I enjoyed subbing
. Hope Frank is happy with my regency.
Since I hear you get -1 inflation for AARs, here goes:
The first thing I did was attack Persia, knowing they would be a fairly easy target, but also likely to yield the best goodies. So using all leaders except Suleyman(I was really worried I'd lose him in a random battle, which sucks even worse if its with the AI), I overran the western part of Persia, made some extra income from loot, and took all the sunni provs except kirkut, plus Daghestan.
Having done so, I wanted to strike Hungary. However, they were allied with Austria, and Frunsburg was still alive. Luckily for me he was busy fighting the Poles, so it'd be unlikely for him to be able to respond to an attack on Hungary fast enough to stop me from triggering the inheritence event. After a couple census taxes to fund a new army, I struck. The campaign turned out to be pretty easy, as planned. The forts fell without trouble and after a couple months the event was triggering, inheriting for the OE all of Hungary except three provs which went to Austria.
Austria hadn't joined the war though. I thought about not DOWing them, but I had a strong impulse to do so, despite owning a relatively small army, even with the Hungarian reinforcements from the event, and the fact that troops are so expensive for the OE. I knew I'd have to somehow do it with an infantry heavy army.
So, I attacked and focused on the Krain area, and made some assault-retreats along the other border provs. It wasn't getting me far enough though, as he had 90k with Frunsburg dogging my every move. I decided rather than to fight it out, I would try to ransom a refinery, and moved 12k inf under one of my leaders west to see if the threat of assault would prove persuasive enough.
I ended up having to move further west after an assault on Wurtenburg(a small fort, but mostly a gesture to see if Aus would cave rather than a real attempt). Alsace was the only minimal fort that turned out to have a refinery building, so it had to be it. My morale was recovered by the time I got there, so I assaulted, and was lucky enough to succeed, nearly. I paused right before winning the assault and asked if Austria would be willing to pay 500D to avoid losing its manu, which would be worth like 1200D or so. It obviously wasn't a bluff this time, so Austria agreed, and Spain helped them pay up.
After that, I noticed Russia was trying to convert Astrakhan and some Crimean provs. Naughty Russia! As a good muslim, my I had an obligation to protect fellow muslims, so I decided to prevent their forced assimilation into the Orthodox fold. I was a little annoyed to find I lacked a cb on Russia, but nonetheless, did my duty and DOW'd a few years later.
I didn't use Suleyman in the Austrian war as I was still very worried he'd die a random death, but now I did use him. The Astrakhan assault was easy, despite a small fort. Russian morale was so bad, and after that, following it up with successful assaults in the prov north of that and Kazan went pretty easily too. Russia fought back with large numbers, but morale was just too good, and those battles were mostly won. My other leader eventually ended up dying on the shock phase in Kazan, but Suleyman slowly grinded on, and finally Russia accepted terms, giving up Astrakhan and one Crimean prov.
Infra four was gained at some point in there, and then trade four. Income was diverted to land tech after this. I'd made a ten year NAP with Austria after our war, which was in feb of 1528. Peace was signed with Russia around 1533, so I couldn't launch another attack anytime soon. I just went after Persia again and got Armenia.
The long peace meant I had enough money to fight a real full scale war by the time the truce ended. In 1541, I decided to make my move. However, not without some conservativeness. Or maybe you could call it liberal, in a broader sense. What I was interested in was money, Austrian land being far too ugly for my stab to pursue with much. Hungary was also bad for my stability, so I offered to sell four Hungarian provs for 1500D. Does this mean I didn't attack?
No, I attacked too, to help push the deal through. I would've pursued the war and then peaced for money if that deal wasn't accepted, but I really prefered to just sell Hungary. Which was what happened, Spain kindly agreeing to pay the way once again.
So with that money, more missionaries were sent, and some loans were paid off(from a foriegn drill instructor, and an unexpected historical event that cost 800D). At the point I leave the OE, most of the heretics have been converted(except the Venetian islands. Conversions are too expensive in lands without connections to the capital, and those provs tend to be used as ws for naval nations eventually anyway). Also, LT 14 is about a year away. Since Suleyman's still alive, that should allow for some more fun militarily in the coming years. Russia still has some Muslim lands that need liberating;p, and Austria is as always a convenient target, or hostage
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