Help With Abbasids, 769 start as Byzantium

[olivemanwastaken]

Right so, im about 40 years into my playthrough as Byzantium in hopes to form the Roman Empire. Ive gobbled up all of Greece and the southern Balkans so Bulgaria isnt an issue for me but now ive decided to deal with Lombardy later and focus on Arabia.

The Abbasids are going through a civil war and the Empress of Abbasid has only 5k troops compared to my 15k troops (including vassals) and i have SO MUCH money flooding in so i can hire Mercenaries freely. All my Council members are okay with me holy warring the Abbasids but ive heard that decadence can make rulers get lots of troops easily and im worried alot of the islamic world will back the Empress.

So my question really is: Am i able to invade without losing and having lots of Sunni Kingdoms joining?

 

[jhhowell]

I would say that the Holy War CB is a risky choice. Byzantium might be able to pull it off, but I remember having to be really careful how I used it in my Zoroastrian Persia game. No clue what the 769 map looks like in terms of Sunni/Shia splits, which was sometimes useful for me in the 867 start. Other nearby Sunni realms absolutely will join in, so it really depends on what the map looks like.

Abbasids having a civil war and apparently having nonzero decadence sounds fantastic! I can see two obvious (and not mutually exclusive) paths to exploit it. If you can, the usual claim war shenanigans would be good here. And regardless of what type of war you declare (even some piddly de jure war for a county), you can try to smash the Abbasid armies with an eye to them losing their civil war(s). Preferably to a decadence invasion.

 

[jonjowett]

Yes, holy war is risky. The best tactic is to strike hard and fast, and try to get to 100% asap. (Make sure to fight at least one large battle, so you can get 100% instead of only 99%.) Mercs are ideal for this kind of blitzkrieg tactic, because you can get them into position long beforehand and you don't care if they die.

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When a state is embroiled in a civil war, it's usually worthwhile to attack the rebel side - they are distracted, don't have powerful allies, aren't part of defensive pacts (if you have those turned on), and I believe that co-religionist AI won't join their defensive holy wars (but I'm not certain about that).

Bonus points if you attack the rebels and the incumbents at the same time and gain 2 duchies for only 1 military deployment.

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Re decadence revolts: If the decadence revolt wins then the new ruler will keep all of his special event troops, and these can be a pain to deal with. However, if the decadence revolt succeeds then your holy war against the Abbasid Caliph will be invalidated, so you don't need to consider the decadence revolt when declaring war on the Abbasid Caliph. (Except to make sure that you win your war before the decadence revolt succeeds.)

 

[olivemanwastaken]

Alright thanks guys, ill definitely use those tips for my advantage.

As of writing this, the abbasids lost but then re-took there land and they now have 20k troops.
I dont know if i should do a great conquest because that could potentially turn out to be terrible for me and because my character is 55 yrs old and the heir is 58 OR if i should do a holy war because other Sunni countries may join.
(Just to put it into retrospect, the sunni world encompasses the southern Mediterranean sea and Most of Iberia all the way east to persia if that helps)
I want to genuinely start sorting out the Abbasids because my border with them in the middle east is growing larger and im worried theyll start threatening me.

ALSO, another question, ive been inviting skilled warriors to my court so they can become commanders but it seems as if i can only make the Byzantine nobles commanders and most nobles are crap when it comes to fighting. This has become especially frustrating because i recently sent a eunuch to china and in return i got 3 siege engineers and yet i cant make them commanders, it only comes up with Byzantine nobles.
is this only a Byzantine feature where only nobles can be commanders or am i missing something here?
Please Help lol.

 

[Whizzer]

ALSO, another question, ive been inviting skilled warriors to my court so they can become commanders but it seems as if i can only make the Byzantine nobles commanders and most nobles are crap when it comes to fighting. This has become especially frustrating because i recently sent a eunuch to china and in return i got 3 siege engineers and yet i cant make them commanders, it only comes up with Byzantine nobles.
is this only a Byzantine feature where only nobles can be commanders or am i missing something here?
Please Help lol.

Yes, this is a feature of the Byzantine empire. You can appoint courtiers as commanders if there are no applicable vassals who could become commander.

 

[olivemanwastaken]

Ah right got it, so will i be able to apply my siege engieers at all or will they just be in my court doing nothing since there are alot of applicable nobles?

 

[Whizzer]

Ah right got it, so will i be able to apply my siege engieers at all or will they just be in my court doing nothing since there are alot of applicable nobles?

To ask the question is to answer it, I'm afraid.

 

[jonjowett]

Ah right got it, so will i be able to apply my siege engieers at all or will they just be in my court doing nothing since there are alot of applicable nobles?

Try giving them a barony in one of your demesne counties?

 

[olivemanwastaken]

Alrighty

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

Ah right got it, so will i be able to apply my siege engieers at all or will they just be in my court doing nothing since there are alot of applicable nobles?

Only option is to land them with a county.
Just mention it, as you only said "Byzantine nobles".

 

[olivemanwastaken]

I have another question, I’ve decided to use a great conquest casus belli on the Abbasids for Egypt and i dont know how to go with this war.
So far its a stalemate because we havent done anything yet and the Abbasids seem to fighting a war in India so they are more focused there it seems.
When i get my ships ready for Egypt, a force of Abbasid men show up on our mainland border so now i have to go sort them out and then when they lose and retreat, i send my men back to my ships for Egpyt and then the Abbasids send another force to border and then this back and forth thing repeats.

I cant really blitzkrieg the enemy because there isnt a big enough force to fight so that i can get a big outcome and if im busy in Egypt, they might send a huge ass force to our mainland border.

So any advice on how to go with this war?

 

[jonjowett]

I have another question, I’ve decided to use a great conquest casus belli on the Abbasids for Egypt and i dont know how to go with this war.
So far its a stalemate because we havent done anything yet and the Abbasids seem to fighting a war in India so they are more focused there it seems.
When i get my ships ready for Egypt, a force of Abbasid men show up on our mainland border so now i have to go sort them out and then when they lose and retreat, i send my men back to my ships for Egpyt and then the Abbasids send another force to border and then this back and forth thing repeats.

I cant really blitzkrieg the enemy because there isnt a big enough force to fight so that i can get a big outcome and if im busy in Egypt, they might send a huge ass force to our mainland border.

So any advice on how to go with this war?

Unless they're sieging your personal demesne, let them siege. Who cares if your vassals' lands are a little bit wrecked?!

While they're sieging your vassals, siege down a LOT of land in the war target (ie. de jure Egypt). If you have multiple siege armies (each one slightly smaller than the supply limit), and each of those has a siege engineer, and you assault holdings with very low fort level (eg. cities), then you should gain warscore MUCH faster than they do.

If they head for your capital or demesne, it may be worth sending some ships back to sort them out. (Or you can rely on the Theodosian Walls to slow down their siege progress so much that you win the war before they finish the siege.) It's also possible that, once you start occupying the war target, the enemy will refocus on sieging either the occupied war target or your capital (or both).

If possible, I usually recommend to NOT raise your personal demesne levies in a war. If you absolutely must raise some, first prioritise keeping your capital levies at home, and then prioritise keeping levies from your capital duchy at home. (Capital county gets +100% size, capital duchy gets +50% size.) Reasons: (1) If levies are inside the walls, sieges take a lot longer and require a lot more enemy troops. (2) If you have kept some levies in reserve at home then you might not need to send your field armies back home to deal with enemy armies besieging your capital - you can raise them, sort the problem, then disband them. (3) Finally, if you can avoid depleting your personal levies then your vassals will be scared of your power and less likely to rebel; keeping them at home means you don't lose them to siege assaults / battles / etc.

 

[olivemanwastaken]

Thank you so much, i used your advice and i won!
funnily enough, the abbasids werent doing much to stop me. I started sieging Egypt and they didnt do much until later