Let the rise continue!
There's going to be a few fun things here. Allying the Ottomans is almost like playing the Ottoman Empire if done right.
First things first: The rebel problem was never fixed, only a few hecklers got removed from the audience, but the horde's of unpatriotic scum aren't going to be silent for long.
This is going to bug the empire for at least another decade.
And Georgia's troops decide they've had it with this world and ended it all on their own terms.
Stack is split in the screen because there's still this weird bug where if you split stacks and leave with one part of your troops you lose the siege. QQ is already sitting on the fort, ready to grab it.
Split troops before QQ arrived so I have at least something to unsiege my provinces in case things go south.
QQ's troops have also been given military access, which they immediately take since Georgia has troops in my lands. Only two possible outcomes. Either the black sheep comes over and chases them out of my lands or the enemy decides it's over and tries to unsiege.
Also due to the fact that their fort is in the mountains. Only level 1 though (I could have gotten it
2 days, 2 days too late, only 2 days
) but either way, they are dead.
Their separatists decide if that's what our king wants we should do the same and
Leace my borders to siege down Imereti.
Did similar exports by placing troops into Erzurum and will do so a few times in this run. They can only go to Oltu, then Kars, then into a neighbour's provinces. They don't attack like headless chicken into -3 (mountains+crossing) anymore. Looks like they learned a few tricks.
Good for us either way. Let others deal with those vile creatures.
The siege is over, we put our troops into Kars. They already own Oltu so they won't run back in there and they can't go into cars, again because of modifiers.
And we have a winner of our "who are we going to kill" challenge! Dingdingding, Imereti, you should have averted your eyes. Georgia is MINE
And there goes our chance to end the run in 1454. Sadly, we couldn't vassalize and attack the eastern menace.
But we can still get Imereti.
Hey, Otto, there are rebels in my southern provinces. And maybe get rid of Imereti as well? Thanks.
Waiting a few extra months before calling them in. One rebel stack did stir up a commotion in our south, but we want even more rebels to pop.
Being in a war with someone on your side means they will dedicate a stack to kill rebels in your nation.
Only one stack gets chosen though, so if you're Riga and allied to Muscovy and Navarra, tough luck if Navarra gets to be your rebel-removing-machine.
Ottos refuse to come though and a quick look tells us why.
They're at war with Venice! Out of all nations, the one that'll take the longest to defeat! Oh boy
No worries though. Rinse and repeat. Troops placed in Mardin and fingers crossed they don't randomly get interested in Urfa.
They shouldn't and they wouldn't. Enjoy cleaning up my rebels for me, QQ.
Downside is I have to sit in that province until they return from Yerevan and that's a looong time away.
Especially with their reluctance to kill rebels without delay. They always seem to ponder whether or not it is right to destroy life (hint: it is.) and Imereti is already creeping south.
No forts to stop them because our nation is defended by its people, not the garstly stone monuments other nations erect.
Also, forts are a waste of cash. Planning for defense only hinders your offense.
And another neat trick
Not done on purpose, but good to keep in the back of your head because it can really turn early wars. When Georgia had its provinces taken away the only one available already had a lvl2 fort. So they got a lvl3 mountain fort.
Please Imereti, enjoy the scenery. You're going to be there for a loooooong time.
This is one of the weirder things and I'm still not sure if it's WAD or a bug, but an occupied province will get the occupier's modifiers.
Meaning Georgia is an accepted culture, they have lower war exhaustion, they got stability, etc. Bringing Kars down to 6.3 unrest instead of 16.
Looks like our people welcome their new overlord. Good for us, delays their outbreak a bit. Precious time because the Ottoman empire is still touching minors inappropriately.
How do you even have a claim? On anything? MINE! MINE! MINE!
But what do I hear? A commotion in the west?
The cavalry has arrived! Since we can't do anything there anyways, we are angry. Trebizond will be the target of our soldier's wrath.
They're allied with Theodoro, but that's okay. Finally able to take them on solo as well because our force limit is a sweet, sweet 10. Enough to siege level 3 forts.
Saves a good amount of cash as well. Our nation has been at least 1 unit over force limit the whole run so far.
And here comes the first little exploit of the new patch.
I found it! I get to keep it!
Drilling your armies on max maintenance? Hah, it will cost almost 2 ducats to reinforce.
This is solved by moving the slider to 0.
Armies will still get reinforced, you're paying for full upkeep because they're being drilled, but reinforcements are free.
It's not much, but every little bit helps.
And during all of this, we are getting closer and closer to our desired level legalism.
Maximum Legalism
We're attacking Orthodox nations exclusively, pushing us heavily in that direction and we like it
All of its bonis are useful. Won't be able to convert much anyways, but an estates inquisitor has been hired earlier to convince at least a few provinces of the one true faith.
Legalism is definitely the more useful choice in single player for two reasons: Drawbacks associated with events are less severe than what a nation would get when picking mysticism aaaaaaand
It lets us get rid of our corruption. Constantly.
This will be done at least twice before the session is over and many many times throughout the game. Sometimes we'll debase just to get rid of corruption again, Free cash at the start? Sure! The empire wants it, the empire needs it.
Always sit at 100 legalism and if an event for extra legalism hits you can reduce corruption, go down to 50 and immediately get back to 60 or more. What a nice mechanic.
Sadly, the war takes its first real casualty. Our old monarch dies in the siege of Theodoro.
GIMME!
Almost too good to be true. The foolish Qara Qoyunlu think they can take all of them at once?
QQ is still too powerful, even with that constellation, a Dow would be suicide.
Especially given the Mamluk's reputation. A herald told us they like to stop, drop and roll. Unless there's a fire. When there's a fire they just stop and burn.
An interesting philosophy, but nothing the great nation of Hisn Kayfe should think about.
We wrap up our wars, have paid off all loans, got Theodoro as a vassal, fully annexed Trebizond hoping that our force limit will be at least 12 because their province will spawn 10k stacks in mountains our troops can only reach through a river crossing. They'll be the bane of our empire's existence for a long time. But what it does do is block the Ottoman Empire in.
We don't want them to grow, we just want them to get rid of our neighbours, is that too much to ask for?
Crimea didn't take anything from Imereti, as expected, and we can feed our vassal a bit of land. Keeping those two loyal will keep our Sheikh up at night, but the people demand Lebensraum in the east and nobody's ever heard that idea going wrong.
Lots of negative events hit our nation, but in all fairness I can not complain. We're picking up corruption, get a stabhit, lose all professionalism and more, but it's okay. We wanted to repair our nation anyways right after smashing QQ, who are still preoccupied with the Mamluks.
But what's this?
Grrreat. Anizah would help.
Oh sultan, my sultan, why hath thou forsaken me.
The answer is: It would destabilize them.
Because attacking someone who has over 100 opinion of you nets you a stabhit.
Too bad they don't have that. QQ has improved and Ottos think highly of them, not the other way around. They could easily attack.
Never seen that one before, but I'll remember it. Nobody can attack you if you improve relations enough.
I just wish I could've learned it another time, right now we need the Ottoman Empire.
Or do we?
Let's ponder for a while.
Most rebels are killed, but will come back shortly, vassals are disloyal, loans have been paid off and QQ is fighting a war on two fronts.
We have also been able to rival them and power projection is always a nice thing to have.
Oh the decisions that have to be made.
Attack QQ solo, attack Mamluks with our friend's help or just sit around a bit and heal.
Let's see where our journey is taking us.
