Part I – The Reign of Ivan III 1492-1505
Russia is stuck at the northeastern corner of Europe, formerly subjects of the Mongols, now finally independent as the Muscovites. The many years of occupation have made us ready for greater things, as well as revenge.
We are bordered by powerful neighbors to the west, namely Sweden and Poland-Lithuania, who have far more resources and manpower than our relatively small duchy can muster. However, the Khanates of the eastern regions, are not only weak, but their inhabitants share our religion. We decide that the best course is to expand immediately to the east, taking down the decrepit Khanates before they grow powerful. In the West, the best course is moderation and peace.
We find that our armies are set up for attacks against Sweden, which is a course we have decided against. Therefore, in the middle of winter I must move our huge forces immediately to reduce the number that will die from attrition. Additionally, General Striga-Oblinski should have the bulk of the forces. The Kazan Khanate will be his first target. We aim for nothing less than full annexation within 2 years. We plan to attack as soon as the weather is clear. We leave covering forces against the Teutonic Order, Sweden and Poland.
With our stability at 2, the same as the Kazan Khanate, we put some incentives in front of the Boyars (nobles) to encourage them in the plans for expansion. Some of this will obviously trickle down to the serfs.
January 16, 1492 – The free city of Pskov has unfortunately refused our offer of a royal marriage between our realms. It seems natural that one day Pskov would become our vassals and ultimately agree to join us, but they obviously disagree. For the time being. I had hoped that they would be of some help in covering our western frontier.
February 2, 1492 – Our redeployments were completed with the loss of only 200 cossacks. What can I say, they are cossacks.
March 1, 1492 – A mild winter. Striga is at Moscow with an army of 30,000 infantry and 45,000 cossacks. We also have another 20,000 infantry at Vladimir (shortly). However, our peasants in the Khanate report 40,000 Mongols at Kazan. We shall need some more cossacks from the west to deal them, but none can be spared at the moment. I decide to raise new men at Vologda to be ready for the summer campaign.
April 1, 1492 – Summer is here. Striga will strike immediately at Ryazan and take it by assault as soon as we get a diplomat brave enough to deliver the declaration of war to the local Mongol Khan.
July 6, 1492 – One boyar has volunteered to the deliver the war message to the Mongols at Kazan. I have provided for his family. We shall deliver the message on July 15, so that the stability increases will take effect about the moment Striga launches his assault.
Poised and ready
July 16, 1492 – leaving all but a few thousand cossacks behind at Muscovy, Striga strikes out to Ryazan. The Vladimir army will join him there for the attack. If the 40,000 Mongols want to try to stop either one of them, they are free to attempt it.
August 2, 1492 – Striga arrives at Ryazan. However, for some reason he cannot assault the fort. The Boyars are encouraged and our stability is +3. I don’t understand. Maybe it’s a question of numbers. We’ve already lost 4,000 men to disease.
Oops. Turns out our men don’t know how to assault a fortress. Also, I moved the cossacks instead of Striga to Ryazan. We will have massive attrition losses. Striga moves (really this time) to Lipetsk. The cossacks move back to Muscovy. We leave Ryazan besieged with a small infantry force.
September 9, 1492 – Striga knows how to assault a fortress. However, He didn’t have enough men, quite, to take Lipetsk at the first go. Meanwhile, the Mongols have besieged Vladimir. They must think this is the old days when the Russians gave them trouble (or refused to pay tribute) they would simply come and take our cities. No longer!
October 3, 1492 – A glorious day. In the preceding weeks, we have fought three major battles with the Mongols, winning each one. At Vladimir, the Mongol besiegers were attacked by 32,000 cossacks, encountering 20,000 Mongol cavalry plus supporting levies. We threw the Mongol invaders out.
November 1, 1492. Again the Mongols attack at Vladimir and again they are thrown back. I order the armies to leave covering forces at Lipetsk and Ryazan and into winter quarters in friendly Muscovy. I will trickle reinforcements to our field armies to keep the Mongol defenders in the forts at their decimated levels. Meanwhile, we raise another 10,000 troops in Moscow in this great patriotic effort. They will be ready and strong for spring.
December 1, 1492. We are in winter quarters. I trickle reinforcements into Ryazan and Lipetsk, but the Mongols attack again at Vladimir, holding up the movement to Ryazan. Of course, the Mongols lose, but now I’m concerned that the Ryazan forces will not maintain their strength through the winter. I order more infantry from Moscow and Striga at the head of 2000 cossacks with all speed to Ryazan.
February 28th, 1493. Striga has taken Ryazan! The Mongols surrendered unexpectedly. Our attrition losses are high, however. That is balanced by the fact that the Mongols are weak, having lost yet another battle at Vladimir.
March 21, 1493 – Moldavia offers us a marriage which we did not request, but do accept. Anything to balance the Poles. We decide to offer another chance to Pskov, who wisely accept the proposal this time. Perhaps an alliance of slavs is in the future?
April 1, 1493. The long winter is over. Our total losses have been about 55,000 men, about half to attrition. I explain my mistakes to the Boyars. They are less disappointed in that than they are excited at the prospect of new lands.
May 12. Striga, reinforced from Muscovy, takes Lipetsk. This is balanced by the loss of a battle at Ryazan. Actually I ordered a retreat before the 11,000 Mongol cavalry to preserve morale. I order 15,000 cossacks to ride to Ryazan. Meanwhile, Striga moves on to Tambov. The Khan offers us a peace and Lipetsk. We pretend to be interested but then change our minds. Got to keep the enemy off balance.
June 18. Virtually the entire Mongol army is defeated at Ryazan, as more of them had moved there to lay siege to what was once theirs but truly belonged to the great Russian people. Striga fails in his assault on Tambov due in part to another Mongol contingent attacking him at the same time. However, like the ancient Tsar at Alesia, Striga defeats the outer contingent and continues the seige.
June 28th. The Pole apparently found themselves at war with the Turks. A peace was just announced in which the Poles gave up three provinces near Bessarabia. Not good for them. But good for us. For now.
July. The Cossacks defeat two more contingents of Mongols at Lipetsk.
August. Striga’s second assault on Tambov is a failure, but the defenders are down to a thousand or so. I simply cannot recruit troops fast enough to maintain the speed of our campaign. Most of the men at Moscow are raw.
October 10th. Tambov falls. Striga will march back to Muscovy for the winter. The campaign will take another year.
November. Harassing and pathetic little levies raised by the Mongols attack Striga on the way back to Muscovy, leaving him in a desolate land as winter sets in. He changes direction to Vladimir to attack Kazan itself in the spring, while our new levies will assault Vorones.
Janury 10th, 1494. Striga arrives at Vladimir losing 4000 troops on the march, far more than the Mongols could have done. A new levy of peasants are being forced by the Mongol oppressors to lay seige to Tambov (12,000).
March 4th. Our relations with all nations are improving. Perhaps we are finally being recognized as no longer the slaves of the Mongols. We offer a marriage to Bohemia which they accept. Another balance to the Poles. Unfortunately, Hungary chose not to accept the same proposal.
April 1. The residents of Tambov are starving. The Muscovy army moves to relief. Striga gathers reinforcements for a massive assault on Kazan.
April 20. The poor Khanate levies were wiped out at Tambov. The Khanate begs for peace offering Lipetsk. Not good enough, we say.
May 3. Striga has all his men now. 40,000 infantry and some cossacks. All will attack Kazan. Our other major cossack contingent moves to Ryazan to protect both Tambov and Lipetsk.
June 26. I think our troops are not so good at assaulting even minimal fortresses. Striga failed and barely caused 1000 casualties to the defenders. This means that the campaign will go on for an additional year.
November. The siege at Kazan continues through the winter. Striga is there. Hungary refused another marriage proposal.
January 1495. Our engineers have developed metal cannon balls, as opposed to the scraps we were firing out of our poor cannon, which had a tendency to explode. This should give our troops an advantage.
March 20. Striga obtained the surrender of Kazan. All forces to move on Vorones at first break of weather.
April 1. Winter is finally over. 20,000 men move to assist Striga at Kazan. The Mongols have managed to lay siege to Ryazan, but that will not last long as another 20,000 men move in the direction of the Mongol holdout province, Vorones.
May. The last Khanate armies are hounded and defeated at battles stretching from Ryazan to Lipetsk, pursued by Striga as he moves toward Vorones. The Khanate offered peace with three of their provinces. This time, we show complete disinterest in their proposal. They leave in shock.
July. Striga arrives at Vorones and fails in the assault, as I expected. However, the defenders are down to 1700 men and should collapse at the next attempt. Pskov wisely accepts our alliance proposal. Spain and France go to war over something, pulling in a bunch of their western European allies. We don’t care.
August. Poland declares war on the Courland. We do care. But we are committed at the moment. We send a letter of introduction to the Brandenburgers, who appear somewhat unimpressed. We are looking towards an alliance that will be able to distract Poland.
September 15. Vorones falls. We annex the Khanate. We lost 71,000 infantry and 41,000 cavalry in the campaign. Could have done much better. Next time, defeat the main body of their army first, which will leave one at leisure to siege the cities with minimal forces and thereby reduce losses to attrition.
The beginnings of a new power in eastern europe.
The next target is the Golden Horde, who in fact have gold in Samara. We are going to rest for one full year and begin that campaign in 1497. Hopefully, this one will be better planned and last no more than one year.
October. Turkey and their allies declared war on the Mamluks and their allies.
January, 1496. We are at a loss for allies other than Bohemia. Everyone seems engaged. However we send a letter of introduction to Bavaria, adjoining Bohemia, who could also help in the event of war with Poland.
February. Courland got Moldavia out of the Poland alliance with 250 ducats. Bavaria rejected our marriage proposal.
July. Hungary rejected our marriage proposal for the second time in 2 years. We deploy forces against the Horde in anticipation of next year’s campaign.
October. Our engineers have learned to make artillery like the Turkish have. We shall build some as soon as we have the money. Our army consists now of 72000 infantry and 19,000 cavalry. A shadow of what we had when we stared the war against Kazan. But with most of it deployed against the Horde, it should be more than enough to do the job.
March, 1497. Ivan wants to conquer Ingerman. He will wait. France fully annexed Milan, no doubt to cause them trouble with everyone else henceforth.
April 1. Let the word go forth from this time and place that the Russians are no longer subject to the Horde. Our armies move to attack. Striga will take on Sheik Ahmed at Boguatar with 20000 infantry and the Cossacks. All other armies will immediately lay siege to all other Horde cities.
April 26. The Horde main army is defeated, all other Horde cities are now under siege.
May. Horde recruits unwisely leave the cities to attack the besiegers, all are defeated. A small Horde force manages to make it into Kazan and lay siege there, but the cossacks arrive and drive them off.
August. The Horde force is totally destroyed at Tambov by the Cossacks. Our new guns and 5000 infantry move up to Tambov to be ready to blast at city walls in the event that they refuse to fall by spring. Poland annexed Courland. So much for their vassalization to the Order.
November 2, Kuibyshev falls.
December 23, Saratov falls.
January 14, Samara the Horde capital falls.
January 28, Bogutjar falls, the last Horde province. We annex.
Another successful liberation of Holy Mother Russia.
Total lossess are now 92,000 infantry and 44,000 cavalry. We lost approximately 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cossacks in the campaign, actually a small price.
The next obvious target is AstraKhan. However, their army is larger than these smaller Khanates and they have better defenses. We shall concentrate on the following for the time being :
1. Improve our alliance posture to balance out any threat from Poland or Sweden.
2. Make internal improvements
3. Prepare for an attack on the Astra Khanate by 1505 at the latest. This will open up Siberia to us, so we should think about improving our trade and infrastructure level to take advantage of those financial opportunities.
4. Expand trade in Novgorod.
February, 1498. Lorraine fully annexed by France.
March 6. Denmark accepted a marriage proposal from us.
June, 1499. Milan, recently acquired by the French, declared independence again. I doubt the French will be willing to forge ahead with quashing that since they lack a connection to it.
November 1499. Its really irritating that the Astra Khanate is building up their fortresses along my border with them. Perhaps I should strike early?
January, 1500. Poland declared war on Turkey, pulling in all the Turkish allies, including the Astra Khanate. Hmm. Turkey is also still at war with the Mamluks. Turkey is too powerful right now, but heavily committed on two fronts. Poland is in essence protecting the Russians under their control for us right now. We could attack Poland and probably gain a few provinces in a quick peace, but this would weaken them against the Turks. If we attack the AstraKhan now, we will offer the Turks a third front. The risk would be that the Turks would honor their commitment to the AstraKhan, and come after us. However, this would be extremely costly for them due to the fact that they would not arrive until winter, where they will learn that only Russians can withstand a Russian winter. Certainly not the decadent Turks.
We will attack the AstraKhan now, before they build up more defenses, and take the risk of war with Turkey and the Crimea.
April 1. We declare war on Astrakhan. All the Turkish allies honor the alliance including the Crimea, Algiers and Oman. This gives Turkey a fourth war to contend with now.
May 8th. Our Army of the Urals entered Uralsk and attacked the fort there, taking it with little loss. When word of the war between Poland and Turkey came, our armies were camped in winter quarters near and around Moscow. It will take some time for them to arrive at the front.
June 29th. While Striga continues to march south, the Army of the Urals takes Orenburg by storm.
July
15,000 raw Khanate recruits marching our of AstraKhan blunder into the Army of the Urals and are decimated.
August 27. Striga arrives at Volgagrad and assaults, decimating both the retreating Khanates from Astrakhan and the fort. Volgograd falls. Unfortunately, Striga died.
November 7th. Winter approaches. Our assault with over 50,000 infantry on Astrakhan itself failed. However, Lugansk fell to a combined Pskov / Russia assault. Only the Donets and Astrakhan remain.
March, 1501. Attrition has mostly wiped out the armies at Donets and Astrakhan. Fortunately, the Turks are preoccupied with Moldavia.
June 15th. Of course the Khanate makes repeated peace offers. Donets falls to a combined Polish Russian siege! May there be few of those. The city is mine, however, and the price I will demand for coming to their aid. In fact, at a later time, I will think this entitles me to the Polish crown.
July 23. Moldavia got a peace for 250. Now the moslem troops move towards Astrakhan. It will be too late.
August. Trouble. Astrakhan falls and they do not accept an annexation. Even though the Astrakhanate was fully occupied, they know they had powerful allies and therefore could continue the fight. Siberian tribes to the east look menacing to me at this point. Crimean troops march against the Donets. Pskov took the Kouban. I back the Army of the Urals up all the way to Samara
September 17th, due to some quick movements, I was able to defeat the Crimeans at Donets, although one battle was lost, the reinforcing troops got there as the Crimeans were attempting to storm Donets and doing badly at it. I have to get back to quarters before the winter and find a way out of this war.
Another mixed force of moslems destroyed at the Donets, but I am taking heavy casualties in my cossacks.
As winter closes in, I offer the Khanates my acquisition of three of their provinces and some of their ducats. They accept. This will allow me to rebuild, and protects my border from the wild Siberians. Now they can deal with the Poles. Unfortunately, I have to give up Donets. I gained Uralsk, Lugansk and Volgograd.
The Khanate is split in two.
I question whether this peace offering of mine was the wise course. The Astrakhanate came up with 125 ducats in the peace agreement, but they are still in the game and their troops (about 30,000 that I have seen) are still in the mix with the Turks and the Poles. I do hope that the Poles can beat them, because our expansion plans would be much better served by having to face weak and divided Poland than immensely powerful Turkey. The Turks already control several of the Ukrainian provinces. We offer the Poles a cheap loan, but they refuse.
I shared 100 ducats with the Pskovians for their loyal service.
Our army is down to 46,000 infantry and 14,000 Cossacks, along with 15 guns (we lost 5 guns during one of the assaults on Astrakhan). We must rebuild from this weak military and diplomatic position.
November. The Turks are narrowing their enemies and have settled with the Mamelukes. Only Poland and Algiers remain as enemies to them.
December. In the dead of winter, the Poles barely manage to defeat a force of Moslems at Donets. I’m actually cheering the Poles. I guess if I had only one swing of my sword, I would kill a Turk before a Pole. Business before pleasure as they say.
January 4, 1502. Turkey accepted peace with the Poles and the Poles recovered Podolia. The news is cheered in our court. Obviously the Christian world, both the true Church and the Catholics, must deal with the Moslem heretics before working out our differences. How we work out our differences is another matter. We send another letter of introduction to the Magyars with a view to eventually prising them out of their Austrian alliance. We intend to seek a marriage with them as well.
Our annual income from census taxes is up over 120 ducats a year, giving us a total of 220 this year. We improve the bailiff to a tax collector in Tver and newly acquired Samara (with the gold). We have 5 years to build up our infrastructure and army for the final annexation of Astrakhan.
March. We have a slight problem now. Thanks to the stupid Poles, the Astrakhan and Crimea are both allied with Turkey until sometime in 1512. To make matters worse, the Crimea actually owns territories in the Holy Land the Turks took from the Mamelukes. This will make them extremely difficult, if not impossible, to actually annex. We will have to look for some kind of disruption to this situation. Perhaps an alliance with Venice or some kind of new Christian crusade to the Holy Land. Difficult problem. Some in the court are suggesting that we attempt to vassalize and annex the Crimea at some point, an idea which has little practical merit.
June. Hungary rejects our 4th marriage proposal.
January, 1504
The rebuilding effort continues along with the infrastructure efforts. On the diplomatic front, our relations with the central European countries declines slightly each year, which is why it is important to get royal marriages with some of them, unfortunately, we lack the grease their palms apparently need. We upgrade 2 bailiffs this year and forego diplomatic efforts.
May
We send a note to the Georgians who apparently regard us as enemies. They still do as our relationship slightly improved from my magnanimity. Perhaps I should focus on acquiring Pskov diplomatically.
Russia is stuck at the northeastern corner of Europe, formerly subjects of the Mongols, now finally independent as the Muscovites. The many years of occupation have made us ready for greater things, as well as revenge.
We are bordered by powerful neighbors to the west, namely Sweden and Poland-Lithuania, who have far more resources and manpower than our relatively small duchy can muster. However, the Khanates of the eastern regions, are not only weak, but their inhabitants share our religion. We decide that the best course is to expand immediately to the east, taking down the decrepit Khanates before they grow powerful. In the West, the best course is moderation and peace.
We find that our armies are set up for attacks against Sweden, which is a course we have decided against. Therefore, in the middle of winter I must move our huge forces immediately to reduce the number that will die from attrition. Additionally, General Striga-Oblinski should have the bulk of the forces. The Kazan Khanate will be his first target. We aim for nothing less than full annexation within 2 years. We plan to attack as soon as the weather is clear. We leave covering forces against the Teutonic Order, Sweden and Poland.
With our stability at 2, the same as the Kazan Khanate, we put some incentives in front of the Boyars (nobles) to encourage them in the plans for expansion. Some of this will obviously trickle down to the serfs.
January 16, 1492 – The free city of Pskov has unfortunately refused our offer of a royal marriage between our realms. It seems natural that one day Pskov would become our vassals and ultimately agree to join us, but they obviously disagree. For the time being. I had hoped that they would be of some help in covering our western frontier.
February 2, 1492 – Our redeployments were completed with the loss of only 200 cossacks. What can I say, they are cossacks.
March 1, 1492 – A mild winter. Striga is at Moscow with an army of 30,000 infantry and 45,000 cossacks. We also have another 20,000 infantry at Vladimir (shortly). However, our peasants in the Khanate report 40,000 Mongols at Kazan. We shall need some more cossacks from the west to deal them, but none can be spared at the moment. I decide to raise new men at Vologda to be ready for the summer campaign.
April 1, 1492 – Summer is here. Striga will strike immediately at Ryazan and take it by assault as soon as we get a diplomat brave enough to deliver the declaration of war to the local Mongol Khan.
July 6, 1492 – One boyar has volunteered to the deliver the war message to the Mongols at Kazan. I have provided for his family. We shall deliver the message on July 15, so that the stability increases will take effect about the moment Striga launches his assault.
Poised and ready
July 16, 1492 – leaving all but a few thousand cossacks behind at Muscovy, Striga strikes out to Ryazan. The Vladimir army will join him there for the attack. If the 40,000 Mongols want to try to stop either one of them, they are free to attempt it.
August 2, 1492 – Striga arrives at Ryazan. However, for some reason he cannot assault the fort. The Boyars are encouraged and our stability is +3. I don’t understand. Maybe it’s a question of numbers. We’ve already lost 4,000 men to disease.
Oops. Turns out our men don’t know how to assault a fortress. Also, I moved the cossacks instead of Striga to Ryazan. We will have massive attrition losses. Striga moves (really this time) to Lipetsk. The cossacks move back to Muscovy. We leave Ryazan besieged with a small infantry force.
September 9, 1492 – Striga knows how to assault a fortress. However, He didn’t have enough men, quite, to take Lipetsk at the first go. Meanwhile, the Mongols have besieged Vladimir. They must think this is the old days when the Russians gave them trouble (or refused to pay tribute) they would simply come and take our cities. No longer!
October 3, 1492 – A glorious day. In the preceding weeks, we have fought three major battles with the Mongols, winning each one. At Vladimir, the Mongol besiegers were attacked by 32,000 cossacks, encountering 20,000 Mongol cavalry plus supporting levies. We threw the Mongol invaders out.
November 1, 1492. Again the Mongols attack at Vladimir and again they are thrown back. I order the armies to leave covering forces at Lipetsk and Ryazan and into winter quarters in friendly Muscovy. I will trickle reinforcements to our field armies to keep the Mongol defenders in the forts at their decimated levels. Meanwhile, we raise another 10,000 troops in Moscow in this great patriotic effort. They will be ready and strong for spring.
December 1, 1492. We are in winter quarters. I trickle reinforcements into Ryazan and Lipetsk, but the Mongols attack again at Vladimir, holding up the movement to Ryazan. Of course, the Mongols lose, but now I’m concerned that the Ryazan forces will not maintain their strength through the winter. I order more infantry from Moscow and Striga at the head of 2000 cossacks with all speed to Ryazan.
February 28th, 1493. Striga has taken Ryazan! The Mongols surrendered unexpectedly. Our attrition losses are high, however. That is balanced by the fact that the Mongols are weak, having lost yet another battle at Vladimir.
March 21, 1493 – Moldavia offers us a marriage which we did not request, but do accept. Anything to balance the Poles. We decide to offer another chance to Pskov, who wisely accept the proposal this time. Perhaps an alliance of slavs is in the future?
April 1, 1493. The long winter is over. Our total losses have been about 55,000 men, about half to attrition. I explain my mistakes to the Boyars. They are less disappointed in that than they are excited at the prospect of new lands.
May 12. Striga, reinforced from Muscovy, takes Lipetsk. This is balanced by the loss of a battle at Ryazan. Actually I ordered a retreat before the 11,000 Mongol cavalry to preserve morale. I order 15,000 cossacks to ride to Ryazan. Meanwhile, Striga moves on to Tambov. The Khan offers us a peace and Lipetsk. We pretend to be interested but then change our minds. Got to keep the enemy off balance.
June 18. Virtually the entire Mongol army is defeated at Ryazan, as more of them had moved there to lay siege to what was once theirs but truly belonged to the great Russian people. Striga fails in his assault on Tambov due in part to another Mongol contingent attacking him at the same time. However, like the ancient Tsar at Alesia, Striga defeats the outer contingent and continues the seige.
June 28th. The Pole apparently found themselves at war with the Turks. A peace was just announced in which the Poles gave up three provinces near Bessarabia. Not good for them. But good for us. For now.
July. The Cossacks defeat two more contingents of Mongols at Lipetsk.
August. Striga’s second assault on Tambov is a failure, but the defenders are down to a thousand or so. I simply cannot recruit troops fast enough to maintain the speed of our campaign. Most of the men at Moscow are raw.
October 10th. Tambov falls. Striga will march back to Muscovy for the winter. The campaign will take another year.
November. Harassing and pathetic little levies raised by the Mongols attack Striga on the way back to Muscovy, leaving him in a desolate land as winter sets in. He changes direction to Vladimir to attack Kazan itself in the spring, while our new levies will assault Vorones.
Janury 10th, 1494. Striga arrives at Vladimir losing 4000 troops on the march, far more than the Mongols could have done. A new levy of peasants are being forced by the Mongol oppressors to lay seige to Tambov (12,000).
March 4th. Our relations with all nations are improving. Perhaps we are finally being recognized as no longer the slaves of the Mongols. We offer a marriage to Bohemia which they accept. Another balance to the Poles. Unfortunately, Hungary chose not to accept the same proposal.
April 1. The residents of Tambov are starving. The Muscovy army moves to relief. Striga gathers reinforcements for a massive assault on Kazan.
April 20. The poor Khanate levies were wiped out at Tambov. The Khanate begs for peace offering Lipetsk. Not good enough, we say.
May 3. Striga has all his men now. 40,000 infantry and some cossacks. All will attack Kazan. Our other major cossack contingent moves to Ryazan to protect both Tambov and Lipetsk.
June 26. I think our troops are not so good at assaulting even minimal fortresses. Striga failed and barely caused 1000 casualties to the defenders. This means that the campaign will go on for an additional year.
November. The siege at Kazan continues through the winter. Striga is there. Hungary refused another marriage proposal.
January 1495. Our engineers have developed metal cannon balls, as opposed to the scraps we were firing out of our poor cannon, which had a tendency to explode. This should give our troops an advantage.
March 20. Striga obtained the surrender of Kazan. All forces to move on Vorones at first break of weather.
April 1. Winter is finally over. 20,000 men move to assist Striga at Kazan. The Mongols have managed to lay siege to Ryazan, but that will not last long as another 20,000 men move in the direction of the Mongol holdout province, Vorones.
May. The last Khanate armies are hounded and defeated at battles stretching from Ryazan to Lipetsk, pursued by Striga as he moves toward Vorones. The Khanate offered peace with three of their provinces. This time, we show complete disinterest in their proposal. They leave in shock.
July. Striga arrives at Vorones and fails in the assault, as I expected. However, the defenders are down to 1700 men and should collapse at the next attempt. Pskov wisely accepts our alliance proposal. Spain and France go to war over something, pulling in a bunch of their western European allies. We don’t care.
August. Poland declares war on the Courland. We do care. But we are committed at the moment. We send a letter of introduction to the Brandenburgers, who appear somewhat unimpressed. We are looking towards an alliance that will be able to distract Poland.
September 15. Vorones falls. We annex the Khanate. We lost 71,000 infantry and 41,000 cavalry in the campaign. Could have done much better. Next time, defeat the main body of their army first, which will leave one at leisure to siege the cities with minimal forces and thereby reduce losses to attrition.
The beginnings of a new power in eastern europe.
The next target is the Golden Horde, who in fact have gold in Samara. We are going to rest for one full year and begin that campaign in 1497. Hopefully, this one will be better planned and last no more than one year.
October. Turkey and their allies declared war on the Mamluks and their allies.
January, 1496. We are at a loss for allies other than Bohemia. Everyone seems engaged. However we send a letter of introduction to Bavaria, adjoining Bohemia, who could also help in the event of war with Poland.
February. Courland got Moldavia out of the Poland alliance with 250 ducats. Bavaria rejected our marriage proposal.
July. Hungary rejected our marriage proposal for the second time in 2 years. We deploy forces against the Horde in anticipation of next year’s campaign.
October. Our engineers have learned to make artillery like the Turkish have. We shall build some as soon as we have the money. Our army consists now of 72000 infantry and 19,000 cavalry. A shadow of what we had when we stared the war against Kazan. But with most of it deployed against the Horde, it should be more than enough to do the job.
March, 1497. Ivan wants to conquer Ingerman. He will wait. France fully annexed Milan, no doubt to cause them trouble with everyone else henceforth.
April 1. Let the word go forth from this time and place that the Russians are no longer subject to the Horde. Our armies move to attack. Striga will take on Sheik Ahmed at Boguatar with 20000 infantry and the Cossacks. All other armies will immediately lay siege to all other Horde cities.
April 26. The Horde main army is defeated, all other Horde cities are now under siege.
May. Horde recruits unwisely leave the cities to attack the besiegers, all are defeated. A small Horde force manages to make it into Kazan and lay siege there, but the cossacks arrive and drive them off.
August. The Horde force is totally destroyed at Tambov by the Cossacks. Our new guns and 5000 infantry move up to Tambov to be ready to blast at city walls in the event that they refuse to fall by spring. Poland annexed Courland. So much for their vassalization to the Order.
November 2, Kuibyshev falls.
December 23, Saratov falls.
January 14, Samara the Horde capital falls.
January 28, Bogutjar falls, the last Horde province. We annex.
Another successful liberation of Holy Mother Russia.
Total lossess are now 92,000 infantry and 44,000 cavalry. We lost approximately 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cossacks in the campaign, actually a small price.
The next obvious target is AstraKhan. However, their army is larger than these smaller Khanates and they have better defenses. We shall concentrate on the following for the time being :
1. Improve our alliance posture to balance out any threat from Poland or Sweden.
2. Make internal improvements
3. Prepare for an attack on the Astra Khanate by 1505 at the latest. This will open up Siberia to us, so we should think about improving our trade and infrastructure level to take advantage of those financial opportunities.
4. Expand trade in Novgorod.
February, 1498. Lorraine fully annexed by France.
March 6. Denmark accepted a marriage proposal from us.
June, 1499. Milan, recently acquired by the French, declared independence again. I doubt the French will be willing to forge ahead with quashing that since they lack a connection to it.
November 1499. Its really irritating that the Astra Khanate is building up their fortresses along my border with them. Perhaps I should strike early?
January, 1500. Poland declared war on Turkey, pulling in all the Turkish allies, including the Astra Khanate. Hmm. Turkey is also still at war with the Mamluks. Turkey is too powerful right now, but heavily committed on two fronts. Poland is in essence protecting the Russians under their control for us right now. We could attack Poland and probably gain a few provinces in a quick peace, but this would weaken them against the Turks. If we attack the AstraKhan now, we will offer the Turks a third front. The risk would be that the Turks would honor their commitment to the AstraKhan, and come after us. However, this would be extremely costly for them due to the fact that they would not arrive until winter, where they will learn that only Russians can withstand a Russian winter. Certainly not the decadent Turks.
We will attack the AstraKhan now, before they build up more defenses, and take the risk of war with Turkey and the Crimea.
April 1. We declare war on Astrakhan. All the Turkish allies honor the alliance including the Crimea, Algiers and Oman. This gives Turkey a fourth war to contend with now.
May 8th. Our Army of the Urals entered Uralsk and attacked the fort there, taking it with little loss. When word of the war between Poland and Turkey came, our armies were camped in winter quarters near and around Moscow. It will take some time for them to arrive at the front.
June 29th. While Striga continues to march south, the Army of the Urals takes Orenburg by storm.
July
15,000 raw Khanate recruits marching our of AstraKhan blunder into the Army of the Urals and are decimated.
August 27. Striga arrives at Volgagrad and assaults, decimating both the retreating Khanates from Astrakhan and the fort. Volgograd falls. Unfortunately, Striga died.
November 7th. Winter approaches. Our assault with over 50,000 infantry on Astrakhan itself failed. However, Lugansk fell to a combined Pskov / Russia assault. Only the Donets and Astrakhan remain.
March, 1501. Attrition has mostly wiped out the armies at Donets and Astrakhan. Fortunately, the Turks are preoccupied with Moldavia.
June 15th. Of course the Khanate makes repeated peace offers. Donets falls to a combined Polish Russian siege! May there be few of those. The city is mine, however, and the price I will demand for coming to their aid. In fact, at a later time, I will think this entitles me to the Polish crown.
July 23. Moldavia got a peace for 250. Now the moslem troops move towards Astrakhan. It will be too late.
August. Trouble. Astrakhan falls and they do not accept an annexation. Even though the Astrakhanate was fully occupied, they know they had powerful allies and therefore could continue the fight. Siberian tribes to the east look menacing to me at this point. Crimean troops march against the Donets. Pskov took the Kouban. I back the Army of the Urals up all the way to Samara
September 17th, due to some quick movements, I was able to defeat the Crimeans at Donets, although one battle was lost, the reinforcing troops got there as the Crimeans were attempting to storm Donets and doing badly at it. I have to get back to quarters before the winter and find a way out of this war.
Another mixed force of moslems destroyed at the Donets, but I am taking heavy casualties in my cossacks.
As winter closes in, I offer the Khanates my acquisition of three of their provinces and some of their ducats. They accept. This will allow me to rebuild, and protects my border from the wild Siberians. Now they can deal with the Poles. Unfortunately, I have to give up Donets. I gained Uralsk, Lugansk and Volgograd.
The Khanate is split in two.
I question whether this peace offering of mine was the wise course. The Astrakhanate came up with 125 ducats in the peace agreement, but they are still in the game and their troops (about 30,000 that I have seen) are still in the mix with the Turks and the Poles. I do hope that the Poles can beat them, because our expansion plans would be much better served by having to face weak and divided Poland than immensely powerful Turkey. The Turks already control several of the Ukrainian provinces. We offer the Poles a cheap loan, but they refuse.
I shared 100 ducats with the Pskovians for their loyal service.
Our army is down to 46,000 infantry and 14,000 Cossacks, along with 15 guns (we lost 5 guns during one of the assaults on Astrakhan). We must rebuild from this weak military and diplomatic position.
November. The Turks are narrowing their enemies and have settled with the Mamelukes. Only Poland and Algiers remain as enemies to them.
December. In the dead of winter, the Poles barely manage to defeat a force of Moslems at Donets. I’m actually cheering the Poles. I guess if I had only one swing of my sword, I would kill a Turk before a Pole. Business before pleasure as they say.
January 4, 1502. Turkey accepted peace with the Poles and the Poles recovered Podolia. The news is cheered in our court. Obviously the Christian world, both the true Church and the Catholics, must deal with the Moslem heretics before working out our differences. How we work out our differences is another matter. We send another letter of introduction to the Magyars with a view to eventually prising them out of their Austrian alliance. We intend to seek a marriage with them as well.
Our annual income from census taxes is up over 120 ducats a year, giving us a total of 220 this year. We improve the bailiff to a tax collector in Tver and newly acquired Samara (with the gold). We have 5 years to build up our infrastructure and army for the final annexation of Astrakhan.
March. We have a slight problem now. Thanks to the stupid Poles, the Astrakhan and Crimea are both allied with Turkey until sometime in 1512. To make matters worse, the Crimea actually owns territories in the Holy Land the Turks took from the Mamelukes. This will make them extremely difficult, if not impossible, to actually annex. We will have to look for some kind of disruption to this situation. Perhaps an alliance with Venice or some kind of new Christian crusade to the Holy Land. Difficult problem. Some in the court are suggesting that we attempt to vassalize and annex the Crimea at some point, an idea which has little practical merit.
June. Hungary rejects our 4th marriage proposal.
January, 1504
The rebuilding effort continues along with the infrastructure efforts. On the diplomatic front, our relations with the central European countries declines slightly each year, which is why it is important to get royal marriages with some of them, unfortunately, we lack the grease their palms apparently need. We upgrade 2 bailiffs this year and forego diplomatic efforts.
May
We send a note to the Georgians who apparently regard us as enemies. They still do as our relationship slightly improved from my magnanimity. Perhaps I should focus on acquiring Pskov diplomatically.
May Russia rise to glory!
