Bosnian Bogomils

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Then God had two sons, the elder Satanail, the younger Michael. But Satanail rebelled against God and created the earth and animals and all things but man. Satanail was not able to make man so he turned to God for help. God made man, but later sent down Michael in the form of one, as Jesus, who was reunited with God on the day of his baptism.

Later, the Christians formed because of the message of Jesus (Michael), but Satanail aka Satan created rules and venerations making the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
[Bogomil account of creation and history: paraphrased]

But Michael returned again as the holy spirit turning away some from this false authority. These were the Bogomils, or Patarenes as known within Bosnia, where for once a ruler was to give support to this heresy opposed by the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
[Alternative History Premise: Bosnia supports Bogomils fully]


At the Keep of Stjepan Tvrko II, October 1421

"I am Muhazrin, a teacher of the Patarenes here, you asked for me, my Lord?"

These Patarenes had fled into Bosnia from Hungary after active persecution there made them outlaws as well as heretics. To Tvrko's mind there was much to agree with in their philosophy. The world did indeed seem to be in the thrall of a mighty power of evil, the Patarenes offered spiritual hope against this material worry.

"I wish to learn more about your tradition, and perhaps be brought within it. There were many to choose, no leader of your tradition could be found beyond each minor cleric, like you. So you are welcome here, yet be wary, on all fronts we are threatened. Though some progress has been made as a reprieve against this."

"Satan's world offers corruption to all who enjoy of it, yet even the disciple of Michael and Paul needs a place to rest. If you are ready for the challenge I may yet aid you. Baptized you have been, by water surely, but true baptism is a searching for soul, shed Satan's traditions and join in the glory of the spirit, if you wish to do so, my lord."

"I will give some reflection on this waterless baptism you tell of, I will search my soul as you say. But I must keep the old catholic face until and if this nation achieves a bulwark of strength to stand against the Catholics, the Orthodox and the Muslims. That will be a distant day indeed, but a fine goal.

Until then, know that I will take your teachings into my life, even if in secret,
even if swallowed up by the Serbians most distasteful, my spirit with be restful."

"As you said, it is best to remain a pretender as Satan's game of rules, yet work towards the day that the cosmic struggle brings you fully into the fold, my Lord."

Muhazrin having taken leave of him, Tvrko turned to his aid Altijen. "What is the situation with Serbia?"

Altijen opened a letter and read. "Its from Aliya in Ragusa," Altijen said, "She reports hearing that Albania has been annexed by Serbia. Also she considers Ragusa rather strange with all the trade and ships there. Venice's power is some concern to them there."

Altijen continued, "Also, Hungary has declared war with Serbia. Croatia, Siebenburgen and Hungary are fighting Serbia and Wallachia and Moldavia. Hungary has some putative help from ally Luxembourgh, but they are distant to the conflict, and without navies. Serbia threatens to surround us if they take over Croatia. Do you recommend declaring war on Serbia as well, my Lord?"

"We are in no condition to fight Serbia yet. I don't think the time is right until Serbia makes its mistake. They will fall, and then we strike, unless they strike first, but we have to be vigilant against that, and ensure Ragusa will aid us."

"Yes, my lord."


July 10, 1423, The Keep

"Ambassador Adnan reports that Croatia was saved from conquest, but Siebenburgen was annexed by Moldavia. Only money changed hands between Hungary and Serbia, but unfortunately it went in Serbia's direction," Altijen said to Tvrko.

"How is the recruitment coming, have we reached our goals yet?" Tvrko said.

"Six thousand infantry with three thousand cavalry, the newer men need training as of yet, especially the cavalry."

"Train them hard, we need to make each man worth several serbians in battle, as they already are worth in heart."

"Yes, my lord."

A knock came at the door, a servant spoke, "The teacher Muhazrin is here."

"Let him in."

Muhazrin was in his late fifties, clearly weary of the world, well wrinkled, eyes almost unfocused.

"Time makes its mark on us both, my lord," he said, "yet our spirit remains youthful. Several of our followers have joined your forces, should the Serbians trouble you, or should the Pope call heresy on all of Bosnia and seek to extinguish it. The Orthodox and Catholics are most surely watching and noticing your failure to condemn us as Patarenes, my lord."

"They may notice, but have no time or desire to fight us yet. The Pope has little time to be religious, so busy is he with the affairs of italy. His material possessions prove his wrongfulness as surely as his indulgences."

"You have learned a lot of our cause quickly, surely the holy spirit in Michael has touched you long before you called for us. And the Pope's material sovereignty proves to me he does not seek the spiritual. I have great belief that this Kingdom of God and his Son will triumph over the pope someday in the future.

Praise the ruler who carries his spirit, refuses the worldy excess, carries the torch of the downtrodden and he will bring victory in the eternal struggle."

 

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Bravo, just bravo. Finally is all I can say, never thought someone would do an AAR on MY ancestors . Much luck, you have my audience throughout this entire AAR

 

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Great start, an intresting note though, the Bogomils converted to islam when the Turks invaded, seeing some similarites with the muslim faith perhaps an alliance with the Turks in the future

 

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Not when the Turks invaded, when the Turks FINALLY conquered and were there for a while

 

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It takes a brave man to play Bosnia, I wish you luck!

 

[LordLeto]

Yea, Bosnia can be frustrating. Always preferd Ragusa for the Region myself.

Also, is the Byzantium in Modena?

 

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I got the Bogomil idea when the event for the Bogomil Heresy showed up. So I went and researched what I could. Its kinda still shrouded in mystery on the exact details, but I got a broad picture of it.

As for the Islam conversion, I think that was once they were conquered, but Islam is closer to their beliefs than Catholicism (except the Mohammad part, but like muslims they do not have a big hierarchical leadership). Once protestant is available (if I make it that far) I'll convert them to that, cause its about the closest thing. They aren't protesting the same way the real protestants did, but the EU2 engine obviously doesn't support Bogomil as a religious choice.

I don't think Byzantium would conquer Modena but I can check.

Strategy wise I'm not a great player, but Serbia is wracking up the BB and I'm hoping to take them down once they get knocked back down a bit, or have a bankruptcy or something. I've got 3000 cavalry, 6000 infantry and I've seen 16000 serbian troops at some point but I don't know where they've gone at the moment. I'm trying to get good alliances and some royal marriages as well. (Ragusa, Austria, Hungary).

 

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I checked and Byzantium does have Modena, interesting.

 

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Yes the topic is shrouded in mystery. But just for those of you interested, Bosnia was actually inhabited by the Bosnjani (Krstjani), this was the main group part of the Bosnian Church, and the Bogumils. Also Catholics and Orthodox religions were present as well. But most of the population was Krstjani (Bosnian Church)

 

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1429-1437

(Bosniak warrior thanks for help with the names of the Bosnian church, now I just need to know what title Tvrko would have, I don't think tiny states like Bosnian have Kings, but there is some other title for Tvrko I'm sure. It could be king though, but I've avoided that term so far)

March 12, 1429, Keep of Stjepan Tvrko II

"Yes Altijen," Tvrko said as Altijen entered.

"As you may know, my lord, the terms of our alliance with Ragusa have expired, what should we do now?"

Tvrko felt that the Ragusans had not been strong enough allies to take on Serbia anyway, so it was time to form an alliance with a stronger power, such as Hungary or Austria, both who had high esteem for Tvrko's nation.

"Send Adnan to Hungary to work out an agreement, and send Muhazrin in," Tvrko said.

"Yes, my lord," Altijen said and then left.

Tvrko was nervous about Serbia's strong alliance, Moldavia and Wallachia would bring a lot of troops into Bosnia if and when Serbia declared war. Only careful preparation, strong alliances and a skilled army could stop them. And a overflowing coffer to support said army.

Thusfar he had been patient, centralizing claims on Bosnia against the lesser nobles, improving tax infastructure, and gradually saving up for the war sure come. With no sea access there was little to be done but wait.

Altijen had approached Tvrko with a plan to invade Venice, but the difficulties lie in diplomacy. A substantial number of lesser nobles have some affinity with Venice, marriages between the nobles of both nations are common. Yet Dalmatia would be an excellent possession, giving us access to the sea, and extra manpower to fight Serbia.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in."

Muhazrin entered.

"Should I make you an official advisor, I must admit you have aided me quite a bit beyond religious matters," Tvrko asked.

"The survival of this country is quite a religious matter to me, but I don't like titles, things like Pope, Archibishop, Nun, these things are part of the bad, the regimentation of everything. I prefer being an unofficial advisor."

"What do you think about Venice. Many of my staff and nobles have said that we could take Dalmatia quite easily from Venice. I have doubts that it would be easy, and more importantly Venice has given us no reason to go to war."

"I agree, Venice is an opportunity, but not now. I do not want to see, nor do you, the only Patarene nation having a reputation for gluttinous conquest. Serbia is a dire threat, and rightfully you will turn towards them to defeat them in their own vice.

But if Venice declares war against you, then they have made that wrongful move, and you are in the right, or if they offend you or the country as a whole sometime in the future, also you are in the right.

You are well liked among many still, and Michael's blessings will fall to you if you act in good spirit. I think Hungary will agree to an alliance without much hesitation, then you must plan against Serbia.


December 23, 1432, The Keep

"Alliance partner Poland demands that we declare war on Prussia and Teutonic order."

"What about Serbia, Altijen?"

"Their alliance is stronger, and we will not get support among our allies while they fight Prussia."

"Our armies would never make it that far before falling apart. Tell Poland that, but say we support them in the alliance. We need the alliance when we begin our war."

"You've put off the war too long already, my lord."

'I think you are right now, I was worried that our allies would not arrive in time to stop the inevitable siege. But chances must be taken eventually before Serbia becomes even stronger."

"I will have Adnan tell Poland they have our support, yet our troops are too distant to the conflict to be of any use to them."

January 20, 1434

"The island of Krete, once part of Venice has revolted, and fought Venice to a standstill and thus achieved its independence as the nation of Krete, we knew this already, however now they have joined in alliance with Serbia, along with the Knights, giving Serbia four allies now," Altijen said.

Muhazrin and Altijen rarely talked with Tvrko at the same time, Altijen was still Krstjani although many others of that faith had already converted to Bogomil. While officially without hierarchy beyond teacher, Muhazrin was known as the preeminent Patarene within Bosnia because of his status as unofficial advisor of Tvrko.

"Why do the Serbians need so many naval allies, two island nations are not going to be much aid unless they plan on going to the sea, which I find unlikely," Muhazrin said.

"Perhaps they are seeking every ally they can find. On to the Prussian war, what's taking them so long to finish it?" Tvrko said.

"They say they've lost quite a few men, Poland and Hungary mostly, but Denmark as part of a seperate alliance has also been at war with them. Things are moving forward, but the sieges have been rough, a lot of lost men to the conditions, and not enough food I assume. Prussia hasn't had much chance at all and the Teutonic Order has not been seen at all," Altijen said.

"Well, the state coffers are filling up, which is one good thing. Save your ducats and someday we will stop Serbia. What about the muslims, have they made any moves?"

"None towards Europe as of yet, I have no idea what they are doing."

 

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I checked and Byzantium does have Modena, interesting.

Ooh - this happened when I played Wallachia, and it's good news. The Ottomans are going to be very much weakened because it will be so hard for them to take Constantinople until it's too late.

 

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Excellent AAR so far Azatol, but I have to correct you on some points. Actually, Krstjani is plural, They are Krstjani, He is a Krstjan.

They are Bogumils, He is a Bogumil.


The official title for a Bosnian Church "priest" would be a Djed. Which translates to something like grandfather.

For the Bogumil relgion, you will find titles such as Gost. Gost translates to Guest in english. Bogumil Gosti would travel from house to house, like a home doctor. Thats why they were called Gosti, literally Guests

And refering to Stjepan Tvrtko II, he was actually king. His title would be Kralj Stjepan Tvrtko II, Kralj translates to King.

Most rulers of Bosnia were "bans" which is a provincial title. However, some were crowned King, such as Stjepan.


Also if your interested, ancient Bogumil tombs in Bosnia and Herzegovina are called stecci. One is a stecak, many are stecci.

Here are some pics:

Also, here is a list of Bosnian rulers:


PERIOD OD 1154 DO 1322 GODINE

1154-1167....................Ban Boric
1167-1180.................... (Bizantijska okupacija)
1180-1204....................Ban Kulin
1204-1232....................Ban Stjepan
1232-1253....................Ban Ninoslav
1254-1267....................Ban Prijezda I
1267-1287....................Ban Prijezda I i Ban Stjepan Kotroman - DVOVLASCE
1287-1290....................Ban Prijezda II i Ban Stjepan Kotroman - DVOVLASCE
1290-1299....................Ban Stjepan Kotroman
1299-1304....................Ban Stjepan Kotroman i "Ban" Mladen I Šubic - DVOVLASCE
1304-1313....................Ban Stjepan Kotroman i "Ban" Mladen II Šubic - DVOVLASCE
1314-1322....................Ban Stjepan II Kotromanic i "Ban" Mladen II Šubic - DVOVLASCE


PERIOD OD 1322 DO 1463 GODINE

1322-1353....................Ban Stjepan II Kotromanic
1353-1391....................Kralj Tvrtko I Kotromanic (krunisan 1377 god.)
1391-1395....................Kralj Stjepan Dabiša
1395-1398....................Kraljica Jelena Gruba
1398-1404....................Kralj Stjepan Ostoja
1404-1409....................Kralj Tvrtko II
1409-1418....................Kralj Stjepan Ostoja (vraca se na prijesto)
1418-1420....................Kralj Stjepan Ostojic
1420-1433....................Kralj Tvrtko II (vraca prijesto)
1433-1435....................Kralj Radivoj Ostojic
1435-1443....................Kralj Tvrtko II (ponovo se vraca na prijesto)
1443-1461....................Kralj Tomaš
1461-1463....................Kralj Stjepan Tomaševic


Azatol, I would like you to know that the Bogumili contributed greatly to the Bosnian Church, and what it was to become.

Often on the ancient stecci, you will find inscriptions like "...from the true Bosnian religion.."


Here is a pic of Tvrtko,

These are some Bosnian coins from that time period:

Good luck!

 

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First Serbian War: Preparations

(Note: I've done quite a bit of speculative trying out of things to figure out how to take Kosovo without getting ripped apart. Consider this to be first story, second game.)

Exodus 23:27
I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

January 12, 1437, Keep of Kralj Stjepan Tvrtko II

"The number of superficial wars our allies seek to join is frightening, they ask now that we declare war on Bohemia. Our interests are not met by sending our armies so far afield. We return to allies such as Ragusa who share our same interest, and since Venice is currently in their alliance we will have a stronger alliance that just Ragusa. What do you think, my lord?"

"The time is rather near to finally take on Serbia I think, I agree with you. Send Adnan to tell Poland and Hungary that we will not join the war against Bohemia. And have arrangements made to seek peace with Prussia since we haven't fought them at all. And of course talk to Ragusa and Venice.

Now, Muhazrin, what should our aim be of the war with Serbia? I doubt they'd totally capitulate as it is, but should we aim to reduce them to merely their capital? Or have more limited objectives?"

"I would argue against greed in this, focus all your efforts on a quick war with the objective of taking claim of Kosovo. Give this task the right spirit and Michael will surely give blessing to your armies as it has your nation."

"Now I must find out more about the generals available. I've been so focused on diplomacy over my reign that I haven't kept good track of the army."

November 23, 1437

"I am retiring my lord, the weariness of running around Europe has been too much. Venice and alliance have gone ahead with their war against Mantua, I maintained to them they we did support the alliance, but had to talk to the Mantuans to inform them that we did not want to fight. Austria is involved in the alliance as well, and I got caught heading back here because Venice was being sieged by the massive Austrian army. I made it back to Ragusa by sea and arrived back here, finally. I recommend appointing someone younger with a desire for adventure, for your next ambassador, my lord," it was Ambassador Adnan, finally returned home and retiring.

"Thank you for your excellent work on my behalf then. I've always believed diplomacy is the first solution. If only there were fewer soldiers and more diplomats, however. But I hope you find peace finally at home for good."

With Adnan gone, someone would have to take his place, or perhaps more ambassadors considering the volume of work Adnan had.

"Altijen, can you look over Adnans assistants and find two, and promote them to ambassadors. Also tell me, how is the army recruitment progressing?"

"Excellent, many of the younger men are eager to go to battle against Serbia, so the issue is more of coin to support them and supply them than anything else. They should be fully ready by spring of next year."

March 19, 1438, Army camp near Serbian border

Muhazrin decided to come along to the army camp with Tvrko where General Postek was waiting.

"How many men do we have now?" Muhazrin asked.

General Postek responded, "Eight thousand or so ground troops, five thousand cavalry. When are we crossing the border, my lord?"

"Plan on early April, I'll have someone sent. Keep up the training general."

 

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Ah, useless alliance wars, a perpetual EU2 curse . However, the info on the Bogomils is quite interesting as I have read only snippets about them previously.

 

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First Serbian War: Part 1

Letter from General Postek, October 27, 1438

Naples has sent no army in aid, as you undoutably know, so we have been forced to face the mighty Wallachian and Moldavian armies alone, relying on and hoping for every new soldier you sent our way. I plead with you to send more.

Anyway, here is the accounting of battles in Serbia thusfar.

Late April we arrived in the province of Serbia and were set against the Serb's full army. We had a slight advantage in men, but our cavalry lead the day. The Serbian cavalry was a much smaller attachment and was sent to counter them, but we repulsed them and forced the left flank of the Serbian infantry out of place as they fled. Shortly after that the whole of their force fled leaving them demoralized but only small casualties were incurred on either side.

The Serbian army returned to Kosovo, but returned rather quickly, fighting with a force still reluctant to face our army. They were barely in the field at all before most of their force ran. During pursuit we inflicted a modest number of losses.

At this point the Serbians were on the defensive, but a vast Wallachian army arrived on the scene as we had been sieging the capital. We were outnumbered 3 to 2 but held near parity in cavalry.

It was sunset, the sky in disarray, the battle not yet so. There was something mystical to the Sunset charge, as many of our men are calling it. I assure you I do not say this lightly. I have never seen a horse and rider move so fast as these did. On the flipside our infantry was getting pummeled against the greater numbers of the enemy and so the cavalry had to ride extra hard to disrupt them. After the battle, all the cavalry horses were in no condition to see any more action for a while.

Only the second battle inflicted any significant losses on the enemy, generally we have defeated the enemy by demoralizing them, yet we have lost around two thousand men, eighteen hundred of these infantry, and two hundred cavalry men, along with one hundred eighty five horses.

Despite our victories, there is still a great deal to achieve and worry about. The Wallachians still outnumber us even after the battle, and we have not yet seen the Moldavians. Serbia itself has had time to recruit and rest its men which means they may attack us soon as well.

My plan is to turn to Kosovo as soon as we defeat the Serbians in their capital. Since the Serbian army is in Kosovo currently we will have to defeat them there as well.


General Postek

 

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I just realized the names of my recent chapters haven't been showing up cause the title doesn't show in replies, so sorry for that.
Chapters:
Intro 1
Intro 2
First Serbian War: Preparations
First Serbian War: Part 1

--------------------------------

First Serbian War: Part 2

Bosnian Army camp on the Serbian Border, Septemper 22, 1439

"The Serbian capital is ours, despite the fierce resistance. Once we were done there I looked to find out how strong the enemy is in Kosovo. They were too much for a direct assault so I return here to link up with all the reinforcements you can give me, my lord" General Postek said.

"I must admit to limited experience with war, but seeing the coffers run almost dry has shocked me as to the expense of it all. I am certainly pleased that you succeeded, and especially the cavalry has done well if reports are true. But you wrote that it was almost all lost very recently?" Kralj Tvrtko asked.

Tvrtko thought that the camp was awful quite despite the vast numbers of men. Perhaps they were weary that they'd returned home yet must go out again so soon to fight and besiege.

"Yes, yes as you know we have had to find soldiers and train them who have never been parts of the forces before, calling all the farmers and such to battle exacts a high price in many ways. The horses are in great demand and expensive of course, to find of war calibur, and many nobles seek compensation for the loss of their field hands, and weapons and training, all things of great expense for raising such a large force.

As to things almost being lost, we faced the Moldavians at similar odds as against the Wallachians and found things very rough going. The Moldavians had stronger cavalry and things looked very dire but we won even though some of our own men fled and had to be rounded up."

"Hope is sometimes the only thing that keeps us going here. The nobles hear rumors of the battles and every week it seems there is a new story of how surely the Wallachians will pour into Bosnian destroying everything, or how the Serbians have hatched a plan while they've kept so quiet these past months, and will hatch it on us. I find it so peculiar that all our most tense battles were not against our enemies but against those who choose to aid them."

"Well, my lord, you should be on more watch once we move into Kosovo, there will more risk to Bosnia since Serbia's allies can go right through Serbia without opposition and on to our lands. But I am happy to say that our siegecraft has gone quite speedily compared with expectations, and I hope to report a victory sometime next year. I'd hope you prepare for a siege on the other end, just in case an army does arrive here. I can't afford to and it wouldn't do any good to try to have some defense here against the overwhelming armies of the Serbian allies."

That was disconcerting, and Tvrtko was lucky the nobles were not around to here such a thing. Overwhelming armies, not far from that to mythic hordes destroying everything.

"Well, Michael's blessing if you'll take it, you've had a good spirit in spite of rough circumstances thus far. Good luck."


October 6th, 1439, Letter from General Postek on the subject of the Kosovan siege, and the location of Serbian forces

Eerily deja vous, this battle reminds me strongly of our push into the Serbian capital. It almost seems like the Serbian allies have more troops but of lower quality, or that god grants us just enough to achieve victory. It was a struggle despite outnumbering the Serbians as they seemed to have a very strong spirit against us.

I now believe that only Serbia's incredible ability to keep and maintain such a powerful alliance, versus our trouble in finding an alliance free of diversions is the secret to their survival thus far. As you said, my lord, Naples swears to being a strong ally, yet does not aid us in troops, although I suppose it is repayment in some sense for the fact that we have not aided directly in the wars of our prior alliance partners against Prussia and then Mantua.

Wallachia is on the move into the Serbian capital. If they turn to fight us once again we will be plunged into the flames, so to speak. If they turn to fight you things will look bad, but it will be a race of siegecraft. If they stay in Serbia things will be the best for us, so it is not likely that would happen.

Our troops are having more problems then ever with the exhaustation of a couple year long war. The brief break back home was some relief, but the combination of mostly dull siegework with sudden action in pitched battle is difficult.

The troops and leaders both hope to someday have an army surpassing the Wallachian armies in numbers as well as the quality of every man. What things we could do with such an army, if we could afford it.

Best of luck with juggling and jiggering the monetary demands I've put upon you. I hope to return some reward for it all, but it is said war is a pit which everything falls into.

 

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Congratulations on your courage for playing Bosnia! And you are writing a very nice AAR about it, too. I finished a GC with Bosnia recently and by the end of the game I had Bosnia up to a major power, but progress was VERY slow. I didn't really break loose until the 1700s; before that, I had only about 7 Balkan provinces, and several of those were gained by defection. I started by allying with Venice, but by the end of the 1400s it was clear that that alliance was not helping, so I switched over to Austria's side and stayed with them the rest of the way. That assured my survival but left little room for expansion since Austria owned most all of it. Also I was held back by never getting a CB against Hellas or the Turks.

One nice feature about playing Bosnia is that when you finally start getting ahead in tech (mid to late 1700s in my case) only the Orthodox tech nations benefit, so you can leave the Latin tech nations way behind. In my game the leading naval nations in the world were Bosnia, Hellas, Poland, and Russia, very far ahead of such "backwards" naval powers as England, France, Venice, and Spain. So during a war around 1800 I utterly destroyed the French fleet under Villenueve even though outnumbered, while losing only one ship (they lost 25). That was sweet.

My main regret in my game is that I was so timid about attacking without a CB (against Hellas, for example) and that held back my progress. It would have been more satisfying if I could have done it all on Bosnia's strength, but I really needed the security of Austria's power at my backdoor.

Good luck in your war against Serbia. I hope you can get a port soon (hard to get many merchants otherwise). I am anxious to see what the Turks are up to.

 

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Jwolf Things will change quickly once I convert to protestant. While Bogomilism is more like a totally different religion than a type of Christianity, they protest against some of the same things as the protestants (hierarchy, indulgences, etc etc.) As well as the tradition in Catholicism of spending vast amount of money on churches.

So Protestant is the best in game choice. Basically my story will progress along the lines of a religious war, not so much against Islam but against Catholics and Orthodox unless Ottoman gets past Byzantium which they haven't yet. I won't be fighting against Protestants unless they declare war on me.

But until protestant is a choice I can make, I'm sticking to Serbia, and now Moldavia and Wallachia as targets, but I'm going to be at peace for quite a while unless someone declares war on me in the mean time. I'll probably look at those three targets after I'm in good financial shape again.


First Serbian War: Conclusions and Aftermath

February 3, 1440, Keep of Kralj Stjepan Tvrtko II

"My lord, the Moldavians are outside the city. Twenty thousand of them. We are prepared hopefully. Our normal winter supplies should keep us in food for some time. But still to hold out against such forces, means Postek would be no aid to us as he said. Postek reports the Serbians were involved in some sort of battle in Albania, perhaps finally Naples sent their forces. The Serbian army is pretty much gone," Altijen said.

"Yet, their allies remain a menace, have the ambassadors tried to make peace with Serbia's allies? We must make peace with them all soon, but Serbia of course is the only one of them in dire straights. It is best then that oddly Serbia is seen as the leader of the three, likely their allies will follow suit with peace. Now Postek just needs to finish his siege off before Moldavia finishes us off. We fought with Kosovo in mind, and we aren't taking peace without it."

"Yes, Postek will surely be given a great welcome home if he can bring us peace and Kosovo. Meanwhile, less relevant to us, but of some concern, there is religious turmoil in Constantinople where the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople has declared the Patriarch of Rome to be the highest authority of all, essentially converting the Byzatine empire to Catholicism, and undoing almost all that seperated Orthodox and Catholic religions, though others such as the Muscovans remain Orthodox and not Catholic, likely viewing the Patriach's conversion with distaste.

Ironically this is all happening as the struggle between the council appointed antipope and the exiled Pope Eugenius IV presents no single authority for the Catholics, a truly bizarre time for conversion.

As for making peace with Moldavia and Wallachia, they have refused such offers believing presumably that they would defeat us soon enough and share in the spoils of your nation."

"The guards are relieved from this post to defend the city as a whole as neccesary. If the city is breached the Keep won't hold long I'm sure, but they should know to fall back to it, in such an event."


April 9th, 1440, Siege of Kosovo, General Postek's headquarters

"General, the Moldavians have left the siege of Bosnia, returned to the Serbian capital, and went on further to their own lands. No one can explain such a thing, except perhaps trouble at home for them?

Also I have a message from the King. He says to establish order in Kosovo after we have broken through and not to proceed on to Albania but to return home, as an agreement will be made out as a soon as possible after our victory here giving him control of Kosovo and ending the war."

"Victory is not assured yet, but things do look well. Kosovo is well stocked for siege, it will take time to end this.


November 25th, 1440, Bosnian Army Camp on the Serbian border

"Congratulations General, an excellent campaign you've ran. Some of your troops will have to return to Kosovo in case of uprisings, but otherwise, it is time for some well earned rest. But before that, a return to the capital to celebrate. An army camp is no place for such celebration. And I hope to see Kosovo very soon as well. All the nobles and courtiers have heard so many tales about your battles, tall tales and rumors mostly. Epic poems have been written without even hearing your account of it all. The artists have been busy imagining you quite a lot actually."

Postek was rather taken back by it all, Tvrtko could tell. "Oh well, I just took each battle in turn, without the cavalry I would have been lost in the first battle. The glory surely falls to use for having such capable subjects. I will come to the palace as you asked, I have not been there before."

"It is nothing in comparison to the westerners who make palace a rather poor description of my keep. They've built Cathedrals larger than my home I must say. Let them seek the excesses of ornate architecture, although I will work to extend the walls of the city, if ever the coffers can be restored to their old state in time."

"Well, on a more military note, it wasn't naples that attacked into Albanian, it was an army bearing the flag of the Papal States, whether this was the anti-pope's council or the pope in exile, I do not know."

The accounts of Postek's battles were eventually told in the poem Postek's Knights and a painting of the Sunset charge with Postek included at the front (instead of leading from the rear as was his custom for reasons he felt valid, one being a more holistic look at the battle) was commissioned by the King.

 

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Pictures

 

[LordLeto]

1k Army eh? I think Ragusa is asking for a annexing.

Been waiting for this update, you didnt disappoint.