II. Reconquest
We were now ready to reform our Empire. It was just a question of where to start. Our options were as follow:
- Epirus: guaranteed by Bulgaria.
- Achaia: allied with Venice, Cyprus and Navarra. Leads a personal union with Arbanon.
- Naxos: now a vassal of Venice.
- The Knights: guaranteed by Castille and Aragon. Is in Castille’s sphere of influence.
- Cyprus: allied with Achaia and Venice. Guaranteed by Aragon.
It seems that while we were busy fighting the Ottomans, Aragon and Venice’s influence in the region grew. If we wanted to expand, we had no choice but to declare war on a nation protected or allied with a great power.
Of the three, Aragon was the most powerful. Venice was weaker and we were member of their trade league, meaning they’d be less inclined to go to war with us. They were still very powerful and a war with them, thought inevitable at some point, would not be a good thing for us at this particular moment. As for Bulgaria, a war with them was just impossible as they shared a long border with us and had many more men they we did.
Nevertheless, it was decided that an attack on Achaia was the best move. It would bring Arbanon (a two-province nation bordering us) into the war and maybe Achaia’s allies; Cyprus, Navarra and Venice. We were hoping Venice would not honor their alliance as we thought the fate of Achaia was of less importance to them as our trade league membership.
In November 1361, war was declared on Achaia. As we had hoped, Venice dishonored the alliance. Arbanon and Navarra joined them and, to our pleasure, so did Cyprus. If Cyprus had not joined the war, it would have been nearly impossible to declare war on them as they were guaranteed by Aragon and allied to Venice (Venice dishonored an alliance once, we did not think they would do it twice). Now we had the opportunity to annex them.
By January 1362, we had destroyed the armies of Achaia and Arbanon and were sieging their cities. An army was sent to Cyprus the next month.
In March, 4000 infantry and 2000 cavalry landed in Famagusta, our Autokrator himself leading them. They reorganized there and marched on Lefkosia to meet the Cypriot army.
The battle was easily won and the army destroyed.
6 months later, Achaia’s siege ended and we annexed them.
At the same time, we vassalized Arbanon.
In October, as the conflict had been going on for a year, Portugal decided to intervene. It was rather bad news as the Portuguese were known for being quite navy-oriented and would probably cause us some trouble.
We had been sieging Cyprus for 9 months when they received help from the Portuguese: 3 transports full of troops were sent to Cyprus. We sunk the small Portuguese fleet and ships, men and horses were sent to the bottom of the sea. That would be their last contribution to this war.
After a year of siege, in March 1363, Cyprus surrendered and we annexed them. That did not please other nations as the annexation of Cyprus was not supposed to be one of our goals in this war.
In September, a peace deal was signed with Navarra. They settled for a white peace.
Our Empire in October 1363:
4 infamy for vassalizing Arbanon, 8 for annexing Cyprus.
In January 1364, Aragon announced they had formed a personal union with Portugal. This was an extremely worrying event.
A month later, our religious officials announced that because of recent events, they believed our glorious nation was not anymore affected by the Wrath of God.
Finally!
In July 1364, we moved our troops near the border with Epirus. The invasion had been decided because Epirus’ allies, Muscowy, Serbia and Bulgaria, were in a period of great trouble. Muscowy was too distant to be of any concern, Serbia only had 1 province left, the rest being now owned by her former vassal Montenegro and Bulgaria was at war with Hungary and allies.
Bulgaria in deep trouble.
In September, war was declared. Only Bulgaria responded to Epirus’ call to arms, but reports confirmed their army had been totally annihilated by the Hungarians. Epirus was alone. Once again, our brilliant armies won and their forces were destroyed.
In April 1365, a trade station was founded in Chalcidiki. That was one of the advantages of being part of a trade league.
In a little less than a year, we had sieged and conquered Epirus. While full annexation was an option, we decided to ask for our core province and vassalize them. We feared a sudden increase of many non-core provinces in our empire could have some rather bad consequences. We also thought our reputation was already bad enough.
4 more infamy for vassalizing them…
After the conquest of Thessalia, our nation became a minor olive oil producer. At the same time, we also improved our ways of ruling (
i.e: Gov tech 6 researched). In April 1366, another trade station was founded, this time in Famagusta.
Our truce with the Ottomans was to expire in a month. In 5 years, we had conquered 4 provinces and vassalized 2 nations. Our income was steady and relatively high. We could now support a large army and navy. Although we did not build any more ships during that time, we recruited and trained many men and our forces now counted 24000 infantry and cavalry. The Ottomans had an army double that size and a few more Crayers than we did, but our superior tactics and leadership were obvious.
Reports indicated the Ottomans were at war with most of their neighbors and their territory was mostly undefended. Should we attack now, we could sack their cities and advance deep into their territory before they could react.
Our armies regrouped near the borders and our navy set sail. The second war with the Ottomans was about to begin. This time, it was not about survival, it was about conquest.
