Sunni Pope - A Papal State AAR

[delpiero1234]

couldn't you declare on France or commonwealth before they joined the coalition?

I was busy fighting other wars. The war against the English + Austrians killed my manpower and I did not want to risk another war. By the time I had vassalized Switzerland, the coalition started to get larger and larger but I still had to beat both Austria and England..

I haven't started playing for chapter XVI yet. I just hope that they leave the coalition soon. In 1.13beta I noticed some odd behaviour regarding coalitions. Sometimes countries randomly left the coalition for no apparent reason.

 

[Baron Tanks]

Very enjoyable AAR so far, love the concept and your play is fine. I'd suggest reworking your fort situation in the Alps and Northern Italy. You can cover the same area with probably something like a third of the forts. They offer no real advantage at the moment, I assume you have plenty for the army tradition. Looking forward to future updates.

 

[atwix]

I gues you can fight war in asia (india+east black sea) and one in africa and let Europa cool a bit

 

[delpiero1234]

Very enjoyable AAR so far, love the concept and your play is fine. I'd suggest reworking your fort situation in the Alps and Northern Italy. You can cover the same area with probably something like a third of the forts. They offer no real advantage at the moment, I assume you have plenty for the army tradition. Looking forward to future updates.

Thank you! So glad to hear that you enjoy reading this AAR
Good point about the fort situation. I'll definitely mothball some of those and in case of war I could always reactivate them Army tradition should be around 100. It's always high thanks to my idea groups and the wars I've been (mostly) winning.

I gues you can fight war in asia (india+east black sea) and one in africa and let Europa cool a bit

That's what I've had in mind. First focusing on Portugal once the truce expires and then attacking the Indian Subcontinent.

 

[atwix]

Why not destroy a few? can't you keep military tradition high enough if not?

 

[delpiero1234]

Why not destroy a few? can't you keep military tradition high enough if not?

I don't know? Do forts give military tradition or what? See this is my first real campaign of EU IV since like forever. The last time I played EU IV was when El Dorado came out so I'm still learning how these new mechanics work . Please bear with me
I guess I could destroy the forts. My fort maintenance is now almost higher than my army maintenance. Quite ridiculous.

 

[Sousuke123]

Every up to date fort gives AT but it won't give more than +1AT.

 

[delpiero1234]

Every up to date fort gives AT but it won't give more than +1AT.

Ok so if I destroy outdated lvl 1 or lvl 2 forts then it won't affect my army tradition anyways since these forts are 'obsolete'. Thanks. I'll get rid of some of them and replace them with something more useful like temples or cathedrals.

 

[atwix]

I don't know? Do forts give military tradition or what? See this is my first real campaign of EU IV since like forever. The last time I played EU IV was when El Dorado came out so I'm still learning how these new mechanics work . Please bear with me
I guess I could destroy the forts. My fort maintenance is now almost higher than my army maintenance. Quite ridiculous.

Active forts now give a maximum +1 army tradition yearly (beta patch 1.13 and above only). Maximum gain occurs when you have 1 actively maintained current technology fort per 50 development across your nation.


So basically what you gotta do for maximum gain is check your amount of active forts versus your total development. Total development:50=forts eneded to have max bonus.

Mothballed forts don't count, hence why I recommended destroying a few, and why people recommended to check your fort lines. The idea is to build forts in a way that they block anyone from entering italy, with another fort behind that blocks moving further etc.

Since you do 1.13, I'd take this into account. You need to destroy forts sometimes, move 'm where rebels can spawn, while keeping the number of forts needed to get maximum AT gain.

 

[delpiero1234]

Active forts now give a maximum +1 army tradition yearly (beta patch 1.13 and above only). Maximum gain occurs when you have 1 actively maintained current technology fort per 50 development across your nation.


So basically what you gotta do for maximum gain is check your amount of active forts versus your total development. Total development:50=forts eneded to have max bonus.

Mothballed forts don't count, hence why I recommended destroying a few, and why people recommended to check your fort lines. The idea is to build forts in a way that they block anyone from entering italy, with another fort behind that blocks moving further etc.

Since you do 1.13, I'd take this into account. You need to destroy forts sometimes, move 'm where rebels can spawn, while keeping the number of forts needed to get maximum AT gain.

I play with 1.13 beta and thanks for explaining all this. Much appreciated Now it makes sense to me why you suggested destroying a few of the forts. Most of my forts are outdated anyways. Upgrading them costs a lot of money and I rarely get invaded so they are not much use..
In my campaign, forts are mostly useful to prevent rebels from occupying too much land.

 

[delpiero1234]

Chapter XVI - Outwitting the Coalition
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It was 1690 and the English colonies were all embroiled in an independence war against their overlord. Spain suffered the same fate as the English when Spanish Brazil declared war on the Crown of Spain. Moments like these made Urabnus happy for two reasons: For one he enjoyed seeing his rivals having internal conflicts. Moreover, he was happy not to have any colonial nations himself. Otherwise he might have to worry about colonial independence wars, too.
Unfortunate for Spain was that none of their allies honored their call to arms to fight Spanish Brazil, not even the Portuguese with whom they had a royal marriage. It was not fun to be Spain in the late 17th century.

​

In October 1690, Urbanus launched a six-month-long war preparations program. The goal was to hit Portugal in the may of the following year because in May the truce with them was going to expire. Urbanus felt the needed to make the realm ready for war, even though the manpower pool was depleted. Portugal was allied with France, Air and Brittany at that time. This could prove to be a challenging campaign.

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All Irish provinces were successfully cored without a revolt occurring in January of 1691. Five missionaries were then sent to convert these Protestant provinces to the Sunni faith. Because of superior conversion strength, it was estimated that this process was going to take less than a year, eleven months to be precise.
In the English West Indie's War of Independence, Austria had sided with England. Some centuries ago, Austria had annexed the province of Stralsund in Northern Germany. From there, the Austrians launched a naval invasion and sailed all the way to the Caribbean where they occupied province after province for the English.

It was May of 1691 and the Roman army was ready to declare war, every regiment was in position. But then something odd happened! The Portuguese's truce with the Romans expired a couple of days before the Roman truce with the Portuguese expired . (I know no better way to phrase this..). This was a shock. Portugal entered the coalition two days before the Roman truce with Portugal had expired and thereby Rome was screwed; the war preparations were a waste of time and half a year was 'lost'. This was disappointing and Urbanus fell into a short depression. A change of plans was necessary.
The new point of interest then became the Indian Subcontinent and the first target was the one-province-minor Dhundhar. The goal was to annex them, then fabricate claims on Gujarat and declare war. In that potential war the goal would than be to conquer enough provinces to establish a base in India that is not connected to Rome. That way coring the region would be very cheap. That was the plan, at least.

​

The Roman Empire had too many active forts in Northern Italy which is why Urbanus, after he recovered from his depression, mothballed some of them.
The siege of Thatta, Dhundhar's only province, lasted for 106 days. Full annexation was demanded shortly after. Instead of fabricating claims on Gujarat, Urbanus used the Cleansing of Shiite Hersey cause belli on them. Gujarata was joined by Bahmanis, a large blob in India, as well as Delhi.

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At the Battle of Bela, almost half of the defending forces died. Bahmanis had laid siege on the Roman province of Bela and was surprised by the Roman troops.
From Bala, they moved on to Gujarata's territory and began constructing a siege camp near the heavily fortified star fort at Gorwar. Sind, a one province minor, was annexed in a separate war that lasted less than half a year.

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Thatta was considered an East Asian Trade Port and therefore it was possible for the Roman Empire to found an Indian Trade Company in that region. Merchants were sent to Alexandria and the Gulf of Aden to steer trade: From Aden to Alexandria and from Alexandria to Genoa. This greatly increased the Roman trade income.
A large revolt of peasants and separatists troubled Scotland. The Roman army was sent to the loyal Scottish in an effort to end the rebellion.

Two separate peace treaties were signed with Delhi and Bahmanis before the war with Gujarat came to an end. Delhi ceded three provinces, Marwar, Shekhawati and Nagaur to Rome. Gujarat ceded its coastal province South Konkan and Desh to the Romans. Gujarat ceded all but one province to the Romans. All these provinces were considered overseas territory. Coring them was almost free.
News arrived in Rome that Spanish Brazil had won its independence war and was now formally Brazil! Spain was in decline and so was Portugal! Portuguese Mexico, Caraibas and New Portugal declared an independence war on the Portuguese. This was celebrated in Rome with a big party.

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Spain had signed a new alliance with the Portuguese and supported them in their fight against the Portuguese colonial nations. This was the perfect opportunity to make another move against Spain and Portugal. Spain had forgotten to join the coalition and so it was a no-brainer for Urbanus to call for a Jihad against them. Tlemcen sided with the Romans; Portugal with the Spanish. At last, Rome was at war against the Portuguese which had tried to prevent a war by sneaking into a coalition some years ago. Urbanus promised to make them suffer but he died only a few months after the declaration of war. Pius V became his successor. He ignored the military arts, was a poor diplomat but his administration skills were very impressive: 5/2/0.

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Fort maintenance was too high said some of Pius's advisors and they were right. The realm was paying almost as many ducats to maintain its forts as it did for paying wages. In my many provinces, forts were sacked and replaced with more useful buildings.
The siege of Lisboa lasted for 426 days. In Rome they were sure that this demoralized the Portuguese. Having its capital sacked is never nice.

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But then it was doomsday for the Roman Empire. The mighty coalition suddenly declared war against the Romans. It was led by the Commonwealth. The coalition heavily outnumbered the defending forces of the Roman Empire and her ally Russia. This declaration of war happened on February 1, 1699.

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Urbanus had no interest in fighting a war which could not be won without the use of magic. Therefore, he immediately offered the Commonwealth to release Adal and Medri Bahri as sovereign states. On top of that, the Romans were going to pay 300 ducats as war compensation and cancel the alliance with Russia. A tempting offer for the Commonwealth and before the first hostilities were exchanged the war had come to an end. Urbanus outwitted the coalition by ceding worthless territory in Africa to sovereign states.

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Why release Adal and Medri Bahri? Those provinces were extremely cheap to core and re-conquering them later would hopefully not be challenging at all. By not fighting this pointless punitive war, Urbanus was able to concentrate on fighting the Spanish.

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It seemed to have paid off not to fight the coalition war because in early January of 1701, two years after the punitive war had been declared, Portugal was completely defeated, ceding all their provinces in the Cape of God Hope region, as well as Madagascar, the Azores, Madeira and Ceuta and Goa to the Roman Empire.
Meanwhile the Holy Roman Empire was attacked by the Commonwealth. Bohemia was their target. The Commonwealth never stopped expanding, just like the Romans.

Later that month, the Crown of Spain ceded every single province in Iberia to Granada and the Roman Empire which meant that they relocated their capital to Marrakech in Northern Africa. Furthermore, they ceded Melilla to the Romans.
The Roman South Africa Company and the Roman East Africa Company were the most successful trade company in their respective territory. This granted the Roman Empire additional merchants.

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Pius V declared no war for an entire year. In 1702, however, it was Janurary, his forces attacked Kaffa with the intention of annexing them. Right afterwards, regional nobles in Mentese tried to challenge the Roman Empire. They were defeated.

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Scotland had fabricated lots of claims on English provinces and in October, the truce just had expired, it was time to press these claims. War was declared. Norway, Lorraine, Pasai and Trier sided with England; the Austrians backstabbed the English and refused to honor the alliance.
Bohemia was in chaos; crushed by the Commonwealth and on top of that they lost the Emperorship to Karl I of Saxony!
Kaffa was annexed about 18 months after the declaration of war. Pius V now concentrated solely on the English.

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Diplomatic ideas were completed in September of 1704. This was a good day for the realm because now the diplomatic corps was stronger than ever before.
Trier, an ally of the English, was heavily besieging Milan and the city walls were already breached. Just in time, a Roman army arrived to deal with the besiegers. They successfully defeated the Trierian army.
Five years and dozens of battles later, the war was still going on. War score was at 54% - not enough to make the desired peace. In the mean time, Saxony had been defeated by their foes and an Imperial Reform had been revoked. Seeing the Holy Roman Empire suffer made Pius V happy.

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In October of 1709, the war had been going on for a total of seven years, Pius agreed to peace after 72% war score had been reached. England ceded important provinces like Cornwall, Yorkshire and Norfolk to Scotland. A total of ten provinces were ceded to Scotland. The Roman Empire received control over the English provinces in the East Africa Company region. Furthermore, England ceded the islands of Ile Bourbon, Mauritius and the Andamans to Pius's realm.
Pius sent a diplomat to Lothian with the mission to integrate Scotland into the Roman Empire. Administrators began coring the newly gained provinces. Rome had triumphed again!

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Roman diplomatic relations in 1709

Comments:
The AI really screwed us over when Portugal entered the coalition some weeks before the truce had ended. In the declare war screen it said the truce was still in place even though it had expired in mid-May and so the Portuguese used this to their advantage and joined the coalition, preventing us from declaring war against them. Hopefully, this is not WAD.

Westernization is a broken concept. Not only did most of the African tribes westernize, the Indian Subcontinent was also pretty much completely westernized. Even large blobs like Bahmanis had access to western technology. This leads to dumb situation where for example Delhi establishes a protectorate over its neighbor Sind.

We removed Spain from Iberia and conquered most of the British Isles. Rome's power is unmatched!


What would you have done in my shoes in this coalition war? Would you have fought it? I saw no point in it. I would have fought 10 years easily in this war and most likely would have lost. Adal and Medri Bahir are worthless provinces in Africa. Reconquering them is easy and will cost what? 200 ADM points total? Maybe 300? I rather lose those ADM instead of fighting a hopeless war and then still having to cede territory..
I am 99% sure that if we had not ceded those African lands then we would not have won the war against Spain + Portugal and later the war against England. Why? Because the coalition would have roflstopmed us.

Cheers!

 

[atwix]

Bailing out of coalition was probably a good idea. If you lose coalition war and release stuff etc, does it still wipe AE based on development of the nations released?

Finishing diplomatic and getting admin efficiency at adm 22 will make it loads easier to core stuff.

I advise you to get tech 22, and chain wars to be able to core stuff 100% OE non stop. Just do that for couple decades, and tech up to adm 26 when tech is cheaper, or when you are close to hitting admin cap.

I get the feeling you should have taken quantity idea group instead as third idea group, and defensive last. It would have netted you loads more manpower to build cannons, while maintaining mercs until the bonuses from quantity fill your manpower pool to max. And then swap to normal infantry, right?

I still think influence, administrative, quantity and maybe religious and diplomatic are essential for any blobbing campaign.

 

[delpiero1234]

Bailing out of coalition was probably a good idea. If you lose coalition war and release stuff etc, does it still wipe AE based on development of the nations released?

I'm not sure if you lose AE for ceding stuff. I wish the game would have more tooltips which would explain such things.

Finishing diplomatic and getting admin efficiency at adm 22 will make it loads easier to core stuff.
I advise you to get tech 22, and chain wars to be able to core stuff 100% OE non stop. Just do that for couple decades, and tech up to adm 26 when tech is cheaper, or when you are close to hitting admin cap.

Admin tech is already at level 24

I get the feeling you should have taken quantity idea group instead as third idea group, and defensive last. It would have netted you loads more manpower to build cannons, while maintaining mercs until the bonuses from quantity fill your manpower pool to max. And then swap to normal infantry, right?

I still think influence, administrative, quantity and maybe religious and diplomatic are essential for any blobbing campaign.

I never took quantity idea group before. In the past I used to play VeF mod but it's no longer compatible with the latest patches so this is why I now play vanilla. VeF had very different idea groups.
In early vanilla versions; quantiy was always labeled the worst military group ever so that's why I hadn't considered taking it. Maybe things have changed
After this AAR, I plan to start a new campaign with a different nation. This campaign was also a bit of a learning experience for me. Maybe I'll make a custom nation AAR or something like that.
Religious ideas I took only because I wanted to switch religion. I think they are crucial if you need to convert lots of provinces fast.
Influence ideas were a no-brainer for me - very powerful
administrative ideas turned out to be an excellent choice.
Defensive ideas are great. I think my army tradition would be a lot lower without defensive and the +15% moral is amazing.

Bt would have netted you loads more manpower to build cannons, while maintaining mercs until the bonuses from quantity fill your manpower pool to max. And then swap to normal infantry, right?

Not 100% sure what you mean. I use normal infantry. Or do you mean swap mercenaries with regular infantry?

Honestly, I don't think quantity is needed because now in the 18th century I have a full manpower pool of 317k. Just in early and mid game I had immense problems with keeping my manpower up.

 

[delpiero1234]

Chapter XVII - Lesson Learned​

In 1709, the Roman East Africa Company had run into serious financial troubles. They cited lack of expansion together with increased competition from foreign trade companies. In the long, it was expected that Rome had to help them to expand. The chairman of the trade company asked the Imam for working capital and military and naval resources but Pius V said that it was not in his interest to support them. He was busy fighting wars. The next target on his list was Ethiopia and a Holy War was declared in January of 1710.

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The more liberal and free thinking sections of the Roman soctiey was upset about the lack of innovation in government attitudes. Six revolutionary regiments rose up in revolt in Benghazi.
Besieging Ethiopian forces lasted for ages. One siege face was 51 days long. It took more than 700 days for each fort to fall, and of course lots of artillery was present.
That's why in December of 1711, Pius declared a second war on Bahmanis and her three allies. Pius felt that the war against Ehiopia was going on for too long and he was losing too much time by fighting it. A second, simluatnious war was necessary to please the Imam.

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Ehtiopia ceded much of its territory in 1712. This treaty left them with just four provinces. All provinces went directly to the Roman Empire; not to any vassal. Pius V was so happy about the victory over Ethiopia that he suffered a heart attack! He died shortly after and was replace by Pius VI, a decent 3/4/1 ruler.
Another was was declared, this time by Pius VI, on Delhi and her ally Bengal. Both wars were fought without much trouble, given that Bahmanis, Delhi and all the other defenders had rather weak armies with low moral. Progress was made rapidly; and the armies moved from fort to fort.

This allowed Pius VI to declare an important war in 1714 on Burgundy, Austria, Portugal and Alsace. Why was this war important? It allowed the Roman Empire to feed more of Iberia to Granada as well as Austria and Burgundy to Switzerland but of course this was only possible if Rome was going to triumph. Only a minority in the realm had doubts. Most believed that victory was a certainty. The war was declared right after the peace with the coalition had expired. Many of the countries rejoined the coalition immediately after. This was to be expected. 16 countries joined the coalition in the first 20 days after the truce had expired.

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Delhi ceded four of its six provinces in October of 1714 to Rome. This left the Roman Empire at war with Bahmanis and her allies and of course the war against Burgundy was far from over. Precisicly one year later, the war with Bahmanis came to an end, too. They released Madurai as sovereign stated and on top of that ceded a few provinces, most of them were coastal provinces, to the Romans. Pius VI now fully concentrated on the hated Catholics. As first action, he called Tunis into the war. This increased the Roman fighting power in Northern Africa against the Portuguese possessions like Tangiers.

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An outnumbered Roman army that was besieging Vienna, defeated twice an army of French and Austrian soldiers. Superior tactics, discipline and moral helped in achieving those victories. Portugal was forced out of the war by ceding Lisboa and Braganca to Granada. Only five provinces in Iberia had to be conquered before the entire peninsular was Roman.
Austria lost Tirol, Oberschwaben and Breisgau to the Roman vassal Switzerland. This left France, Alsace and Burgundy in the war.

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A Roman army marched from Tirol to Elsass with the going to conquer the province for the Swiss. This did not seem to be impossible as the local city fortifications were not overwhelmingly strong.
Four years into the war and Rome was dominating its opponents. 53% War Score had been reached. War exhaustion was still low. Burgundy on the other side had a war exhaustion of almost 17! Being Defender of the Faith really helped with keeping war exhaustion low.
108.000 sell-swords fought against the French. This army was composed of 65 infantry regiments, 12 cavalry regiments and 31 artillery regiments. General Pesaro who led the mercenaries was sure that the siege of Paris would be won in no time. All that was needed to win the siege was a breach in the wall.

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Scotland was bankrupt in 1720. It was said that the local rulers were greedy and incompetent persons. Pius VI decided to help them to get partially out of bankruptcy with a donation of 100 ducats. The Scottish were most grateful for the money.
The siege of the province of Elsass lasted for more than 400 days and ended with the full annexation of Alsace through Switzerland. Burgundy and France were now the only two hostile parties still in the war, excluding the French Colonial Nations which did absolutely nothing all war long.
In May of 1719, war was declared on Adal. Time to reconquer the provinces lost in the last punitive war! As predicted almost two decades ago, it was super easy to reconquer these "lost" lands.
Not so easy was to defeat the French. It took the Romans six years to conquer Anjou and Maine.

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Shortly after France had to cede Anjou and Maine, their colonial nations declared war on them! It was an interesting development that all of the major colonizers had either already lost their colonial subjects or were about to lose them. Brazil, Mexico and the USA were just a few of the independent nations that once used to be colonial nations of a European colonizer.

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The war with Burgundy came to an end after eight long years. They ceded their capital Dijon as well as Besancon, capital city of the province Franche-Cometé, to Switzerland.
A war was also declared on Medri Bahri with the goal to reclaim these provinces. Ethiopia joined them. This happened at about the time when the full annexation of Adal had been demanded. The realm was now that 124% overextension. Trouble on the hirzon? Only time could tell but Pius VI was optimistic that he could deal with this issue.

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But he was wrong. A couple of months later, separatists sentiment spread through the Roman Empire. The Roman reputation was terrible and its neighbors thought that Rome was the spawn of the Devil. Separtatists conspirators were spreading lies and igniting rebel sentiment especially in Serbia but also elsewhere. "But the show must go on", said Pius VI to his generals.
The 'show' was supposed to continue with a war in India. The goal was to force Delhi into vassalage. Delhi was Sunni and had completed westernization long time ago so they were an ideal target. Too bad that there still was a truce in place which Rome had forgotten about. So the target became Afghanistan instead. They were westernized, too, and also followed the Sunni faith. But first a claim had to be fabricated on their realm.
Meanwhile news arrived from Norther Africa: Tlemcen had broken their alliance with Rome!
In 1722, the integration of Scotland had been completed. Most of the British Isles were now controlled directly by the Roman Empire! With the integration of Scotland, Rome also received control over its first colonial nation: Scottish Colombia. Unfortunatly, Scottish Colombia followed a heathen faith and had a liberty desire of 69%! Scottish Colombia was renamed to Nuova Roma.

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Problematic was that Scotland had failed to core all the provinces that had been given to them! Rome was now sitting on 182.4% overextension. Pius VI was at loss at what to do. Scotland could be described a as the prototype of a truly incompetent vassal.
A second colonial nation was founded in New England: Meccina.
With the realm in chaos, the war against Afghanistan was postponed for another day.

Rome was still at war with Medri Bahri and Ethiopia. Both countries were fully occupied but annexing either of them was not an option given how high overextension was. Pius VI needed time to think about what to do. He decided it was best to force Medri Bahri into vassalage.​

Back at peace, Pius VI gave orders to begin integrating Granada and Switzerland into the realm.
By January of 1724, overextension was below 100%. However, the realm had been pretty much destroyed by rebels. Rebels were everywhere. The British Isles were especially hit by religious zealots. Rome had wanted too much too soon. Now it paied the price for too much conquest.

​

The World in 1725

Comments:
What shall I say? I made too many mistakes in this chapter. I was too greedy. Conquered too much too fast but my biggest mistake was to annex Scotland too fast without checking whether they had cored all their provinces. This really screwed me over. But as I like to say this is a learning campaign for me. I'm a little bit upset with my self though that I made those rookie mistakes but oh well. Was it at least fairly entertaining to see me fail..?

Otherwise, we made good progress by defeating Burgundy and her allies. This war eight years long but we achieved exactly what was necessary. Iberia is almost completely ours. There are less than 100 years left in this campaign. Let's see where this will end..



Cheers!

 

[delpiero1234]

Chapter XVIII - Vassals, Vassals and more Vassals​

Rome had hired Paulus Modigliano, a first rate organizer, to improve the army. Pius VI was delighted when he was told that Modigliano had done fantastic work. Tales of Modigliano's abilities had spread far and wide. He truly was a brilliant army organizer.
Not too long ago, the Romans were forced to postpone their attempt to militarily force Afghanistan into vassalage because of internal chaos. In the summer of 1725, the chaos had been mostly dealt with and the army was ready to invade Afghanistan which was allied with Sibir and the shadow of what used to be the Persian Empire.

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A Roman army of sell-swords attacked Perisa; Roman legions Afghanistan.The two armies worked well together and conquered the enemy lands in an impressive time. The Battle of Mashhad was decisive: All 14.000 Persian troops had fallen during that battle. Without any further restiance, it was not difficult to demand the full annexation of Persia in October of 1726.

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Pius VI was replaced on December 26, 1726 by Alexander VII, a skilled diplomat who had completed the Roman school of diplomacy.
Afghanistan had been occupied but refused to accept the Roman offer of becoming their vassal because Sibir was still in the war. Neither Rome nor Afghanistan had a border with Sibir and so besieging their provinces was difficult. There, it was decided to just sit it out. Sooner or lather Afghanistan was going to accept the offer, Alexander was sure of it.

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Indeed, two years later, the Afghan war exhaustion was so high that they gladly accepted the Roman offer and become a subject state of Alexander.
Meanwhile reports reached Rome that the integration of Switzerland and Granada were progressing well.

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In July of 1728, the Romans then declared war on Portugal, which had lost all its colonial possessions but Portuguese Louisiana. They also had no more allies. Iberia was going to be Roman! A Holy War it was!

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Portugal's army fought terrible. They were on par tech-wise with the Romans but their army was a bunch of disorganized fools. They all died at the Battle of Porto which took place in November of 1728.
One and a half years later, Iberia was all Roman. Furterhmore, Cape Verde and Arguin became Roman, too. Arguin was a trading outpost in Africa. Consequently, Portugal had to relocate its capita and chose to move it to Sierra Leone.
Rome was now preparing for a new war against the French. A truce was still in place but it was going to expire in December of 1730 and that was less than six months from now. France was allied with Congo and Sweden.

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War was declared on France before they were able to join the coalition but before that, the alliance with Russia was restored. Tunis sided with the Romans; Russia was not called into the war. Sweden and Congo as well as French Colombia joined France.

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Alexander had planned ahead and stationed a fleet with 23.000 soldiers on board near the coast of Congo. In two years, most of Congo had been occupied.
Meanwhile in France, the siege of Paris came to an end after more than 420 days. The sieges of all other French forts in Europe, these included Normandie and Nevers, had also all been won.

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That meant that on April 28, 1733, the war with Frane came to an end. The Treaty of Cornwall regulated that the Norman provinces Normandie and Caux were ceded to Rome. These were converted to Sunni and then released as vassal.
Furthermore, Switzerland received control over Nevres and Charlois. Rome was given Orleanais, Limousin and Perigord.
Back at peace, Medri Bahri was integrated into the realm, this was estimated to be completed in about two years.

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In the summer of 1735, the Romans made a move against their ex-ally Tlemcen. Long time ago, Tlemcen had canceled the alliance between them and Rome. Now it was pay-back time. 60.000 mercenaries had been stationed in the Roman outpost Ceuta. The goal of the war was to conquer Tangier and maybe a few more provinces. Coring the Berber lands was expensive because of the Berber Traditions, even though these provinces were considered overseas territory.
Another option would be to conquer as many Moroccan provinces as possible and then release Morocco as Sunni vassal. Alexander wanted to keep his options open.

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Moroccan separatists had risen up in Tlemcen. They began occupying a lot of territory. Tlemcen was in trouble, lots of trouble.
Two years into the war and the fighting was still going on but war score was positive at 61%.

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In June of 1738, the integration of Switzerland had been completed. They could not resist the irresistible proposal of being a part of the Roman Empire.

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With Switzerland being annexed and the integration of Granada almost completed, Alexander decided to make a new vassal in Morocco. That's why Tlemcen was forced to cede Fez, Oujda and Tangier to the Romans. Tangiers, Fez and Ceuta were given to Morocco.

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Coalition Map; June 1738

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Comments:
This was an overall successful chapter in which we conquered quite a bit of land. Iberia is now completely Roman and we have established new vassals with Morocco, Afghanistan and Normandy.
Switzerland and Medri Bahir had been integrated. Granada is almost integrated (over 80% completed).

Our latest ruler is not that great but his diplomatic skill helps us integrating vassals quickly. We are still very far behind in diplomatic tech but that's ok..


Expansion is limited by the powerful coalition. Maybe moving further into India could be an option for the next chapter.

Thanks for reading!

 

[delpiero1234]

Chapter XIX - Where is the Big Blue Blob?
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Imam Alexander met in the summer of 1738 with leading generals of the Roman army. The general pressured Alexander to finally focus on offensive ideas. None of the other options like Economic or Expansion seemed to make a lot of sense to Alexander and the realm had a large surplus of military points and so gave into his generals' demands and Rome focused on offensive ideas.

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Rome was caught off-guard when on April 3, 1739, the coalition, led by Bohemia, declared war. Alexander had considered peacing out immediately. A victory was not on the table. However, he did not want to cede a whole lot of territory and so the army did as best as it could.
The English army was annihilated; the Burgundian forces defeated.

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The Roman Army in Franch Comte was attacked by enemy forces and hostile reinforcements kept arriving and arriving. The battle lasted for about half a year! Alexander was surprised that a single battle in the 18th century could last for so long.
At the Battle of Franche-Comté, more than 484300 soldiers fought for the coalition; the Roman army at that battle was with about 216900 soldiers less than half their size! But guess who won?! The Romans!
These won battles gave the Roman Empire a positive war score of +19%.

Nevertheless, on January 1, 1740, Rome agreed to release Adal as sovereign state (once again!) and so the coalition war came to an end. There was really no point in fighting this war.
A Roman army of sell-swords was marching from Aghanistan to the Roman-Bahmanis border. It was time to conquer more of the Indian subcontinent.

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The Roman army arrived at the border in April of 1740. A couple of months earlier, the integration of Granada into the Roman Empire had been completed. A great day for Rome! All of Iberia was now under direct Roman control.
In Lothian citizens were mass drafted after cantonments had been established in the area. Cantonments were also established in other provinces.

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In Mid April of 1740, the war against Bahmanis and her three allies began. Her allies were mighty Jaunpur, Multan and tiny Gujarat.
One army of mercenaries fought in Bahamins; a second one which was composed of regular forces attacked Multan. 18 months later, Multan was defeated and ceded three provinces to Rome. The army fighting Multan then moved on to Jaunpur.

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After three years of war, four of Bahmanis 10 forts had been sacked; Janipur had lots of forts, too. Besieging them took ages. Nevertheless, 57% War Score had been reached by April of 1743.
The following year, Janipur was forced out of the war after ceding five provinces out of which three were fortified to the Romans.

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The war against Bahmanis was basically won by that time the treaty with Janipur was signed because the war score was already at 99%.
On July 18, 1744, Bahmanis was forced to cede most of its coastal provinces to the Romans, as well as the island of Ceylon and a few inland provinces. This put the realm at 97% overextension.
Alexander died on July 25, seven days after the signing of the peace treaty. His successor was Iohannes XXIII, the most incompetent ruler the realm had ever seen. His stats were 1/1/1. Poor Rome!

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A Roman army was sailing from Provence to the Cape Verde. From there they launched a military campaign against Portugal which had moved to Africa long time ago. The fleet arrived in late August. Iohannes had to use the conquest cause belli as no other was available to him for this war.

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A little less than a year later, the truce with the French expired and Iohannes declared war on them immediately with the goal to conquer France once and for all. Problermatic was that France had allied the Commonwealth, Sweden, Louisiana and Kongo! But war it was!

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Louisiana sailed all the way from the Americas to land a raiding party in Lisboa. Was it D-Day already?
Portugal agreed to peace on September 1, 1746. They ceded some Central African territory to Rome.
Russia was willing to join the war against France, probably because they were bordering the Commonwealth. Tunis joined the war against the French, too.

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The Commonwealth was too strong though. The Roman Forces outnumbered them in every battle, yet too many were lost. These losses were unexplainable.
That's why in March of 1750 the Romans offered the Commonwealth to annual the alliance with Russia if they left the war. This generous offer was accepted. The Roman armies then concentrated on the Congo; France's possessions in Europe had been occupied within the first year of the war.

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Sweden and Louisiana were offered white peaces in 1751 and the Congo was occupied in no time at all. Suddenly this war seemed winnable again! By August of 1751 War Score was at +81%! An incredible turnaround. Congo ceded four of its provinces to the Romans. This left only France in the war.

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On September 1, 1751, the full annexation of France was demanded. The European provinces went to Normandy. Everything the French owned in Africa and Asia to the Romans. Victory, at last!

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Comments:
Another punitive war and another 'defeat'. We had to cede Adal once again. Maybe there is still time to reconquer it though.

The Battle of Franch-Comté was the largest battle that occurred in this campaign so far. It lasted for about six months! Can you believe it?!

We annexed France! Bye, bye Big Blue Blob!

Our military endeavour in India was a success. Next chapter we'll hopefully continue expanding into India.

We chose offensive idea groups because we need a better military against the Commonwealth. Their armies fight like Immortals. Even outnumbering them does not help.

 

[atwix]

Commonwealth is a military powerhouse late game (17th-18th century), comparable to the France. They are likely the toughest nation left on the map

Nice 'learning' campaign

 

[delpiero1234]

Commonwealth is a military powerhouse late game (17th-18th century), comparable to the France. They are likely the toughest nation left on the map

Nice 'learning' campaign

I realized that by now.. The Commonwealth is stronger than France ever was. Early in the campaign I made the big mistake of not breaking the Union between Poland and Lithuania when I had them all sieged down... But like I said, it's a learning campaign. I surly won't make the same mistake again

 

[delpiero1234]

Chapter XX - Expansionism​

France was no more. Defeated. Annexed. The world was now a better place, according to Roman tales.
Imam Iohannes XXIII noticed in November of 1751 that truce with the mighty coalition was going to expire in September of the following year. Time to prepare for war. The goal was to declare war on either Burgundy or Brittany before they rejoined the coalition.
Brittany had no allies in Europe: They were allied to an all-powerful Brazil, Canada, Kongo and Tidore. Burgundy on the other hand had formed alliances with Augsburg, Cologne, Pomerania and Louisiana.
A third option was to declare war on the English and their allies Lorraine, Trier, the Netherlands, Cree and Sunda. Tough decision.

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Iohannes wanted also to declare war on Tlemcen with the ambition to reconquer some Moroccan cores. All fleets were, however, busy elsewhere. Iohannes reordered the Roman main fleet back from Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. 58.000 soldiers were awaiting the fleet in Murcia. The fleet brought them safe to Melila. From there a military campaign against Tlemcen could be launched.

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War on Tlemcen was declared in mid-June of 1752. A few months before the truce with the coalition was going to expire. Tlemcen was already embroiled, at that time, in a war against Spain. The Romans used this to their advantage.
On September 10, 1752, Rome then called for a Holy War against Brittany - England and Burgundy had by that time already rejoined the coalition.. All their allies joined them and on top of that the Commonwealth sided with Brittany because they happened to be Defender of the Catholic Faith.
Later that year, reports reached Rome that the United States had successfully invaded India! They must have sailed from North America along the coast of the Americas and then along the coast of Africa all the way to India. The United States must have been immune to attrition.

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The Commonwealth was doing a great job at invading Roman territory. They occupied Bender and from there moved on to Moldavia and Bessarbia. They had sent more than 200.000 soldiers to attack the Roman Empire.
That's why the Roman Empire began mass-drafting citizens and recruited 120 more regiments in Europe alone. More mercenaries were hired as well.
This time, some of the battles were won by the Commonwealth; others by the Romans. In the last war, the Commonwealth had dominated the Romans much more.

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A first peace treaty was signed in May of 1754 with Congo after their realm had been occupied. They ceded all but one province to Rome.
The sieges of Brittany's European holdings were going on well. Nates which was their capital, Morbihan and Armor had already been sacked. Only the siege of Finistere was still in place. The local fortress seemed inbreakable.

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After almost 800 days, Finistere finally fell but the war was far from over because the Commonwealth was still in it which prevented any sort of peace deal.
At the Battle of Bazau, the Roman defeated a Commonwealth army that was besieging the province. The Roman forces had to heavily outnumber the Commonwealth army in order to win the battle. More than 200.000 Romans fought in that battle.

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The war against Tlemcen was in its fourth year when 99% War Score was reached and all but two provinces had been occupied. Soon the full annexation of them could be demanded! Morocco was eager to eat them.
In fact, on June 19, 1756, Morocco annexed all of Tlemcen. They were now a regional power in Northern Africa and moreover a very loyal subject.

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On December 1, 1756, the Commonwealth agreed to a white peace after understanding that there was nothing to gain for them in this war.
A couple of months later, Brittany had no choice but to cede all its European possessions to Normandy. Furthermore, they lost all their African territory to Rome, as well as some of their oversea's possessions in Asia. Montferrat was also ceded to Rome.

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A cartographer was hired that painted a new map of Africa for Imam Iohannis XXII. The Imam liked the map very much and was pleased with how large his realm in Africa was.
The realm was at peace only for a short time. Iohannis wanted to continue to spread the Sunni Faith over the Indian subcontinent. But he did not stop there; it had to be spread through the entire world - It was the will of Allah! Before a religious war was declared on Bahmanis, the Imam sent one of his must trusted advisor to Afghanistan. He gave him the orders to integrate them into the Roman Empire.

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Bahmanis was not alone in this war. They were backed by some powerful and some less powerful allies including Jaunpur and Madurai.
For Madurai it soon turned out that joining the war was a mistake because shortly after the declaration of war their three provinces were annexed by Rome.

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A simultaneous war was fought against Adal. The goal was once again to reconquer the lost territory that Rome had to cede in a punitive war. Adal had no allies. There it was believed to be an easy war. This
assumption turned out to be true; two years later Adal was annexed.

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An important battle in the war against Bahmanis took place in Central Doab. There, half of Jaunpur's army was annihilated!

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On July 5, 1761, an envoy arrived from Newfoundland. He was asking Rome to support their independence agains the evil English. This seemed like a good idea to get a war started against England. Therefore, the offer was accepted.
Not too long after accepting that offer, Argentine, another English colony, asked Iohannis to support their independence, too. Naturally, the Imam agreed to help them.

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On May 30, 1761, Janipur ceded ten provinces to the Romans. This peace deal strengthend the Roman position in India. All these provinces were considered overseas territory. This was useful when it came to coring them.
Now only Mutan and, of course, Bahmanis were left to defeat.

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Because of overextension, none of Mutan's provinces were annexed. Instead, Iohannis forced them into vassalage!
Mutan hated the Romans, a lot. Aggressive Expansion Impact with them made an integration impossible in the forseable future. But Iohannis did not care. He wanted them to be his subject; loyal or disloyal didn't matter.
On July 14, 1763, the war then came to an end after Bahmins ceded most of their provinces to Rome. They were now a two-province minor. These two provinces had not been conquered because otherwise the Roman Empire would have been overextend by more than 100%. Iohannis did not want to risk that.

Back at peace, the realm prepared for a war against Wallachia, which had foolishly left the coalition, and more importantly her allies Austria and Bohemia. The goal was not only to conquer Wallachia but also a few Austrian provinces. The declaration of war occurred on March 4, 1764. The Commonwealth joined the defending forces because they were still the Defender of the Catholic faith.
Lots of Roman armies had been positioned along the various borders with the enemy. An Austrian army of 63.000 men was caught by surprise when the Romans attacked them from the neighboring province of Graz but because of reinformcenets from Boehmia, the battle went lost.

The following months, Newfoundland declared an independence war against England. Rome joined them in an effort to become independent from the evil English.
Many, many battles were fought in the first year against the Commonwealth and her allies. Many were lost, others were won. War Score was negative..
The English provinces in the British Isles were occupied pretty fast. Only 8.000 Englishmen were defending their homeland. Calais had still to be invaded though.

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Then things started too look better after the Roman army triumphed a few times in a row against hostile forces, mostly from the Commowealth. Then two Commonwealth provinces were sacked and at Warsaw the the Roman army built a siege camp. Soon the Commonwealth capital was going to be under Roman occupation!

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A loan had to be taken in order to pay the wages of sell-swords and regular troops alike. But the realm could afford loans easily. It's monthly balance was +122 ducats in June of 1766.
Warsaw fell in August of the same year. In December, the Commonwealth then deced three provinces to the Romans. It was the first time in history that the Commonwealth had been defeated by the Romans!
The siege of Calais lasted for 528 days and after Lothringen fell to the Romans, Iohannis decided it was time for a separate peace treaty with England. He feared that Newfouland was not going to give him any provinces and so a separate peace was necessary.

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The English ceded Calais to Normandy and Essex to Rome. The war against Wallachia kept going. Austria was now the target of Roman attention; Wallachia's two provinces were occupied a very long time ago. Sundgau fell after Vienna. Then Ulm and finally Ansbach. All but one of the Austrian forts had been sacked by mid November of 1768.
This was enough to make peace with a demoralized Austria. Sundgau, Ulm, Lienz and more importantly Wien became Roman provinces.

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Later that month, a white peace was signed with Bohemia and only then Wallachia was annexed by the Romans. This put the Romans at 107.6% overextension for about five months. Even though that period was short, separatists sentiment spread like wildfire through the Roman Empire.
News arrived in Rome that Sweden had formed Scandinavia after conquering the remaining required provinces from the Hansa.
In December of 1768, the truce with Congo expired. Rome declared war and annexed their last remaining province in a very short war.

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Iohannis died at the age of 72 in his bed in Rome. No ruler had worse skills than he did. Not even his successor which was labeled the "new" Iohannis for his low stats. Gregorius XIII was a 1/2/1 ruler..
In June of 1770, a diplomat began integrating Normandy into the Roman Empire.
Rome unlocked advanced casus belli like Imperialism very late in 1770. The first target of Roman imperialism became the Maldives.

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It was a short war, Maldives had no allies and just its home province. No wonder given that they had no border with any other country. The Maldives did absolutely nothing since 1444. Gregorius was very relieved that he ruled over the Roman Empire and not just over a boring island in the middle of nowhere.
The second target of Roman imperialism was Tidore, an Moluccan kingdom in Asia.

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A third imperialism war was declared on Brunei and her ally Pasai.
After Brunei's provinces on Borneo were occupied, the Romans moved on to fight Pasai instead of besieging the remaining Bruneian provinces.
Meanwhile the full annexation of Tidore had been demanded in March of 1773.
The war against Brunei ended with Brumei and Pasai ceding a few provinces each.

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In 1774, England was once more the target of Roman aggression. The truce had expired and the goal was to conquer their provinces on the British Isles. Lorraine, Trier, Sunda and a number of other countries joined the English. Could Rome triumph again?

The world in January 1775

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Comments:
Another long chapter in which lots of interesting things happened. We won our first war against the Commonwealth. We expand a lot in Asia; mostly in India.

We annexed Brittany andTlemcen an!

Our incompetent ruler, Iohannis, died at the age 72 Reminder: His stats were 1/1/1. His replacement, Gregorius, is almost as bad: 1/2/1. Does Allah punish the Romans for conquering so much or what?!

Currently we are embroiled in war against the English. Hopefully the British Isles will soon be called Roman Isles!

Cheers and see you next time!

 

[atwix]

by the way, if you play christian nation, the idea is to HELP poland form the commonwealth... only to force PU them in 160x after they get the event chain that tumbles them down into absolute monarchy..

The last king of commonwealth then becomes king of the monarchy, with a weak claim polish noble heir, alowing your nation to force PU 'm immediatly, after you helped them killing off all the noble rebels.

The idea is to start supporting your heir in commonwealth after 1550, and make sure your candidate wins before 1600. Then your dynasty will spread to PLC once they become monarchy.

Regarding fighting france and PLC late game: don't use ALL your troops in a fight. Morale damage spreads to all troops, even the ones who don't participate in the fight. The idea is to reinforce ongoing battles with stacks of like 60 infantry, again, again, and again. Win.