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Great run so far and a good read. My only Hisn Kayfa attempt so far started well enough (got to 250 ish dev), but I wasn't able to ally the Ottomans so they eventually dow'd me when all my allies would refuse the CtA and I got squashed.
Looking forward to seeing how this plays out for you, although I'm sure you've got it in the bag with that big green attack dog
Looking forward to seeing how this plays out for you, although I'm sure you've got it in the bag with that big green attack dog
Nooo, we would never do something like that.
I mean we would, but aggressive expansion is still a concern. Not because they could threaten us, but because it would lock us in for a decade or two.
Winning against a coalition isn't the issue, getting something out of it is.
Bit busy today, but I'll get around to write one or two more chapters in the afternoon.
Great run so far and a good read. My only Hisn Kayfa attempt so far started well enough (got to 250 ish dev), but I wasn't able to ally the Ottomans so they eventually dow'd me when all my allies would refuse the CtA and I got squashed.
Looking forward to seeing how this plays out for you, although I'm sure you've got it in the bag with that big green attack dog
If you can't beat em, join em
If you ever feel like you can't beat an enemy after having a decent run you can always resort to exodus ideas or grab the diplomatic defense act (increases coring costs for enemies) to make yourself unattractive.
Personally I would probably start tentacling north to get an alliance with Muscovy/Russia. Their forces suffice to deter the Ottoman Empire from attacking at least for a while, giving you enough time to gobble up India for a few thousand dev.
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Quick update:
Our ambitions to become a great power have been slowed down a bit thanks to the Mamluk's alliance, constant manpower and rebel issues and - of course - the lack of a landbridge in the east. We made the bed we're lying in
Aside from that it's looking great. Trust is above 80, Ottos think highly of us with +200, their ruler is still young and will probably survive another 20 years, giving us enough time to surpass them if we can break out (and don't wall ourselves in again) and thanks to our control over Aleppo we finally start seeing some trade income.
Another thing we skipped earlier was islamic schools - none of which suit us except for -10% shock damage received, which we can't get - and our taxation policy
Only 2 cultures accepted so far. Not enough states to get that Georgian land fully in and it's not really worth our dip points to accept them yet.
Maybe it is, who knows. I prefer catching up in dip tech. It's not like there's much unrest in our nation or anything
Timurids are now almost dismantled, but their cores are intact. If everything goes well they will die so we can release them or get decimated enough for vassalization.
Sweet cores, sweet reconquest, one can only hope.
Our neighbour decides to take a bite out of the Balkans. Serbia has no allies, this will be a short one.
Good for us as well. As long as they're only eating Serbia or Bosnia we can still have the option to ally Hungary for a full box.
Always keep as many options as possible on the table. Sometimes your most beautiful plans will fail horribly, but with 10 backup plans in your pocket there'll always be something to do.
Troops were sitting in Oltu earlier, which has a river crossing. Fastest entry point was Imereti, but thankfully we were fast enough. Arrival time was 1 day before we would've gotten even more separatism.
At least they're not Trebizondians. Those buggers are still hanging over our head.
Meanwhile, Serbia got fully annexed by our ally.
A few more sidenotes:
Muscovy has attacked Kazan, dragging Crimea and Circassia in with them. I really hope they don't annex anything bordering me.
2 missions to grab QQ provinces are available, both of which give autonomy reduction for the province.
Sad. Our troops need an inspiring victory for the manpower recovery speed. Even with Quantity filling up we're having trouble staying afloat thanks to rebels.
We're finally back on track with dip tech and a lot earlier than expected. Institution has been embraced a while ago thanks to our European provinces spawning it and Osmanoglu embracing it early, giving us another speed boost.
2 years have passed now. Rebels are a bit more calm, the Ottoman Empire is at peace and we're getting impatient.
Sitting around is not an activity for a nation with our ambitions, but no-cb is not something we like to do and all other options look unfavorable.
Except for...
Ohhh you will come to regret this. Both of you will. A lot
Our ambitions to become a great power have been slowed down a bit thanks to the Mamluk's alliance, constant manpower and rebel issues and - of course - the lack of a landbridge in the east. We made the bed we're lying in
Aside from that it's looking great. Trust is above 80, Ottos think highly of us with +200, their ruler is still young and will probably survive another 20 years, giving us enough time to surpass them if we can break out (and don't wall ourselves in again) and thanks to our control over Aleppo we finally start seeing some trade income.
Another thing we skipped earlier was islamic schools - none of which suit us except for -10% shock damage received, which we can't get - and our taxation policy
Only 2 cultures accepted so far. Not enough states to get that Georgian land fully in and it's not really worth our dip points to accept them yet.
Maybe it is, who knows. I prefer catching up in dip tech. It's not like there's much unrest in our nation or anything
Timurids are now almost dismantled, but their cores are intact. If everything goes well they will die so we can release them or get decimated enough for vassalization.
Sweet cores, sweet reconquest, one can only hope.
Our neighbour decides to take a bite out of the Balkans. Serbia has no allies, this will be a short one.
Good for us as well. As long as they're only eating Serbia or Bosnia we can still have the option to ally Hungary for a full box.
Always keep as many options as possible on the table. Sometimes your most beautiful plans will fail horribly, but with 10 backup plans in your pocket there'll always be something to do.
Troops were sitting in Oltu earlier, which has a river crossing. Fastest entry point was Imereti, but thankfully we were fast enough. Arrival time was 1 day before we would've gotten even more separatism.
At least they're not Trebizondians. Those buggers are still hanging over our head.
Meanwhile, Serbia got fully annexed by our ally.
A few more sidenotes:
Muscovy has attacked Kazan, dragging Crimea and Circassia in with them. I really hope they don't annex anything bordering me.
2 missions to grab QQ provinces are available, both of which give autonomy reduction for the province.
Sad. Our troops need an inspiring victory for the manpower recovery speed. Even with Quantity filling up we're having trouble staying afloat thanks to rebels.
We're finally back on track with dip tech and a lot earlier than expected. Institution has been embraced a while ago thanks to our European provinces spawning it and Osmanoglu embracing it early, giving us another speed boost.
2 years have passed now. Rebels are a bit more calm, the Ottoman Empire is at peace and we're getting impatient.
Sitting around is not an activity for a nation with our ambitions, but no-cb is not something we like to do and all other options look unfavorable.
Except for...
Ohhh you will come to regret this. Both of you will. A lot
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Are you going to gobble up the Levantine coast, or create a bridge so you can start dealing with central Arabia?
Also with so many rebel issues early on, would it have been worth it to raise autonomy, or would that have razed your economy too much.
Also with so many rebel issues early on, would it have been worth it to raise autonomy, or would that have razed your economy too much.
Being completely locked down and expansion going at a very high speed I'm certain the decision where to expand into won't fall on me.
The AI has always tried to protect itself against blobbing. With the new patch even more so.
The alliance between Mamluks and Poland is a good example. Never seen that one before, but it makes sense.
East on the other hand is probably running into coalition issues since there are still too many nations alive and I can not truce circle because the landbridge is missing.
It's difficult to explain how big a mistake that was. Completely turned around the run in a way I dislike.
Imagine getting a random estates desaster. You won't die from it, but people like florryworry would immediately savescum because it has just that much of an impact.
Raising autonomy is possible in certain situations, but I prefer it as a strategic element.
Maybe I should've included those screenshots as well, but here's a few pointers:
- Raising autonomy will always raise it based on your minimum autonomy. Before getting a full core (cored+stated+cored) your minimum autonomy is 75%.
Option 1: You conquer a province and immediately increase autonomy. Local autonomy is now at 100%.
Even after coring and stating it.
Your province is now dirt.
Option 2: You conquer a province, core it, state it, full core it and increase autonomy afterwards.
In that case you get your 'actual autonomy'. LA does have a hidden value you do not see while it's locked at 75%.
However, by waiting to lower autonomy you still have to endure one outbreak most of the time.
Option 2 is worth it, but I like to go a step further.
First outbreak takes place either way. Take rebels down, enjoy -100 unrest for 10 years.
Second time around separatism is low enough so unrest will be no more than 10.
Watch your uprisings closely and if one of them reaches 90% at a bad time you increase autonomy. That way you enjoy the benefits of lower autonomy for the maximum amount of time and still only get 1 uprising.
Chances are half of those provinces will never get another uprising before separatism dies out, saving you 25% local autonomy per province.
I had to increase autonomy only three times so far.
- Increasing autonomy only makes sense if it prevents an outbreak. This rule is one of the most often ignored ones and also counts for unrest modifiers.
You get the event for -2 global unrest for a few ducats and 10 admin points while all your provinces are sitting at 12 unrest?
They're going to explode either way. Don't do it. It's not as much of a no-brainer as you might think.
- You can not prevent an outbreak just by increasing autonomy. -10 unrest is not enough early one except for a few nations.
The longer you play the more modifiers you will get. Positive tolerance, accepted cultures, etcetcetc but if you start in 1444, conquer a province and reduce autonomy you will still get the rebel outbreak. You're merely delaying it and weakening your economy.
There are a few more things, but I don't want to go too much into depth.
What I'm saying is I am in fact reducing autonomy when it makes sense.
Our nation is conquering too much too fast while not having any unrest reduction in our ideas though.
Several different culture groups, low religious tolerance, multiple religions and no unrest reduction available means you will always have some kind of rebels at your doorstep.
Bringing us to another thing: Most of the wars we declared were timed with rebel outbreaks.
You'll notice when checking screenshots that rebels always pop up shortly before a war and most of them during our wars.
A bit of them afterwards as well, but those are the remaining stacks that were waiting at 80%/90% and got a boost from our overextension.
Our allies take them down for us as long as they're in any kind of war with us.
Could even call them in against Shirvan if rebels overwhelm me.
Aside from estate provinces everything is sitting below 25% local autonomy, increasing our income and manpower gains. The economical benefits are just too good.
Most good youtubers follow a completely different style of fueling growth through growth. I'm not gonna delve into expansion economies here because while it is the more standard option, it simply does not fit in this situation. On the contrary it would even be a mistake had we continued like that.
The box meant I couldn't go balls to the wall and me locking myself in just prolonged that status quo.
A stable empire made a lot more sense.
Right now the run is almost entirely macro based. The only micromanagment there is are rebels, local autonomy and Estates.
Maybe I should've given more screens, but stuff like watching Muscovy's POI or really any nation we can currently see while the game is running on speed 3 and little to no pauses makes for an extremely relaxed game.
And as long as my macro decisions are well-informed ones there is almost no room for mistakes.
And playing without having a worry in the world makes for a much better game
Sorry for the wall of text, I got carried away
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No worries, I’ve only just learned about the core/state/core/auto redux trick, so it’s good to see it in action. I have seen you use the Turk as a rebel smasher, I guess just seeing so many mentions of rebels had me wondering about what the overall management strategy you were using for dealing with them.
As for Arabia, I would guess you will DoW Cyprus just to make Mamluks break alliance with Poland. Would a combo of AE from non co belligerant and wanting a short truce Make it a bad idea to take 2 provinces to gain access to central Arabia?
As for Arabia, I would guess you will DoW Cyprus just to make Mamluks break alliance with Poland. Would a combo of AE from non co belligerant and wanting a short truce Make it a bad idea to take 2 provinces to gain access to central Arabia?
The turks smashing my rebels is the overall strategy.
After a while you get a feeling to time those waves and if you know five years in advance you can plan wars accordingly. Really any nation stronger than you is suited to do that job.
And rebels are a real pain in that region. I mention them way less often than "I" have to deal with them actually.
You're correct, the plan is to annull treaties. I do want a few provinces though.
Did nothing for 2 years and now have a relations advisor and Mamlukian provinces are by now far away from other nations. AE should be managable.
Back to the game, there has been a change in leadership! The old Osmanoglu has left the throne to make room for his heir and
not a militarist!
Don't even know what balanced behavior does. Maybe something to learn after the run is over. At least they not desiring our lands
They want Cyprus though, which we can not give them or else they get access to the Levant again, the exact thing we've been trying to prevent them from having.
Our indulgent emperor has decided to use his ability as a free thinker to meditate a bit over the state of his nation and came to a conclusion
He may not be a babbling buffoon, but we may need someone to help us improve our relations.
Timmies imploding and Muscovy not eating up northern minors means an HRE style coalition is looming.
There are currently more nations in our north than at the start of the game. Annoying, but most of our AE is east anyways, where Sunnis and Shias are battling for dominance over former Timurid land.
At least our heir is strong. 13 points is way above average. Too bad he's almost the same age as Sheikh Ahmad I Ayyubid. Can't have everything.
Now we can finally show the south who's in control! Or can we?
One last correction to the deal has to be made.
We saw the Ottoman empire desiring Cyprus. We do not want Cyprus, we just want to prevent them from getting it.
Promising them land only affects the final peacedeal and a white peace is always acceptable for all participants. They're happy as long as they're getting their share and 90% of nothing is still nothing.
Saves us 10 favors. We are already sitting at 90 trust, but having food on your table doesn't mean you can burn the fridge. Always think of the future, those favors might come in handy in case we need to tell them to prepare for war or similar.
War taxes are being raised 10 days after declaring war. Always, always do that in the age of discovery. It's free money, who can say no to free money?
Our indulgent leader, probably. But we're not indulgent!
The first month passes and there's not much to show because our war was well timed.
Rebels... but at least they're on our side this time.
You can click on a province to see who's sieging it. If it's rebels you know a good chunk of the enemy's army will be distracted. The further away from you, the better.
No need to frantically check every single province every time, but it's a neat trick and has come in handy lots of times.
We get an event to give our cavalry more combat ability. Not useful at all. Infantry is the backbone of our military and the only 2 mounted units we have are the one we had at the start and another one we got from integrating Georgia.
Filling Combat width is more important and none of our enemies have been weaker than us so far. Cav is nothing but a waste of money in our situation.
A minor stack wants to bypass the frontlines, our first enemy contact in four months! But we don't want them to siege our lands. Neither do we want to fight them.
What we want to see is them going into Dimashq (drylands!)
Combat formations are easy: Whoever arrives first moves in formation and that formation will get locked.
Even if Hisn Kayfa would bring more and stronger troops they'd only get distributed around the first arriving stack.
Example: If we were to send in 20.000 cannons and 1 day later 10.000 infantry arrives our cannons would still fight from the front row and not move back.
So by having Mamluks attack our ally we can put their troops in the center and save valuable manpower while still contributing the most we can.
Whenever we move into Tadmor, those 5,5k stop moving. We could intercept them once their movement is locked, but 11k with no general vs 5,5k is not the fight we want. We're bringing our general in.
They will either continue dancing until our general arrives, we let them lock movement and intercept, or reinforcements arrive and they will feel strong enough to attack Dimashq
And Dimashq it is!
Where did they get that general from? 5 shock? 3 fire? Who is that guy and why isn't he leading OUR armies?
Forgot to check for it and wanted Ottos to suffer a few more casualties. We're the best ally, aren't we?
General was a bit surprising, but at least we got a nice amount of army tradition for our troubles.
Half their army is down, we got more units than half their army so until they come back from their retreat we can siege without getting disturbed.
... or not?
That's right, the Ottoman Empire is preparing a landing. From somewhere. Definitely not from the frontlines, but somewhere they are preparing a landing.
Glad they are finally able to do things like that, but...
In the eternal words of The Beatles: HELP! I NEED SOMEBODY!
The other half of our troops is north to get rid of a few more rebels, which the Anatolian troops also refuse to fight.
Time to make a run for it.
Osmanoglu's soldiers come towards us and start sieging Tarabulus. Successful escape! Meanwhile our contingent - after just having fought rebels for a month - gets surprised by a stack trying to siege prosperous lands.
We don't need war participation anymore. Who gave them the order to attack over a river in hills?
Thankfully their army was composed almsot exclusively of camels. Somebody still hasn't learned about cavalry ratios.
Since the topic came up
Ottoman troops are god knows where, so we can't rely on them to kill our rebels and since we timed revolts as usual we keep getting shoved back while fighting them, only to regain the very same provinces a few weeks later.
Not feasible. It's time to increase autonomy in Malatya, which has separatists sitting at 90%.
Without having to worry about rebels for at least two months we can bait Mamluks into another fight with Ottoman troops in the center, arrive timely because we remember their general (a true beast especially considering Mamluks have low army tradition) and beat them soundly.
Finally the line is broken and it is only now that our Sunni brothersd decide that maybe landing isn't such a good idea.
They can help sieging, I guess, but their war participation is hilariously low.
Did I mention Anizah was in the war as well? I didn't notice so far. Took them as an ally to reduce AE because I wasn't interested in ther land anytime soon. Called them in for good measures. Not sure what they were doing, but judging from their manpower they did die a lot for us.
Good.
Haasa looks a bit tinier than before. They would be ready to become our vassal.
Not sure why we should be interested.
Ohhh, gimme gimme gimme!
Tasty cores all around and allied to FOUR different nations!
With the click of a button we can not only remove a nuisance from a future war of our choice, but we also get a better peacedeal since core return costs less warscore.
Mental note is written, now onto another neat little thing
20k peasants are sieging Iskandariyya.
The weakest possible rebel type is leading our siege. The Sheikh is delighted.
Siege stati get saved. Even the days remaining until the next tick.
Wait until they're at 0% and attack.
aaaaand of course our general dies 2 days after the battle starts.
Oh well, we got a free siege out of it. Ottomans were busy sieging all southern provinces in the meanwhile.
We waste neither time nor men. A completely different tactic compared to our earlier "die as much as possible".
The troops are certainly happy about it.
Mamluks are ready to give up. We pick the last province the Ottoman empire could reach and have now completely cut them off.
We're also taking Jerusalem. It's time to convert heathens and heretics and freeing the city of god will help us in our endeavours.
A quick look at the map and
we remember that annulling treaties with Poland was probably more important.
Not necessarily though. Truce with QQ is up soon, then we can enter the east. At some point Mamluks will ally one of the remaining minors on the Arabian Peninsula.
Probably even better this way, but I let Jerusalem distract me from what I wanted to do.
Prestige is maxed out and our Nation can officially call itself a kingdom.
The respect was overdue.
While we're still pondering what to do with our newfound power, the Ottmans have finally landed.
They claimed it for themselves though.
Not today, not today. We promised you Cyprus, remember?
Aaand do-wait
They transferred occupation despite marking it as vital interest and us only having a claim on it (strategic utility)?
Balanced rulers are my new favorite.
We take it instantly and our box is finally complete. The Ottoman Empire can either go into the HRE or to hell.
Forts in Cyprus and Al Karak will be the first ones to remain. We never built ships and don't plan to. Autonomy gets reduced immediately in Cyprus since they were only sitting at 13.4
Fingers crossed, but with 3.4 there's a good chance we won't ever see an uprising there, but it's highlands and we would land. The fort stays.
Al Karak will be useful in future wars and against rebels. Out nation is of impressive size already and travel time starts to become a concern.
Did I say impressive size?
45 years. Almost two decades later than expected, but Hisn Kayfa is finally a great power. And it was the annexation of Cyprus that pushed us over the limit.
Entering the stage in sixth place, surpassing Manluks and England in one swift go.
And that concludes our war.
Still one of the most normal and beautiful maps I've played in a while.
Morocco kicked Portugal out of Africa, but didn't manage to enter Iberia, Castille did stomp Aragon and doesn't have the PU yet, but it'll probably fire shortly. Brandenburg did expand a bit as well, but nothing worrying.
The empire never got past reform #1 despite being stable and fragmented. A dream scenario.
Muscovy does show its ambitions but still isn't even close to bordering us. Timurids did implode, the Indian continent hasn't been united yet and the only thorn in our eye remains to be Poland.
I will either force them into an alliance with HRE minors to make sure they're busy for the rest of the game, or force them to attack the HRE to watch them implode. A nation of that size has no right to exist next to our
At least one year of shifting around powers and looking for our next target is our plan if the game allows us to.
Anizah will get vassalised for its claims, allowing us to attack Najd and Medina, Haasa will follow suit, giving us a few more claims and since both of them are in Asia and our capital is in Asia we will be able to core everything as long as it's bordering their cores.
Time to sit back for a while and think about how to proceed.
A well deserved rest after becoming the sixth greates power in the world.
Hisn Kayfa is on the rise!
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Good to see you ready to play in Arabia, even if it is shit land, it will be cheap with Reconquest CB. With Turk allied and Mamluks truce locked, how hard can you go at the area AE wise?
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All plans look nice, everything is ready, we can go, we can expand, we can
Get dragged into a war a mere 2 months after peacing out Cyprus.
*sigh*
Free manpower is nice, the game may want to tell us something here.
Caffa and Matrega are set as special interest before accepting the call to arms and immediate disappointment awaits us
Rebels...
We got our own, we can't take care of those.
As mentioned earlier, the war is now on the other side of the Ottoman empire. Their troops will not come in to help us.
Maybe it's time to increase autonomy, but our soldiers don't have anything better to do anyways.
Manpower is looking stable as well.
Or just stand on Trebizond because friendly troops lower unrest. The year is 1500 and we're finally going to be free! No more Trebizondians, hussah!
Our former ally Anizah would accept vassalization, which we'll do right after the war is over. Ajam is friendly and becomes our ally. They'll help us against QQ and our alliance will reduce AE again.
We continue trading legalism for corruption reduction and go above 80 Influence with the Ulema to get an Inquisitor. Really need to convert those provinces. Religious unity is down to 51%. Disgraceful.
Advancement of Clergy will run out before the desaster hits us so being above 80% influence is fine for a while.
It's not like we have anything better to do.
Weakest link kicked in again. Our vassal Theodoro was the first target for the enemy's alliance with Crimea coming second. Our troops can't siege Caffa and we certainly won't walk over to Iberia. No reason not to use the time while Turks are unavailable.
On our own we are already on par with Qara Qyoumlu and his ally, but we take Ajam with us with promise of land.
More than 30 years have passed since we broke our promise to Dulkadir, allowing us to break it again.
Nobody tell Ajam!
Carpet sieging while everyone is busy in Ajam. Basran Seperatists only want that province + Shatt. They won't bother our sieging troops.
Poland declares an interesting war. Denmark got hold of Danzig and nothing else, Sweden is still loyal.
Good. They waste resources and won't take more than a single province.
The war is over and we earn another 3 favors.
Time for us to wrap it up and get going
Almost full power projection, full prestige and a bunch of new provinces.
A fun activity while our ally was preoccupied.
It's cleanup time.
Provinces of interest get removed again, provinces stated, map modes are being checked.
We will probably finish the game before colonialism reaches us.
Iqta policy gets changed to coring cost reduction for the first time. With our new persian provinces we have enough cash and our alliance is solid enough to survive losing 1 dip rep.
Time to core. Delaying that is always a bit annoying.
You served your purpose.
Muscovy rivaled Poland and so do we. We could ally them if we wanted to. Not sure why we would want to, but we could.
Cleaning up another (hopefully last) wave of rebels, ready for a war in 1507. 3 years peace is more than enough, I want to take the peninsula in one big swoop.
Time to take a loooong look at the map.
Shirvan is only guaranteed by Biapas, who have 58% total warscore. No vassalization as normal participant, but setting them co-belligerent would call in other nations we want to attack separately.
Danzig gets ceded to Poland, England manages to somehow win a war against Burgundy and Muscovy is more than willing to ally us. 3/4 relations, one free slot.
Theodoro won't get annexed or cancelled because we don't need the province directly, but can make use of the nation later. We'll get to that.
Cyprus is down to 2 unrest with 40% progress. It is now safe to destroy the fort. We will wait until the end of the year though, just to be absolutely sure.
Worst case we get into a war and war exhaustion+overextension make our island dwellers angry. No rash decision.
The Iberian wedding finally takes place and after a while of not doing anything but looking around we find the decision to form Persia.
This is Persia! is still not in our trophy case. Yet.
Could pick up the achievement easily.
We will need to form it and conquer Anatolia for the achievement. Ottos will have to be fought soon, but we're still not on par with them.
A quick alliance with Muscovy solves that and a realization sinks in. Antagonizing Poland maybe wasn't the best idea.
On the other hand we're on a way safer path now.
We will tell Theodoro to fabricate on Poland, declare on them together with the Ottman Empire, watch their western provinces get shredded, grab a white peace or have Ottomans release nations, then trucebreak.
When? Not sure, but it's always good to have a plan. If you know the scenario you want 20 years in advance you can set your own stage when the time comes.
The first September 1507 went on forever.
Lots of theorycrafting, looking at alliance nets, checking ledgers, mapmodes, stats, diplomatic interactions, finances.
I'll spare you the details. There are several screenshots from that day, but it took me about half an hour before I let the clock run again.
Personally, I love it. My favorite part of the game. Not very interesting to watch though.
Finances are looking really good.
Once the fort in Cyprus is deleted we can stop worrying about ducats at, Maybe even build our first manufactory.
It wasn't worth the investment earlier, but now?
Unexpectedly we found a new goal, a second one, more to do after we have restored Saladin's legacy: We will form Persia and reclaim Anatolia from our best friend and most loyal ally.
Are we the baddies?
Get dragged into a war a mere 2 months after peacing out Cyprus.
*sigh*
Free manpower is nice, the game may want to tell us something here.
Caffa and Matrega are set as special interest before accepting the call to arms and immediate disappointment awaits us
Rebels...
We got our own, we can't take care of those.
As mentioned earlier, the war is now on the other side of the Ottoman empire. Their troops will not come in to help us.
Maybe it's time to increase autonomy, but our soldiers don't have anything better to do anyways.
Manpower is looking stable as well.
Or just stand on Trebizond because friendly troops lower unrest. The year is 1500 and we're finally going to be free! No more Trebizondians, hussah!
Our former ally Anizah would accept vassalization, which we'll do right after the war is over. Ajam is friendly and becomes our ally. They'll help us against QQ and our alliance will reduce AE again.
We continue trading legalism for corruption reduction and go above 80 Influence with the Ulema to get an Inquisitor. Really need to convert those provinces. Religious unity is down to 51%. Disgraceful.
Advancement of Clergy will run out before the desaster hits us so being above 80% influence is fine for a while.
It's not like we have anything better to do.
Weakest link kicked in again. Our vassal Theodoro was the first target for the enemy's alliance with Crimea coming second. Our troops can't siege Caffa and we certainly won't walk over to Iberia. No reason not to use the time while Turks are unavailable.
On our own we are already on par with Qara Qyoumlu and his ally, but we take Ajam with us with promise of land.
More than 30 years have passed since we broke our promise to Dulkadir, allowing us to break it again.
Nobody tell Ajam!
Carpet sieging while everyone is busy in Ajam. Basran Seperatists only want that province + Shatt. They won't bother our sieging troops.
Poland declares an interesting war. Denmark got hold of Danzig and nothing else, Sweden is still loyal.
Good. They waste resources and won't take more than a single province.
The war is over and we earn another 3 favors.
Time for us to wrap it up and get going
Almost full power projection, full prestige and a bunch of new provinces.
A fun activity while our ally was preoccupied.
It's cleanup time.
Provinces of interest get removed again, provinces stated, map modes are being checked.
We will probably finish the game before colonialism reaches us.
Iqta policy gets changed to coring cost reduction for the first time. With our new persian provinces we have enough cash and our alliance is solid enough to survive losing 1 dip rep.
Time to core. Delaying that is always a bit annoying.
You served your purpose.
Muscovy rivaled Poland and so do we. We could ally them if we wanted to. Not sure why we would want to, but we could.
Cleaning up another (hopefully last) wave of rebels, ready for a war in 1507. 3 years peace is more than enough, I want to take the peninsula in one big swoop.
Time to take a loooong look at the map.
Shirvan is only guaranteed by Biapas, who have 58% total warscore. No vassalization as normal participant, but setting them co-belligerent would call in other nations we want to attack separately.
Danzig gets ceded to Poland, England manages to somehow win a war against Burgundy and Muscovy is more than willing to ally us. 3/4 relations, one free slot.
Theodoro won't get annexed or cancelled because we don't need the province directly, but can make use of the nation later. We'll get to that.
Cyprus is down to 2 unrest with 40% progress. It is now safe to destroy the fort. We will wait until the end of the year though, just to be absolutely sure.
Worst case we get into a war and war exhaustion+overextension make our island dwellers angry. No rash decision.
The Iberian wedding finally takes place and after a while of not doing anything but looking around we find the decision to form Persia.
This is Persia! is still not in our trophy case. Yet.
Could pick up the achievement easily.
We will need to form it and conquer Anatolia for the achievement. Ottos will have to be fought soon, but we're still not on par with them.
A quick alliance with Muscovy solves that and a realization sinks in. Antagonizing Poland maybe wasn't the best idea.
On the other hand we're on a way safer path now.
We will tell Theodoro to fabricate on Poland, declare on them together with the Ottman Empire, watch their western provinces get shredded, grab a white peace or have Ottomans release nations, then trucebreak.
When? Not sure, but it's always good to have a plan. If you know the scenario you want 20 years in advance you can set your own stage when the time comes.
The first September 1507 went on forever.
Lots of theorycrafting, looking at alliance nets, checking ledgers, mapmodes, stats, diplomatic interactions, finances.
I'll spare you the details. There are several screenshots from that day, but it took me about half an hour before I let the clock run again.
Personally, I love it. My favorite part of the game. Not very interesting to watch though.
Finances are looking really good.
Once the fort in Cyprus is deleted we can stop worrying about ducats at, Maybe even build our first manufactory.
It wasn't worth the investment earlier, but now?
Unexpectedly we found a new goal, a second one, more to do after we have restored Saladin's legacy: We will form Persia and reclaim Anatolia from our best friend and most loyal ally.
Are we the baddies?
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Ottos as an ally are out of the question. They will finish Venice, but we don't want to wait around anymore.
For better or worse we now have a few more things to do seeing how expansion into Persia makes sense now instead of being a distraction.
Back to force limit and our first cannon arrives in our capital. Two more are being built.
1 does give us siege status -1 for every fort, but 3 gives us -2 on capitals. One tenth of our army will be cannons for now.
They're incredibly weak compared to their costs early on, but our nation is stable and we got to the tipping point where we're only getting stronger.
Now we only need to find someone we can attack without our lapdog.
A few thoughts
Gazimukh is an ally to Biapas and have less than 50% warscore.
Their provinces have has decent development and they got a few cores in the north including Astrakhan, which we could use to get a some trade money up there after integrating
But they also have Espionage ideas, the node isn't rich and are a tributary to Kazan, which is sitting at a whooping 250% warscore (equal strength as QQ).
The northern provinces aren't of any interest regarding either goal, we should not get distracted and since we can vassalize them even if they're a normal ally a mental note is made and we move on.
South of Anizah we have Medina, allied to Yemen and Dawasir. Dawasir could be vassalized, but doesn't have a land connection to Yemen.
Fighting against Yemen for no gains sounds slow and annexing 1 province plus vassalizing an OPM isn't appealing either.
If all else fails we can fall back on Medina though. At least it's something to do that's bringing us closer to our goal.
Third age bonus has been picked. It's adaptive Combat Terrain. First two were free war taxes and aggressive expansion reduction.
Ajam started an interesting war. We got our land bridge and could attack them. Their allies include Hormuz, Kerman and Biapas.
Biapas has over 50% warscore and is allied to Kazan. They would have to be made co-belligerent if we want to take them in a single war, but Kazan sounds like a long, drawn out war.
Muscovy would jump them, but do we really need to waste resources to make our allies stronger? The answer is still no.
Rebels...
The war of Ajam may be a gift. The opportunity should not be passed, we only need to figure out who to attack in what order. We want to go out of this with Shirvan (who we have a mission on and who is allied to Mazanderan), Biapas and Mazanderan as well as Ajam's provinces.
Always check for battles fought. There's always a sweet spot every nation has where they're in worse condition but still willing to stay at war despite being attacked. Timurids are a welcome distraction.
By the way, what's taking the Ottoman Empire so long? Venice had four provinces last time I checked.
Ohhhh
Okay, they're busy for a while.
Edisanas is set as special interest, Theodoro starts fabricating.
Biapas is guaranteeing Shivan. We could get into a war against them without Kazan, but they still have more than 50% warscore.
Aggressive expansion is down a bit.
Definitely needs to be watched closely.
We also unlock another idea. Cavalry combat ability might not be the best, but we're getting closer to 15% core creation cost reduction. Hisn Kayfa's ideas are really strong.
Two of their allies are already out with Biapas willing to join. We vassalize Haasa. diplomatically, for once.
Before we do that we check Ajam's war and they're currently at 8 battles.
Autonomy in Arbil is being increased, troops are being moved in position, only one last thing to do.
The age of Reformation has started and we have found some use for Theodoro other than "lightning rod for everything evil".
They'll do that too. For ever. They've been sieged down three times already. Must be a nice place to live in.
AAAAAND GO!
Najd+Mamluks would have been the more important target, but the Turks are sitting at 12% warscore and France is unoccupied. They'll be out for a long time.
Troops are moving forward, no enemy in sight, Timurids prove to be a beautiful distraction. Absolutely nothing happens for almost a year except a few prolonged sieges.
We'll allow it. Bosnia has no allies and will get finished quickly, we are already in position and our war can be ended at the same time they end theirs, maybe even earlier.
Our truce with Mamluks is up and we get to decide between a penalty for our attackers or losing manpower.
What manpower? Our nations doesn't have any. (quick, tell our men to fake recruiting sessions)
Biapas is out. we took two provinces. After we declared on Shivan we'll get the other two.
Still no enemy contact. Just how beautiful are those Timuridian provinces?
We get a notice about our truce with The Knights ending.
A nice 17 dev province controlled by a nation without allies. We would have to build ships though and are men don't know how.
Never done it and we don't plan to start here and now.
The Ottomans end their war on September 1513 while we end our sightseeing tour shortly after.
A single battle. Not even against Ajam, but agains Biapas.
We lost four times as many troops to attrition than we did to the enemy.
Should be glad it all went so well, but the lack of combat makes our troops sleepy.
Separatists have showed up in Suwayda. The fort will protect most provinces.
A rather calm session overall. Even the war didn't have much war to it.
Spy networks give additional siege ability, which is why we always end wars with a decent spy network.
Points are immediately being used to fabricate on Teheran, our diplomat will be recalled and
OF COURSE
Rookie mistake, absolute rookie mistake.
Who are the other three candidates?
QQ has a truce, Ajam as well. Leaves us with Avaria (already in), Shirvan, Fars and... Mamluks.
Back in the box, boys.
Unless there's an easy way out
For better or worse we now have a few more things to do seeing how expansion into Persia makes sense now instead of being a distraction.
Back to force limit and our first cannon arrives in our capital. Two more are being built.
1 does give us siege status -1 for every fort, but 3 gives us -2 on capitals. One tenth of our army will be cannons for now.
They're incredibly weak compared to their costs early on, but our nation is stable and we got to the tipping point where we're only getting stronger.
Now we only need to find someone we can attack without our lapdog.
A few thoughts
Gazimukh is an ally to Biapas and have less than 50% warscore.
Their provinces have has decent development and they got a few cores in the north including Astrakhan, which we could use to get a some trade money up there after integrating
But they also have Espionage ideas, the node isn't rich and are a tributary to Kazan, which is sitting at a whooping 250% warscore (equal strength as QQ).
The northern provinces aren't of any interest regarding either goal, we should not get distracted and since we can vassalize them even if they're a normal ally a mental note is made and we move on.
South of Anizah we have Medina, allied to Yemen and Dawasir. Dawasir could be vassalized, but doesn't have a land connection to Yemen.
Fighting against Yemen for no gains sounds slow and annexing 1 province plus vassalizing an OPM isn't appealing either.
If all else fails we can fall back on Medina though. At least it's something to do that's bringing us closer to our goal.
Third age bonus has been picked. It's adaptive Combat Terrain. First two were free war taxes and aggressive expansion reduction.
Ajam started an interesting war. We got our land bridge and could attack them. Their allies include Hormuz, Kerman and Biapas.
Biapas has over 50% warscore and is allied to Kazan. They would have to be made co-belligerent if we want to take them in a single war, but Kazan sounds like a long, drawn out war.
Muscovy would jump them, but do we really need to waste resources to make our allies stronger? The answer is still no.
Rebels...
The war of Ajam may be a gift. The opportunity should not be passed, we only need to figure out who to attack in what order. We want to go out of this with Shirvan (who we have a mission on and who is allied to Mazanderan), Biapas and Mazanderan as well as Ajam's provinces.
Always check for battles fought. There's always a sweet spot every nation has where they're in worse condition but still willing to stay at war despite being attacked. Timurids are a welcome distraction.
By the way, what's taking the Ottoman Empire so long? Venice had four provinces last time I checked.
Ohhhh
Okay, they're busy for a while.
Edisanas is set as special interest, Theodoro starts fabricating.
Biapas is guaranteeing Shivan. We could get into a war against them without Kazan, but they still have more than 50% warscore.
Aggressive expansion is down a bit.
Definitely needs to be watched closely.
We also unlock another idea. Cavalry combat ability might not be the best, but we're getting closer to 15% core creation cost reduction. Hisn Kayfa's ideas are really strong.
Two of their allies are already out with Biapas willing to join. We vassalize Haasa. diplomatically, for once.
Before we do that we check Ajam's war and they're currently at 8 battles.
Autonomy in Arbil is being increased, troops are being moved in position, only one last thing to do.
The age of Reformation has started and we have found some use for Theodoro other than "lightning rod for everything evil".
They'll do that too. For ever. They've been sieged down three times already. Must be a nice place to live in.
AAAAAND GO!
Najd+Mamluks would have been the more important target, but the Turks are sitting at 12% warscore and France is unoccupied. They'll be out for a long time.
Troops are moving forward, no enemy in sight, Timurids prove to be a beautiful distraction. Absolutely nothing happens for almost a year except a few prolonged sieges.
We'll allow it. Bosnia has no allies and will get finished quickly, we are already in position and our war can be ended at the same time they end theirs, maybe even earlier.
Our truce with Mamluks is up and we get to decide between a penalty for our attackers or losing manpower.
What manpower? Our nations doesn't have any. (quick, tell our men to fake recruiting sessions)
Biapas is out. we took two provinces. After we declared on Shivan we'll get the other two.
Still no enemy contact. Just how beautiful are those Timuridian provinces?
We get a notice about our truce with The Knights ending.
A nice 17 dev province controlled by a nation without allies. We would have to build ships though and are men don't know how.
Never done it and we don't plan to start here and now.
The Ottomans end their war on September 1513 while we end our sightseeing tour shortly after.
A single battle. Not even against Ajam, but agains Biapas.
We lost four times as many troops to attrition than we did to the enemy.
Should be glad it all went so well, but the lack of combat makes our troops sleepy.
Separatists have showed up in Suwayda. The fort will protect most provinces.
A rather calm session overall. Even the war didn't have much war to it.
Spy networks give additional siege ability, which is why we always end wars with a decent spy network.
Points are immediately being used to fabricate on Teheran, our diplomat will be recalled and
OF COURSE
Rookie mistake, absolute rookie mistake.
Who are the other three candidates?
QQ has a truce, Ajam as well. Leaves us with Avaria (already in), Shirvan, Fars and... Mamluks.
Back in the box, boys.
Unless there's an easy way out
@Dominion nice AAR
i would recommend checking if Khorasan still has all its cores, get mazandaran and vassalise khorasan or steal vassal away from timmie. they usually have cores all over the place if they were vassal of timmie still when rest of their vassals declared independence.
i would recommend checking if Khorasan still has all its cores, get mazandaran and vassalise khorasan or steal vassal away from timmie. they usually have cores all over the place if they were vassal of timmie still when rest of their vassals declared independence.
Thanks
Exactly the direction we're going in
First we need to get rid of our aggressive expansion though.
Too many nations desire our clay. Not necessarily for themselves, they just want us to feel pain.
Time for another look at the map. Avaria may be in the coalition already, but no one else is yet.
There's still the mission to eradicate Shirvan who are allied to Mazanderan.
Hi
A new general is being called to the frontlines and we are off to peacefully integrate more nations into our country.
Rebels southwest will either walk onto our fort or our vassal's capital. Half the troops go and take care of them, the rest
Kills Mazanderan at the start of the war. The rest is trivial.
Fars is supporting us with sugar. The cutest easteregg thhere is
Hovering over tiny merchant ships you see travelling between centers of trade shows you the goods that are being transported.Mamluks send slaves to the Ottoman Empire. Looks like they know their place
Bosnia is now reduced to 1 province and entered a trade league with Venice while Sweden has become disloyal.
A very stable Europe.
Time to start truce juggling.
QQ has to be attacked in 1519. They have no allies and if they join the coalition they'll stay in almost indefinitely. Ajam is still far away, no need to craft any plan. It'll only get thrown out the window during the next 14 years.
Full rundown: QQ has a truce, Mamluks are in, Biapas has a truce as well as Ajam. Shirvan is getting removed and Mazanderan is falling under our rule soon enough for their core on Khorosan (free cb) and because vasssalization creates less AE.
Called it at the start of the run, we're going over our dip limit again. Hard.
Fars, Gazi, Avaria, Transox and Sistan can all join theoretically.
Right now, they can not. We have not vassalized Mazandaran yet, Shirvan was one of only 4 nations that could have joined. With 3 nations left, the coalition is dissolving.
Religious unity up to 67%, our Inquisitor is doing work and Tunis enters an alliance with the Ottoman Empire, which is bad as well as good.
Wanted them to become acquainted because they're weak and can be attacked so Otto won't be able to call in their allies. Also allows us to break the alliance and DoW immediately if we see a chance without having to take a stabhit.
It's too early though. They could attack Mamluks. Really glad we managed to cut the Turks off in time. At least they won't get anything.
Could even take mil acc away and watch Tunis die. Mental note is made and we move on.
Sieges end up costing us 2 years, more than enough time to improve relations sufficiently.
Mazandaran is getting vassalized, Shirvan is being annexed.
The alliance between Mamluks and Poland is strong, Najd stays close to them as well. They have allied Mahra, an OPM in the south which we can also vassalize.
Relationship limit? What's that? Our nation welcomes all those who have beautiful cores!
It's inner valuis that count. The values inside of other nations.
This time we start the war by setting our peacedeals.
AE is becoming close to something we need to watch and manage, so Mamluks won't have any provinces taken from them. We only want to annull their alliance with Poland.
Najd will be forced to return cores, Mahra gets vassalized. Everything is set.
Haasa's fort will block the eastern passage, in the west we start sieging.
That's not how you siege. That's not how you siege at all.
Nobody is even close enough to get there
this war became a lot more fair all of a sudden.Minor setback. We are still strong enough to siege even with half the Ottoman army gone.
Not if all of them are gone though. Charging into the single biggest province of the whole region is like waving a sign saying 'please intercept'.
No other choice but to help. Should really start attaching them, but they refuse to follow suit at first and get blackflagged after getting attached.
We do not care, we do not want to know why it happens, we will just stop using 'attach armies' for a while.
They found them, but this time we're in position. Picking up mil tech 10 for... no additional boost.
Sometimes looking back hurts more than moving on. Who picks mil tech 10 ahead of time? We do
Amazing rolls. This shouldn't be a war, but it's slowly becoming one.
The Mamlukian strategy of stabbing the air fiercely seems to pay off
Our earliest wars have been watched closely by the Ottoman army and our rapid expansion rate seems to have told them that losing soldiers for no reason is the way to go.
Mamluks are in fact defeating an Ottoman+Hisn army despite being outnumbered. That's a first.
Seems like their armies are running out of steam. Manpower losses are not due to horrible battles (those losses are purely on the Turks), but because we started recruiting.
If you can't rely on your ally, do it yourself. New force limit with full quantity and QQ's provinces is now 60. Time to get up there.
This is more like it.
We let the Ottomans take the brunt of it and Dimashq falls before spring. After 1 year the war has tipped in our favor and we can start kicking them out one after the other.
We get another mission to reach 75% force limit and recruit an admiral to get Burghers above 75% loyalty. The mission is getting cancelled so it can't come back in a year and the admiral gets fired immediately.
Picking up a mission, then cancelling it guarantees you won't have it available one year later. The other 2 options were just as bad, so we hope for a good replacement.
We're not going to build a single ship as long as we can't reach Sevilla, which we want to pirate, or wage war against the Ottoman empire, which is a thing of the future.
Panic button needs to be hit and we increase autonomy everywhere if needed. 6 rebel stacks gone forever. A nice pause to catch out breath.
Estates get relocated into high autonomy provinces.
Our vassal is being sieged down for the... fourth or fifth time? We can not remember. They have served their purpose. We should cancel vassalization later on, but for now we tell them everything is okay. We may let them die, but we do it out of love.
Shh, bby, is ok.
Mamluks are OUT!
We annull treaties and take some cash to prolong our truce timer.
Mental notes need to be read, July 1519 is close. War against the Black Sheep is on the table soon.
Our relations throughout the region have suffered. The extra diplomat will come in handy and reduced war score is godlike once we declare on our ally.
Improved relations are amazing as well, overall our best choice.
Military ideas would have been an idea, but the plan is to wrap up a lot of wars in a very short time. Artillery Barrage is becoming more important, those mil points are needed.
The newest addition to our family! Welcome Mahra
7/4 relationships. Who needs dip points?
QQ has a measly 13k units, we have more than surpassed them by now. We get a few events for additional diplomatic reputation and our opinion of Mamluks is getting improved.
Najd has more than 100% warscore. It will take two wars either way so we can stay modest for now.
QQ, Mamluks, Biapas, Ajam and Najd have a truce. Fars, Gazimukh, Avaria and Hormuz do not.
Those four aren't strong enough to build a coalition against our 60k + Ottoman's troops. We'll take it.
We get a mission for autonomy reduction and a free claim on QQ and start the war immediately.
That's not the war we wanted to start!
Wallachia and Genoa will be over quickly, it shouldn't hurt. Maybe it'll even stop their expansion into Europe? Those three provinces are valuable after all and should generate quite a bit of AE.
We join, but won't participate. There's more important things to do. Wars we can benefit from, for example.
Starting with a stackwipe of half their army. Not so scary now, are we?
Their remaining troops get caught. The rest is sieging, sieging, sieging.
QQ, Mamluks, Biapas, Ajam and Najd can't.
Gazimukh, Avaria, Hormuz, Transoxiania, Timurids and Nogai can.
Not the scariest of coalitions, but some of those nations are future targets. We forego taking Wasit and check again. Still too much, sadly.
Meanwhile Wallachia got fully annexed. They had it coming. Existing and not bearing the name 'Hisn Kayfa' is an affront!
Poland is now supporting the independece of Theodoro. Valuable information. It shows that our strength in comparison doesn't scare them enough.
From now on, liberty desire of other subjects will have to be monitored closely.
And with that Theodoro has fulfilled almost everything we wanted to use them for.
- Fabricate on Lithuania to get a cb in case we need it
- Forced conversion for splendor
- Lightning rod to distract enemies
- Warning indicator for relative strength
All that's left is several more claims and continuing being our lightning rod. Don't expect to DoW Poland in the next 20 years. We'll probably keep Theodoro after all.
A few more months of improving relations and
Done!
Anizah got integrated. We don't need their claims anymore thankfully.
Haasa grew to a decent size. They're being kept around for a casus belli against Fars, but can be integrated as well should we feel like reducing the number of relationships.
Despite QQ ruining our borders we can say that our nation does look good on the map.
Made sure our peace with them runs out at an appropriate time and would you look at that, the east is in turmoil.
Khorosan is a march of Timurids, who have more than 100% war score at the moment. Should we take them now?
COOOOOORES!
No allies, Khorosan will probably get freed in once of the peacedeals and has less than 100% WS.
Being a march though Timurids will be co-belligerent by default and turned into a normal ally during the war after other enemies force Timurids to release their march.
How can we declare? That's exactly why we had to welcome Mazandaran into our family.
They have a core on Khorosan.
Time to push aggressive expansion to the limit.
Province warscore is looking okay-ish with 148%. We have time to bring our troops in position and
GO!
You should never end a session while being at war, but this isn't a war, it's barely a brawl.
Massive gains in the south, the Black Sheep has been reduced to rubble, coalition partners have been annexed or vassalized and we're ready to focus on our future goal of forming Persia.
For the first time aggressive expansion and truce juggling has become an issue and will probably continue being important for half a century.
Our plan is solid though, we checked for every possible option and only good outcomes await us because we planned well, right?
... right?
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Give our troops orders to move and be done with it. This should be a short one.
Mamluks decide to ally Ajam. That's bad. Ajam still got a ton of allies and we would have to set them co-belligerent.
Or just run over them and get a white peace, but still, more allies means more trouble.
Transoxiania joins the fun, leading to a third war in the region including Nogai and Kazan as well.
No focus on Horde land though. It would be great if Nogai got eaten. Would remove another potential coalition partner and we could ally Transoxiania for AE reduction.
And Sistan is out.
They took quite a big chunk, but only forced them to renounce claims, not cores.
Our armies were spread out to prevent a full blackflag from a peacedeal. After a short quarrel our infantry will siege down the province and make our troops available again.
Black flags can be removed in any controlled territory.
A challenger appears! The region is blowing up, but we got both our targets locked down and couldn't be happier.
There's a commotion west.
They really did it. Tunis and Ottomans are at war with Mamluks.
As defenders?
Looks like Morocco overestimated himself a bit there. Egypt is safe from any Ottoman invasion though.
We decide to let them trample down Mamluks and bring our troops in position.
We could go in as soon as they get peaced out by Tunis.
Everything is falling into place. Now all we need is for Afghanistan to peace out Timurids, finish our sieges and we're ready to start 3-4 wars simultanously, giving us 100% on Mamluks, 100% on Najd and half of Persia.
Don't you love it when a plan comes together?
A few nations ask for military access. +10 relations for free? We'll take it.
Gazimukh is still allied to Kazan and not in a region of interest. We don't plan to attack them anytime soon.
Still waiting for Timurids.
Afghanistan's war started a long time ago. All we need is for them to peace out, it should happen any minute.
Crimea has annexed Circassia. Last time we checked they were only a tributary. Interesting development.
One less nation to threaten us. Since they're Sunni and relatively far away in comparison while also not being interested in our land our relations will be great for a long time.
Now all we need is for Afghanistan to peace out.
They're in control of the wargoal, giving them a ticking warscore. We made sure the war goal wasn't any of the provinces we were occupying.
As for why we couldn't have waited until Timurids got reduced before declaring war: Khorosan was their march and therefor war participant.
The threat of them having their provinces taken away was real and did happen in the end.
We do not have a casus belly against either Timurids or Khorosan anymore. We had to do it when we did it to minimize the risk.
All we need is for AFGHANISTAN to peace out. Send your offers to them, not us!
We want you to be part of our happy little family, can't you see?
We're getting bored and start looting. Cash is cash. First diplomatic idea gets filled for the extra diplomat (will help a lot managing our AE) and the Mamluks are getting smashed.
Not surprising. Despite being completely boxed in by us the Ottomans still have the second highest income in the world right after Ming.
Our truce with Mamluks is almost up. If we don't declare there will be four potential coalition members again and it will form.
Mamluks can't join while at war, but they still count towards the total number.
A 3 member coalition without Mamluks shouldn't be too bad.
Sistan's ally would deny the CtA and we have troops nearby. We could immediately jump them, get a truce and a few cores for our vassals and be happy with our lives.
Now all we need is for Afghanistan to peace out.
What's taking them so long?
The only two provinces we could have occupied after Sistan peaced out are also their cores
We had to take them because their eastern province was under control of Sistan when the war started and we thought they'd annex it.
When the peacedeal came in, Afghanistan arrived faster. Great plan, suboptimal execution.
Suboptimal... okay, bad. Very bad. Very very bad.
Now they could stay at war forever.
All four cores are desired. Less is almost not acceptable. Sometimes nations get locked into wars like that for 50-100 years.
It's time to take another long look at the map...
On the bright side, IF everything goes perfectly (early peace for Afghanistan, Mamluks staying in their war for a while) it'll be a breeze with multiple easy wars simultanously, annexation of all of Persia in under 30 years and the restoration of Saladin's Legacy even before that.
That has become a big if however.
Fingers crossed!
Mamluks decide to ally Ajam. That's bad. Ajam still got a ton of allies and we would have to set them co-belligerent.
Or just run over them and get a white peace, but still, more allies means more trouble.
Transoxiania joins the fun, leading to a third war in the region including Nogai and Kazan as well.
No focus on Horde land though. It would be great if Nogai got eaten. Would remove another potential coalition partner and we could ally Transoxiania for AE reduction.
And Sistan is out.
They took quite a big chunk, but only forced them to renounce claims, not cores.
Our armies were spread out to prevent a full blackflag from a peacedeal. After a short quarrel our infantry will siege down the province and make our troops available again.
Black flags can be removed in any controlled territory.
A challenger appears! The region is blowing up, but we got both our targets locked down and couldn't be happier.
There's a commotion west.
They really did it. Tunis and Ottomans are at war with Mamluks.
As defenders?
Looks like Morocco overestimated himself a bit there. Egypt is safe from any Ottoman invasion though.
We decide to let them trample down Mamluks and bring our troops in position.
We could go in as soon as they get peaced out by Tunis.
Everything is falling into place. Now all we need is for Afghanistan to peace out Timurids, finish our sieges and we're ready to start 3-4 wars simultanously, giving us 100% on Mamluks, 100% on Najd and half of Persia.
Don't you love it when a plan comes together?
A few nations ask for military access. +10 relations for free? We'll take it.
Gazimukh is still allied to Kazan and not in a region of interest. We don't plan to attack them anytime soon.
Still waiting for Timurids.
Afghanistan's war started a long time ago. All we need is for them to peace out, it should happen any minute.
Crimea has annexed Circassia. Last time we checked they were only a tributary. Interesting development.
One less nation to threaten us. Since they're Sunni and relatively far away in comparison while also not being interested in our land our relations will be great for a long time.
Now all we need is for Afghanistan to peace out.
They're in control of the wargoal, giving them a ticking warscore. We made sure the war goal wasn't any of the provinces we were occupying.
As for why we couldn't have waited until Timurids got reduced before declaring war: Khorosan was their march and therefor war participant.
The threat of them having their provinces taken away was real and did happen in the end.
We do not have a casus belly against either Timurids or Khorosan anymore. We had to do it when we did it to minimize the risk.
All we need is for AFGHANISTAN to peace out. Send your offers to them, not us!
We want you to be part of our happy little family, can't you see?
We're getting bored and start looting. Cash is cash. First diplomatic idea gets filled for the extra diplomat (will help a lot managing our AE) and the Mamluks are getting smashed.
Not surprising. Despite being completely boxed in by us the Ottomans still have the second highest income in the world right after Ming.
Our truce with Mamluks is almost up. If we don't declare there will be four potential coalition members again and it will form.
Mamluks can't join while at war, but they still count towards the total number.
A 3 member coalition without Mamluks shouldn't be too bad.
Sistan's ally would deny the CtA and we have troops nearby. We could immediately jump them, get a truce and a few cores for our vassals and be happy with our lives.
Now all we need is for Afghanistan to peace out.
What's taking them so long?
The only two provinces we could have occupied after Sistan peaced out are also their cores
We had to take them because their eastern province was under control of Sistan when the war started and we thought they'd annex it.
When the peacedeal came in, Afghanistan arrived faster. Great plan, suboptimal execution.
Suboptimal... okay, bad. Very bad. Very very bad.
Now they could stay at war forever.
All four cores are desired. Less is almost not acceptable. Sometimes nations get locked into wars like that for 50-100 years.
It's time to take another long look at the map...
On the bright side, IF everything goes perfectly (early peace for Afghanistan, Mamluks staying in their war for a while) it'll be a breeze with multiple easy wars simultanously, annexation of all of Persia in under 30 years and the restoration of Saladin's Legacy even before that.
That has become a big if however.
Fingers crossed!