Georgia On My Mind

[Fiftypence]

Georgia and her environs, 1066.​

As should be obvious, this will be a Georgia AAR. It will be played with Mappa Regnorum 1.5 plus DVIP, and will largely feature gameplay with lots of screenshots. To make things a bit more...interesting, it will be played on Very Hard/Weakling, which means that the base prestige cost to claim a province is 600. I will also be playing with a special house rule that means that I must conquer all heathen provinces outright-I cannot force vassalise any heathens ever. This means I will have to pay careful attention to my BB, and not expand too rapidly no matter how tempting it might be. Christians are fair game, though, seeing as the prestige cost for their provinces is so high.

This might be a fairly short AAR, depending on whether the Seljuks decide I will make a nice meal too early. First update coming right now!

 

[Fiftypence]

Georgia On My Mind​

Bagrat IV Bagratuni​

I start by marrying off my daughter Mariam to Gabriel Sefareli, one of my more talented courtiers, which nets a nice dowry! I spend the money, like the wild thing I am, on some forestries.

Talking of my court, here they are. Super-genius diplomat Natia is much appreciated as chancellor, while my son Giorgi is martial. Hopefully someone better will appear soon, as Giorgi is more of an administrator than a warrior if truth be told. Luckily my king Bagrat is a very talented military man, so no worries on the military front.

Research-wise, I initially go for the classic set up. The need for better siege engines is self-explanatory, while mining gives the tile factory and the mine, both valuable improvements, while schools gives the library, nice for boosting gold and prestige.

On 15th February 1067, I decide to invade the small muslim state to my east. It is occupying Georgian lands including the city of Tblisi, so they must be destroyed. Of course, they will be conquered outright. Given my overwhelming numbers, victory is absolutely assured.

Oh.

Well, Giorgi's army is on the way, so hopefully he will finish them off.

Piece of cake.

Ah.

It's another couple of months before the resilient sheikh is defeated, and in mid-June 1067 we (finally) settled down for a siege.

And they are conquered, thankfully without anyone else declaring war on us in the mean time. After that debacle, I'm surprised we weren't dogpiled.

As a ‘reward’ for his efforts, son Giorgi is given the province of Djiketi and is replaced as marshal by cousin David, who appeared in my court a few months back. He has martial stat of 11, and is much better suited for the role.

The count of Kakheti wants to be part of the Georgian family. Obviously he must be terrified of our well-oiled military machine. Either that or he's a bit dim. Still, more land = good!

Slightly more surprising, the Prince of Trebizond also joins Georgia, having broken away peacefully from the Byzantine Empire not long before. Oh, and talking of the Byzantines...

It has begun.​

 

[Stuyvesant]

A pleasure to see a new AAR from you, so soon after finishing the last one. Besides your house rules, do you have any goals in mind (apart from the obvious - surviving the Seljuks)?

From your last comment, I take it that the Byzantines and the Seljuks are a-tusslin'?

 

[Enewald]

Wait for Seljuks to siege Constantinople, then march to Baghdad.

 

[Fiftypence]

A pleasure to see a new AAR from you, so soon after finishing the last one. Besides your house rules, do you have any goals in mind (apart from the obvious - surviving the Seljuks)?

From your last comment, I take it that the Byzantines and the Seljuks are a-tusslin'?

Yeah, the Seljuks are advancing. The main goal is to build up a strong enough kingdom to survive the Mongols, if I get that far.

Wait for Seljuks to siege Constantinople, then march to Baghdad.

That would be...audacious. I tried something similar in a previous game where I marched on Shiraz, but it didn't quite work out...

 

[Fiftypence]

Georgia On My Mind​

Bagrat IV Bagratuni​

So the Seljuks and the Byzantines are having a big old fight, which means that soon most of the purple to my west will no doubt be replaced by yellow. On the other hand, it does hopefully mean the Seljuks will be too busy to pay little old Georgia any attention.

I give Giorgi the title of Abkhazia, because Bagrat is, at heart, a shameless nepotist. I also begin preparing for a war against the Adyghe (that green splodge to our north), and begin moving troops in their general direction.

The unappreciative little runt! Oh well, I just recruit his regiment directly and laugh in his face.

In mid June 1069, Cyprus offers me an alliance. I take it because Cyprus is cool, but don't really expect to be of any use.

Here are the raw numbers for the upcoming war. As you can see, we outnumber them nearly 3-1, which means we have a 25% chance of victory!

...

Hopefully with David as marshal, we won't have a repeat of the Tiflis war. Of course, Adyghe are filthy pagans rather than sneaky muslims, so numerical superiority should be enough to win the day.

With that in mind, I only mobilised about half of my total army, mostly to dissuade any would be invaders. Committing my entire force would prove fatal if, say, Derbent decided now would be a good time to take a Georgian holiday.

Uh oh, there's trouble in paradise. Though I don't know how this works when Bagrat is on the other side of the Caucasus mountains to his wife, but still.

26th August, battle is commenced.

My son-in-law and all round super-courtier Gabriel Sefareli excels on the battlefield...

...and we win! First time and everything! Bagrat Boogie!

The siege finishes in early 1070, and of course total conquest is all that will be tolerated.

Cool.

But despite our victory, Georgia's position is nowhere near assured. The Seljuks are tearing a swathe through Byzantine Anatolia, and a couple of times I've seen Seljuk regiments wandering past that outnumber the entire Georgian army...let's hope the Byzantines can keep them occupied for a little while longer.​

 

[Enewald]

Waiting for a claim to the Alan throne`?

 

[Stuyvesant]

Good progress so far. It's a bit of a shame that success or failure is going to be dependent on the Seljuks for a while, but if you take Georgia's advances on their own terms, you've done quite well in just a short few years.

 

[iain_a_wilson]

Good progress and an entertaining AAR. I've got a rather sodt spot for Georgia and their cool dragon-whuppin' flag so onwards to glory I say!

 

[unmerged(129932)]

It is not often you see Georgia in one piece - even though the game is still young, they always get torn apart early. Hopefully you can carefully manuver them through the Seljuk menace.

 

[Fiftypence]

Waiting for a claim to the Alan throne`?

Maybe, if the opportunity arises, but the Alans aren't really a priority. The main goal is to prevent land falling into Muslim hands, which means the petty states to my south are my main target for now. It might be best to wait until the Alan province converts to orthodoxy before taking it to save me some hassle.

Good progress so far. It's a bit of a shame that success or failure is going to be dependent on the Seljuks for a while, but if you take Georgia's advances on their own terms, you've done quite well in just a short few years.

Georgia's position is precarious, but then, historically, it always was.

Good progress and an entertaining AAR. I've got a rather sodt spot for Georgia and their cool dragon-whuppin' flag so onwards to glory I say!

Yeah, I've always liked Georgia. I usually play counts or dukes, but Georgia is the one kingdom I keep coming back to because of its interesting position (and cool shield!)

It is not often you see Georgia in one piece - even though the game is still young, they always get torn apart early. Hopefully you can carefully manuver them through the Seljuk menace.

Georgia tends to die quickly and hard without intervention, so yeah. I just need the Seljuks to remain distracted while I consolidate my grip on the smaller states around me...

 

[Fiftypence]

Georgia On My Mind​

Bagrat IV Bagratuni​

Last time we saw Georgia conquer the lucrative Adyghe lands, but we also saw the southern border with Byzantium disappear, until mid 1070 when it completely disappeared...

The Seljuks' are unrelenting in their Anatolian conquest.

In September 1070, my Grandson dies. It's not going to be a good few years for Gabriel Sefareli.

The pagan Adyghe start making trouble in November, and given the 75% chance of conversion I crush them.

Ah, it's always satisfying to see a province flip colour. The province is of course looted, but there's no revolt, which is a bonus. This is my richest province, so hopefully it will recover soon.

Which it does, in only two months. Good times! In the meantime I create the titles Prince of Kartli and Imereti, which gives me enough prestige to look south to the 'kingdom' of Lori, ruled by one of my Armenian Bagratuni cousins.

Ouch, that's a lotta prestige! But it's a twofer, as I fully intend to vassalise Lori. War is declared on the 2nd April 1071.

The Georgian army advances! Lori can barely cobble together even 1000 troops, so victory is overwhelming. There's two provinces to siege, so it will be a while before the war is concluded.

During one of the battles against the ragtag remnants of the Lori army, Marshal David is captured! He's a pretty good marshal but not irreplacable, so I don't pay the ransom. Luckily he escapes, so I keep my marshal and my money. Cool.

Hmm, usually being at war lowers stability. Obviously invading small weak neighbours is good for the realm, so I will continue this policy in future!

Mariam is Bagrat's daughter and Gabriel's wife, so a great tragedy. She wasn't one of my officers but had good stats and served as a useful back up courtier, so she is a loss.

Back to the war, it isn't until February 1072 that both Lori and Ganja are occupied. The king of Lori, being a Christian and a Bagratuni, is made a vassal.

And so here we have a heavily Photoshopped map that's shows Georgia and her neighbourhood in 1072. An uneasy peace remains with the Seljuks, who are still chomping on Anatolia, but surely it's only a matter of time until war breaks out? We shall have to wait and see.​

 

[Stuyvesant]

The piss-yellow menace is, well, rather menacing... Maybe they'll keep heading further into Byzantium, across the Bosphorus and into the Balkans - and then on to Central Europe. I guess that, in the long run, a Seljuk Empire stretching from Persia to Vorpommern won't be a good thing, but in the short run maybe they'll be distracted by fighting the Europeans instead of bothering with your mountainous hideout?

 

[unmerged(129932)]

I have heard that assassinating several Turkish rulers in rapid succession usually causes them to engulf in civil war. However, I imagine that costs a lot of money, and if you don't have a good spymaster, the Turks will swing right and get you too...

 

[Enewald]

Beware Suenik!
The devil lives there!

 

[Fiftypence]

The piss-yellow menace is, well, rather menacing... Maybe they'll keep heading further into Byzantium, across the Bosphorus and into the Balkans - and then on to Central Europe. I guess that, in the long run, a Seljuk Empire stretching from Persia to Vorpommern won't be a good thing, but in the short run maybe they'll be distracted by fighting the Europeans instead of bothering with your mountainous hideout?

Nah, they peace out with the Byzies pretty early on in the next update. It's not the Seljuks I need to worry about in the next few years, as the coming updates will show...

I have heard that assassinating several Turkish rulers in rapid succession usually causes them to engulf in civil war. However, I imagine that costs a lot of money, and if you don't have a good spymaster, the Turks will swing right and get you too...

I've tried that before (though it was with Damascus rather than the Seljuks), so that a 2 year old with terrible stats ended up on the throne. I could probably save up the cash fairly easily, but I need to protect my prestige and piety, as both are precious in the early game.

Beware Suenik!
The devil lives there!

Pssh, the Bagratunis are willing students of the Gardman-Aghbanias...a bit of diabolical ruthlessness can go a long way!

 

[Fiftypence]

Georgia On My Mind​

Bagrat IV Bagratuni​

So where were we? Oh yes, Lori had just been pacified. We are less successful at pacifying our own population, however...

Rats indeed. I mean look at them, just imagine how those guys smell...ew.

In foreign news, the Seljuk-Byzantine war ends with the Turks occupying Constantinople and making it their capital, leaving Anatolia looking very yellow. They turn their attention to the independent Principality of Samos.

Oh, what's this? The chiefdom of Yegorlyk has broken away from the Cumans, and is ripe for the picking! Well, no time to lose, to war! For the stability of the realm!

Er...crap. That wasn't part of the plan. Turns out Yegorlyk were allied to the chiefdom of Crimea, who are in turn part of the Cuman horde, led by some dude called Sharu-khan...

...who is a kinslayer. Hmm, would explain why Yegorlyk broke away in the first place. I have absolutely no desire to fight the Cumans right now, and so look south and employ a technique devised by our Gardman-Aghbania cousins; the Grigor Defence! I offer the Cumans my entire treasury of 55 gold.

Jolly good. Now I can get on with the business of fighting states much much weaker than me.

That's a damn good thrashing.

Ooh. It's a risk, but Bagrat leads the charge. Yegorlyk falls, and Bagrat is fine! Bagrat boogie!

Meanwhile, Sharu-khan is having more problems, as some of his vassals seem to object to the fact that he murders members of his own family. Sissies. One such vassal is Manych, who are invaded straight from the victory over Yegorlyk.

We win, we siege, we conquer. Not much point going into the details.

And here's Georgia in March 1074, after the conquests. We incurred a bit of BB, but we gained two pretty decent provinces so it's worth it. The only trouble now is Alania, sticking into our country and making our borders ugly. Still, not much I can do about them right now, so coming up is a prolonged period of peace and stability in which nothing happens.*

*This might be a lie.​

 

[iain_a_wilson]

Well, you've managed to prosper while the Seljuks were busy with the Greeks (who appear to be doing their usual trick of wildly imploding). Good shout Grigoring out against the Cumans - that's not a fight you want at this stage!

Entertaing update as always - looking forward to more!

 

[unmerged(246612)]

Pssh, the Bagratunis are willing students of the Gardman-Aghbanias...a bit of diabolical ruthlessness can go a long way!

They're also cousins. In fact, in a non-modded game Grigor and his kid have a place on the line of succession, though they're behind the son of the Shiek of Albania.

(From my own Georgia game, there's a fun trick you can usually do there regarding said son, but it has to be done early, and it doesn't always work.)

 

[Enewald]

Now it it too late to stop the Turk from getting all of Anatolia!
How did they cross Marmara?