The City

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"The City" A Catholic Habsburg Byzantine AAR

*Note: This is my first AAR so bare with me, feel free to give advice or suggestions on who to take on next in the game. If your a reader/lurker feel free to post once in a while to help motivate to continue.


Byzantine game starting in 1453, a marriage with Austria yields Micheal X von Habsburg to become the Emperor crowned by the Pope in Rome along with Fredrick III of Austria. The previous Emperor reaffirmed the Council of Florence acknowledging Papal authority over the entire church.

Backstory up until the start in 1453
With the previous Emperor Konstantinos XI made a treaty with Austria a marriage. The marriage is between Micheal a nephew of the Habsburg Maximilian I, before his come to power. Konstantinos secures Byzantium claims to the leading nation of Eastern Christianity. The conversion of "The City" occurs in 1449 to Catholicism while Konstantinos allows the other Greek territories population of Achea and Morea to remain Orthodox.

The Turks sensing in 1452 the weakness of "The City" declare war. Many thousands of people knowing the city will be lost flee "The City". Two major groups of refugees develop the Augustinians believing to find sanctuary they must move west on ships travelling westbound to find a safe haven. The other group the Doubting Thomas' flee to southern Greece. However, shortly they discover the Orthodox population there does not welcome their fellow Catholic Greeks and follows an ancient trade route that was used centuries earlier to the East on their flotilla.

Meanwhile, back in "The City" Konstantinos XI bravely defends against waves of Turk assaults on the City walls. His brother in Law Micheal von Habsburg aids in the defense with his own regiment of Austrian Knights. During the battle the Emperor is gravely wounded and with no heir appoints Micheal to be the next Emperor.

As the Turks pour in through a gap created by Knostantinos' absence the Turk Sultan receives word from the new Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick III. There the Austrians garentee "The City's" independence and listed several various countries that would invade the Turkish domain if "The City" fell to their forces. Realizing there would be little hope to defend his territory the Turk decides to retreat for the time being.

A year and a half passes and finally after Micheal X von Habsburg returns from Rome being crowned word comes that the Augustinians founded a new Greek colony in a new world naming it St. Augustine, and that the Thomas group followed in the Apostle Thomas' footsteps to the distant land of India purchasing some land from the ruling kingdom.

 

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The starting is the year 1453, with the Byzantium Empire, with a conversion to Catholicism as the official religion and with the Habsburg dynasty an orientation towards the West has occurred.

The starting is with Thrace, Morea, Achea, Timucua and Goa.

Critical goal is to control Thrace and Judea.

Goals are to control the Near East, Dacia, Italy, North Africa and establish a large colonial Empire. To remain a Catholic country throughout and to stay withing the BB limit, to the best I can. Push Asia Minor all into the Greek Culture along with all of Bulgaria to be Greek.

To dismantle the HRE, incorporate Spain, Gaul, and Russia would be an added bonus.


*Modded so that you can annex anyone with Five or Fewer provinces. This is on high aggression and very hard difficultly without inflation. Makes for an interesting game.

 

[dinofs]

Catholic, Hapsburg Byzantium? Count me in!

 

[unmerged(197061)]

Good luck. I have to say it'd be very cool to see the Byzantines take Iberia and Gaul.

 

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The year of Our Lord 1453 with the Turkish danger ever present Micheal decides on raising the armies as high as possible for defense. To reclaim glory and be in any contention to threaten Turkish power Micheal decides he must Ally with the Crusader states or Annex them. A reconquest of Athens is planned.

To win the planned war mercenary regiments are drawn up in Morea. However, due to religious friction several "Orthodox unhappy about the Catholic Conversion Christians" revolt in Achaea then Morea then Achaea again. Prompting several more missionaries and mercenaries to be deployed to the area.

With the domestic problems afoot there is no time to deal with instructing the two overseas provences therefore Micheal informs them to self governance and defense that they are essentially on their own.

On January of 1454 finally with rebellion quelled mercenary forces are sent into Athens and quickly crush the Athenian Crusaders and swiftly are annex by April. Then due to legitimacy and religious issues Morea rebels again.

In August Micheal accepts marriages with Trebizond, Georgia and Bohemia. To help improve the realm Micheal decides he should somehow take the Holy Land for Christianity to help cement his place in history and honor and maybe quell some internal problems. To accomplish this first Micheal tosses a few Denarii in the direction of some well placed Knights on the island of Cyprus. This hopefully would later claim loyalty back to the Emperor and be a staging point for further escapades into the Lenient. Finally, in August the Knights of Rhodes accept a military alliance with "The City".

In the fall and beginning of Winter the Peloponnese converts to Catholicism thanks in large part to the focus of the nation on the area. Greek Catholicism while recognizing Papal authority still retains most of the Orthodox separate traditions however, the patriarch has become a Cardinal. Greek is still used in services with more and more Latin being used slowly depending upon the region.

In January the guarantees of the former Athenian Crusader states accept a white peace and Trebizon is annexed by Candar. With the army and navy improved "The City" can adequately defend itself but win a war with the Turk is still out of Question.

However, in February Micheal discovers while praying for guidance in the Church of Wisdom, Hagia Sofia, that Hungary was now involved in a war with the Turks along with Ak Koyunlu to the East. With a weak army in comparison to the Turk God made his will known so Micheal the Habsburg made his largest decision of Empire's history to attack the Turks from Athens and "The City" without even consulting the Pope or his relatives in Austria.

 

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Additionally, If anyone knows how i can inbed maps onto the forum please let me know how via here or give me a link to how thanks.

 

[dinofs]

You need to upload the game screenshots to a picture-sharing website like Photobucket or Imageshack. Then, you need to copy and paste the image tag.

This guide should help: http://www.myds.com.au/GuideDetail.aspx?id=38

 

[WittyName]

You need to upload the game screenshots to a picture-sharing website like Photobucket or Imageshack. Then, you need to copy and paste the image tag.

This guide should help: http://www.myds.com.au/GuideDetail.aspx?id=38

TinyPic is the best site, imo.

 

[dinofs]

TinyPic is the best site, imo.

Fair enough. Personally, I prefer Photobucket, but TinyPic is good too.

 

[unmerged(191386)]

TinyPic is the best site, imo.

Thanks for the suggestions going and looking at it right now for my next update.

 

[unmerged(191386)]

God's Ordained War:

The Roman forces bravely marched into Turk territory besieging the Turkish capital and Janinia, while our loyal allies of the Knights of Rhodes assaulted the Turkish Asia minor provinces. As soon as Micheal X declared war Wallachia, Montenegro and Corfu sensing blood also declared war on the Turks. Later Bosnia and Dulkadir did as well. Unfortunately by July 1 Hungary signed a white peace truce with the Turk.

Micheal X had to act quickly before the entire might of the Turk was upon his forces. So three days after Hungary signed a treaty with the Turk the Treaty of Edirme, whereas the provinces of Burgas and Janinia were ceded to "The City". Micheal was hailed as a brilliant ruler domestically for his prowness during the War with the Turk. However, his relations with his uncle in Austria plummetes since Micheal X von Habsburg essentially acted independent from his dynasty. This created a more independent Byzantium from Austrian influence, which in tern improved his standing among the Greeks.

The genius of Micheal X's early peace with the Turk was short lived after other nations were able to force the Turk to cede vast amounts of land. Promting the public to deam Micheal not as a genius but rather niave about peace brokering. This came namely since Wallachia was able to take Bulgaria and Silistria and then Bosnia both Serbia and Kosovo, while the eastern Turkish domain subcomed to revolts. Some relieve as in sight when Greek patriots broke Corfu in revolt and pledging the loyalty of Corfu and Larissa to "The City" later in 1457.

Unification of Habsburg Domains War:

On September 13th of the Year of Our Lord 1457, due to mounting internal pressure to take more land from the lesser peoples of the Balkans war was declared on Wallachia. This war's aim by Micheal were to regain credibility in the Empire while connecting the Hungarian Habsburg personal union with Austria's administered lands to placate those alienated Austrians from God's Ordained War.

The plan of attack was two fold first rush from Greece through Albanian and Bosnian territory to sign simple treaties and meet up with the Imperial legion pressing from "The City" taking Wallachia. Luckily for the Empire Wallachia was in a pretender rebellion at the time.

By July of 1458 Albania falls and is force converted to Catholicism for peace, shortly later word arrives that the colonists in the new world founded a second colony south of their location and on the way to deliver that word they found another uninhabited island and planned on creating another colony there as well.

By November the core territories claimed by "The City" were in Imperial hands and a peace could have been negotiated for them. However, the general Herakles of the Imperial legion felt that with Wallachia in rebellion the whole country could be taken. With blessings from the Emperor, Herakles pressed forward, while the Legion of Greece was bogged down in Serbia.

After another year of long fighting in December of 1459 Bosnia finally concedes defeat and all forces rush towards Wallachian territory. After defeating the last remaining forces and the pretender rebellion Wallachia accepts full annexation in July of 1460.

Herakles is paraded as hero in "The City" and Micheal X von Habsburg is adorded for securing vast new lands and established "The City" as the largest single power in the Southern Balkans. With the new territory the population needed to become more civilized as decreed by Micheal X so a cultural settlement policy was established to make the new lands people Greek and not Barbarian.

Along with this the Pope established a new order of monks called the Priestly Order of St. Paul. The aim to convert the Orthodox Balkan area to Roman Catholicism, this targeted first the new territories of Silistria, Bulgaria, Oltenia and Wallachia and would spread to become part of the missionary work throughout the Empire with the Cardinal in "The City" as the local head of its work.

The Islands War:

In April 1463 Micheal X's uncle ascended the throne of Austria ending the Hungarian union and subsequently declared war on Venice for regional supremacy. At the behest of the new Austrian Emperor Maximilian I Micheal agreed to declare war on the Venician puppet state of Naxos and invaded immediately with the Legion of Greece.

 

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Soon after the beginning of the War, "The City" guaranteed Hungary's newly found independence from Austria and simultaneously married Micheal X's sister to the Hungarian king Jajos II Radziwill. By December Naxos was annexed. Rebellions popped up in Corfu and Wallachia.

As a continuation of the Island War, there was a cultural misunderstanding between the Cyprus regent and Micheal X whereas the French ruler offended Micheal saying he was impressed with his wife. However, it was a mistranslation of life, ment to honor his accomplishments. Needless to say Micheal X invaded and annex in October of 1464.

In the end of that same year Micheal X discovered that the guarantees of Saruhan were no longer present in their due diligence. Taking this as a cue to reclaim the lost Asia minor coast Micheal instructed the Imperial Legion and the Legion of Greece into the territories. The only resistance were in several islands off the coast line.


Hungarian Independence War:
As the last island war raged on the newly established Emperor Maximilian von Habsburg invaded the Hungarian territory to re-establish the personal union in March of 1465. At this time Hungary had most of its armies engaged in the Bosnian war. "The City" was guaranteeing Hungarian independence and Maximilian was the once who proposed Micheal X to gain the current position he had currently.

The war had started and deciding to finally side with the Hungarian's pitted the Habsburg world against itself, the prize, which side of the family would have the most influence of Hungary and the Balkans in general.

Micheal commissioned another set of two legions the legion of the Balkans and of Asia Minor to head to Hungary while the other two were still tied down in the other wars. Mercenaries immediately were dispatched to try and ease the advance of the German Imperial forces. Upon arrival several western Hungarian provinces had already fallen. The fighting decisively was in favor of the Austrians. The force in Hungary was not even the main force of Austria since Brandenburg also defended Hungarian virginity to the north.

By August of that year Bosnia surrendered finally to Hungary and the Balkan legion was ready to engage Austria. But then the Bulgarian provinces in Byzantium rebelled and had to be dealt with for the next few months. Hungarian forces could only slow down the Austrians and not halt the advance. In the winter of 1465 to 1466 Austria took control of every Western territory of Hungary.

In April of 1466 the Balkan and Asia minor Legions were ready to help the Hungarians who had one small army of three thousand left being lead by their king. "The City" forces all meet up and engaged the Austrians in Pressburg where the whole armies of the war were present from Austria. The battle raged on for months but in the end on one counter attack expected from Austrian forces they retreated. Austria offered a white peace shortly after in September.

The Peace of Pressburg recognized Hungarian Independence and was later discovered came about due to Maximilian I losing his heir and decided not to fight against Micheal X who legally was now his heir without a direct decedent.

To end the year of 1466 Saruham surrenders allowing "The City" to annex Bursa, Smyrna and Karaman.

"The City" has now cemented its place as a premier world power and has just to clean up the area. These events could be seen as minor to some in relation to the difficulty previously. With Hungary still heir-less and Austria the same the future looks ensured for Micheal in the West now where will the world turn?

 

[dinofs]

Excellent progress! The Ottomans are no longer a real threat.

 

[WittyName]

Excellent progress! The Ottomans are no longer a real threat.

The Otto's are never a threat.

Not even to Bhutan... ...