Empire of the Steppes: A Siberian AAR

[Morpheus506]

All right, here goes.

This is only my first AAR, so don't expect it to be incredible. I'm still trying to hammer out a style, too, so it might change in the middle. Anyway, the game stats go thus:

IGC Version 1.49, Game Version 1.10
DIfficulty: Normal/Normal
Fog Of War: On
Events: Random & Historical
Annexation: On
Missions: On
Autosave: Yearly

IGC Options:
-Tax: Normal
-Free Ireland, Bretagne, Norway, Finland
-Strong Hanseatic League
-Moldovian Bujak
-Russian, Persian, Turkish, Uzbek, and Polish Unrest
-CoTs in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Anglia, Astrakhan, Reval, and Moscow
-Burgandy the Mighty
-Unified Prussia
-Vinland
-Balkanization


Objectives:
1. Form an alliance with the neighboring states, including Russia, for the protection of my fledgling nation.
2. Capture at least 1 province (preferably coastal, so I can start colonization of the deep Siberian steppes before Russia gets the chance.
3. Build up my army and economy to be equal or greater in power than my neighbors.

Sibir starts out under the wise and benevolent rule of Ibaq Khan [2/3/3]. The Empire of the Steppes controls 5 provinces: Kurgan (the capital), Kustanai, Orsk, Irghiz, and Tenghiz.

The Siberian military consists of two cavalry hordes, numbering 30000 horsemen each. The Western Horde is stationed in the capital under the command of one Colonel Moktar, while the Eastern Horde is located in neighboring Kustanai and is commanded by Colonel Tuggurt.

Here is the personal map of Ibaq Khan:

Now it is time to tell the story of the Empire of the Steppes....

 

[Morpheus506]

January 1492
On the 3rd, we receive news from our neighbors in Russia that they have married off one of their royal family members to a nation called "Grease." We shall have to trade maps with the Russians, as they obviously know much more about the world than we.

On the 6th, Ibaq Khan makes a speech in our capital in hopes of raising the spirits of our citizens. During this speech, he vows that we will not lose control of the province of Tenghiz in 5 years.

February 1492
On the 2nd of February, we receieve word from our ambassador to Turkey. They have declared war on a people known as the Mameluks! Although we know nothing of these people, we do know of the might of the Turkish armies, and our hearts go out to these hapless defenders. We have a feeling they don't stand a chance.

The next day, our Turkish ambassador gives us more news. The Sultan has approached the King of a faraway nation named "Sweden" and asked to join their alliance with another state called "Finland." Apparently, Sweden accepted. Confound it! The Khan had confided in me that he had hoped to pull Turkey into an alliance with the other Mongol Khanates.... alas... perhaps they will permit us to join the alliance with them.

March 1492
The rest of February is uneventful, but the beginning of March brings the Treaty Of Tordesillas. According to our scholars, this affects us not at all, as we don't even know where the two nations it works for even exist!

On the 4th, our ambassadors in Russia delivered us with more news about Grease. It appears that the Russians have invited them into an alliance that they had with our mutual neighbors Ryazan and Crimea, as well as an unknown kingdom known as "Pskov."

On the 22nd, Ibaq Khan receives word that seems to confirm the prediction we made at the outbreak of the 1st Turko-Mameluk war. The army of the Turk has captured the city in the province of Aleppo from its Mameluk owners ... if theis is an indication of later wars, the days of the Mameluk slave empire are numbered.

April 1492
It seems that the citizens of Iraq have grown tired of Persian overlordship. When we receive word of the Iraqi Fools' Days revolts, the Khan sends out two letters. His public stance on the rebellions is one of condemnation, and he sends a letter to the Shah of Persia expressing this. But, another letter is sent out to the leader of the rebels, congratulating them on their ability to stand up against the Persians.

Unfortunately, the Iraqi rebellions is destined to last barely over a fortnight, because on the 17th, the Persian army annihilates the rebellious peasants.

May 1492
The unrest of the Persian peasantry is decidedly evident, though, because one month after the initial Iraqi revolt, another revolt erupts in the province of Persis.

Three weeks later, on the 21st, more news arrives from the Turko-Mameluk front. The army of the Turk won a victory over the army of the Mameluks in the Turkish-occupied province of Aleppo.

June-July 1492
The month of June was quiet inside our borders, but in Persia, more unrest was brewing. The inhabitants of Awhaz had been plotting for a month, and then on the 1st of July, hostilities erupted against the Persian peasantry and the Persian government.

In an unexpected turn, Ibaq Khan showed good judgement in appointing an excellent minister named Hoggar [random event- excellent minister]. This is a stroke of luck, for now, instead of having to wait an entire year just to send one diplomat, now we get 3 per year. This may prove invaluable when we try to join Russia's alliance...

On the 3rd of July, the Russian Alliance grows even stronger, with the addition of a nation named "Portugal." Now the alliance is even more attractive for us to join....

August 1492
Once again, the Persian peasants rise up against their Shah. There must be a highly charismatic leader down there, spreading seeds of dissent. Hmmm..... perhaps a meeting should be arranged between him and Ibaq Khan.....

The next day, the 2nd, more proof arrived of the plight of the Mameluks. The Turks have suceeded in their seige of Syria.

10 days afterward, more news from the Turko-Mameluk border. The Turkish occupational force in Aleppo came under attack from a Mameluk strike force. Unfortunately for the latter, the Turks suceeded in driving the Mameluks away from the captured city. These are dark days for the Mameluks indeed...

But wait! More news!! On the 27th, Ibaq Khan receives word that the Turkish occupiers in Aleppo have been displaced by the Mameluk army.... perhaps the Mameluks aren't as doomed as it seemed.

September 1492
The 1st of September brings another Persian revolt, this time in Balucht. The Shah must really be hurting... he hasn't stopped a single revolt except the first one in Iraq!

Accompanying the Persian ambassador was a man the Khan had not seen before. When Ibaq addressed him, he introduced himself as a specially trained diplomat. Finally, our dreams of forming a powerful alliance can be realized! The diplomats first task was to offer the Golden Horde an offer to create a new alliance with us. Unfortunately, our offer was not-so-politely refused, and the diplomat left our court indefinitely, setting back our diplomatic efforts a great deal.

Then, more details on the Turkish war, about a battle in the province of Lebanon. Predictably, the victory went to the Turk.

October-December 1492
For once, the revolts didn't belong to Persia! This time around, the peasants in Turkmenistan rebel against the Uzbeks.

Then, Ibaq decided that our prisons were too full. Why he did that, I do not know, but the prisons were emptied, and all the convicts were trained in colonizing skills [random event- rush of colonists].

Ibaq Khan then gives the order. The Western Horde, still stationed in Kurgan, is sent on their way to the neutral province of Alga, directly south of Irghiz and Orsk.There are large amounts of hostile natives [very agressive], and they need to be cleared out before I risk any of my colonists on it.

When the Western Horde arrives in Alga, the natives greet them with spear and arrow, but the disciplined Siberian cavalry ride them down and wipe them out.A party of colonists is sent immediately.

A month and a half later, when the colonists where supposed to arrive, our cavalry horde reports that they never got there. Damn! I had a feeling that using convicts for colonists would be a bad idea.....

 

[Morpheus506]

As I said, I'm still trying to find a good format and style, so if anyone has any comments or suggestions, feel free to post them.

 

[Lord E]

I think you have started great
Just keep it comming and you will get the hang of it after some time

 

[unmerged(8545)]

Forging an alliance with Russia sounds like a good idea for Sibir.

Your style of writing is very clear,well worth reading.

 

[unmerged(10894)]

Yeah your style's nice. I wouldn't change either if I was you. You are going well with the RE's as well

 

[Morpheus506]

Thanks to all for the comments. Well, here goes again....


1493
January-February
Ibaq Khan has been making war plans for the last few months. The target: Astrakhan. Fairlly small, only two provinces, Astrakhan has no alliances to speak of. The only problem is the army in their capital... 40000 men, probablly cavalry. With the combined might of the Western and Eastern Hordes, we could beat them, but the Khan thinks it would be prudent to recruit some infantry as well. This will be done as soon as the funds become available (that colonist mission drained most of the economy) which should come soon enough. Seeking to lead his troops in combat, Ibaq Khan takes command of the Eastern Horde, which he has moved to Kurgan. He does so disguised and under a different name, Mamuk Khan (the "Khan" thing should really give away the whole ruler thing, but for some reason no one really cares).

During this time, Persia finally takes care of some of its revolts and the Uzbeks finish off their only one... oh well, so much for new nations to ally with....

Then another finely dressed diplomat appears at court. It seems he would like to be sent somewhere, so the Khan obliges him, and sends him to the Uzbeks to propose a new alliance.
Apparently, the Uzbek monarch hates our guts, and the diplomat is sent back, minus a few fingers... so much for that...

This alliance attempt was meant to help us in the coming war with Astrakhan. Since it failed, and we do not have either the diplomats or the money to try again, war plans are put into action. Infantry are recruited, 3000 in Irgiz, and 4000 in Kurgan. Meanwhile, our troops are briefed of the Khan's plan: both Hordes will charge into Orenberg, cavalry first, infantry coming afterward. Once Orenberg's fortress [minimal] has fallen, our troops will head to Astrakhan, the capital.

March
Early in March, the Turks bring us more news about their war: it is over! The Mameluks have lost a devestating loss to Turkey, and hands over control of Lebanon, Jordan, and 6 ducats, their entire treasury.

April
The rest of March is uneventful, but as April begins, our infantry are completely trained. They are still a little green, but they should be fine once battle starts.

On the 18th a Crimean ambassador arrives in our court. He states that he would like to propose a royal marriage between our two nations. Naturally, Ibaq Khan accepts, and our inter-state relations are increased.

War is declared on the 26th. War taxes our immediately raised, and while our old troops vacate my provinces, new troops are recruited and trained.

The First War of the Steppes
When our Eastern and Western Hordes arrived in Orenberg, our men immediately laid siege to the fortress. Shortly afterward, the 40K Astrakhani army attacked our combined 30K Horde, but were utterly destroyed mostly thanks to the valor and skill of "Mamuk" Khan and the mid-battle arrival of 6000 infantrymen. The siege is then continued.

June 6 sees the assault and subsequent capture of Orenberg by the Khan. The individual armies are then merged into the western horde and sent down to the CoT and capital in Astrakhan.

Upon arrival, an assault is ordered, but although it severely depleted the ranks of the defenders and threw them into a state of panic, the assault was called off due to low morale on our side. During the assault the troops being recruited were trained and sent to assist in the siege.

On August 3rd, Astrakhani recruits attack our siege force, but are quickly wiped out by our more numerous soldiers.

17 days later, on the 20th, our new recruits [8900/2980] arrive at the besieged Astrakhani capital, and "Mamuk" Khan gives the order to assault the fort... alas, our men are once again turned back. We must wait for their morale to recover once more.

October 29th brings another assault on the fortress, this time a successful one! But, the good news is evened out by news of a revolt in Kustanai... 3000 rebels besiege the town.

A demand is sent to the Astrakhanis: Full Annexation of their realm. They accept, and suddenly, a wave of diplomats sweep the court of the Khan. Many countries now know of our existence: Serbia, Norway, Finland, Ragusa, Grease, The Hanseatic League, Denmark, Sweden, Brittany, Pskov, Georgia, Naple, Wurtemberg, Wallachia, Thuringen, Savoy, Saxony, The Palatinat, The Papal States, Moldovia, Milan, the Mameluks, Lorraine, Teutonic Order, Cologne, Hungary, Hessen, Helvetia, Hannover, Bohemia, Kleves, Bavaria, Baden, Prussia, and Austria. The downside is that we as of yet don't know where they are, so they could be massing troops to conquer us unbeknowst to us!

The Khan then moves to quell the revolts in Kustanai. Hopefully things will quiet down enough for us to re-stabilize.

December
The first part of the month is quiet, but on Christmas Day [game note: yeah yeah I know, Sibir is Sunni, but hey, it still's Christmas], the Khan receives a letter from the Czar of Russia, asking for our membership in the Grand Russian Alliance! The Khan jubilantly agrees. We are now allies with Russia, Ryazan, Crimea, Greece (the Khan was corrected on his misspelling of their name; how embarrassing!), Portugal, and Pskov!

 

[Morpheus506]

Oh and one other thing: how do you get hyperlinks into your signature?

 

[unmerged(10894)]

Originally posted by Morpheus506
Oh and one other thing: how do you get hyperlinks into your signature?

First you put " " and then whatever you want to call it. So:

[URL = [url]http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75407]Empire of the Steppes; A Siberian AAR

Then lastly, you put " [/URL] "

So in full it's (without the spaces between) : " [URL = http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75407] Empire of the Steppes; A Siberian AAR[/URL] "


P.S. if the way i've done it seems strange it's because it is hard to show step by step how to create the link without making it a link

 

[unmerged(8545)]

October 29th brings another assault on the fortress, this time a successful one! But, the good news is evened out by news of a revolt in Kustanai... 3000 rebels besiege the town.

that revolt surprises me. any reason?

 

[Morpheus506]

War taxes, most likely. Maybe religion, too, because all my provinces are pagan except for the two Astrakhani provinces (Orenberg: Reformed, Astrakhan: Sunni) and my national religion is Sunni.

 

[Morpheus506]

Alright lets see if the link thing worked.... HAHA! IT WORKED! Yay.

 

[unmerged(7347)]

Nice and detailed AAR and Siberia is an interesting nation to play As I saw you wanted some tips and hints about writing AARs the thing that strucked me was that your AAR is very detailed and gives the reader alot of info about every year. One tip would be to trying narrow it down a bit. This of course depending on how long you planning to continue with the AAR, but if you plan to play for a long time and write an AAR about it I suggest to try to narrow it down abit. On the other side I love your descriptions of what happens in the game...

"Apparently, the Uzbek monarch hates our guts, and the diplomat is sent back, minus a few fingers... so much for that... "

Things like the above example really makes it more fun to read an AAR (not because Im a very bloodthirsty man, but as it gives more life to the story) and things like this takes more space to be written on

 

[Morpheus506]

Thanks for all the advice and comments, everyone.

One thing I just remembered that probably contributed to the Kustanai revolt was a Wave of Obscuratism that I neglected to post about that occurred right before the first "opening of the jails."One thing I can truthfully say about this game: there have been more random events in 2 or 3 years than there were in 10 in some of my other games... I wonder if that's meant to help Sibir since it's such a small and unliked nation.

I might not be able to post in a couple of days, but I'll be sure to check in and answer questions/reply to comments when I can.

 

[saskganesh]

"horse nations" like sibir are fun and challenging, and i sincerely wish you the best with a russian alliance. you'll need to keep them friendly for a long time.

this is good, keep going.

 

[unmerged(7347)]

Originally posted by saskganesh
"horse nations" like sibir are fun and challenging, and i sincerely wish you the best with a russian alliance. you'll need to keep them friendly for a long time.

this is good, keep going.

Yes either keep them as friends or try to crush them early, when they are weaken. One strategy is to wait until you notice Russias forces is in Poland fighting a war, DoW and quikly move in small amounts of forces to every russian province thus disable Russias ability to raise more troops, watch Poland crush the russian armies and then move around with your no 1 army and siege province by province. This of course require a good timing and a bit of luck, as if the russian crushes Polands forces instead you would face an angry enemy... but as Poland is the strongest of the two battalians in the early years its critical that you do it then and not later, when Russia becomes superior to Poland

 

[unmerged(8545)]

Another, straightforward option, seems to ally with Poland. This makes sure that in any conflict with R, you got a powerful and active ally alongside.

 

[Morpheus506]

Yeah, I considered allying with Poland, but they seemed too far away. And I figured, why have help against the aggression when you can stop it altogether?

 

[Morpheus506]

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this...

1494
January-April
On New Year's Day, our monarch Ibaq Khan, out of some strange desire, legally changes his name to Mamuk Khan. Also, caught up in the wave of name-changing, minister Hoggar changes his name to Saada [game note- since I made up that thing about Ibaq being disguised as Mamuk, who had monarch rank, I had to use the minister cheat to bring another minister. Otherwise it wouldn't make as much sense. Sorry, I'll try not to cheat too much in the future]. Some things I just can't understand........

On the 8th, Iba-- er... Mamuk Khan's forces arrive in Kustanai, and proceed to give the rebels a sound thrashing. The battle is over and the rebels extinguished by the 13th.

Some days later, our second colonial mission to Alga is a success! We then proceed to send our last colonial party of convicts to the colony.

Several months later, on April 20, our new colonvicts arrive in Alga. Heartened greatly by this, the Khan orders the re-opening of the jails. Since 300 of the 3000 Kustanai rebels had been imprisoned instead of killed, this gave us 3 new colonial parties [random event- rush of colonists (again!)]. The first was, of course almost immediately en route to Alga. Mamuk wants this to be our first colonial city, the 8th total. Besides, it gives us a better border withe the Uzbeks!

Then the Khan pulls me aside. As head of the Siberian Military, I must be informed of all royal plans for the nation. He tells me that our next colonial target will be Ichim, an unclaimed province to the east of Kustanai. He orders me to send a large cavalry contingent, under my direct control, to wipe out the exceptionally hostile natives there.

He also gives me the details of our next major campaign. According to some of the messengers to our court, a small nation to the south had been quite active diplomatically lately... a nation called Georgia. The Khan had heard somewhere that they have a port on the ... what was its name ... Gray Sea? Anyway, it was rumored that they had a seaport, and since we were now allied with Crimea, our soldiers could walk right over the Crimean countryside to get to it. More troops would be recruited periodically in Astrakhan in order to form a more powerful army to invade Georgia.

May
On May 2nd, I do as the Khan commanded. He sends me, at the head of 7000 cavalrymen from the Western Horde, onward through Orsk and Tenghiz, en route to Ichim.

June
On the 3rd, my cavalry arrive in Ichim. We seek out the natives and attack! All 1000 of them were destroyed in the course of 2 days. I send a message to the Khan, who tells me to return to Tenghiz, for Ichim will not begin to be colonized until after Alga is a city.

June 27 sees Mamuk's forces arrive in Astrakhan, where much activity greets him. The fortress there is being strengthened [to level 2], and more soldiers are being trained for the attack on Georgia.

July
Midway through July, a rider in the uniform of the Uzbeks greets me in Tenghiz. It seems that he has been charged with offering one of his monarch's daughters' hand in marriage to a nobleman of our court. Having been given authority in the Khan's absence to do this, I accept, and the daughter is sent along to Kurgan.

August-October
In my haste, I seem to have forgotten to relay the fact that our colony in Alga had expanded in June. On August 19th, we send our second-to-last party of colonvicts on their way. The Khan feels that this one will be a success as well, and that the Alga colony is well on her way to becoming a city.

November
All this time, Mamuk Khan has been quietly sending friendly letters to the Khan of Crimea. On the 3rd, he is pleased to announce that he has boosted the relations sky-high [196]! So that's where all our excess income has been going....

On the 26th, the Khan witnesses a grand sight. The fortressing in Astrakhan is no longer minimal! This is mainly an effort to protect me if Georgia's armies attack the former Astrakhani capital. Not that I think they'll ever get that far...

3 days later, after relentless nagging by our ambassadors, the Crimean Khan agrees to share explorations with us [game note- tried about 30 times (not a good trade for them, 273 to 14) before they accepted]! This gives us knowledge from the tip of Iberia to the tip of France to Iraq to Ingermanland and everything in between. This also includes Georgia........

December
December is a quiet month, but on the 21st new troops are finished for Mamuk's army in Astrakhan, increasing his force to 52K strong [23084/29546/0]. Just a few more months, and Georgia falls......

 

[Morpheus506]

Oh and just a quickie note: I have it set so that Sibir is the only major so there might be a few diplo-annexations in the future....


(Haha! I made sergeant! )