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I think you should want to get the ottos on their own. Naples should be out by selling Catana to Sicily. if Sicily accepts Sardinian, sell to Sicily. Sell Naxos and Rhodes to Morea to get Venice out. Release Cyprus to remove Mamluks. Release Theodoro and sell rest of Crimea to them. Worth straight two-warring ottos to annex including a truce break. Just DoW Candar and Karamon before ending war number 1.

That would be a very interesting strategy, but it seems a bit gamey to me, and I want to keep most of my lands painted purple. I will definitely keep this strategy in mind if necessary, though.
 
it seems a bit gamey to me, and I want to keep most of my lands painted purple.

You don't have available the strategy the Byzantines used to neutralise the Blue Horde- a royal marriage with the Golden Horde. If you were Sicily you'd want Catana. The coalition is reacting to Byzantine expansion - releasing vassals and reducing the number of provinces directly held is what the Coalition would want. Divide and conquer is very Byzantine. The attitude you describe of the Romans is that of the early Romans, before the capital was away from Rome.

Each to his own. I look forward to reading the strategy you have chosen to follow. Good luck with it.
 
You don't have available the strategy the Byzantines used to neutralise the Blue Horde- a royal marriage with the Golden Horde. If you were Sicily you'd want Catana. The coalition is reacting to Byzantine expansion - releasing vassals and reducing the number of provinces directly held is what the Coalition would want. Divide and conquer is very Byzantine. The attitude you describe of the Romans is that of the early Romans, before the capital was away from Rome.

Each to his own. I look forward to reading the strategy you have chosen to follow. Good luck with it.

I suppose 'gamey' was the wrong word - I did like your idea, but I've actually chosen to go another opportunist rout which you'll hear about here in the next couple days. Another downside of that strategy would be the fact that it would eat up an extra 2 diplo points per month by releasing Cyprus/Theodoro. If the coalition gets out of hand, however, I will be keeping your tips in mind. I'm fairly confident that I could handle the current coalition, as long as I have time to recuperate my manpower.
 
Indeed, best to take some time to get back that manpower and absorb some of those non-cores. Hopefully by the time the Empire is in a fighting state again that coalition will have thinned out severely.

Agreed - By the way, I'm a huge fan of L'État, c'est moi. I'm honored to have you as a viewer!

I don't think I ever seen a smoother start to a byzantine game. We're not even 20 years in! Bismarck would be proud of this emperor's mastery of Realpolitik

Bismarck is one of my favorite historical figures - he's right up there with Alexander the Great for me.

Emperor John VI is probably going to be considered one of the greatest roman emperors since the 4th crusade!

I hope so!

Your "Chapter Four - Greeks and Romans" pictures aren't working. They say this

43_zps06f3b11e.png

I fixed that, and I won't be using photobucket anymore. Thanks for the heads up!

Re-upload the screenshots in imgur, the photobucket ones always screw over those who'd like to read AAR's after enough pics have been uploaded and linked(which is why, at least I, stopped following several CK2 AAR's. They are such an eyesore!)
I love your AAR, you did it all beautifully! Is Castille the DotF? That's what screwed me over in my MEIOU save, I couldn't do a thing because of them.

Castille is indeed the DotF, which is very unfortunate because there are some tasty looking Catholic nations near me that I'd love to fabricate a claim on. Also, thanks for the suggestion to use imgur. It came in handy.

See, that's what I don't like about the coalition system. It'd be better if the beyliks were in coalition, the balkans in a separate one, and perhaps the rest in their own.

I agree 100%! If this were implemented I'd be one happy Roman.
 
This is an amazing AAR, with fantastic writing that gives it a very historical feel without going too overboard and making ultra-posts, like perhaps some other historical-type AARs. I loved the war summary and I hope more will come!
 
The Balkan War


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The surrender of the Epirote army to Roman forces.

Date: June 10, 1365 - June 24, 1373 (8 years, 14 days)
Location: The Balkans, Greece, Anatolia
Result: Roman victory.
Territorial Changes: The Empire of the Romans gains control over all of Greece and most of the Balkans, as well as gaining land in Crimea and Anatolia.

Belligerents:
Empire of the Romans and Hungary (indirectly) | Serbian Empire, Trebizond, Wallachia, Albania, Achaia, Epirus, Athens, various minor Balkan states

Strength:
Empire of the Romans - 25,000 men, 42 warships | Balkan Alliance - 34,000 men, About 55 warships.

Casualties and Losses (in Battles):
3,848 Romans. Unknown number of Hungarians (around 3,000) - 1 warship | About 26,718 allied men - 22 allied warships

Notable Battles:
Battle of Strymon (1365) - Decisive victory for the Romans. The Serbian Army, after retreating from the Battle of Macedonia, was cornered and decimated by the I. Legion Thracia.
Battle of Thessalia (1370) - Decisive victory for the Romans. The entire Epirote army, weakened by the Epirote Civil War, surrenders to Roman forces without a fight.

Maps:
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The Empire of the Romans in red, and the Balkan alliance in green

76KKbkI.png

New territory acquired by the Empire of the Romans (red) after the Balkan War
 
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Very interesting timeline. Subscribed!

Enjoy!

This is an amazing AAR, with fantastic writing that gives it a very historical feel without going too overboard and making ultra-posts, like perhaps some other historical-type AARs. I loved the war summary and I hope more will come!

Ask, and ye shall receive - I plan on making a war summary for every war I fight. And I really appreciate the positive feedback.
 
I've read the first chapter and like what I'm seeing. I'll be following along to see how Byzantium will do.

EDIT: I finally caught up and must say that you had smooth sailing since you started this game. There doesn't seem to be any major threat close to you as you can now solidify your position. It does appear that you have weathered the storms and there shouldn't be too many challenges until you challenge the HRE or other major powers in Western Europe.
 
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I'm assuming you've done all this with wrath of god still active? My first move is usually to hire advisors that allow you to remove it but it doesn't sound like you have
 
Nice AAR you've got going here.:)
 
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Apologies again everyone. The past couple weeks have been hectic for me. I promise to have the next update (or maybe two, to catch up) up in a timely manner. Hopefully before the weekend.
 
Are you busy? I'm okay if you are; just curious.
 
Take the time you need.:)
 
Take as long as you need...
 
My workload is finally slowed enough for me to continue this. I'll have an update this weekend! Stay tuned everybody.


My body... is ready!

I am prepared to receive the bacon!