Problems with current Bulgaria in CK3

[Antimonum]

and lost a huge war to the Rus losing the cavalry and moesia

The Rus Invasion happened at the end of Petar`s long reign. During the Rus invasion, he suffered a stroke, was incapacitated and abdicated for his Son Boris II, who I guess took the negatives on himself. I do not think his popularity was diminished because of it. Also Moesia was still technically not lost under his Reign. As for the cavalry I doubt it disappeared, just was probably not as good because of loss of military tradition over the societal changes and long peace.

The Bulgarian Historians until ca 20 Years ago were also overly critical of him, but their opinion did change after some old History biases were let go. Now they are of the opinion, that he cannot had been a bad ruler if he was so universally loved.

And he was remembered for centuries by the populace. The successful rebellion of the two Brothers: Asen and Petar in 1185 was actually rebellion of Ivan Asen and Theodor Asen. The older Brother Theodor was declared Tsar under the Name Petar IV for Legitimacy reasons (you guessed it: also honouring Petar I, just like Konstantin Bodin did).
Petar I was also, some time after his Death, declared a Saint by the orthodox church (like his grandfather Boris).

 

[Pyroshrimp]

Oh, thanks for correcting be but did Boris do anything other than get captured and abdicate the imperial crown?

 

[Antimonum]

Oh, thanks for correcting be but did Boris do anything other than get captured and abdicate the imperial crown?

I guess you mean Boris II.

He managed to strike some kind of a deal with the Rus, meaning he was allowed to keep his Rule over the Kingdom even though the Rus had already garrison inside the capital Preslav. In exchange Bulgaria Provided Troops and supplies for Sviatoslav`s attack on the Byzantines.
After the Byzantines sacked Preslav and captured him, he was indeed publicly striped of his regalia in Constantinople and did not Abdicate by choice but was forced to abdicate for the title of Byzantine magister, which was used by Byzantium to claim all of Bulgarian Territory very officially. He did not have a male Heir and his younger unmarried brother Roman was castrated in captivity (he was captured together with Boris II).
Boris and Roman managed to escape for the Bulgarian border but Boris II was clothe in Byzantine official clothes and was killed by misunderstanding (most likely) by the Bulgarian border troops. Roman survived and ruled until his death. Or better said he was allowed to rule by Samuil who had a lot of direct power but respected the Tsar`s bloodline, regardless of him being castrated until his death and never usurped him (and Samuil was a ruthless ruler who execute all of his Brothers to consolidate power but still showed respect to the tsar, regardless of his ambitions). Samuil declared himself Tsar after the death of Tsar Roman.

 

[Pyroshrimp]

Wait he killed his brothers? I thought David and Moses died in battle, with Samuil killing Aaron to make sure the byzantines didn't get any ideas

 

[Antimonum]

Wait he killed his brothers? I thought David and Moses died in battle, with Samuil killing Aaron to make sure the byzantines didn't get any ideas

Yes, sorry brother singular but together with all of his brother Aron`s line (notable exception is Ivan Vladislav, who was spared). I guess if you execute your own Brother you should make sure all of his line disappear, wink wink for the rule of his own son Gavril Radomir ironically murdered by the guy he saved from execution by begging his father Samuil to spare his life ,but it is Medieval History at the end.

And Aron did try a separate peace with Byz (Samuil had a legitimate reason for killing him), but the ultimate objective is consolidate Power in order to not split the country. Other than that the Death of his oldest Brother David was not in Battle but by a road bandit, which is very, very suspect to most historians.

 

[Pyroshrimp]

Why did Gavrail try to save Ivan?

 

[Antimonum]

Why did Gavrail try to save Ivan?

He probably did not want his cousin be executed because of compassion or probably they were close as kids. Ivan Vladislav did obviously hold a grudge against the son of his father`s murderer though.

 

[Seclouds]

At least the Armenian can have a major decision call rebuild the Great Armenia.
The Slavic culture ruler can found the Slavic Union in 10 century.
And the Bulgaria Empire did actually live in history for hundred yrs and the Northern Sea High King is only for about 3 or 5 decades.
Why the Bulgarian can't have a major decision called Make Bulgaria Great Again or something like that?

 

[Antimonum]

At least the Armenian can have a major decision call rebuild the Great Armenia.
The Slavic culture ruler can found the Slavic Union in 10 century.
And the Bulgaria Empire did actually live in history for hundred yrs and the Northern Sea High King is only for about 3 or 5 decades.
Why the Bulgarian can't have a major decision called Make Bulgaria Great Again or something like that?

Bulgaria (and Byzantium as a matter of fact) like many other regions received up until now little to no attention or flavour because for the past 1.5 Years there was only one release up until February this year. Small balance changes and bug fixes were made with every patch but nothing else.

Of course the region is massively important for the era and should get some kind of priority (in my humble opinion). The game needs time to mature and get developed with culture/Ruler specific decisions and maybe something like missions or culture mechanics and map changes.

The process is up until now slow but we`ll see what happens after the Royal court.

 

[Pyroshrimp]

Side note- Bulgaria should have a larger army. They get 3-4k at the start and while it can improve you need more army and gold per month, as irl it was slightly less than byzantium, a good amount should be 3/4 byzantine, and more gold because you start with none and end up losing 215739023654 gold a month when you raise your army wich is dumb

 

[Antimonum]

Side note- Bulgaria should have a larger army. They get 3-4k at the start and while it can improve you need more army and gold per month, as irl it was slightly less than byzantium, a good amount should be 3/4 byzantine, and more gold because you start with none and end up losing 215739023654 gold a month when you raise your army wich is dumb

Both gold and Levies are dependant on Development of the Provinces + number of Provinces + Leader stats and vassals.
The increase of number of Province we will obviously see (from the multitudes of hints from the dev diaries up until now) being transferred to Bulgaria in the Royal Court may make some difference.
I think the development of some provinces in Moesia, Karvuna and the Duchy of Philippopolis that are not mountains should be slightly increased because they were not as garbage as the game makes them to be. There also should be at least some Farmlands there like Berroe, Silistria Messembria (the northern part of it) , the county of Philippopolis and Adrianopolis in Byz. It would also help if there were less false religion false culture tribal vassals.

 

[Pyroshrimp]

Sredets should also have high development, mainly because when the ERE was getting a capital Constatnine was debating Serdica and Constantionple

 

[Antimonum]

Sredets should also have high development, mainly because when the ERE was getting a capital Constatnine was debating Serdica and Constantionple

Yes because of its central important position.I think it could be a bit increased in development and bumped up by giving it more slots to build cities or castles on. He also called Philippopolis - my favourite and most beautiful city.

 

[Pyroshrimp]

Sredets should have a unique building slot for mabye trajan's gates built in both starts or Pernik due to how important it was

 

[Antimonum]

Sredets should have a unique building slot for mabye trajan's gates built in both starts or Pernik due to how important it was

Your Trajan Gates pass Idea is good because it had a Fortress with some fortified Towers from Antiquity (Stenos or Shtipon in Bulgarian). Pernik is available on the map as a small 3 building Barony, which is OK I think.

Edit:
PS: I noticed after a quick game start that the fortress next to the Trajan Gate - Shtipon is also present in game as a barony under the name Stipon. So already done.

 

[Antimonum]

Your Trajan Gates pass Idea is good because it had a Fortress with some fortified Towers from Antiquity (Stenos or Shtipon in Bulgarian). Pernik is available on the map as a small 3 building Barony, which is OK I think.

Edit:
PS: I noticed after a quick game start that the fortress next to the Trajan Gate - Shtipon is also a present in game as a barony under the name Stipon. So already done.

Although:
Preslav is also a small 3 Building Barony in the county of Silistria, which is a crying shame since it grew to be the biggest city in medieval Bulgaria as a capital. not to mention, that the actual capital in 867 - Pliska is nowhere to be seen.

 

[Pyroshrimp]

Did Boris not move the capital the year Bulgaria became christian, and Pliska and preslav are so close I wouldn't mind them being one Barony

 

[Antimonum]

Did Boris not move the capital the year Bulgaria became christian, and Pliska and preslav are so close I wouldn't mind them being one Barony

Not yet, not so soon.. Preslav became Capital in 893.
Pliska cannot be the same Barony since it was the capital (both were). Also Pliska continued to get developed after Christianisation. Boris built the second biggest Basilica on the Balkans in Pliska. Pliska had massive rectangular elongated Castle wall ,built with massive quadric stones. Pliska was destroyed later either in the Rus invasion or in the Byzantine invasion following it and was later never rebuilt. But neither Preslav nor Pliska should be baronies especially not Pliska. Both of them should have the maximum of Building slots.

 

[Antimonum]

An other big problem, that was up until now just superficially mentioned by me is the Name of the ruling Dinasty of Bulgaria "Balgarsko". It is both historically and grammatically incorrect, since it implies the dynasty member is a child in Bulgarian. Grammatically more correct and not as stupid sounding would be Balgarski but it is still not historically correct. Imagine making Alfred the Great`s dynasty name "Anglo Saxon".

Now, I know it is imported from CK2 and it is true, that the name of the dynasty was not known with certainty but Historians like John V.A. Fine Jr. did make a nice educated guess that it was Dulo.

Other than that most Historians give it the placeholder Name: "Krum`s dinasty", which was surely not the name of the Dynasty but the first known Ansestor of Boris was Khan Krum. Helas Krum was not included in the Slavic language translation of the Nominalia of the Bulgarian Khans, so we do not have a Bulgarian source for his Dinasty name and the Byzantines did not bother to write about it.

We know from History that Krum was a Bulgar noble from Pannonia (from before Bulgaria conquered Pannonia from the Avars). We know that Kuber and his Clan (Kuber was a Brother of the Founder of Bulgaria Asparukh and son of the founder of Old great Bulgaria Kubrat, who were all Dulo clan) had first migrated to Pannonia with his clan before moving later to todays Macedonia. So as far as we know this was the only influx of Bulgar nobles to Pannonia pre conquest by Krum. And most likely Krum`s predecestors came from this dulo clan. Most Bulgarian Khans were either Dulo, Vokil or Ugain anyway with majority of them being Dulo. Of course it is only a educated guess but it is much better than "Balgarsko".

Even CK2 indirectly agrees with this theory by giving Balgarsko Dynasty Blood of Attila Bloodline and we know from the Nominalia of the Bulgarian Khans, that Avitohol was the Founder of clan Dulo and Historians think that he was mentioned there either meaning Attila or a mythical Ancestor of Attila.

 

[Pyroshrimp]

Who is Avitohol