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Instead of thinking of creating vassals in North Africa simply core it by yourself through colony trick and taking adaptability from administrative. Most of provinces will have coring cost around 30 so it's not a big deal.
That would mean I would have to move my capital from Rome. I think Northern African coastline is too close to Rome in order to use the coring trick that I used on the Mamluk territory. But maybe I am wrong. Will see if that's an option when the time comes :)
 
I had capital in Constantinople and sold Gaza and Sinai to my vassal Syria so Africa was considered colony and could use sweet Colony CB for 25% AE.
Smart idea. I will think about moving my capital to Constantinople, too but we are playing as the Roman Empire and so our capital has to be Rome.. :D
 
Chapter XII - The Betrayal


The Mercenari Romani was the largest mercenary company that the Roman Empire had, consisting of 35.000 soldiers, divided into 35 regiments. Not always used they the newest military technologies but they were led but a skilled general and fought tough and bravely. In the Roman Jihad against Georgia this was no exception. At the Battle of Yerevan the mercenaries defeated a Georgian army that was besieging an Armenian province.
After Yerevan was safe, they moved into hostile territory, occupying enemy provinces and killing every man that refused to cooperate. Kartli was the most difficult siege of the campaign. A highly fortified capital in the mountains - the general anticipated a long siege. And he was right. Each siege phase lasted for 42 days and without the 10 artillery regiments the siege might have never ended.

In autumn of 1621, Imam Nicolaus V backstabbed his ally Spain when Spain declared a colonialism war on England. He felt that this was the time to get rid of the alliance. The last wars were all fought without support from the Crown of Spain because of their threatened attitude towards the Roman Empire. The English received support from Barbant, Hesse and Lorraine.
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After Georgia was occupied, the mercenaries moved on to fight Muscovy, a Georgian ally that had its capital in the province of Kazan. During the siege of Kazan a comet was sighted over the Muscovite capital. Was this an omen? The soldiers were scared by the sight of it but won the siege anyways.
Then they continued marching on Theodoro, the last Georgian ally. Unfortunately, the majority of the mercenaries died during the siege of Theodoro which the defending garrison won.

Two and a half years of war were enough to defeat Georgia and her allies. Consequently, full-annexation was demanded. All of Georgia was incorporated into Armenia.
Nicolaus ordered the surviving mercenaries back to Italy and stationed them, after recruiting more mercenaries, along the Avignonese-Spanish border. Nicolaus wanted to attack his former ally Spain at all costs, knowing that his other ally, Bohemia, was going to side with Spain in case of an attack. That’s why one of the Roman armies was sent to Salzburg and Steiermark to prepare for a possible invasion from Boehmia.

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In May of 1624, the preparations were completed, the armies were in position, the Roman navy was blockading the Straights of Gibraltar and Tunis had agreed to support the Jihad against Spain. As expected, Bohemia sided with Spain and Tunis was true to her word and honored the alliance.
Nicolaus V led one of the many armies into Iberia. An unwise decision because he fell in battle and was succeeded by the talented administrator Nicolaus VI, a 5/2/1 ruler. The new Imam stayed in Rome where it was much saver - but only for a couple of weeks. He, too, went to Iberia to lead an army.
The Iberian Peninsular was full of heavily armed forts making any sort of movements difficult without occupying the forts first.
Betrying the Crown of Spain really seemed to pay off. Bohemia did absolutely nothing during the first two years of the war. Nevertheless, Nicolaus decided to keep the 50.000 men stationed in Salzburg just in case Bohemia felt like visiting the Roman Empire.


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The Battle of Valencia was decisive. A Roman army led by Nicolaus VI was besieging the city. It was heavily outnumbered and attacked by Spanish troops. Just before they were defeated, a second Roman army arrived from Navarra. Together, the combined forces secured an important victory.
Particularists revolted in the occupied Spanish territory. Annoying because Roman troops had to take care of them.
Spain lost the war they had started against England and in the Treaty of London they agreed to release Sardinia and Galicia as sovereign states. Immediately, a Holy War was declared on Sardinia before they had any chance of forming alliances. For this purpose, one of the armies that fought in Iberia embarked on a Roman navy to attack them. The conquest of Sardinia lasted less than half a year. Full annexation was demanded.

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In Armenia, a rebellion was tearing the country apart. 32.000 rebels had occupied numerous provinces before Roman forces arrived in the region to support Nicolaus VI’s subject.
The war against Spain was in its fourth year when Roman troops had finally advanced to Toldedo, the Spanish capital.
More rebels span wed in Armenia that managed to defeat the Roman army. Nicolaus was very angry with this subject and sent one of his largest armies to deal with the issue once and for all.
From another vassal, Shammar, good news arrived. On June 1, 1629, their integration into the Roman Empire had been completed! Arabia was now truly Roman.

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In the sixth year of the war, Bohemia had still done absolutely nothing to help Spain even though they command an army of more than 58.000 men, Roman troops landed on Sicily and shortly after on Malta.
In Europe, a war between Austria and Switzerland broke out. The bookkeepers were sure that the Habsburgs were going to win this one.
In the province of Silistira a local fortification expert had been discovered. One advisor suggested to send him to Rome; others to let him stay home. The Imam believed that the realm did not need him and so the fortification expert stayed in Silistria where he built more defensive fortifications that strengthened the border against possible invaders from the Commonwealth.

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In November of 1630, Spain was crushed. They ceded Sicily, Malta and the Baleares to the Roman Empire. Furthermore, Avignon received control over seven provinces out of which four were fortified. Shortly after, Avignon once again asked to become a march of the Roman Empire and for a second time the offer was declined. No marches in the Roman Empire.
After the war had come to an end, Tlemceni Separatists revolted in Spanish Northern Africa. The Spanish military was weak and the rebells occupied some provinces like Melilla and Oran.
Tunis declared war on one of Morocco’s subjects, Kabylia, and called the Roman Empire into the war. Nicolaus VI honored the alliance. After all, Tunis fought well in the last campaign against the Spanish.


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Spies from Tirol, Ragusa and other countries were all caught fabricating unjust claims on provinces that were part of the Roman Empire. Such insulting behavior offended the Imam.
No Roman soldiers actively participated in Tunis’s war - moral support had to be enough.
The alliance with Bohemia was reestablished in 1632 in order to have a strong ally in a potential punitive war against the Roman Empire. Fourteen countries had by that time already joined the anti-Roman coalition.
Roman forces prepared to attack Oman and Yemen in an effort to conquer the last remaining provinces in Arabia.
After the Yemenite capital had been occupied, war was declared on Oman and her allies Adal and Qara Qoyunlu. The war with Yemen ended once their ally Hasa, a one-province-minor, had been defeated, too. Both countries were annexed.

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Tunis was still busy with Morocco when Nicolaus signed a separate peace treaty with Adal that increased the Roman Empire by four provinces. Less than half a year later, Qara Qoyunlu ceded more territory to Armenia. Only then the full annexation of Oman was demanded What a successful campaign!
Nicolaus was annoyed that after four years of fighting, Tunis still had not made peace with Morocco, even though they had a very favorable war score and the war goal was under their occupation. That’s why he offered Morocco a white peace which was obviously accepted.

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In 1635, the Roman Empire started the integration process of Avignon. It was best to focus on a new vassal in that region. Among the options were French lands like Guyenne or Spanish lands like Granda. Galicia had sworn allegiance to Spain and had become their subject.
The Tlemceni nationalists were still making chaos in Spanish Northern Africa. Nicolaus hoped that soon Tlemcen would become an independent nation.
A claim was being fabricated on the African tribe of Pate and once there was a legit reason to declare war, Roman forces embarked on a fleet from the Red Sea and sailed along the horn of Africa to conquer Hobyo and its neighboring provinces.

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Pate had one ally, Adal, which sided with them. The goal was to conquer much of both countries without connecting the Papal provinces in the Horn of Africa with the rest of the realm though. This ensured that the provinces were regarded as overseas territory and coring them was much cheaper. Soon Adal was reduced to a one province minor, the war against Pate was slightly longer because they had A) more provinces and B) more forts. When Ethiopia noticed that the Roman Empire was beating up Pate they declared their own war on them. This was a bit annoying because the Ehtiopians somehow managed to ignore forts’ zone of controls.


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Ehtiopia occupied a bunch of provinces and so full annexation could not be demanded. Nevertheless, Pate had to cede eight of its provinces to the Roman Empire. Overextension was now at 85% but that was ok because coring these provinces cost between 4 and 17 administrative power each. The realm now had a border with Mutapa, another African tribal nation. Mutapa was animist and Nicolaus called for a Jihad gainst these unbelievers.
England had conquered some of Mutapa before the Roman forces arrived. Their presence in this area was not welcome. Protestants in Africa? Unacceptable!
In March of 1639, Naples made a crucial mistake and left the coalition against the Roman Empire. The following month war was declared on Naples and their allies Commonwealth and Hungary. This was war was going now while the Roman forces were also fighting in Africa.
In 1640, the personal union between Portugal and Spain. It was estimated that the integration of Portugal into Spain would have been completed in autumn of 1642 so this was fantastic news. The reason for the annulation of the union was Spain’s abysmal prestige from which the Spanish suffered since their defeat in the Roman-Spanish war.
In July a third simultaneous war was declared on Baluchistan which bordered the Roman province of Hormuz. At the Battle of Mogostan, 21.000 Baluchistani soldiers died; in the same battle only 3936 Roman forces reunited with Allah. By 1640, all of Naples possession in Italy were occupied and the focus shifted on Hungary and the Commonwealth; two annoying nations that messed with the Roman Empire whenever they could. The Roman manpower pool was depleted and more than 23.000 men were needed to fully reinforce all armies.
The Commonwealth scored an important victory at Battle of Tirgoviste where an outnumbered army of troops from Avignon and the Roman Empire was almost annihilated.
A colonial war broke out between Spanish Brazil and their overlord Spain. Spanish Brazil was backed by England. This promised to be interesting.

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Baluchistan was defeated in February 1641 and ceded its coastal provinces to the Roman Empire. Nicolaus died in June of the same year and was succeeded by Imam Pius III, a 2/2/6 ruler. This was beneficial because the Roman Empire was currently working on completing quality ideas.
A separate peace treaty was signed with Hungary. They annulled all treaties they had and paid a little over a hundred ducats as war compensation.
The war with Mutapa ended in 1642 when they ceded the majority of their territory to the Roman Empire.
After five years of fighting, the war with Naples came to an end in 1644. Full annexation was demanded. The Italian Peninsular was now Roman!

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The Roman Empire in 1644

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Comments:

This chapter was very productive - We conquered some parts of Spain; advanced further along the African coast and even annexed Naples!

Currently we are working on annexing our vassal Avignon. Before the process was started, it was estimated that this was going to take about 30+ years.

Our monarch is once again not that great (2/2/6) but with his military skill we should be able to complete quality ideas quite fast. This is very important because in our last war against the Commonwealth we last pretty much every decisive battle. The only reason we were able to annex Naples was because after 5 years we automatically received 100% war score for having occupied all their territory. The Commonwealth army is very strong; not even against the Spanish or the French did we lose that many soldiers. Consquently, our manpower pool is completed depleted. We need more than 70.000 soldiers to fully reinforce our army.

With our mercenary armies we should fit one of the European nations. We can either wait for the truce with Spain to end or we could declare a Holy War/Colonialism War on the English with whom we now share a border in Africa. Another possibility would be to attack Ragusa but they are allied with our ally the Emperor but given that none of our Catholic allies is really willing to support us in offensive wars we might as well consider breaking it.

In Asia, our next target could be Persia and of course we will continue attacking Qara Qoyunlu until our vassal Armenia has annexed all their territory.


Please me know if I you want to see more/less screenshots in upcoming chapters. Depending on the length of the chapter I've been using between 8 and 15 screenshots but of course I could add more or less screenshots if you guys would want that. This was the chapter with the most screenshots so far.

The DLC El Dorado has been bought before starting this chapter.
Thanks for reading!
 
Can you get to Galicia? They might be worth annexing, converting and releasing and then using them to eat Portugal whilst releasing Granada to eat Spain.

Looking at the screenshot, I would definitely take out England's colonies next. You should be able to take all of the colonies down to the Cape cheaply enough and you will get ticking war score from the battles / occupations on land in Africa. Keep your fleets at home so their naval power is irrelevant and just attack any armies they land on you.
 
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Can you get to Galicia? They might be worth annexing, converting and releasing and then using them to eat Portugal whilst releasing Granada to eat Spain.
I can only declare a non-CB war on Galicia since I don't have a claim on them. Also keep in mind that Galicia is a vassal of Spain. It's dumb that they are vassal Spain given that England had forced Spain to release Galicia as a sovereign state like 10 years ago... Forcing Galicia into vassalage without annexing + converting the province first would also result in a Catholic vassal which I really don't want. So the safer choice seems to either conquer all cores from Leon/Granada and convert them before releasing the nation as vassal.
Looking at the screenshot, I would definitely take out England's colonies next. You should be able to take all of the colonies down to the Cape cheaply enough and you will get ticking war score from the battles / occupations on land in Africa. Keep your fleets at home so their naval power is irrelevant and just attack any armies they land on you.
The issue with attacking Europeans is that it will always result in massive coalitions. I'm sure that the next time I load up the game half of Europe will be in a coalition against me just for having annexed Naples. I have with some Western European nations already more than 100 AE.. but yes I need to definitely hit the English sooner rather than later.. The land is very cheap to core because I have not connected these African provinces with my capital :)
My fleet is not that small actually - might even be the largest in the world but I assume it's a bit outdated since I'm behind in dip tech. In the Red Sea I have stationed 20 carracks and 40 transports. In the Mediterranean Sea 45 transports and 40 war galleys or so.

Edit: fixed something
 
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If you have enough time for the truce with Spain to run out, say 3 or more years, I'd go for the English first. DIP Tech doesn't really matter too much, as long as you are at most two ship upgrades behind your enemy, you should probably be fine and win with superior numbers. Can't say for sure, though. Maybe you can also get Cornwall from them as a starting invasion base and fortify the province.

France is probably in that coalition, no? If, for some reason, they're not, you definitely should attack them. Also, check how developed Ragusa is. They might have developed both the city and the hinterlands far more than what they were at the starting point and the resulting AE wouldn't be worth it at the time. As for Persia, I'd advise to vassalize Baluchistan and give them Persian lands, unless you have enough ADM to core that region AND at least some of your European conquests.

Who owns Montferrat? And Switzerland got destroyed by Austria... they might be the perfect vassal for some German lands. Either way, you need to get those two strips of land in Italy under your direct control if you can get away with it.

The more screenshots in a chapter, the better for me. Gives me more to read.
 
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if its a hard war in europe for example, some more screenshots of how you fought the war strategically might be good addition.

Depends on reader preference I guess.
 
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If you have enough time for the truce with Spain to run out, say 3 or more years, I'd go for the English first. .
France is probably in that coalition, no? If, for some reason, they're not, you definitely should attack them.
There is enough time before the truce run out to either hit the English or the French. Neither one of them is in the coalition. I have the feeling that the coalition mechanic in 1.13 is slightly broken because countries randomly seem to leave the coalition for no apparent reason. Maybe it's better to hit the French before the English and then focus on Spain afterwards.

As for Persia, I'd advise to vassalize Baluchistan and give them Persian lands, unless you have enough ADM to core that region AND at least some of your European conquests.
Baluchistan could be too large to be vassalized in one go. I go force Persia to release Ardalan. Ardalan has Kurdish as its primary culture but Ardalan is small and borders Persia so I could feed them a big chunk of Persia.

Who owns Montferrat? And Switzerland got destroyed by Austria... they might be the perfect vassal for some German lands. Either way, you need to get those two strips of land in Italy under your direct control if you can get away with it.
Montferrat is owned by Brittany. Don't ask me how they managed to core the province. I did not keep attention at when this happened one century or so ago. Maybe they vassalized Savoy which was a one-province-minor in Montferrat. The Austrians have been the Swiss pretty hard. If I attack Switzerland then Bohemia will protect them since they are part of the HRE. I am not sure just yet if it is worth to focus on the HRE when there are bigger Europeans fish to fry like France, England, Spain and Portugal.

The more screenshots in a chapter, the better for me. Gives me more to read.
if its a hard war in europe for example, some more screenshots of how you fought the war strategically might be good addition.
Depends on reader preference I guess.
I'll try to add a few more screenshots for upcoming chapters - Can't make promises though :p
 
Chapter XIII - Bigger Fish To Fry

It was April of 1644 and Naples had just been annexed - the realm was overextended by more than 120% but Pius would have killed himself if he had let slip the opportunity of annexing Naples. The Imam was informed by one of his trusted advisors that the realm was in chaos. Rebels had risen in many of the newly conquered African provinces.
The truce with Spain lasted for another year wand was set to expire in July of 1645. The Spanish had found new friends and allied Burgundy and Portugal. In the first Roman-Spanish war, Spain was only allied to Bohemia but back then they also ruled over Portugal.
In Bavaria, cork bottle stoppers had become popular after developments in bottle making allowed wine producers to create bottles in more standardized sizes and as a result they had been able to reintroduce the use of the bottle cork. The Roman Empire was a big exporter of wine but the consumption of alcoholic beverages like wine was prohibited by spiritual leaders.

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Being overextended this much came with new challenges like nationalist sentiments in many provinces. Pius started to regret of being greedy. Maybe it would have been indeed wiser if Naples had not been completely annexed..
In 1646, war was declared on Persia with the intention to increase the territory that Armenia controlled. Shia sided with Persia - both nations followed the Shiite faith.
Omani rebels had occupied so much territory that were close to enforce their demands. This was prevented when Roman mercenaries cleared the area.
Shirvan ceded two of its provinces to Aremnia before the war even really started. Persia was not as weak as it looked. In Khuzestan a battle between Roman and Persian armies was fought that turned out to be a key battle of the war. The majority of the Persian died on the drylands of the province. Some in the Roman Empire believed that attacking smaller nations like Persia was a waste of time. There were bigger fish to fry they claimed, mainly in Europe. Especially the Roman subjects who lived in Avignon were angry that the Imam had not declared war on the French but on the Persians instead. Avignon felt that it was time to hit the French hard. Now. But the Imam disagreed for the moment.

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The Imam enacted a policy which greatly reduced the diplomatic annexation cost. This was done because after Avignon it was also planned to integrated Armenia into the realm. This decision was made after the Imam decided that he wanted to establish a new vassal in Persia instead of conquering the territory for Armenia, seeing that they had already problems with rebells in the past.
That's why in 1649, when the war with Persia came to an end, Persia ceded only two provinces to Armenia and nine to the Roman Empire; two of these provinces were used to release Ardalan as a Shiite vassal. Soon they were forced to convert to the Sunni faith though. The other seven provinces were cored directly by the Roman Empire.
News arrived in Rome that Spanish Brazil had won the war against Spain but somehow they had not demanded to become an independent nation! This was most silly said Pius to Roman spiritual leaders.

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In 1649, an alliance was formed with Tlemcen which had successful revolted against Spain a few years ago. Maybe there was a way to peacefully vassalize them. In the same year, overextension was no longer an issue, the Imam finally agreed to Avignon's demand and made preparations for attacking France again. Russia declared their interest in siding with the Roman Empire and so a call to arms was sent to them. Bavaria, Portugal and Sweden sided with France.

France was also at war with Brittany and this war came to an end pretty much the moment Rome declared war on France and resulting in Brittany losing some provinces to France, namely Anjou and Maine.
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Unfortunatly, the war with France went horrible and tens of thousands of Roman mercenaries died in the first two years of the war. That's why Tunis was called into the war as well. Hopefully their troops were going to help to turn the table! Russian forced completely rofl-stomped Sweden, which had left its country undefended by sending all their forces to Italy, and so it was no-brainer to sign a separate peace treaty with Sweden just to get their troops out of Italy. Then things started to mode in the favor of the Romans who occupied Bavaria before concentrating on France. This allowed the Imam to declare a simultaneous war on Qara Qoyunlu which held some core provinces that rightfully belonged to the new Roman vassal, Ardalan.
In 1652, the integration of Avignon was completed but the war against France continued. News also arrived in Rome that Spain had completed the integration of her vassal Galicia...
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After Qara Qoyunlu was fully occupied, it was annexed by Ardalan. This increased their realm greatly and now they were able to field an army to support their overlord.
The war against France was now looking better and better and even the Russians were now helping. Russian troops had arrived in Caux by boat. They must have sailed all the way from Narva to Caux just to support the Roman claims on France.
At the Battle of Lisboa 34.000 Portuguese troops were slaughtered like dogs - the Poruguese army was so weak, it felt like fighting pagans, especially compared to strong armies like the one of the Commonwealth.
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Fighting with France continued for a while but after all hostile armies were destroyed, France agreed to cede Gascgone and Armagnanc to the Roman Empire as well as Savoia. The first two provinces were convert to Islam with the intention to use them to release Guyenne as vassal.
The nobles of Qsar Ibrim challenged the Roman Empire after the war with France had come to an end. They demanded more privileges on top of the already granted rights. Imam Pius was angry and crushed them.
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In February of 1656, both province were Sunni and together with Bearn they were given to Guyenne. In order to give Guyenne a border with Spain, Pius instructed his administrators to sell Pirineo for the sum of 0 ducats to Guyenne. Guyenne accepted the offer and the province became part of their nation. With them having a border with Spain, everything was set for another major war against the Spanish. The Imam declared that there were two important goals: 1. Conquer at least one former Granandan province which could be used to release Grananda as vassal. 2. Expand the territory controlled by Guyenne with Spanish lands.
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In March a Holy War was then declared on Spain and her allies Burgundy, Bohemia and Portugal. This meant that the Roman Empire was at war with Portgual for a second time with a break of less than one year in between. 39.000 Romans had been stationed in Lyonnais at the Roman-Burgundian border. 108.000 soldiers at the Roman-Spanish border. No armies were in position to defend the Roman Empire against a Bohemian counter-attack. Nobody sided with the Romans in this war. Russia and Tunis said that had recently fought along-side Rome against France and therefore had no interest in helping Rome again.
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Tactic-wise, the idea was to force Burgundy out of the war after having occupied their capital. That's why a Roman army had been stationed near the border with them. One of the two armies in Spain was sent to besiege Valencia and provinces along the Mediterranean coast; the other army was busy in Canabria and slowly moved on to Galicia. At least that was the plan.
Volunteers from all over the Muslim world joined the Roman Empire for this Holy Fight against the infidels. 11.000 recruits arrived in April alone.

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The plan to quickly force Burgundy out of the war failed when a doomstack of 70.000 Bohemia forces arrived in Franch-Comete only giving the Roman army time to retreat in time and wait for reinforcements from Arabia.
In Spain the situation was progressing much better, the Portuguese army was still non-existent and no threat what-so-ever. One year into the war and the mighty forts of Valencia and Valladolid had already been sacked.
Onc additional troops from Arabia arrived in the war area, the Burgundian army was defeated and the siege of Dijon continued. The Bohemia army was busy besieging Vaud, a province with a rare star fort. Star forts were among the most difficult forts to take during the mid 17th century.


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The Bohemia forces abanonded the siege of Vaud and launched a counter attack on the Roman forces at Dijon. The battle was won but many soldiers died on both sides.
In July of 1658, thanks to Pius III's impressive military skills, quality ideas had finally been completed! In autumn of the same year, Burgundy was forced out of the war after Dijon fell. Meanwhile Bohemia forces laid siege on Milan. The siege was lost; Bohemia now controlled the city.
Russia called the Roman Empire to war in the
Russian Crusade against Kazan - the call to arms was naturally accepted.

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Pius III died a natural death in 1659. The spiritual leaders elected Imam Xystus IV as his successor. His skills: 2/4/4.
Xystus sent 26.000 mercenaries along the Horn of Africa to reach the Cape of Good Hope which had been heavily colonized by Portugal. The region had to be conquered!
Bohemia accepted a white peace in autumn of 1660. This made the war much, much more easier. After more than 700 days the siege of Lisboa came to an end. Roman troops were victorious.
A separate peace was signed in 1661 with Portugal. The Portugues ceded five of their Cape of God Hope provinces to the Romans.


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With Portugal having left the war, Spain saw no way out of this war but to offer unconditional surrender. Xystus was just and accepted the offer. It was agreed that Spain ceded all former Granadan cores to Rome as well as Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia. Guyenne received control over Valencia, Tarragona, Urgell, Zaragoza, Teruel and Soria. Furthermore, a 15-year-long truce was arranged.
It took the missionaries 11 months to convert the Granadan provinces to the Sunni faith before they were used to release Granada as vassal.


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News arrived in Rome that England had established a protectorate over Mutapa! This complicated any potential conquest of that African tribe immensely. That's why Rome focused instead on Baluchistan which had no allies and recently lost a war against Afghanistan. The war goal was to fully annex them. This was sure going to be easy given that Baluchistan was also bankrupt! In fact, the war lasted for less than 90 days and the war goal was accomplished with no difficulties at all.
The Roman Empire founded a trade company in the East African Charter and a second trade company in the South African Charter. This was done in order to compete with English and Portuguese trade companies in those areas.


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In 1663, Ardalan sent an envoy to Rome. Xystus spoke with the envoy who had asked him to declare war on Persia. The loyal governor of Ardalan wanted more land and Persia was a good target he believed. Xystus felt that the envoy made a good case and so war was declared the following day. Armies were already in the area so no preparations were necessary. Afghanistan and Gazikummuk sided with Persia. The defenders had a total of 40.000 men; in comparison the Roman army consisted of 259.000 soldiers and sell sords!
At the same time, Xystus called for a Jihad against westernized Alodia and her ally Ethipia. In that war the
Battle of Soba was decisive because the majority of the defending Alodian forces were killed during that battle.

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Armenia was fully integrated into the realm in 1665. This was crucial was the Roman Empire had already been over its diplomatic relations limit.
The reign of Xystus was rather short. He died in the winter of 1665 and was succeeded immediately by Pius IV, a very competent, young 5/3/2 ruler. Most Imams that were usually in their late 50s or 60s when they assumed office. Pius was only 45. At the day of his inauguration, a comet was sighted. Was this an omen? Was the end nigh?


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A separe peace was made with Persia's ally Gazikumukh which ceded one provinces to the Romans. Then Persia agreed to peace, too, and gave the control of nine provinces to Ardalan. Furthermore, one province was ceded to the Romans. Ethiopia ceded three provinces and was forced out of the war against Alodia. The Roman Empire returned to peace a couple of months later when Alodia agreed to cede the large majority of its territory to the Romans. Rome triumphed again!

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The World in 1667

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Comments:

This turned out to be a rather long chapter. I usually end a chapter when I feel it's a good time to end it which is why some are longer and others shorter.
Our new ruler is very nice. Let's hope he'll have a very long life :)
The war against France was more difficult than initially anticipated but ended with a nice victory. Spain was not difficult to beat, even with their mighty allies. Their armies were really weak.
In the next chapter, we should probably begin integrating one of our vassal - maybe Guyenne. The remaining territory of Spain can be given to our new vassal Granada so we don't really need Guyenne anymore. In the French region we could then release Normandy as vassal after conquering the necessary provinces.
We've beaten the Persians twice during this chapter - soon we could make a move into India.
The plan to peacefully turn Tlemcen into a vassal won't work anymore. The Tlemeci ruler spent too many monarch points into development and now their realm is one of the best-developed regions in the world. This makes peaceful vassalization impossible :( We'll probably cancel the alliance soon. Tlemcen also allied our ally Tunis..

Thanks for reading!

 
you really adapted to the story telling suggestions. nice.

Regarding aar style: i think you use too many zoomed in peace deal screenshots. A zoomed out peace deal screen showing the region you got more provinces would make it easier to look at your progress.

Regarding the progress: nice going! Maybe you should make LESS vassals in asia, and MORE in europe. Because you are better off coring stuff as overseas in asia... You can use vassals in asia to sever newly added papal provinces from capital, and core 'm as overseas while still keeping the corridor. If you go for India, thats almost a must. And continue/do more diplo annexing stuff in europe. Its better spending of monarch points really :) Maybe you can go for wales, and feed them english territory? If you attack Mutapa, you can actually ask for all mutapa land along with english rpovinces in east africa. You will have to stomp England sooner or later :)

Regarding campaign: Can you give us idea of your forcelimit, financial situation, trade, merc count and whatnot? Those are informative.. The screenshot showing you have fermale +3 financial advisor made me smile.
 
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you really adapted to the story telling suggestions. nice.

Regarding aar style: i think you use too many zoomed in peace deal screenshots. A zoomed out peace deal screen showing the region you got more provinces would make it easier to look at your progress.
Thanks for the suggestion! I will start using more zoomed out peace deals starting with chapter XV - chapter XIV is pretty much done and I will post it during my break at work later in the afternoon. I never had considered that which is why feedback from readers is so important for the success of an AAR.

Regarding the progress: nice going! Maybe you should make LESS vassals in asia, and MORE in europe. Because you are better off coring stuff as overseas in asia... You can use vassals in asia to sever newly added papal provinces from capital, and core 'm as overseas while still keeping the corridor. If you go for India, thats almost a must. And continue/do more diplo annexing stuff in europe. Its better spending of monarch points really :) Maybe you can go for wales, and feed them english territory? If you attack Mutapa, you can actually ask for all mutapa land along with english rpovinces in east africa. You will have to stomp England sooner or later :)
I plan to being integrating my vassal in the Persian region and also Guyenne. Once the long truce with Spain expired I want to reattack them in order to feed Granada some provinces.
For England I have a special plan which i don't want to reveal now (you'll read about it in the next chapter later today). The chapter is titled Chapter XIV - Britain.
Mutapa I cannot attack that easily because the silly english established a protectorate over Mutapa.

Regarding campaign: Can you give us idea of your forcelimit, financial situation, trade, merc count and whatnot? Those are informative.. The screenshot showing you have fermale +3 financial advisor made me smile.
A screenshot of how the army is doing and an overview over the financial situations are included in the next chapter. I will give more details on mercenary count in Chapter XV since that won't be covered much in Chapter XIV.
 
I meant if you attack Mutapa, it will make great britain war leader. That allows wiping mutapa off the map. I did that few times, declaring religious war versus heathen protectorate, to wipe them off map and to take provinces from overlord to release as vassal..

I just advised to do that with mutapa to make corridor across entire east africa, fighting and taking stuff from mutapa and those last english provinces at once in east africa.
 
I meant if you attack Mutapa, it will make great britain war leader. That allows wiping mutapa off the map. I did that few times, declaring religious war versus heathen protectorate, to wipe them off map and to take provinces from overlord to release as vassal..

I just advised to do that with mutapa to make corridor across entire east africa, fighting and taking stuff from mutapa and those last english provinces at once in east africa.
Oh that's a good idea to get a war started with England then. I misunderstood you earlier - Sorry!
I start playing for chapter XV tonight and will consider what you said.
 
Chapter XIV - Britain

In June of 1667, the news arrived in Rome that Theodoro was winning a war against the nomadic Nogai and her subjects Circassia. It should be noted that Theodoro was a one-province-minor and that they were only winning that war because of the help of the Commonwealth. Surprisingly, Theodoro was also one of the most developed provinces in the world, surpassing major European capitals like Vienna, London and Prague.

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Revolts in Asturias and Galicia were put to an end by the Roman military. The rebels had managed to occupy a few provinces unfortified provinces before the army arrived but they proved to be no fight for the Roman forces. However, target practice was always nice.
Imam Pius invited his advisors to discuss the possibly invasions of the British Isles. Some wondered if Pius was mad. They all believed he wanted to attack England but that was not the case.

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England dominated the British Isles but there was still Scotland. A two-province-minor that was allied to the Netherlands. The Netherlands had moved their capital to the New World. Unfortunately, the Roman Empire lacked a casus belli against Scotland. Nevertheless, he sent his best mercenaries to sail all the way to the coast of Lothian. Pius was determined to declare a non casus belli war on the Scottish. The mercenaries set sail in January of 1668.
Pius also decided that it was time to integrate Guyenne. This process could take up to 10 years and if the war against Scotland was going to end in victory then Scotland could be turned into a Sunni vassal.

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Scotland had an army of 14.000 men which was positioned in Lothian. The Roman mercenariness arrived five months after they set sail and the no CB war was declared immediately. This war was declared to prevent the English from forming Great Britain. Fleet Basising Rights were acquired from the Hansa. These were necessary to repair the Roman fleet in Hanseatic ports.
A peasant rebellion killed the Scottish army in Lothian; the Roman had landed in Fife. With no army left, Scotland was an easy target. Nobody was worried that the Netherlands could do anything to change the outcome of the war.

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The reason why the Imam was so confident that he could win this war easily was the sheer overwhelming size of the Roman army. More than 297 regiments with a thousand troops each fought for Pius and his just cause to spread the Sunni faith through the world.

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With victory only two sieges away, Pius began making preparations for another attempt to clean the Shiite heresy in the caucasus. Soon war was declared on Manzandaran and their allies Sibir and Gazikumukh.
In May of 1669, the sieges of Fife and Lothian were both won. Then the Romans noticed that Scotland was not a two-province-minor as they had believed! Scotland also controlled the island Färöarna and at at least two colonies in the Americas!
Meanwhile in the Caucaus, Roman forces sacked Dagestan and its neighboring provinces. They agreed to cede two of their three provinces to the Roman Empire.

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The Roman army embarked from Scotland to the New World. For the first time in history, Roman soldiers made their way to the New World. Scotland had a colony in Magdalena, just next to the Netherlands. Maybe it was possible to annex the Netherlands, too? Fleet Basing Rights were purchased from the French colonial nation, Antilles.
Just before the Roman arrived, Muisca annexed the Netherlands. Oh well!
A herald arrived from Northern Africa. Spain had annexed Morocco!

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It turned out that Scotland only had two colonies and in May of 1670 full annexation was demanded but this turned out to be impossible because the two colonies in the New World were outside of the Roman coring range. Pius's plan to make Scotland a Sunni vassal had failed. Unbelievebale! So instead of making them a Sunni vassal, he accepted that for that time Scotland could be his vassal even if they followed a heathen faith. The Roman forces returned to Scotland. There were rumors that the Imam was making plans to invade the English soon but then the English joined a coalition against the Romans. Too bad!
So instead of focusing on England, the Roman army was marching on Moldavia and her ally Hungary. The Jihad was declared in March of 1672. That was the same year in which Tabarestan was annexed by Ardalan.

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Hungary had a good army but small in size. It fought bravely but ultimately lost against the superior Roman troop. The Battle of Somogy was one of the many battles that were fought during this war. Moldavia had already been occupied completely but Pius wanted to force Hungary to release Wallachia as independent state before making peace with Moldavia.
In February of 1674, this was accomplished and Wallachia was a sovereign country once again. The following month, the full annexation of Moldavia was demanded. The Roman Empire now had a direct border with the hated Commonwealth.
The Netherlands had been annexed not too long ago but the news arrived in the capital that Barbrant had become the 'new' Netherland. It was ruled by Philipp VI von Stein, a Protestant King.
A diplomat was sent to Ardalan to complete the integration of their realm.

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The financial situation of the realm was great even though the Roman Empire had no colonies in the New World. The monthly balance after expenses was great - most of the income came from taxation and production. Trade was only of secondary importance. Nobody in the realm believed that it was worth it to focus on trading. Many provinces had temples to increase local tax modifiers. This helped with taxation a lot. Fort maintenance cost almost as many ducats as army maintenance. This was not ideal and the Imam was thinking about mothballing some of the forts but he did not do so because of the occasional revolts.

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Pius had a meeting with advisors and spiritual leaders in February of 1675 to review the religious situation of the realm. Religious unity was high but zealots had force-converted some provinces. Six missionaries were working tirelessly to spread the true faith.
Another point which was discussed in that meeting were the Roman ideas and whether the realm should focus on new ideas or not. This issue remained unresolved and Pius informed his advisors that he expected results within the next few weeks regarding the topic of idea groups.

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Asia in 1675

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Comments:

This new rule that you can only demand full annexation when all enemy provinces are within coring range is extremely dumb because in cases like the one where I want to convert Scotland and release it as vassal it matters 0 whether I can core the province or not since I don't want to core it anyways!


Our ruler is still alive which is excellent because he truly rocks. Hopefully he will live much longer.
The war against Moldavia was pretty random. There were not many options for declaring war in Europe in which the Roman Empire would have gained easy territory like Moldavia. Also having a border with the Commonwealth might not be that bad.
As soon as England leaves the coalition we will hit them. Hard. We will force them to return all Scottish cores and demand some African provinces but the English have lots of allies. Luckily we won't have to worry about the English navy at all because we have stationed an army of mercenaries in Scotland so we will be able to attack the English mainland with that army and hopefully that army will be strong enough to destroy any English army stationed in the British Isles.
Guyenne is about halfway integrated; the integration of Ardalan just began.


As soon as we have enough administrative power to advance in administrative technology we will be able to choose our next idea group. Probably the last one in the game that matters. Expansion could be nice. It would give us a colonist to colonize a little in Asia (unless the European colonizers have already done that). Another military idea like Offensive would work, too but not sure if we really need it. Maybe the best choice would be diplomatic ideas though. This would give us an extra diplomat which we could really use to integrate our vassal, fabricate claims etc. A difficult decision!

Cheers and thanks for reading!
 
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definatly diplomacy idea group. The -20% warcost to provinces is immense powerful. And it synergyzes with influence. But expansion allows some small colony building in strategic places, and allows +1 leader fire +1 army tradition policy (together with quality). Speaking of which, quality+religious filled gives +discipline +morale policy, which makes your troops OP ;) What policies are active already? any? None?

Unfortunate about scotland. Can you ask them to become sunni for 50% LD? or does that only work on vassals of your religion group....

You got land connection from Rome to Oman and to baluchistan right? Consider releasing Najd and sell them a baluchistan port core, so that your most eastern province in baluchistan area is overseas. From there, delve into india and core entire india as overseas... Or just plain release baluchistan for this goal :) Don't core *anything* that in't considered overseas in asia and africa, thats waste of precious admin points...


Also: your naval tradition is mighty low. You should focus on trade fleets more..

Every 100% FL of light ships protecting trade or privateering gives +2 Navy Tradition. Although it might be hard getting it as a nation so big as yours.

100 NT gives 100% trade steering, which in turn boosts trade value. Consider if you have 100% NT, and you have merchants steering from Gulf of Aden->Alexandria->Constantinople->Ragusa->Venice, 1 ducat from Aden will be multiplied by 10% each node, with the value ending at Venice as 1.6 ducats. That's how trade works.

Bottomline is: your trade income could be LOT better IMHO. Not saing temples are bad, but more trade incoe means more mercs. More mercs, more wars at once :p
 
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definatly diplomacy idea group. The -20% warcost to provinces is immense powerful. And it synergyzes with influence. But expansion allows some small colony building in strategic places, and allows +1 leader fire +1 army tradition policy (together with quality). Speaking of which, quality+religious filled gives +discipline +morale policy, which makes your troops OP ;) What policies are active already? any? None?
I dislike policies so I don't run any unless absolutely necessary. Rarely are they worth the cost of one precious monarch point per month for ten years. I ran the vassal integration act when I annexed two vassals at the same time (Avignon + another). I might run it again since it speeds up annexation quite a bit and dip points are mostly worthless.
Regarding ideas it's really a difficult decision between diplomatic and expansion ideas. My army tradition is always around 90-100 so the only reason I'd take expansion would be for the colonist. Diplomatic I would take primarily for the extra diplomat and reduced province cost..

You got land connection from Rome to Oman and to baluchistan right? Consider releasing Najd and sell them a baluchistan port core, so that your most eastern province in baluchistan area is overseas. From there, delve into india and core entire india as overseas... Or just plain release baluchistan for this goal :) Don't core *anything* that in't considered overseas in asia and africa, thats waste of precious admin points...
Yup. I have a direct land connection from Rome to Arabia and Persia. Problem is that if I release Najd then I'd have another vassal and currently i have too many vassals (Granada, Guyenne, Scotland, Alderlan, (hope I didn't forgot any)) But of course you are right that it's a waste of monarch points. I might just grab a province in India and start coring from there. Then those lands would be considered overseas territory, too. I did the same trick in Africa and it was very helpful. Alexandria etc were all cored for very little ADM :)

Also: your naval tradition is mighty low. You should focus on trade fleets more..

Every 100% FL of light ships protecting trade or privateering gives +2 Navy Tradition. Although it might be hard getting it as a nation so big as yours.

100 NT gives 100% trade steering, which in turn boosts trade value. Consider if you have 100% NT, and you have merchants steering from Gulf of Aden->Alexandria->Constantinople->Ragusa->Venice, 1 ducat from Aden will be multiplied by 10% each node, with the value ending at Venice as 1.6 ducats. That's how trade works.

Bottomline is: your trade income could be LOT better IMHO. Not saing temples are bad, but more trade incoe means more mercs. More mercs, more wars at once :p
Honestly, I have been playing EU IV since release and I never liked how trading works in EU IV. I feel it's not rewarding and rarely worth the cost of investing in trade ideas or any ideas that focus primarily on a navy. I have maybe 10? trade ships total and my fleet consists of 169 ships.. Maybe I am doing something wrong here but I trade is so boring to me :( Some time ago I thought about doing an AAR with a trade-focused nation but then I realized I hate trading and that I fell it's better to make money with taxation and production... It could also be that I never invested enough time to learn how trading works properly.
 
Chapter XV - Aggressive Expansion

With two vassal being integrated at the same time, Imam Pius IV passed the so-called vassal integration act in February of 1675. This was going to speed up the integration process of Ardalan and Guyenne. National focus shifted from military to diplomatic to increase the amounts of diplomatic points available to the Roman Empire.

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A truce expired with Ethiopia in September of 1675. A small Roman army of 39.000 soldiers had already been positioned in the area and on the day the truce expired war was declared on these Coptic heathens! Kaffa and Alodia both decided to side with their ally Ethiopia in this Holy War.
At the Battle of Tajura, 24.000 African soldiers were slaughtered by a Roman army. The following day, an Ethipian army attacked the Roman forces in Tajura and that battle was won, too. The Roman army was untouchable!
The Roman East Africa Company had had a period of steady growth and part of their success started to trickle back to the Roman Empire. Pius IV demanded a dividend on his investment worth 1104 ducats.

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Roman mercenaries were extremely cruel during this war and their reputation as bloodthirsty sell-swords was proven when they massacred an entire African village in 1676. Pius IV was shocked but said that during war these things happen.
Jean-Baptiste was a famous writer who had introduced the concept of the invisible hand the the laissez-faire economy. He became an advisor of the Roman Empire and his efforts were admired throughout the nation.

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In October of 1676, the truce with Spain had expired and just like with Ethiopia, war was declared the day the truce had expired in order to prevent the Spanish from entering into a coalitions against the Romans. None of the Roman allies sided with Pius but Bohemia, Burgundy and Portugal fought alongside the Spanish. They were still outnumbered by the Roman army .
In the same month, Alodia was fully annexed. They only had one province and were an ally of Ethiopia.
The first battle of the war took place in the Rioja Alta were a Spanish army was looking to move into Navarra. However, they were intercepted by Roman mercenaries which had been stationed in Scotland but for the purpose of this war they had been recalled from the British Isles to fight the Spanish.

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While the main army was embroiled in a bloody war in Iberia, a smaller Roman army was fighting Portugal in Africa with the mission to conquer the Cape of Good Hope and maybe even Madagascar!
In 1677, the Commonwealth declared war on Bohemia. This was very good because Bohemia was trying to move into the Roman possession in the Holy Roman Empire. Now that Bohemia had to defend against the Commonwealth, they withdraw their forces and marched back home.
In November of the same year, the integration of Guyenne had been completed. A good day for Rome!

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In December 1677, the war with Ethiopia came to an end when they were forced to cede some of their coastal provinces to the Roman Empire. With the war with Ehtiopia no longer going on, it was possible to call Tlemcen into into the war against Spain.

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The war with Spain was in its fourth year when the Roman armies occupied most of Iberia, including Castilla La Vieja, Murcia and Lisboa. However, it was not yet time to end the war. Pius IV wanted a good peace treaty with Spain and Portugal.
In 1680, Imam Pius IV met again with his advisors to discuss on which idea group the Roman Empire should focus. The choice was between expansion and diplomatic ideas. After a very long debate, Pius decided that diplomatic ideas would benefit the realm the most.

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Bohemia was losing its war against the Commonwealth and so they accepted a white peace offer from the Roman Empire; Burgundy was forced out of the war after Dijon was occupied. The Burgundians paid some gold and monthly war repartitions for the length of the truce.
Bavaria and Brunswick also declared war on Bohemia with the reconquest casus belli. The Emperor was highly unpopular, at least so it seemed!
In January of 1682, Portugal ceded the island of St. Helena as well as three provinces in the Cape of Good Hope region.

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Spain admitted that it was defeated less than after the signing of the peace treaty with Portugal. The Spanish ceded The Canarias to the Roman Empire as well as nine provinces to Granada including their capital, Toledo.

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The Roman mercenaries returned from Iberia to Scotland because England had left the coalition against the Roman Empire! What a beautiful day!
The mercenaries arrived in Lothian in February of 1682 and even though the English had strong allies like Austria, there was no hesitation when it came to declaring war. It was time to reconquer the Scottish core provinces! General Corfini was in charge of the 49.000 sell-swords whereas General Valieri led a Roman army to Vienna.
Almost 60.000 Englishmen attacked Lothian but they were no match for the outnumbered Roman mercenaries under General Corfini's brilliant leadership.

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Mutapa, a former English protectorate had become westernized and thereby they lost the protection of the English Crown. Therefore, a Jihad was declared on them while also fighting the English.
The English navy destroyed most of the Roman fleet which was stationed in the Cape of God Hope region. More than 12 heavy ships were lost during that battle whereas the English lost no ships at all. Frustrating.
The war with Mutapa was very short and ended in full annexation. Thanks to these provinces being considered as overseas territory, it was extremely cheap to core them.

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After the Battle of Vienna, in which more than 40.000 Austrians died, the city was sacked and consequently, Austria's war exhaustion was exploding but it was not time for a separate peace treaty just yet.
In August of 1684, the integration of Ardalan into the Roman Empire had been completed. This left Pius with two vassal: Granada and Scotland.

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Bohemia was still suffering from the lost wars against Bavaria, the Commonwealth and Brunswick and therefore this was a good opportunity to grab a vassal in the Holy Roman Empire. The target were the Swiss. It was not going to be possible to make them Sunni but this was ok. Having a vassal inside the HRE seemed to be a good idea.
Switzerland was small, beaten up by the Austrians some decades ago. They were joined by Alsace - the Emperor refused their defensive call to arms. So the plan was therefore to force Switzerland to become a vassal of the Romans before signing a separate peace with Austria in which the Austrians would then be forced to return some Swiss cores to Switzerland. Pius IV was the mastermind behind this plan.

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By October of 1685 about half of the British Isles was under Roman occupation - it was not possible to advance to Ireland because of the English fleet which was probably 5x as strong as the Roman fleet. The Roman fleet was an embarrassment even though it was the largest fleet in the world. So weak compared to England's mighty armada. But the plan to station mercenaries before declaring on the English worked out perfectly. So there was no need to worry about their heavy ships.
The fighting continued and Austria recovered from their initial losses. They managed to beat the Roman armies a couple of times. The biggest loss occurred at the Battle of Milan but overall, both wars were going well.

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Imam Pius IV died in Rome. He was succeeded in January of 1687 by Urbanus VII who was an excellent administrator. His skills: 5/3/3
One of the first orders, Urbanus gave was to replace the obsolete Highland Infantry with stronger Line Infantry

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In May of the same year, Switzerland became a vassal of the Roman Empire. They followed the Reformed faith but that was only a minor concern. Switzerland owned only two provinces: Brescia and Waldstätte which was also the capital.
But less than one year later, Austria had to return all Swiss cores that it owned in a separate peace treaty. This restored Switzerland to its former glory! Pius brilliant plan had worked but unfortunately he had not lived long enough to see the end result. This peace treaty had an ugly consequence though. It created tons of AE with many, many countries. This AE then resulted consequently in a big coalition against the Roman Empire.

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In October of 1688, the war with England came to an end. They were forced to return every Scottish core to Scotland. Furthermore, they ceded all of Ireland to the Roman Empire and four additional provinces to Scotland. Six years of fighting finally paid off! Unfortunately, there was not enough war score left to demand the English provinces in Africa but Urbanus was of the opinion that having annexed Ireland was the bigger coup.
But it was a dangerous peace. More than 30 countries had joined the coalition against the Roman Empire including strong forces like France, the Commonwealth and Bohemia. Urbanus was unsure whether the Romans could defeat such a strong coalition in a potential punitive war.

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Wonderful news arrived in February of 1689 from the Caribbean: The English West Indies had declared war upon England and cited Colonial Independence as their casus belli!
Back in Rome, Urbanus was worried about the lack of manpower - the manpower pool was depleted and 64.000 recruits were needed to fully replenish the armies. The Roman Empire seemed vulnerable.

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Luckily, there were sell-swords available for hire! 25.000 of them were sent to Ethiopia to continue the fight against the Coptic infidels! It was the second Jihad against Ethiopia in the last 15 years. With a small army of less than 20.000 men, the Ethiopians proved to be no challenge and so one year later, they ceded about half of their realm to the Romans. Now the Roman Empire had a direct land connection from Rome all the way down to Mozambique.

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Western Europe in 1690

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Comments:
This was maybe the most successful chapter so far and it covered 'only' 15 years of in-game time. Everything went according to plan - no nasty surprises.
  1. The Spanish suffered tremendously and lost a good chunk of Iberia to Granada.
  2. Bohemia betrayed Switzerland which we then vassalized.
  3. Austria was beaten heavily and forced to return every single Swiss core to Switzerland.
  4. England lost a big portion of its lands in the British Isles to our Scotland.
Our new ruler is good but because he is not that great at diplomacy, the national focus shifted to diplomatic power. This allows us to complete diplomatic ideas faster. We unlocked the first two ideas of that idea group already.

We completed the integration of our vassals Guyenne and Ardalan. This leaves us with three vassal: Scotland, Switzerland and Granada. However, Scotland and Switzerland are both heathens.


In less than two years, the truce with Portugal will run out. The plan is to hit them immediately - before they can join any coalitions. Granada is hungry for more territory and Portugal is there for the taking. Maybe we can then also conquer Madagascar and the remaining provinces in the Cape of Good Hope.

We have our first colonies outside Africa! St. Helena and The Canarias. We have to find out whether our colonial range from those provinces will allow us to conquer any provinces in Brazil and the Caribbean.

What brings the future? The truce with Spain lasts for another six years. The truce with the English will last for more than a decade. We also have a truce with Austria. The rest of Europe hates us and is in a coalition against us. Maybe in chapter XVI we should once more focus on Asia. In chapter XV no efforts were made to advance into India further.
Expansion is at the moment not restrained just by the coalition but also by our lack of manpower. We have lots of provinces with buildings that increase manpower but it's still 0 at the moment.


Our ally Russia is willing to join us in pretty much any European war. They used to have the frightened attitude but now it is back on friendly. That's quite good because Russia is actually the only European force which individually would make for a very tough fight. All the other countries are only strong together in some sort of alliance web or coalition.

That's all for now! Cheers!
 
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couldn't you declare on France or commonwealth before they joined the coalition? :eek: