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Iskandar, part 1

The man calmly walked through the dimly lit hallways. Almost unnaturally serene, he paid little attention to his sumptuous surroundings, and also to what was about to happen. An obsever might end bewildered by this, but he was just being loyal to his personality.

He knocked a door.

“You may pass” – He heard.

He then stepped quietly into the room, never again would he see such rich ornamentation, not that he cared. A man who cared much about those things was unlikely to be suitable for the task he had ahead. He looked at the person before him, who was of far more importance than the walls around them.

“Alexander Suvorov?”

“Yes, your highness”

“My advisors have spoken well of you, very well, should I say”

“My most sincere gratitude”

“There is little time for these formalities” – The general was quite glad to hear that, although he did not show it – “I need you marching immediately, so let me begin.

You should know the present situation of the conflict: A grinding deadlock. Our only success thus far has been the initial assault of the Khanates’ lands when the war begun. Since then, little has changed, with thousands upon thousands of troops currently dieing for nothing in the Crimea. Furthermore, our two formed allies have deserted, the cowardly Hapsburgs having even conceded territory! I have tried and still try to alleviate my husband’s misdoing with several plans, including a general offensive. You are about to become part of one my plans, but not in the borderlands, I have something very different in mind for you.

The Sultan of Constantinople calls himself the Caliph of Islam, perhaps a truly dign title for the most powerful Islamic leader in the world. But despite how much he might deserve it, his grip over the Musulmans, both within and outside the Empire is tenuous at best, and this weakness can be exploited and so it shall be.
In a sea swarming with incompetents, you stand out as a clever man of strong will and conviction, and it seems soldiers under your lead have never failed us, hence it is you who I entrust with this role. You shall travel to Arabia, and once there, garner the support of the unruly people there. When you succeed, and I trust you will, a new front will be opened, further enervating the already exhausted nation. The Ottomans cannot withstand another foe, so what you do can result in their downfall. Do you understand?

“I certainly do, your majesty”

“The Turks rule the Black Sea and the Persians are now untrustworthy partners, so you will have to arrive crossing the Sultan’s realm. I have prepared a few thousand soldiers to accompany you, who shall also fight with the Arabs later on. Drill them as heavily as you can, and march south”

There was no farewell, and the simply left the room as quietly as he came, outside the palace another man stood awaiting him, and took him to his men.
 
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Nein, the Crazy Vezir of Maghreb. I'd probably leave this crap (1648 OE) right after first wave of rebels. I hate when everything is trying to annoy me. But Crazy Vezir, he prevailed against all odds. I'd lose my mind already, kick my PC to death and kill someone.

There's still a chance you'll continue it aye? Please continue my Vezir, for we need FtG AARs! I've lost most of my Livonian saves, but will try to back you up there soon.
 
:p Really, I would have kept up with the updates if the comments hadn't ceased (and I would have loved some feedback about the writing), but I will probably post the rest of the war.

Another thing, though the rebels are a huge problem indeed, I found it harder to bear the low tech due to stability investment.
 
Well, this is AAR is clearly dead. Sad, since that episode that I began writing about was truly fascinating.

Suvorov seriously lead an army of about 5 regiments through the Caucausus, where I desperately tried to kill him (his great skills made any battle without an extreme superiority in numbers and good terrain a certain massacre) with mercenaries recruited in Abkhazia. Even with about a 5:1 advantage in numbers and combined arms (he only fielded infantry) he almost beat had I not recruited mercs repeatedly. In the end he "died", and I sent my forces to press on to victory over the Russians (seriously, with him on their side there was pretty much nothing I could do against them)... Only to discover that some Yemeni armies were invading Makkah... They somehow ended up allying with Russia in the middle of the war :wacko: :eek:
WTF?! I ignored them, as I had enough troubles already, couldn't recruit mercs in Asia and training normal troops would have raised the war exhaustion beyond what I could handle.

In Eastern Europe, where Russia initially beat the Khans and took most of their territory, I would have only accepted the recovery of those lands (while I accepted a white peace with Persia and Spain, and took some land from Austria and Venice) both of us sent wave after wave of soldiers, with the balance constantly shifting to either side, until suddenly the Russian suddenly ceased coming, without doing more than checking their WE (nothing high in fact, 1 or 2% maybe) I seized my opportunity, assaulting many cities and killing any small army I found. I really took a lot of land, and in a burst of overconfidence asked them for more than those provinces they took... Not only didn't they accept, but they recovered completely, pushing me back to another war of attrition.

While that happened, I had yet another terrible event, the Egyptian independence event... I wasn't going to accept that no matter what, and forced myself to bring something south to save my ***. Fortunately I succedeed, though I never dealt with Yemen.

Later on I started getting the upper hand in Russia again, this time I asked for a bit less (though I still wanted something more than what the previous statu quo, that was unacceptable to me), but again they refused, sending, guess what, more troops! At this point the revolts caused by the event and the WE (which were actually surprisingly rare in this war (or was it the previous one? :wacko:) began taking place, and at that point I pretty much rage quitted. I actually continued, but using a savegame, so that wasn't fair. Eventually the peace treaty ended with Russia keeping one province from Astrakhan (which I repeat was inadmissible to me), and then I truly abandoned the game. In hindsight, their resilience probably had something to do with the provinces Yemen controlled (damn them!).

I left the AAR in the most interesting and intense part... Sorry. At least I wanted to tell you how it ended up. I'm not planning to start a new one, though I had considered it before. I'm now facing some issues which leave me without any spirit and as a matter of fact I haven't even played FtG for quite a while.

So that's what I had to say, I hoped you liked it, though I really would have wished for some feedback on the writing, being a non-native English speaker and not writing much at all...
 
I'm now facing some issues which leave me without any spirit and as a matter of fact I haven't even played FtG for quite a while.

I really hope life will be better on you soon, being too long without any spirit as you put it is not a nice thing.:)
Honestely I haven't read your whole AAR, because I usually lack the time to read narrative AARs (it's much easier to quickread gameplay AARs), but from what I read your grammar and style are really good. Therefore I don't think that people actively disliked your style or wanted to be mean to you by not commenting, they just lacked the time to really appreciate your work and post good feedback.
 
Turkey, both the the one so vehemently opposed to reform and the one lit by pragmatic sultans and viziers, fed on its success and growth for further conquests, not at all a surprise for an empire. What set it apart from other such nations was the degree to which it relied on the country's weight to maintain itself. Had it not been for the hegemony it held it would have gone back into the Bosphorus long ago. As it stood, any humbling defeat would be soon met by another battle, and itself too if it resulted in a retreat. The confidence, or perhaps better understood as neglect, inspired by that resilience granted due to the behemoth it truly was, cost those who knew better decade after decade of fighting along the many shores of the Empire. The backwards fools overtaken by their blindness had good reasons for that. As I said, in the end, the Ottomans expanded deeper into Europe even under their decandence... Yet, behind those conquests hid the key to their downfall.
The Ottomans would not have made it past the 1750 war if those apes spoke freely or actively, but God be praised, others knew better.

The Spanish navy made short work of the broken Ottoman counterpart... Why? Because reform was far too dangerous even at the somewhat limited extent it covered. Great tensions were being put aside, old mistakes had to be repaired. Calling it limited would be idiotic, but exactly that has been done recently. Do these idiots not see that they ask for the impossible? A country that rose out of the ashes of no other than Rome itself is expected to follow the standards of a new world, a world that in fact, only existed in the minds of some thinkers. Truth be told, that was the age of Absolutism. Back to the main point, put too much pressure and that colossal size with which you toss aside any foe can become the greatest one of them all...

In Russia one finds evidence of that, once you balance the the prowess with its smaller cultural conflicts. It fared catastrophically in the previous war with the Turks.

...


An incomplete update I made just now which I leave as a small thank you note. Unless something unexpected happens it will be truly the last one.