Khan of Khans - Mongolian AAR

[jecjackal]

Khan of Khans
Ironman with no mods.


This is the Tale of Ghengis Khan and his dream to conquer all of Europe.




This is my first AAR. I'm going to record interesting events and hash out my plans for each Chapter.


Chapter 1: Invasion of Anushtiginid
[1220-1-1] - [1228-2-8]

Ghengis arrives with 50,000 of his finest troops. He splits his army into four groups:
1. The northern army is to secure the vaunted temple of Kyzylorda; one of the five holy sites for the Tengri faith.
2. The central army is to secure all holdings of the Hamadan and Esfahan duchies; Two of the most powerful and centralized duchies in this Kingdom. Ghengis plans on taking these for himself.
3. The western and southern armies are to chase down what ever forces the Muslims could rally against the horde. Afterwards the armies are to siege the capitals of each county; the source of their power. Ghengis knows it would take countless decades to properly siege every town and mosque in this Kingdom. He will be forced to rely on his vassals to properly convert everyone to the one true faith (Tengri).

War effort

Ghengis's new personal demense.

The war went off without a hitch. A few times a peasant revolt happened so I had to squash a 2-3k stack. Nothing I really couldn't handle. What was interesting is even though I didn't siege every holding, I got every holding in the peace treaty. Yet in my other start attempts when I merely took enough provinces for 100% WS, the existing title holders remained. I bet it has something to do with the fact that I'm a different religion than the current counts.


Ghengis assigned the richest county in each duchy to one of his sons or grandsons. He promoted them to high chieftain (duke) after giving away every county to a different coutier. Genghis knows to keep his realm stable he has to make sure everyone else is much weaker than himself.

Ghengis institutes Limited crown authority within the Mongolian Empire as well as High city taxes.


Interesting Events

In addition the Crusade for Andulsia succeeded and the Jihad for Jerusalem failed. I thought it was interesting seeing the Hansa pop so early.


Plans
Reforming the Tengri faith is of paramount importance. Ghengis controls 1 of the 5 holy sites. To the North, the Khanate of Cumania controls two more of the holy sites which would give Ghengis enough sites to reform the religion once enough moral authority has been restored to the Tengri faith.

It will be some time before Ghengis and his new lords can properly govern their new serfs. He must use his remaining horde wisely fore it will be some time before he could raise another army as vast. He must pick his targets well to secure his bloodline's future.




Thank you all for reading. I know this first chapter isn't too exciting. Since I'm forced to stay Ultimogeniture I'm sure succession will be 'exciting'. I'll add links to chapters below once I have a second chapter.

 

[jecjackal]

Chapter 2: Teutonic Order and Cumania

Invaded The Teutonic order who held a Emba a province of Turkistan of the Mongolian Empire. Also invaded a one province duchy as well. Neither had allies so they fell quickly.

Invaded Cumania. During which a Sunni rebellion and 3 Persian liberation movement erupted. Ghengis passed away as the war began so his youngest son, Tolui became Khan. Tolui hired the largest band of Turkish mercenaries he could find to quell the rebellions. Cumania also had a Sunni rebellion which depleted what little forces they had to stop the horde.

A second Persian liberation movement of 11,000 men rose up. By now, Tolui's demense has been solidified enough to raise 7 thousand of his own troops. With the help of some mercenaries he was able to crush the 2nd Persian liberation.

My Nephew killed his brother giving him enough counties to form the Khanate of Turkistan. He is the first of many Khans to come. Seeing how Ambitious my Nephew is, I raised 4,000 horse arches as a personal retinue to keep the Khan's peace.


During the 15 year war for Cumania, Tolui fell ill. His forces captured all but a small portion of the Kingdom so he stopped the war to claim what he won before he passes into the night. He now controls 4 of the 5 holy sites for the Tengri. When he recovers, he will make plans to take Georgia and the other kingdoms to the west.

 

[jecjackal]

Chapter 3: Prayer
1249AD - 1253

Khan Jolui had to end his war against the Cumania Khanate earlier than he would have liked. He fell ill and did not trust his generals to lead his troops in his stead. Tengri Shamans prayed at their lord's bed day and night for several months. Their prayers worked and Jolui was once again revitalized. Inpsired by their devotion, the Khan sought out to reform the Tengri religion. The shamans informed him that only by burning the infidel's temples to the ground could the populace be convinced that the Tengri were strong.

So the Khan set out with his 7000 loyal horse archers to burn every temple he could find.

The reformation.

Not the most exciting chapter but since my heir was 0 at the start, i was nailbiting

 

[mike the knight]

It is always interesting to see the barbarian's point of view Iam a bit concerned though about the succession at the near future with ambitious relatives all over the place

 

[JosunUrashima]

Burning temples is one way to do it...or you could be like me and just conquer your way to reformation. Granted, I ended up losing Hungary to a Crusade, but not before half of Hungary had converted... And then I paid them back in spades a good 30 years later with a Holy War for Hungary!

 

[jecjackal]

Chapter 4: Sultanate of Rum
[1253AD-1267AD]


Tolui invaded the kingdoms of Alania and Georgia to connect the two halves of his domain. He instituted Medium crown authority and to appease his chieftains, lowered the amount of forces each lord would have to provide. Tolui was tired of all of the in fighting within the empire and this seemed to be the only way to stop such nonsense.

Khan Tolui declares an invasion of the Sultanate of Rum. He rallies his 8,000 horse archer personal retinue and his most loyal vassal's levies and charges into battle. However a 4th Sunni rebellion in Persia broke out so The Khan had to dispatch 9,000 troops to quell the heathans. This left him with little over 15,000 troops to fight the Sultanate who had called in several holy orders. The two armies clashed and over the course of two weeks, the Khan's army was crushed. His surviving retinues and generals escaped back to the Capital at Saray to regroup. During the fighting the first Christian revolt broke out in the northern part of the empire.

The 9,000 troops the Khan dispatched to fight the Sunni rebels had failed. Things were looking grim for the 70 year old leader of the Mongols. The Khan hired some mercanaries and the Mongolian holy order to deal with both revolts. They succeeded where his vassal's levies had failed him. This bought the Khan time to regroup. He gather 30,000 soldiers to crush the Sultan of Rum once and for all.

A great holy war is called to take Hungry which has the last Tengri holy site. However with the Khan's forces still fighting the Sultanate of Rum, there is little hope of the Holy war succeeding. During the long war over Rum, 3 more serious revolts occur including a Host to retake the Kingdom of Persia. Khan Jolui never lives to see his ambition of taking Rum fulfilled and his youngest son, Yesungue becomes the Khan of Khans.

Thoughts

I was really surprised how long Khan Tolui survived. I really thought he would die while Yesungue was still a baby. Looks like I dodged a real bullet on that one . Note to self, don't claim a concubine who is 20+ years younger than you.

So far the only stability problem's I've had are the pesky religious and liberation revolts. We shall see if the Khan's kin get upset at this succession.

 

[mike the knight]

I think that this si the first real dangerous period for the Mongol administration

 

[JosunUrashima]

Be prepared for revolts about every two to three years, especially Sunni and Orthodox. They are going to be a common occurance. My Mongol Empire game that's in the 1350's has had enough Sunni revolts that I'm into the twenties.

 

[GreatUberGeek]

Subbed! Fun to see Mongols of course. Do you start with no land?

 

[jecjackal]

Be prepared for revolts about every two to three years, especially Sunni and Orthodox. They are going to be a common occurance. My Mongol Empire game that's in the 1350's has had enough Sunni revolts that I'm into the twenties.

Yea i'm 30-40 years in and I'm already on the 7th or 8th sunnie revolt and the 6th christian revolt. I actually had a Zoroastrian, Christian, and an adventurer revolt at the same time. Luckily for me about half my empire is Tengri now.

 

[jecjackal]

Subbed! Fun to see Mongols of course. Do you start with no land?

You start with a single province and 50,000 troops which are immune to attrition. These stacks do not ever reinforce. They were enough to get me through my first two invasions. I had to keep spending piety to get holy men to take lands (5 piety vs 50 or so gold per person. Easy choice). Now that I have about 7 kingdoms in the empire there are plenty of males ready to take lands.

 

[JosunUrashima]

Yea i'm 30-40 years in and I'm already on the 7th or 8th sunnie revolt and the 6th christian revolt. I actually had a Zoroastrian, Christian, and an adventurer revolt at the same time. Luckily for me about half my empire is Tengri now.

I never had any Zoroastrian revolts pop up, which might have been neat. Haven't had any adventurers either,...they seem to be smart enough to avoid me.

Same. Well, it was before I started using my 20k retinue's to conquer the various Russian states one at a time.

Fun tidbit-My Khagan is Mongol culture, but he looks like an Aztec It actually didn't look all that weird surprisingly enough.

You start with a single province and 50,000 troops which are immune to attrition. These stacks do not ever reinforce. They were enough to get me through my first two invasions. I had to keep spending piety to get holy men to take lands (5 piety vs 50 or so gold per person. Easy choice). Now that I have about 7 kingdoms in the empire there are plenty of males ready to take lands.

When I realized I didn't have to actually siege tons of provinces, I was able to (after a restart) able to keep my initial horde good until about 1280's, at which point it was about roughly 1200 men.

 

[Mich333]

Always fun to see Mongols own the place.
Following this!

 

[jecjackal]

Chapter 5: Rebellion in Egypt
[1267AD - 1288AD]

The first thing Khan Yesungue does is institue high crown authority. He desires to change the age old tradition of the Mongols and have the eldest son inherit all titles. As a boy his sibilings tried to trick Yesungue out of his inheritance. He resented the fact and institued this new succession law.


To spite his foe, the Sultante of Rum, Yesungue takes the captured sultaness of Rum as his concubine as well as those wives of captured dukes. A few more years of fighting and the Sultanate of Rum falls to the Mongols. Unfortunately the Great Holy War for Hungry also failed as the Khan was not able to divert enough forces to take the last holy site.

Khan of Khans Yesungue spent the next few years dividing up his empire into Khanates. Instead of managing hundreds of high chiefs, he would have but a few Khanates to report to him. Unfortunately the stresses of reassigning all of theses vassals put Khan Yesungue into a deep depression. His father regaled him with tales of glory and valor and all he has been able to do thus far was finish his fathers war and put down seemingly endless rebellions. Life is dull.


Khan Yesungue hears of a civil war breaking out within Sultan of Hussayn II's empire. Hussayn is the Sultain of Egypt, Arabia and Syria and is the biggest threat to the Mongolian Empire. Yesungue takes advantage of the situation and launches and invasion which lasts for the better part of 10 years. He conquers most of Arabia and all of Syria in this time leaving the Sultan with a fraction of his former domain.

Yesungue finally has a tool to strike back at the merchants of Venice. He installs one of his kinsmen as Grand Mayor of Galiee. The Khan will finally send forth merchants to conquer the world via trade while his army conquer via blade. All of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was filled with Lord Mayors instead of Chieftans. Yesungue hopes to sell rites to the holy city to Muslims and Christians before they convert to the one true faith.


Finally Yesungue changes the succession law of the empire to Agnastic Primogeniture. His Eldest son Ghengis is now his heir.


Khan of Khans Yesungue will now spend a few years shoring up his Empire before he finishes of the Sultan of Egypt. He does not want to cross Nile Delta into Egypt and take Africa. Instead he will take all remaining lands in Arabia and then march West to Hungry to take Pest; the last holy site.

 

[JvK1791]

Very cool. I really like the style of your AAR. I'll stay tuned for what's next!

 

[JosunUrashima]

You had more luck in the Middle East than I have. My attention's mostly been on Europe.

 

[JosunUrashima]

Not a piece of advise, but a prerogative if you have any desire to have an empire beyond the 1350's.

Conquer as much of the map as possible, preferably all the way to France in Europe and tunisa in Africa. Try to ensure that you can call on a good 200k or more troops. Because after 1350, Timur shows up and is going to sodomize you and your empire and then put your head on a pike.

I had a force of 50k go up against a group of his forces (roughly 30k) and I got totaled. I think I killed maybe 10k, I wasn't exactly paying attention to the number he lost.

Assassinating him doesn't seem to do much good either, as an heir took over, and then another one, and at that point I didn't have any cash left to try again (not that it would have mattered, with how many times I failed and got found out.)

I essentially rage quit at that point, because containment wouldn't have worked. Even if I let him have Khiva, he'd have gone after other parts of my empire and still had his horde, and if he was going to be able to take on my forces with smaller armies and win with minimal losses, it just wasn't fun at that point anymore.

 

[jecjackal]

Not a piece of advise, but a prerogative if you have any desire to have an empire beyond the 1350's.

Conquer as much of the map as possible, preferably all the way to France in Europe and tunisa in Africa. Try to ensure that you can call on a good 200k or more troops. Because after 1350, Timur shows up and is going to sodomize you and your empire and then put your head on a pike.

I had a force of 50k go up against a group of his forces (roughly 30k) and I got totaled. I think I killed maybe 10k, I wasn't exactly paying attention to the number he lost.

Assassinating him doesn't seem to do much good either, as an heir took over, and then another one, and at that point I didn't have any cash left to try again (not that it would have mattered, with how many times I failed and got found out.)

I essentially rage quit at that point, because containment wouldn't have worked. Even if I let him have Khiva, he'd have gone after other parts of my empire and still had his horde, and if he was going to be able to take on my forces with smaller armies and win with minimal losses, it just wasn't fun at that point anymore.

Didn't know that. So apparently I got 50 years to conquer Europe

Thanks for the tip. Going to research Timirids while at work.

 

[jecjackal]

Chapter 6: Jihad
[1288AD-1302AD]

While Khan Yesungue was dividing up his holdings, The Caliph of the Sunni Muslims declares a Jihad for Arabia. The Khan quickly calls his banners as his personal retinue were busy cleaning up rebellions in Greece. The Christians have made their rebellion an annual event. Surely seeing Constantinople and Jerusalem fall to the Mongols would destroy their faith.

During the Jihad, Khan Yesungue was maimed in battle. Khan Yesungue the Pious lived a few more months after receiving the wound before he finally succumbed to it leaving Khan Ghengis to reign. Khan Ghengis in a rage over his father's death sent his retinues to Mecca. The Muslim holy land would be the price for their arrogance.

When the Muslims saw the Khan's banners over Mecca, all hope for the Jihad to succeed was crushed. With their remaining forces scattered, the Khan could return to Greece to finish his conquest there. He invaded the last vestiges of the Eastern Roman Empire quickly routing their forces. In a few short years all of Greece swore allegience to the horde.

With Greece secured, the Khan made one final campaign against the Muslims. He invaded the remaining Muslim counties of Arabia. The Muslims fought hard and valiantly but they could not overcome the sheer number of Mongols in Eurasia. Khan Ghengis has secured his south western border. Now he plans to push north west into Hungry and Croatia.

Approximate spread of the One True Faith

 

[JosunUrashima]

Didn't know that. So apparently I got 50 years to conquer Europe

Thanks for the tip. Going to research Timirids while at work.

1350-1405 is the time period for it to trigger. Mine triggered in 1382, just as I was about to launch my own invasion of Byzantium.

In the end I just decided to export the game, and now I get to go beat up on Asia for a while until I can westernize.