total victory is near!
During the first battle of Jangladesh the enemy had apparently used most of their bolts and arrows, not having much left afterwards. Many of the arrows broke when they hit the rocks of the area, were taken away with the wounded Punjabi troops, still sticking in their bodies, or were hidden by the townspeople after the fight. And with most of their regular troops dead due to the bloody Punjabi cavalry charge there was nobody left to defend the ammo-less archers. It was a bloodbath, and in a way it shudders Us to even talk about it, but the ends justify the means, right? This bloodbath will shorten the war by a few months, if not years! Now it is just a matter of defeating struggling partisan groups before We can claim victory.
And why is that? Khorasan! They used their money to sponsor rebel groups in Afghanistan and Persia, rallying tens of thousands of men to fight in their name to reunite their Khorasani minorities with the main country. Thus the Persians have no fight to invade Our lands, or even Kilva. Trusty Kilva, who right now prepare for a second offense against the Persians. They might refuse peace for a while, keeping up the facade while Dehli is not totally occupied, but they want peace as much as we want to make peace with them.
March 6th, 1467
It took longer then expected! But in the end the renewed occupation of Persian mainland by Khiva, the rebel problems near Our border and Our threat to join Our forces with Jaunpur and come knocking for Bam made them realise the balance of power. Grudgingly they had to accept that there is no chance of beating Baluchistan for them and that a White Peace is in their interest as well as in Ours. The treaties were signed, leaving Dehli alone in this war. This finally allows Us to dismantle Our Northern rival just as we want to, without anyone opposing us!
March 19th, 1467
Victory! We would like to celebrate like a madman, praising Allah for our successful campaign, how he gave us one of our arch-enemies into our hands like it was a children's toy - alas we cannot. As we did a serious mistake at the same time.
The main goal in this war was the Conquest of Multan. We wanted to take this rich, wealthy city for ourselves. thinking of turning this non.deserted province into our new capital. Just imagine, a province with rivers, green grass, big cities....a wonderful idea. This rich and fertile province was supposed to be added to Our personal tribe lands as well, massively increasing Our influence in Baluchistan. At the same time we wanted to partially restore the old Punjabbi borders, makind Dehli surrender Lahore, Bhattiana and Sirhind. To my surprise, though, the peace deal, once signed, looked...differently. For no apparent reasons the province of Multan was given to Punjab as well! We suspect that Our own Lords are behind this treachery, switching the original peace treaty with a different one shortly before it was signed. Irritated by Us cancelling the alliance with Yemen and slowly annexing Jaisalmer as well as taking the gold province of Mewar for ourselves they must have felt how the balance of power changed in Baluchistan. Now they refuse Our endeavours to buy the province from Punjab, claiming that Our financial situation would be too unstable right now.... One day, I swear to Allah, one day Baluchistan will be free from these internal bounds, with a Sultan truly ruling supreme over these lands of Ours!
Getting Persia out of the war without losing anything was great for you. And damn those lords for messing with the peace treaty! One day they will regret going against the Sultan's wishes.
this is a really interesting AAR, keep it up. I'll probably have to do an arabian/indian campaign soon after I finish my portugal campaign.
Pushing East, while cutting connections to the West... Looks like Baluchistan is finding its way.
Also, a petition: Make Khiva and Kilwa form a PU, so that the hybrid 'Kilva' is legitimate!
Also, a petition: Make Khiva and Kilwa form a PU, so that the hybrid 'Kilva' is legitimate!
Hello Makahl, welcome to the forum! I'm grateful that your first post ever actually happened to be here in this forum - I guess there are some things I did right, after all. I hope that you like it here and that your Indian campaign will be as successful as my own run right now.
Pushing East, while cutting connections to the West... Looks like Baluchistan is finding its way.
Also, a petition: Make Khiva and Kilwa form a PU, so that the hybrid 'Kilva' is legitimate!
Yeah, it's going quite well right now. Can't promise much about the future, though. India is a bit...tricky, there is always somebody out to get you. In my case first Viyajanagar was very big, now Persia and Afghanistan are still after me; Yemen began to hate me shortly afterwards. Right now I ponder about how to get that last province I need to form the Mughals. The web of alliances is a bit tricky.
And you surely jest about the Kilvas, right? I don't really have the time to turn them both into Christians for the PU mechanics. You can't have everything, after all. But I'm sure that I can give you other amazing developments instead.
Persia was really a blank card in that war. My forts would have prevented them from really joining up with Dehli, but I didn't know how my fights with them would go when I started the war. Especially since Jaunpur was only tech 2 during that time and Persia's army being much bigger then mine(albeit still on tech 3 while I was on tech 4). After the first battle against Persia I was quite certain that I'd win the war, though. And Khiva did an excellent job at keeping them away from my border.
In the end I might - might! - even have won here, getting the border fort from them. But ending the war quickly was my top priority here. And it might have taken me quite a while to beat them around enough for me to get anything worthwile out of them.
On the other hand, the peace treaty was totally my fault. I had completely forgotten that this one was no core of Punjab, making them 20 development stronger that I definitely wanted for myself. But they are quite faithful, with being released by me, so it didn't turn out to be that bad after all.
Even though you will surely be forced into a prolonged rivalry with Persia, simply because Persia has the Ottomans to contend with in the west, and you have a divided India that will inevitably have to be conquered for you to fulfill your end of the bargain for this AAR, you are certainly in a better position.
Darn, that Persian green is such a beautiful color. Well, so is Mughal Green too...
Darn, that Persian green is such a beautiful color. Well, so is Mughal Green too...
When I looked at my AAR just now it had exactly 3400 views. What a nice number, so round! But I guess I am getting side-tracked here.
Hm, I wonder. Of course I want to hurt Persia in a way that they become weaker than me - at one point they had three times my army! - but that doesn't mean that I'll completely eradicate them. Once I am big enough they should be so afraid of me that further conflict will no longer be in their interest. After all, I am not going to mega-blob here, there are more then enough AARs doing so already. Or, to be more precise, this is what players try to accomplish during their own runs anyways. Why show them what they already know?
And at the same time I'm not even sure if I'll hold all of India at some point. I might do so, but it's not my top priority. I won't allow any Europeans in my India though, if I can prevent it from happening. Because Europeans always come to ruin your dinner party or sink your >50 Heavy Ship fleets (curse you, Portugal!!!) with their superiour tech.
All things said, a new chapter is incoming, either today in the evening or tomorrow at an uncertain point. It will be shorter (you'll see why) and more of a prelude to the upcoming chapter(s), but I think that it will still be awesome. Prepare for some new monarch madnesses in beautiful Baluchistan!
P.S.: I want to greet all the Jake-Chat followers that might or might not have come here lately (due to me posting my AAR link there). You might be less surprised by what I have in mind as a goal, but plese don't tell. I want to surprise the other readers at least.
Even though you will surely be forced into a prolonged rivalry with Persia, simply because Persia has the Ottomans to contend with in the west, and you have a divided India that will inevitably have to be conquered for you to fulfill your end of the bargain for this AAR, you are certainly in a better position.
Darn, that Persian green is such a beautiful color. Well, so is Mughal Green too...
Hm, I wonder. Of course I want to hurt Persia in a way that they become weaker than me - at one point they had three times my army! - but that doesn't mean that I'll completely eradicate them. Once I am big enough they should be so afraid of me that further conflict will no longer be in their interest. After all, I am not going to mega-blob here, there are more then enough AARs doing so already. Or, to be more precise, this is what players try to accomplish during their own runs anyways. Why show them what they already know?
And at the same time I'm not even sure if I'll hold all of India at some point. I might do so, but it's not my top priority. I won't allow any Europeans in my India though, if I can prevent it from happening. Because Europeans always come to ruin your dinner party or sink your >50 Heavy Ship fleets (curse you, Portugal!!!) with their superiour tech.
All things said, a new chapter is incoming, either today in the evening or tomorrow at an uncertain point. It will be shorter (you'll see why) and more of a prelude to the upcoming chapter(s), but I think that it will still be awesome. Prepare for some new monarch madnesses in beautiful Baluchistan!
P.S.: I want to greet all the Jake-Chat followers that might or might not have come here lately (due to me posting my AAR link there). You might be less surprised by what I have in mind as a goal, but plese don't tell. I want to surprise the other readers at least.
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6) Three Little War-Birds
September 2nd, 1467
Now that the war is over it is time to look at Our financial situation. It is short from...embarassing, to say the least. We control a vast amount of land in Western India, yet We only manage to make seven Ducats per month? Unbelievable....
The bulk of Our income comes from taxation and what We call trade here in Baluchistan. It's more like "escorting other nation's merchants through our deserts". Our gold income is quite high as well, even though it only stems from a single province - Mewar. Unfortunately the workers there don't seem to follow Our instructions as well as We hoped they would - they still don't seem to have left the Hinduistic ways of praying to cows, so the miners refuse to eat their daily Hamburger rations that We give them in all of Our glory and wisdom, getting weaker by the day. This cannot stand! A team of specialists (that is, the most fear-inducing Freimen of Our Personal Guard) were dispatched there to "negotiate" with the local rulers to finally force their subjects to convert to Allah's ways!
On the other hand, most of Our money gets put into Forts - both of them are manned right now due to reports about rebel activities near them - and our army. 75% of Our spendings are military spendings. Even though Our army only has 9 regiments right now! I guess We can only fight in wars that pay for itself for a while. The loan We took during the war will be swiftly repaid, though, and after the inspections of Mewar We hope to be able to hire a second advisor. But this is yet a thing to happen.
On a side-note: Our rival Mewar annexed their vassal Hadoti - effectively reducing their military potential since no soldier of Hadoti agreed to serve in a military led by the "Mad dancing Sultan" of Mewar. If we ever decide to prey on them again they will be even easier to defeat.
February 12th, 1468
Our military is divided! So, what happened? Well, since there are no wars going on We had the glorious idea to have our soldiers fight each other to keep them in training. Not so glorious was Our idea to have these sparring battles take place in the desert mountains of Baluchistan. But oh well, it was an intense training at least. And it is not like too many of them died during these training - at most 10%. That is the risk of being a soldier! They should have prayed to Allah to make them Sultans instead!
As the final challenge Kuko and Us divided the military into two smaller armies of 4500 men, having a mock battle. Of course We were the attacking team while Kuko had to lead the defending forces. And as expected Our side won by a landslide. Rumours that Kuko let Us win fearing he might have been stationed in Baluchistan otherwise are actively fought by hanging the rumourmongers. Yet, that mock battle increased my lust of battle: On Our decree Our soldiers have to attack during battles from now on, trying to siege forts as fast as possible to be awarded with a Medal of Honour (no, not money or freedom!). And We decided to shorten their ratios for every month they do not manage to storm the fort. This should really make them more eager during sieges from now on!
April 16th, 1468
Nothing happens here in Our Baluchistan, so We decided to send our diplomats south to see if anything interesting happens in that area. What we saw shocked us a bit.
Viji...Viya...Viya....well, the country with the yellow colour on the map is in deep trouble. In the north filthy peasants ravage the lands, demanding equality and refusing to pay any taxes. In the East the Orissian forces flood the lands, taking province after province without meeting any resistance. And even in the South a small backwater country whose name We do not feel important enough to remember decided that it is time to attack the big yellow blob of India. I fear that their days are numbered, or that they will be too weakened to pose a threat to Us in the near future at least.
September 6th, 1468
The integration of Jaisalmer is done, their lands were added to Our personal crown lands. Their army will be fully integrated into our own as well, their young men will be drafted as soon as possible as well. With this day Our own position in Baluchistan should increase tremendously. And not even our Tribal adversaries can complain: Integrating Jaisalmer into Baluchistan was an old mission adressed to us by the Tribal Lords many years ago. Of course they meant to integrate them as a more independent tribe on par with the others, but who are We to follow their petty rules?
Good news come from our gold province in Mewar as well. The "Convert or Die" and the "Convert or live in Baluchistan's deserts" policy implemented by our Fremen negotiators made many people convert to Allah much faster than before! We expect that the whole region will be praying to Allah in a few weeks. This should finally increase our revenues We get from that province. Actually, We think that these Freiman would make good Inquisitors in Our other dominantly Hinduistic provinces as well. So We might keep them around for a bit longer.
October 2nd, 1468
We need to think of what to do. While We managed to hold back the Persians once we cannot be sure to win against them every time. We need another trustworthy ally to help us in times of need. And We managed to find the perfect nation: Qara Qoyunlu. They, too, see the Persians as a threat to their Empire, they are mighty enough to help us in times of need and they being a horde makes them understand our Tribal problems all too well. We expect their offer of exchanging concubines in a few days, then We will intensify the talks about the defensive alliance both of our countries should benefit of.
At the same time we also need to think of where to expand. Naturally We want to weaken Our rivals while also increasing Our influence in important Centers of Trade - to fulfill the promise we gave to Our "merchants" a while ago. So the natural answer is Gujarat. Our diplomats were sent off to claim their land - all of their land! - so that nobody will disapprove of us attacking them head-on soon enough.
October 15th, 1469
I guess we didn't hire these Freimen Inquisitors for nothing! After returning from their last mission they reported me something strange. According to them We never established a Baluchistani administration in Mewar! So the people living there still saw themselves as Mewarians, not as Baluchistans. This, of course, had to change. We sent them there instead of having them convert yet another province - their methods should work in that area as well.
Their "convert or die" policy seems to have changed Baluchistan for the better: Many people begin to convert once you mention their name, peasans start to pay taxes just like that and even Our neighbours seem to fear these brigades. Baluchistan had never been so calm before! We certainly reap what We sow a while ago.
April 22nd, 1470
Peaceful times are over! Khiva is out for blood and we gladly accept! They declared war on Our enemy Afghanistan and we cannot let such a great chance of weakening them pass. Only the small insignificant nation of Tabarestan and the cowardly Yemenites agreed to help the Afghani Sultan, so it should be a breeze to win this war.
While We would surely like to take a few provinces from them - namely the fortress of Roh and their capital of Kandahar - We agreed that all negotiations will take place between Afghanistan and Khiva, so We will have not much to say in that regard. On the other hand We are not forced to participate much in the battles. So We basically win as long as Afghanistan gets weakened.
August 31st, 1470
The Afghanistan army threatening Our capital was pushed back! Our army attacked the Afghanistani siege army today, led by General Kuko (he has been in Our service for quite a long time already!), and made them flee. The losses were quite equal (3000 - 4000 with us being in favour), mostly due to Our troops having to attack uphill. But we can just replace the fallen soldiers with young Jaisalmer boys, right?
During the siege we send some Tribal Lords to negotiate with the enemy. Of course they did not know that part of the message was: "If you do not kill the messenger you automatically agree to Our terms." Since Our terms were the total surrender of Afghanistan none of them returned. What a shame indeed. Now We had to replace the fallen Lords with younger ones, more willing to listen to Us and Our demands. How horrible!
October 6th, 1470
With Our army in Afghanistan some Rebels decided to rise up. Of course, this is nothing We fear since it already happened so often during Our reign. In this case the former Mewarians demand to be reunited with their former nation. Which is something We at least understand, albeit not tolerate. What made Us wonder if these rebels actually know what they are doing is this, though:
Why do they not rebel in their former capital, the one former Mewarian province not yet having Our divine adminstration, but rather in the forme capital of their former sworn enemy Marwar? We do not know. Nor do We want to understand how these rebels managed to miss the goal that much. What We do know is that We ordered Our army to retrreat from Afghanistan to deal with these misguided fools. By Allah, we will not admit defeat towards idiots!
December 1st, 1471
What a day! Sometimes everything happens at the same time and nobody knows why. Today is such a day.
First, Our Administration efforts in Mewar(province) finally proved successful. Now Mewar is firmly integrated into Our realm just like all the other provinces. This should increase Our share of Gold we get from that province since less miners will refuse to pay taxes seeing Our Freimen administrators.
Talking about the Freimen: The unavoidable happened. After keeping Our Inquisitors/Administrators away from rivers and seas for a very long time we messed up their last travel route. When crossing the border towards the province of Gorwar they managed to see the river that they were currently crossing. This should be enough information to figure out the rest. We wonder if We will ever find suitable successors for them.
Seeing our adminsitration model in action (and remembering the embarassing loss of the Mewari separatists last year) the population finally agrees to become one with the Baluchistani one. Like the Gujaratis now the Rajput accept Our overlordship as well. This should keep the tensions in Central India down - which in turn allows us to conquer even more lands! Allah, you be great and wise!
The last thing is that diplomats from Khiva arrived at Our court. They are under attack from their big neighbour Uzbek. While they will most likely lose this war in the most horrible way We can imagine We still agreed to help them - We highly doubt that the Uzbek will take their time to visit us down here in Baluchistan. And with Afghanistan firmly under Our allies' control this war should be over soon. Only Tabarestan (of all nations) still fields an army in that region. Yemen did....nothing at all until now. And We highly doubt that this will change in the future. It was a right thing to drop our alliance!
December 25th, 1471
Merry Christmas!
Of course We are joking! Who would ever have a feast praising a man claiming to be the son of Allah who actually ended up being executed by the Romans? Not going to happen here in Baluchistan. We only know one thing: War!
Thus, today on what the Europeans call Christmas Eve, We declared war on Gujarat. Because more war is better war, right?
We have claimed all of their lands, both our allies Jaunpur and Malwa agreed to help us (I guess they also had nothing better to do on this totally not special day). Only Persia will aid them against Our armies, their ally Bahmanis refused to join the war (a shame, really, they would have been a great vassal for Us to have) so it will come down to Us (and Our allies) versus Persia. Our combined numbers are higher - much higher, in fact - but the Persians are hard-boiled Shiite fighters and their military knowledge surpasses that of Our vassal and Our allies. So it will most certainly be a hard fight for Us.
Of course, some of Our Ministers told Us We would be crazy. Declaring war while already fighting two of them. Always talking about Us in Third Person. Believing in the Freimen stories about gigantic Sandworms. Not eating my vegetables during dinner. Oh, We will see who is the madman here once We crush both Our adversaries and bring victory to Our once small country! We will show the world our honourable war-crafts! Since We are legend! Muhahahahahallah!
Rebels aren't exactly known for their brains.
Three wars at once, and with Persia willing to come to the aid of the enemy no less. Should be a hectic yet entertaining time.
Three wars at once, and with Persia willing to come to the aid of the enemy no less. Should be a hectic yet entertaining time.
So the end of the Freimen has come. Time to move on, and maybe make use of Mewaris next. They seem dumb enough to be easily controlled.
Yemen really is a perfect ally for any non-Arab nation
Yemen really is a perfect ally for any non-Arab nation
Rebels aren't exactly known for their brains.
Three wars at once, and with Persia willing to come to the aid of the enemy no less. Should be a hectic yet entertaining time.
Hm, one of the wars is already won, one of the war doesn't involve me really. In the end the war will mostly be Baluchistan + Friends vs. Persia. One thing I can assure you of, though, is that the war will take at least two chapters to resolve, maybe even three. But no more telling now.
And I do understand why the rebels popped where they did - I think the conversion was at fault there - yet it really looks strange. I mean, I hold their capital which is not even a core yet (due to my oversight), yet they spawn two provinces away from it. I guess there is no perfect system for rebels.
So the end of the Freimen has come. Time to move on, and maybe make use of Mewaris next. They seem dumb enough to be easily controlled.
Yemen really is a perfect ally for any non-Arab nation
Yemen is a disappointment from day 1. I expected them to send at least a few troops, but nothing - even small and weak Tabarestan sent a few thousand men! I guess they are not interested in anything happening outside of Arabia. But I'll surely make them pay during this AAR, consider this a side-mission of mine.
And the Freimen need to go at one point. Maybe they'll make a last stand during the war, and some of their actions might still be honoured in the future, but I am willing to write them out more and more. Others will come.
QUIZ!
Great news! I got permission from Qorten to have a small quiz here in my AAR. The War against Persia (yes, Persia, since Gujarat really is no challenge at this point any more) will take me three updates. And since it will be the last big war for a while (means: an enemy we can't just curbstomp however we like it due to our size/tech) I thought it'd be the perfect time for it as well.
The questions are
1) We started the war in December 1471. In which year will the war end? Tiebreaker is the month of the year. The winner gets to rename our Capital province (province name) as well as the capital of the Mughal Empire once we switch our capital to Dehli (?) per decision.
2) We currently have about 14,000 men in arms, no mercenaries, and 2,000 men in reserve. At the end of the war, how big will our army be? Winner needs to be at least in a range of 1,000 men, if several people get close the closest one wins. If several people are equally near I'll ask for the manpower reserve as a tie-breaker as well. The winner gets to name our first colonial province (and city) since we definitely will be colonizing in the future.
The end date will be the last war chapter update (Chapter 9) which, depending on the heat and my motivation, will either be released before August 13th or after August 16th (because I'll be away for a while in-between), but definitely before August 20th. Until then you can change your vote (just post it here in the forum) as often as you want, I won't collect the votes until the chapter is out.
Great news! I got permission from Qorten to have a small quiz here in my AAR. The War against Persia (yes, Persia, since Gujarat really is no challenge at this point any more) will take me three updates. And since it will be the last big war for a while (means: an enemy we can't just curbstomp however we like it due to our size/tech) I thought it'd be the perfect time for it as well.
The questions are
1) We started the war in December 1471. In which year will the war end? Tiebreaker is the month of the year. The winner gets to rename our Capital province (province name) as well as the capital of the Mughal Empire once we switch our capital to Dehli (?) per decision.
2) We currently have about 14,000 men in arms, no mercenaries, and 2,000 men in reserve. At the end of the war, how big will our army be? Winner needs to be at least in a range of 1,000 men, if several people get close the closest one wins. If several people are equally near I'll ask for the manpower reserve as a tie-breaker as well. The winner gets to name our first colonial province (and city) since we definitely will be colonizing in the future.
The end date will be the last war chapter update (Chapter 9) which, depending on the heat and my motivation, will either be released before August 13th or after August 16th (because I'll be away for a while in-between), but definitely before August 20th. Until then you can change your vote (just post it here in the forum) as often as you want, I won't collect the votes until the chapter is out.
1. December 1476
2. 16,000 men in arms, with at least 2,000-3,000 of those being mercenaries. Manpower will be zero or close to that.
2. 16,000 men in arms, with at least 2,000-3,000 of those being mercenaries. Manpower will be zero or close to that.
1) May 1477
2) 9.346 men under arms and a manpower reserve of exactly 0 men.
2) 9.346 men under arms and a manpower reserve of exactly 0 men.
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If only I was any good at naming things
Doesn't matter, you can always ask somebody else to think of a name - or decide that the provinces will just not be renamed at all. So just guess away!
Alright then, here goes nothing:
1) September 1476
2) 7426 men, 4k mercs, 0 manpower
1) September 1476
2) 7426 men, 4k mercs, 0 manpower