Islamic Spain - IN Granada AAR

[Monnikje]

Islamic Spain​

An In Nomine Granada AAR​

The Granadan banner from 1238-1500

The Spanish flag from 1500-1571

The Spanish flag from 1571-​

Introduction
Welcome to this In Nomine after action report, where I formed Spain, starting with Granada. The initial goal I had in mind when starting this game was to form an Islamic Spain, colonize the New World and convert it to the Islam.
I started this AAR with an enormous stroke of luck: Castille invaded, but I won the war. From then on, it is one giant success story. In the later chapters I introduce a new kind of very beautifull maps, and also went into a more narrative form. You might want to check out the Appendices: each one has a theme, and will be irregularly updated.
This AAR is a work in progress: I'm still playing it, so you might want to check back later to see if I have posted more.

Award
From 20 august 2008 till the next week, this AAR is the Weekly AAR Showcase!

Objectives
The objectives are very simple to formulate, but less simple to accomplish. If I get new objectives during the game, I'll add them here.

Objectives:
1) Westernise [Completed on 1 december 1420]
2) Conquer the Netherlands [Completed on 18 januari 1459]
3) Form Islamic Spain [Completed on 2 october 1500]
4) Destroy the Holy Roman Empire [Completed on 3 februari 1525]
5) Convert all of the Iberian peninsula to the Islam [Completed on 29 august 1557]
6) Convert Rome to the Islam [Completed on 2 july 1605]
7) Colonize the American coastline [Completed on 29 januari 1630]
8) Conquer Italy
9) See if the US will be an Islamic nation.

About the game
While playing as Granada, I use the default settings, except for the lucky nations: those are set to random.
Starting as Granada is quite difficult: you are immediately under attack by Castille. I tried it several times, and everytime I was screwed. Only one time I managed to survive the coming onslaught, and turned it into a stunning victory. This one war is the base of this entire AAR, it allowed Granada to survive and make its time.

Mods
- In the folder common/countries I modded the file spain.txt: I replaced the monarch_names, leader_names and ship_names by the ones from Granada.txt. This way I won't get suddenly Spanish-sounding names for my rules, ships and leaders, but nice Arabic-sounding names.
- In the folder decisions I modded spain.txt: at religion_decisions I anabled sunni as a valid relgion to establish the Spanish inquisition. You now have to be sunni ór catholic to establish it. And of course have the innovative/narrowminded slider at +3.
- It would be really strange if I would get as Islamic Spain a mission to convert the entire Iberian peninsula to catholicism or something... So I replaced 'christian' by muslim and 'catholic' by sunni in the Spanish missions.
- From 1571 I changed the colour from Spain into red, and changed the flag into the Islamic Communist Spanish flag. These were cosmetic changes only, to fit the story.

Table of contents

Prologue

Part 1: Muhammad VII the Saviour (1392-1417)

Chapter 1: 1st Castillian-Granadian war (1399-1403)
Chapter 2: 1st Moroccan-Algerian war (1403-1405)
Chapter 3: Assault on Castille (1405-1413)
Chapter 4: His final days (1413-1417)​

Part 2: Muhammad VIII the Great (1417-1455)

Chapter 5: Invading Aragon (1417-1422)
Chapter 6: 2nd Algerian-Moroccan war (1422-1428)
Chapter 7: 2nd Granadian-Aragon war (1428-1432)
Chapter 8: Granada - Total war (1432-1443)
Chapter 9: Conquest of Iberia (1443-1450)
Chapter 10: His last war (1450-1456)​

Part 3: Sa'd I the Warrior (1455-1506)

Chapter 11: The fate of western Europe (1456-1468)
Chapter 12: The aftermath (1468-1491)
Chapter 13: Invade England (1491-1500)

Part 1 - War with the Austrians (1491-1495)
Part 2 - Getting Guyenne (1495-1497)
Part 3 - Battle of Britain (1497-1500)​

Chapter 14: A roadtrip through Spain (1500-1511)

Part 1 - Riding and fighting (1500-1505)
Part 2 - Fighting and dying (1505-1506)​

Part 4: Muhammad IX the Wise (1506-1558)

Chapter 14: A roadtrip through Spain (1500-1511)

Part 3 - The battle of Saintonge (1506-1507)
Part 4 - Studying and ruling (1507-1511)​

Chapter 15: The Quest for the Holy Belly (1511-1521)
Chapter 16: Destroy the Holy Roman Empire (1521-1525)

Part 1 - The Frankish opening act (1521)
Part 2 - The fall of Great Britain (1521-1523)
Part 3 - The Scandinavian closing scene (1523-1525)​

Chapter 17: A moment of peace (1525-1557)
Chapter 18: Gremlins and Huron (1557-1558)​

Part 5: Yûsuf III the Mad Communist (1558-1595)

Chapter 19: Conquest of Paradise (1558-1571)
Chapter 20: The division bell (1571-1595)​

Part 6: Isma'l III (1595-1630)

Chapter 21: Conquer Rome (1595-1605)
Chapter 22: Absolute power (1605-1610)
Chapter 23: The beast within (1610-1630)

Part 1 - Meet the inspector (1610-1615)
Part 2 - Chase through Europe (1615-1620)
Part 3 - Watch the warning (1620-1625)
Part 4 - Fall of the free nations (1625-1630)​

Chapter 24: A deadly conflict (1630-1631)​

Appendix

Appendix A: The names of colonies
Appendix B: An animation of the world
Appendix C: Explorations
Appendix D: Military tactics​

 

[Monnikje]

Prologue​

Tariq ibn Ziyad, the muslim conquerer of the Iberian Peninsula (Wikipedia).​

It has been almost seven hundred years since the great Tariq ibn Ziyad invaded the Iberian Peninsula and lay the fundation of the Muslim foothold in western Europe. He came with 7,000 men and defeated the Visigoth king Roderick. The Muslim expansion was halted by the Pyrenees.
Hundreds of years passed by. The Caliphate of Córdoba rose in 756, and fell in 1031, leaving a lot of taifa's, independant Muslim-ruled principalities. This fracture didn't last long: the Almoravid dynasty rose from the Sahara and conquered Morocco and the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula during the 11th and 12th century. But nothing lasts forever.
The Almoravid Empire was disestablished in 1147, and followed by the Almohad Empire. It was almost three times as small as it predesessor, and had a lot of trouble from the christians, who invaded from the north. They were pushed farher and farther south, untill the empire was disestablished. It's successor was the Kingdom of Granada, founded in 1238.

Standard frm the kingdom of Granada (Wikipedia).​

The catholics pushed further and further south, and could have had easily finished the diminished Granada off for quite some time. The only reason they didn't, was the profitable trade routes with Islamic Africa that went through the kingdom. But now things have changed. War is looming, the catholic countries won't tolerate the islamic 'abomination' on 'their' peninsula. What can we do, what can we do?

Let me introduce myself. I'm sultan Muhammad VII, crowned sultan in 1392 after my father, Yusuf II, died after his short, one-year rule. In the seven years of my reign, I saw that the inner strive, which had terrorized my country for quite a few years, had limited the trade, and thus brought the attention of my large northern neightbours: Portugal, Castille and Aragon.
For seven long years I had tried everything I could to restore order, and bring back the peacefull coexistence that endured for the last hundred years. But things are going more badly every day, and I think an invasion from Castille is inevitable. The times for talk are over, and if we want to remain in Western Europe, we need to do something. And do it quickly.
My advisors all said that it wouldn't be this bad, that if we keep a low profile, the emotions will cool down and everything will get back to normal for another hundred years. But I'm not confinced. My spies from the Castillian court reported that there are troopmovements. They were unclear about the whereabouts of those catholic armies, but I think they will head south. I know it. I must prepare for it, prepare myself to defend my country against those christian invaders.
I need to work on my relations with my southern neightbours, Morocco and Algeria. I hope they can help me, will help me. Because the faith of their muslim brothers is at stake.

 

[GermanWehrmacht]

This really sounds like its going to be a great AAR and a huge challenge. Wish you the best of luck.

 

[Marco Oliverio]

Cool, cool, cool! I can't wait to read all about the recovery of Al-Andalus from the Catholic heretics! And then an lovely Islamic colonization effort. Good luck with this!

 

[comagoosie]

I can only say good luck

 

[spl]

I can't wait to see how you beat Castille!

 

[Terrifying Effigies]

Quite a challenge, but should be fun. Good luck!

 

[unmerged(61606)]

Why "Islamitic" instead of "Islamic?"

Good luck though, I like what you have so far.

 

[unmerged(76167)]

It's the Re-Reconquista!

This should be a lot of fun to watch. Good luck!

 

[Monnikje]

Part 1: Muhammad VII the Saviour (1392-1417)​

Chapter 1: 1st Castillian-Granadian war (1399-1403)​

The situation in Europe, 14 october 1399.​

The past few days were very exciting. Messengers were running to my court: Castille was gathering forces, and would soon march towards my beloved Granada. I had to do something quick, something soon. With only 1,000 infantary at my command, I knew I had to hire mercenaries very fast. I send word to the land that all abled men were needed to defend their country, and that a royal reward would await them.

The start situation: 1,000 muslim archers are waiting at the border, while 2,000 charge cavalery is beeing processed.​

I was lucky that, in the eve of battle, Dawud Ibn Marwan came to the rescue. Thanks to his skills, he was able to reduce the recruiting costs of those mercenaries I would need in the upcoming war.

Dawud Ibn Marwan has been hired. You can also see that Muhammed VII isn't the best ruler imaginable, but that he is prepared for a war.​

I was delighted when ambassadors from both Marocco ánd Algeria came with the offer of an alliance. This was to good to be true: Two allies in the coming war. It was just in the nick of time, since on 19 october 1399, Castille declared war. My mercenaries weren't fully routed, but on the other hand, their troops would take a few days to enter my domain. My men all went to Gibraltar, but I quickly realized that they weren;t save their. The enormous Castillian army would trap them over there. At least 10,000 men would invade. I was lucky to get the 2,000 mercenaries in time.
I took the command over, and guided the army towards Toledo, the Castillian capital. They were positioning their armies so they could attack my beloved Granada: I would do just the same with them. Let hem feel how it is. Meanwhile I would train more men in Almería, as long as it was save over there.

Castille invades Granada, while my troops sneaked away to siege their capital.​

It took half an year, but finally, on july 28th 1400, Toledo fell. and what was more important: Granada didn't fell. I commanded my armies to a victory, behind the back of that great Castillian army. They maintained the siege, although. But I smelled victory, so I hired more men, and spread them over the country.

Toledo has fallen, and Granada hasn't!​

After the victory in Toledo, I went from province to province. It took some sweet time, but during this, Granada didn't fall. It was truly a miracle. The gates were wide open, the entire city was in flames, but still the enormous Castillian army wasn't able to overtake my brave citizens. They resisted during the entire war. Of course, I give myself credit for my military tactics, but I must confess that if this miracle hadn't happened, the war would have gone quite as well as it did.

Granada under siege. The miracle was that the city didn't fell, while it was for almost three years in flames.​

Of course, the Castillians trained more men, but my army grew, and I could easily overtake those single batallions. Their main army was of a whole different scale: they would wipe me from the face of the earth, in an instant. But all they did, was besieging Granada, without succes. I moved from province to province, and managed to occupy almost entire Castille. They managed to rout quite some army in Galicia, but it was in vain: They were no match anymore for my grown army. So while I was laying siege on Asturias, I forced them to the negotiation table.

Granada has a strong negotiation position, while Castille is still laying siege on Granada.​

The ambassadors from Castille were visible shaking, fearfull for what I would do to them. They had just saw their 'invincible' campaign against the muslims be put to a stop, no, to be turned into a defeat. I looked them deep in the eyes, and made a heavy demand:

Cede Vizcaya, Cadiz, Córdoba, La Mancha and Murcia. Also, get rid of that core you have on Almería, and pay me 25 ducats, because you started the war.'

They reluctantly accepted these heavy demands. With one stroke of the pen, Granada had more then doubled its terrain. On 2 october 1403 the peace had been restored, and Granada had become a power to be reconned with.
I only did wonder where my allies had been. The entire war, I fought on my own. It was later that I learned that they weren't able to cross to Gibraltar, and that their cogs were beeing sunken by the Castillian navy. A navy... Something to keep in mind.

Granada has expanded, and came victorious out of this war.​

*********************************************************************
Some sidenotes:
It was really a wonder that Granada didn't fall. That really saved my ass during this first war. I was surprised to learn that units weren't ably to move between Africa and Europe anymore at Gibraltar. That's why Marocco and Algeria couldn't come to aid, and I was really at my own.
O, and sorry, it's indeed 'Islamic' and not 'Islamitic'. My bad! In Dutch it's 'Islamitisch Spanje', which I faulty translated into 'Islamitic Spain' instead of 'Islamic Spain'. Oops. I will try to correct it .

 

[Tjena Med Laxen]

That's one hell of a lucky stroke, now good luck on bringing islam to the western world!

 

[spl]

Darn AI...
If you pm coz1 he will change the thread title for you.

 

[Warpimp]

Great start! I'm sure to be watching this one.

 

[Sweboy]

DEATH TO EL CID!

This should be fun.

 

[Cyrus_The_Great]

Damn that is lucky, but this AAR is an awesome idea and that first war really worked out well. Keep up the good work!

And don't feel bad about the translation, when I tried a dutch AAR my Dutch phrases, which didn't even make up much of the AAR, apparently made no sense

 

[Tycho]

Good luck ! It's nice to see successfull Granada. Reverse the Reconquista !

Why have you taken Vizcacaya in a peace deal? Not only it has no land connection to your land, but Basque culture as well.

 

[Monnikje]

Chapter 2: 1st Moroccan-Algerian war (1403-1405)​

The situation in Europe, 2 october 1403.​

After the war had ended, I asked both the Moroccan and Algerian ambassadors where their help had been. I was furious: They had promised me to help me, and had I seen them even near my coast? No. The ambassadors, who had turned pale by hearing from my astonishing victory, started quabling among eachother. They said that the other had caused the delay, that their lack of support was not tair fault, but of their rival. It was getting out of hand, so I threw them out of my palace, with the message that they should return when they would say sensible things. I guess that was a mistake, since nine days later they both returned: Morocco had declared war on Algeria, and they both asked for help. I wondered and pondered: who should I help? Should I support the Maroccan invasion, or should I come to aid the Algerians to break off the attack? After a few hours of counsil with my advisors, I decided that I should come to the aid of the Algerians. Our relation was better, and if I would come to their help, I would get no stability hit, while my country would fall into anarchy if I would help the Moroccans. So I told the ambassadors, and sended them back to their countries. I was really glad that I had passed the Recruiting Act during the previous war: I could faster recruit more men. The only problem was to get them to the African border with only two cogs available. I had to transport them two by two, with the risk of beeing overwhelmed in the progress. But I had to take the change: The Moroccan army was much larger than those Algerians had recruited. Also, Algiers was allied with Tripoli, who would aid in the war. Although we would not hear from them for at least half a year.

The war between Morocco and Algiers started this way: Everyones men were far from the battlefield.​

Before the battle could begin, we had to move our troops. Since my army was still in the northern region of the Iberian Peninsula, I had to move them first south before I could invade Marocco. Would I be in time?

Invasion! My first troops landed in Cauta, the rest would follow. In the meantime, Morocco attacked the Algerian province Tlemcen.​

It took my men three months to walk across the Iberian Peninsula. And then I had transport them two by two to the African shore. I was building more ships, but before they were finished, most of my men would be on the other side anyway.
I was lucky that my troops encountered no resistance: the Algerian kept those Moroccans very busy. 'Hm...' I thought. 'I could use the same strategie as I had used against the Castillians.' So while the Algerians kept the Moroccans busy, my troops spread out in order to occupy as much of Morocco, as fast as possible.

I established the Ibadat Khana, to reduce the revolt risk in the conquered provinces.​

While my troops spread out over the Moroccan provinces, an advisor told my that some of the local philosophers wanted an Ibadat Khana, a house of worship. If I would build that for them, they would in exchange talk so much quable things to people, that they would be too confused to think about revolution. I couldn't follow this philosophical insight, but the prospect of less revolution risk appealed to me, so I builded the place for them.

The situation when Portugal declared war on Morocco.​

It was the beginning of April 1404. My men were spreading along the westcoast of Morocco. Cauta would fall, Tangiers was under attack and more men were transported to the site. Tripoli hadn't showed up yet, although I got word that men were beeing transported and were on their way. We were fightinh the Moroccans bravely, when it happened: Portugal, and its allies Castille and England, declared war on Morocco. I was surprised. Why would they want to invade Morocco? Wouldn't this be a perfect moment to attack me in the flank, instead of bringing their men to the place where my men were? I wondered for a while, but soon it came to me: Portugal wanted to conquer Tangiers. It was their mission statement. But I didn't want to let Portugal have huge pieces of Morocco. If those three catholic countries would get a foothold in Africa, they could attack me from the south. No way that I would allow that. So I sended my men to every province of Morocco, to best them from beeing their first: once the province would be conquered, it would bestow to the one who was there first.

I won the race to almost all provinces.​

It was quite strange to fight alongside the Castillian soldiers, who I had fought against just a few years before. But war is a strange time anyhow. I bested the catholic forces at almost every province: I only couldn't get to Safi in time, and Atlas was under attack by Algiers. For the rest I was first at every place, and I conquered the provinces one by one. Cauta, Tangiers... They all fell.

The catholic forces make peace without gaining anything, while I occupy almost entire Morocco.​

Those meddling catholics were gone before they were even well on their way. They helped me to occupy provinces on several occasions, but made peace as soon as they captured Safi. They even didn't conquer it: They just pulled back. I couldn't grasp their grand scheme, but well, they are barbarians anyway. In the meantime I had almost occupied entire Marocco. The distraction the Algerian forces had given the Maroccan ones, proved to be very usefull: the Moroccan forces were unable to do anything about the occupation of their land.

Jizya, to let those catholics pay for their occupation of the peninsula.​

In the meantime, I needed to finance the war. Who could better finance the army than those rich catholics that were in the conquered provinces? Ironically, they would finance the war that would ultimately drive them from the peninsula. I liked that, and issued the Jizya, to get more tax. And to get the unrest under controll, I sended those darn philosyphers at them. I never saw so much people running in confused circles as at the day I released the philosphers.
Finally, at 15 november 1405, I forced the Moroccans to sign a peace treaty. I had my demands ready:

Cede Mellila, Cauta, Fez, Toubkhal, Safi and Ifni. Also, pay me 75 ducats.

I didn't want Tangiers: I wasn't yet ready for a war with Portugal, which would certainly erupt when I would gain this province. Granada has really grown the past six years. And that while I thought at the turn of the century that everything looked grim. I now think that Granada will see a golden future. The Nasrid dynasty will rebuild the great empire of former times.

More expansion. I really should watch my BB-score.​

*********************************************************************
Some sidenotes:
Thank you all for your enthousiasm! I'm curious too how this will go. The reverse Reconquista will succeed.
Well, I have actually no good reason for taking Vizcacaya. I was toying with combo's, and I was looking at the maximum number at provinces I could get without having to border Portugal. But then I pushed ok, and the message had been send. Well, it's an extra motivation to make that connection . But indeed, it is a strange choice.
I sended a message to Lord Durham, just before spl posted that I should send a message to coz1. So I messaged coz1 too, and said to him that I had also messaged Lord Durham. I think the topic title will be fine now .

 

[spl]

Heh, you can message any of the moderators listed at the bottom of the forum for a thread name change, but you probably shouldn't ask MrT since I think he is gone now. Good work in Morocco! I can't remember exact requirements for the Barbary pirates defeated modifier, but I know you have the province requirement. Did you get it?

 

[Cyrus_The_Great]

Nice job there, I can't wait to see the next update.

 

[Terrifying Effigies]

Two nice victories under your belt, now you just need to take back Al-Andalus and the rich trade center there. Personally I wouldn't go after so much territory in North Africa, since most of it is very poor, but the region around Ceuta should be worth it. Maybe once you take all of Morocco you can release them as a vassal.