Persian Emperor.....Now What?

[Naughtius Maximus]

So I am currently Persian Emperor, and I have about three hundred years to get around 150k troops in a face-off with the Mongols.

As a Zorastrian it is a sea of Holy Wars all around me. I can take the lands of the Arabian Empire, the Byzantine Empire, or into India.

Which one should I focus on first? By which ones I mean which Empire/Subcontinent will provide me the most troops for the inevitable showdown with the Mongols?

Saying this because as we all know the Mongols are almost always scripted to attack the Kingdom of Persia first.

 

[shiro the bushi]

its hard to determine where you should go with out a screen shot but as a rule, deblobbing the abbablob is always handy

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

I'd go into the Byzantines more but my head of religion has some sort of fetish for Byzantine land. First was a great holy war for Greece and then Armenia.

 

[Fishy101]

I would say taking the ERE is more useful for when/if the Mongols get to the Crimea. It maybe possible to boatbomb them. Its harder to leverage Indian lands for that and moving troops from India is also going to take longer than from the ERE. It looks like you are already deep into the ERE. So I'd say head west.

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

Well It's not like I chose to go ERE, my religious head has a fetish for ERE land though. Two great Holy Wars, both ERE lands.

Is there a way to direct which Kingdom he declares war on?

 

[StarSword]

Well It's not like I chose to go ERE, my religious head has a fetish for ERE land though. Two great Holy Wars, both ERE lands.

Is there a way to direct which Kingdom he declares war on?

No. Muslim and Germanic religious heads are playable and can declare them directly, but only Catholics and Fraticellis get to request crusades of their religious heads.

Targets are weighted, though, in this order. You've already taken highest-priority kingdoms in the Persian Empire (along with Armenia and Greece), and the next ones down the Zoros' list are all roughly the same weight so it's a tossup where the Moabadan-Moabad will go next.

 

[ninoallen]

how are the vassal revolts? the "impower council" faction, must be hell

 

[shiro the bushi]

looking at it, it would be best to deal with the ere as everyone else said, then taking the small counties and duchies that border you for fast, easy wars

 

[Dakilla TM]

I would say go to India, but since you already have taken Greece then I'd say go finish off the ERE. Just be careful of Crusades, since the Pope will declare one for Greece. Or, you can abandon that and go for India. It's a nice "refuge" area should you get stomped by the Mongols.

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

No. Muslim and Germanic religious heads are playable and can declare them directly, but only Catholics and Fraticellis get to request crusades of their religious heads.

Targets are weighted, though, in this order. You've already taken highest-priority kingdoms in the Persian Empire (along with Armenia and Greece), and the next ones down the Zoros' list are all roughly the same weight so it's a tossup where the Moabadan-Moabad will go next.

Sounds like I can just leave ERE alone and the Great Holy Wars will naturally declare on them....

how are the vassal revolts? the "impower council" faction, must be hell

Through a string of good rulers (and Ultimogeniture) I managed to get Imperial passed. Now I don't care whether or not I lose absolute council or not, but I'll be holding onto it for dear life until then, haha.

With Ultimo I basically make as many kids as I can, and since they can't really marry anyone else outside the realm (infidel scum!) NAP everyone important.

looking at it, it would be best to deal with the ere as everyone else said, then taking the small counties and duchies that border you for fast, easy wars

If the weights really are true I can probably just wait for Great Holy Wars to nab Anatolia as I gobble up the rest of Egypt-Syria-Jerusalem.

I would say go to India, but since you already have taken Greece then I'd say go finish off the ERE. Just be careful of Crusades, since the Pope will declare one for Greece. Or, you can abandon that and go for India. It's a nice "refuge" area should you get stomped by the Mongols.

Yeah I am highly interested in India as well. Already had to fend off two crusades for Greece. For some reason Francia (actually exists in my game) did not join either of them, so it was an easy stomp.

 

[Bernard95]

I remember having a Persian Empire once. There are some rich duchies in the Sindh and Punjab that you might as well secure, though seeing how you've begun to cut the Byzantines down to size, you might as well start with them first.

The one problem I ran into however is that the travel times to cross even just Persia are murder. To get around that, try giving your kings duchy titles (though a county will suffice) outside of their de jure to create a sort of defense network. While admittedly very gamey, this will allow you to raise their levies in that particular location allowing you to quickly respond to far flung threats.

 

[VoodooEconomist]

Put back the "Indo" into "Indo-Iranian"!

 

[StarSword]

If the weights really are true I can probably just wait for Great Holy Wars to nab Anatolia as I gobble up the rest of Egypt-Syria-Jerusalem.

AFAIK the weights are accurate (they're defined in landed_titles.txt), but the thing to remember is that the weights are just modifiers to the calculation, not the only thing. You've already seen with the invasion of Greece that he might go for kingdoms at lower priority first: in my Ireland game the Pope hit Andalusia despite the Holy Land having five times the weight.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

I'd attack Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia. Then you'll have reformed the old Persian Empire.

 

[SaphireSeas]

I'd attack Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia. Then you'll have reformed the old Persian Empire.

And Gandhara - it's a six province duchy that was a Persian Province under the Achaemenids.

 

[BrokenSky]

Maybe also silk road for money for better development and/or mercs? Dunno.

 

[StarSword]

Maybe also silk road for money for better development and/or mercs? Dunno.

Heh, beat the Mongols at their own game and control the entire Silk Road out to China. IRL they were the only empire to ever manage that.

 

[Ciniod]

No. Muslim and Germanic religious heads are playable and can declare them directly, but only Catholics and Fraticellis get to request crusades of their religious heads.

Targets are weighted, though, in this order. You've already taken highest-priority kingdoms in the Persian Empire (along with Armenia and Greece), and the next ones down the Zoros' list are all roughly the same weight so it's a tossup where the Moabadan-Moabad will go next.

On a somewhat related note does anyone know why my religious head isnt declaring any GHWs (Im suomenusko)? They declared one ages ago on Volga Bulgaria which failed because I was busy with other things and couldnt help much. And now its been atleast 200 years since that. We still dont have Volga Bulgaria, though now the Golden Horde controls that. And I still dont control all of Ruthenia. Even though those are the only two non fully controlled weighted targets.

 

[sigeena]

Is your head of religion landed? It seems to increase his likelihood to call a GHW if he is.

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

Is your head of religion landed? It seems to increase his likelihood to call a GHW if he is.

I dropped him on my Capital. As a duke+ tier character he gains technology points, which he then proceeds to invest in the only area he can....my capital.

I desperately need it too, since I ousted the Byzantines off Constantinople I can't put my spy there to study technology......

I'd do it for the Immortals as well (Holy Order) but before I could they went from several holy order built baronies. Then they conquered their way up to now nearly a King level title up in the steppes somewhere.