I begun this session looking around for someone to declare war on. As it is I have six options.
Poland-Lithuania - No. Just plain no. They have literally over 200,000 men waiting and ready to go. Most of what I do at this point really has to revolve around not getting into war with them. Even attrition ain't gonna remove that many men fast enough form my lands.
Astrakhan - Easy, no troops or allies. But little reward for taking them, just more Orthodox poor provinces.
Sibir - A bigger army than me but I could probably deal with that. However I can't even see anymore than two of their provinces and their forest will not suit my cavalry at all.
Russia - Bigger than me. Bigger rewards but for the moment we have a truce. It's not worth the stability hit.
Kazan - Poor and weak. An easy target. Maybe.
Crimea - Strong, with over 60,000 men at arms. But they would have to all invade through Donetsk. Not a bad option.
So I'm left to weigh up Crimea vs Kazan. Who to invade. I hit unpause. Thats when Russia makes the call for me. They declare war on Kazan and within a month and a half their forces have wiped out Kazan. I do like it how countries of any size may be annexed in one go. I just don't like it when my enemies do it.
Kazan is no more. All gone very quick.
Well at least that only leaves Crimea. I send off the declaration of war. I'm not worried about the stability hit only the extra BB. In might be enough to provoke Poland-Lithuania
(If you're not aware you cannot see your BB score in EUI as in later games).
There not really much to do at first. I just let Crimea do the job of destroying their armies for me.
I believe AI stands for Absolute Idiots. Their men will not be hanging around long.
They manage to take Donetsk. But at the cost of over 45,000 men. Their last remnants are wiped up by Genghis and his cavalry and I head on down for the task of taking their lands.
Then comes the one thing I've been fearing. A declaration of war. It gives me a bit of a shock but with relief I see it's only from the Russians. This should be fine.
But maybe not. Their winter and summer invasions are substantial. I only have 20,000 men and they're tied up in Crimea.
I decide to finish off Crimea. Meanwhile Russian forces tear through my provinces. After taking the capital they're demanding Kujbyschew as reparations. Why anyone would want such a hideously named province is beyond me. I deny them, even though it costs me a stability point. I think it times to finish in Crimea. I could annex them. But that no doubt would bring everyone in on me. Not a wise move. I settle for three provinces and 250 ducats.
The war then becomes something of an epic struggle with far too many details to go into here. My provinces of Lipetsk, Kujbyschew, Saratow and the capital of Samara change hands far too many times to count. There are almost monthly demands of Lipetsk for peace. I let winter do most of the work killing the Russians as I can only build 3 to 4 thousand troops a year and can't afford to lose them. Fortunately being mostly cavalry when they do go into battle they tend to annihilate the enemy to the last man. Winter, of course, is a double edged sword for it prevents me from laying siege to Russian provinces.
A typical scene from the war.
Of course there are rebels popping up like clockwork in my southern provinces. What would the Golden Horde be without rebels? Nonetheless I eventually wear down the Russians and through some lucky and swift sieges grab Kazan, Tambow and Moscow as well as a few of their northern colonies.
Scenes from the later war
The Russians, now without a man left in the army are broken. I demand Tambow and Kazan. They accept. Phew, it's been a long fifteen years this war. Fifteen years! I really can't recall having a war go on for so long in any of the EU games. Especially not in such a small area. I was lucky. If any of my other neighbours had piled in I would have been finished I think. But they didn't so I came out of it ok. I do wonder though if the gains from this war will provoke Poland-Lithuania. If it does......
Kazan and Tambow are added to the Khanate
