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I never kept those long-term. I do, however, have one relatively recent one that keeps most of the countries intact. As long as I mod my governments and cultures correctly and figure out how to disable this synthetic invasion event chain, I think I can get this game running quite well.
I haven't heard much about this synthetic invasion thing, but I think it's like the Jan Mayen chain. You need to spawn them through console.
 
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I haven't heard much about this synthetic invasion thing, but I think it's like the Jan Mayen chain. You need to spawn them through console.

Nope, currently spawns for me within 2 months of game start. I have my work cut out for me, but I can always just include that in the mod file and blank it out. I'm already at work!
 
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Nope, currently spawns for me within 2 months of game start. I have my work cut out for me, but I can always just include that in the mod file and blank it out. I'm already at work!
The best way to do this is to go to the event which starts the chain and then put "always = no" into the condition. Then the event chain will be disabled.
 
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Here's hoping you're able to smooth out the conversion. It'd be tragic if this megacampaign came to an early end all thanks to Steam being dumb.
 
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Here's hoping you're able to smooth out the conversion. It'd be tragic if this megacampaign came to an early end all thanks to Steam being dumb.

Not going to happen... I smoothed out the event and government issues last night, so now I mostly just have to work my way through assigning appropriate ideas, cultures, neatening up the map a bit. I'll post a new thread in the EU4 area sometime this week and drop a link here.
 
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So, I've started my own Estonian campaign (maybe megacampaign). I'm roughly halfway through and I think this is the best place to share what the world looks like in 1100 AD because your AAR inspired me to start as Estonian. I neither want to write my own AAR nor it's material for share your empire thread. If It's inappropriate, I'll delete the post.
The newer expansions changed the map's dynamic quite significantly and made the Baltic region an especially interesting place to play in. But even with the amount of counties tripled, expansion can be quite fast and especially Khazar Khans can get uncomfortably close fairly early. Also, there were hordes of raiders, both regular and event spawned you could negotiate with. Some of the latter had quite significant armies. But it's been really fun and I probably would like to start another campaign in the region later on (and write an AAR for it).


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I started as Chief Uku of Sakala in 769 and quickly formed kingdoms of Estonia and Suomi. Then I spent several generations losing Suomi due to gavelkind. At the end of 9th century I managed to create a protective circle of kingdoms ruled by members of kohta Sakala dynasty. These ended up being quite messy as chief from one kingdom often inherited another kingdom from the circle. I ended up reconquering the weak Suomi, Khazar and Alan riders together with Lithuania destroyed Ruthenia, most of Novgorodian land moved under Lithuania by now and Lithuania itself is constantly riddled with civil wars.

Meanwhile, Estonia itself stayed stable and grew stronger. In 936 I abandoned the tribal way of living and turned the country into a Republic. Although, a generation later, Omar kohta Sakala had to leave patrician circles and with him the whole house (this was a bug. I joined a rebellion by accident, but the rebellion ended with a sudden death of Prince Mayor and Omar somehow became a lowly chief ruling mostly over towns). Omar and his descendants established themselves as Chiefs of Tartu and Dukes of Curonia and proved themselves to be loyal vassals of the Estonian Republic and zealous Suomenko wa
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rriors spreading the religion all over the region.

In 1011, Duke Urmas of Courland helped to liberate Permian lands from hands of the Mongol Empire. Later on, he helped to establish an independent Permian kingdom under the rule of his relatives. Perm has proved to be a strong frontier fortress of the Estonian religion against all of its enemies.
Dukes of Courland helped the new kingdom to fend its enemies off multiple times and they even established their own foothold in the kingdom recently, taking over the meadows of Udmurt.

Meanwhile, as loyal vassals, Chiefs of Tartu helped to expand the kingdom's western and eastern borders significantly. Especially, the legendary Aare, who led countless wars against Norse pagans, Christians, Taoists and Muslims. He helped to establish the Duchy of Gotland, which contains all of former Denmark and the duchy of Vestergotland, including the western half of Sweden. After his death, only few remains of once strong Norse realms remained. And most of these has been defeated since by his son and other Estonian lords of Sweden.

In 1100, Courland is under the reign of Aare's grandson Hrörekr (I didn't have control over that name). His rule started about a year ago after premature death of his mother in a campaign against French Bedouins trying to seize Poland in a Jihad . He is determined to help Poles to keep the thread at bay and to keep the southern Suomenko kingdom on the map. High Chief Hrörekr rules over Pruthenia, Livonia, Curonia, Latgalia, Udmurtia and most of Sakala. His capital is Tartu. The duchy has a very strong economy, profiting from proximity of the wealthy and stable republic. Curonia's income equals that of Prince Mayor.


As for the rest of the world. In this timeline, Muslims has been extremely successful in their conquest of Europe. Before the decadent uprising, Umayyads reigned over Hispania, Gallia, Italia, Anatolia, Morocco and parts of Britain. They almost single-handedly defeated the Aztec invasion, of which the last remnant was destroyed 13 years ago.
Sunni Islam is the most wide spread religion of the world with many empires spreading it from Indian Ocean to Atlantic. There's Seljuk Empire, Khorasan (formerly Daylam), Abbasid Empire, Umayyad Empire, Bulgaria, Italy, France and England (formerly Karatonia).
Sifalid with land in Tunis and Kanem is the only Shia state.
The Byzantine Empire still exists. It controls the Peloponnese, Pictland and one half of Ireland. The Orthodox Church is very weak and the Iconoclast heresy widespread.
There are several Catholic realms left. Germany, Saxony and until recently the Middle Francia were relatively strong kingdoms sandwiched between Suomenkos and Sunnis. Few years ago, the Middle Francia was conquered by enraged mercenaries of the Lombard Band. Other interested catholic realms are Rome (for some reason it never got conquered by Umayyads), Iceland, the Orkney Islands and the Faroese Islands. I guess these remote realms might end up being only remnants of Catholicism by the 15th century.
The third strong faith is Buddhism. Promoted by the now collapsed Mongol Empire, Buddhism completely replaced Tengrism and it continues to push further south into Indian Peninsula, where it threatens existence of other Indian beliefs. Also, various Mongol Khans continue to push it further west, replacing Sunni Islam in the Pontic Steppe.

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Wow, great job! Both with your game and the post.
 
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I'm back with the second update. I finished my portion of the campaign in CK2 about two days ago and the second half was quite ride. A lot of stuff happened in last 20 years, which led to massive bordergore, so I'm actually not sure if I want to export the file and continue, because I'd have to reasonably mod out some of it. Also, I would change names of few nations to reflect better their nature (Bohemia/Germany is a Frankish Sunni state for example and I think they would just use Francia).
The other thing, which will take me some time is the purchase of EUIV with enough DLCs to play a decent game of it.
As for my future AAR, I'd like to modify some stuff. I think that dividing Suomenko in several religions would make the beginning of the campaign more flavourful as well as addition of Karelians and Vepsians. I'm not sure but the latter might be included in CK2+. If I get extravagant with changes, I might throw in extra forms of government too. I'm just not quite sure I'll be capable to do that. Anyway, It probably will take me about a year to start as I want to spend some time with Imperator and CK2 mods first. I'd also like to play few games of EUIV, including continuation of this campaign, before that.
Now, let's take a look at how my game developed.

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Shortly after 1100 Dukes of Courland moved their capital from Turku to Udmurts to wage zealous wars against Mongol and Alan riders without needing to march hundreds of miles. Their zeal lead to new territory gain in form of two formerly Permian provinces, which they managed to take back from hands of a Buddhist Khan. Unfortunately, ruling from a distant exclave concluded in the duchy not being able to keep a firm grip on their land back in Estonia proper and the new prince mayor exploited the situation and confiscated their properties. In response to that, Duchy of Courland broke free and became independent in 1138 during the rule of Ottarr the Great.
It was a humbling new beginning. Without its old estates the duchy had a fraction of its former income and the frontier of the Suomenko faith was way too behind in technological advancement too. The next one hundred year were rough. Partially, it was caused by Alans, who managed to push Buddhist Mongols back beyond Ural and establish strong and stable nomadic realm. Our Estonians repeatedly waged holy wars against them and lost every time. The two great holy wars against Alans failed too. Curonia expanded slowly ripping one province out of Alan hands every twenty years in brutal conquests. And between wars the dukes had to deal with countless Alan and Mongol raiders plundering the whole country. The newly established Duchy of Bolghar was burnt to the ground five times in few decades.
The tide has changed with the rule of Ninni kohta Sakala. She was a fabled leader of the Followers of Otso and She earned immortal fame during an expedition to Bulgaria's capital Tartovo, where she defeated countless fancy warriors and a polar bear. She also accumulated enough land to establish the Kingdom of Udmurtia in 1220. It was also her, who started mercilessly executing Alan prisoners. This strategy of terror was just a beginning of decadent ways of some of her successors and led to the massive hatred of major Alan clans.
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It was Quuen Ninni's granddaughter, Queen Kiira, who finally brought Alan Khans on their knees. She surged through their territories and captured the coastal city of Idil (Adil). This finally established Udmurtia as an economically strong state and It started a massive civil war in Alania, which ended up being broken in several smaller states led by Burtasid and Shonoa clans. Queen Kiira was also known for displaying heads and limbs of her enemies publicly. This probably triggered her heir's interest in dark cults and to an overall change in perception of the royal dynasty from defenders of Suomenko faith to power hungry aristocrats. It all resulted to the only major uprising in Udmurtia's history in 1350s. Lord Mayor of Itil and High Chieftess of Ural amassed a massive number of supporters and started besieging kohta Sakala's castles. Fortunately for the ruler, armies of rebels were geographically divided. This made it possible to strike against Ural first and then marching south to confront Lord Mayor of Idil and remaining rebelling nobles.
In 1381 Uku II proclaimed himself the Emperor of Volga Estonia at age of 36. With dwindling Estonia (later about that), this turned Udmurtia into the most prominent Estonian and Suomenko realm. Uku also started building grand university in Itil. The realm kept expanding and prospering for several next decades. Recent transition from elective succession law to primogeniture made kohta Sakala's position on the throne firm, but there are several princes from cadet branches of the dynasty holding almost complete control over peripheries of the realm and formidable viceroyalty of Sibir, which has an impressive mixed Komi and Mongolian force.
Volga Estonia is a melting pot of cultures. Ruled by Estonian aristocracy, there still are many Alans and Mongols migrating between its cities. They're the most important part of the prospering trade network and their light cavalry and horse archers are becoming a majority in the army. There are still elite heavy soldiers recruited solely from the Estonian part of population, but these spend more time in their barracks
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in Udmurts than in actual conflict. There are other minorities too. Komi, Nenets, Khanty, Udmurt and other people live in the northern part of the country, often oppressed by "more civilized" Estonians. Other important minorities are Mongols, who are still difficult to accept for many inhabitants of the realm, who previously suffered under their heel. Mongols and Buddhists in general were targets of multiple lynches in Volga Estonia's history. There are also smaller groups of Khazar and Erzya people. The latter are almost completely assimilated by Estonian culture and there are very few villages using their native language.
The empire has two capitals. Udmurts is an administrative and military center in the heart of the realm. Placed in woods close to wide it reminded first Dukes, who moved here of their homeland. The city of Itil i
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s economic center of the realm and home to Uku University, the greates center of education in the region. As an important city on the Silk Road, Itil's population easily surpasses Udmurts. The majority of population is Estonian as many merchants from Bolghar moved here after the conquest to repopulate the city. Itil has developed a specific dialect of Estonian with grammar closer to Alan and many loan words from both Alan and Khazar languages.

What's the state of the rest of the world in 1452? Shaken and shattered I would say. Let's start with Estonia. The Republic prospered for the majority of 12th and 13th century and despite losing some territory in Saxony, it managed to expand east and south and defeat the Northern Crusade. That changed when the Umayyad Caliph called for the first jihad for Estonia. The massive armies of the caliphate managed to sail over and conquest enough territory to rip out the heart of the grand republic. In fear Prince Mayor and other patricians moved their palaces to Kola. Few years later, the great holy war successfully returned the territory to Suomenko hands but the damage was done and Estonia started falling apart with many chiefs claiming independence over the next 150 years. There were two more successful jihads for Estonia and two more successful great holy wars to reconquest the ancestral land of all Estonians. The last war returned the land, but the title stayed in Sunni hands. That means there are two Republics of Estonia now. One with capital in Komi, Estonian lands and culture, also known as The Grand Republic of Estonia and Suomi, and the Most Serene Republic of Estonia. The latter is a Mediterranean county ruled by a Bedouin wali from Syrian Tripoli (If I continue this campaign I probably will jump back as Estonia/Suomi, which has a way more interesting challenge ahead of it than Volga Estonia).
The third important Suomenko realm would be the Sons of Kaleva, who managed to amass quite a few castles under their control from the power vacuum created by receding Estonia. There's also Kingdom of Novgorod finally with space for future expansion as it was surrounded by Estonia for centuries.

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An outdated picture of fairly nice borders.

At the start of 15th century, Umayyad was the strongest nation on the map holding Britannia, Iberia, Italy, Greece, Anatolia, Morocco and some other lands. Then they subjugated one of the mightiest realms in Asia, the Khazar Seljuk Empire. Their realm had almost 2000 holdings at that time and 200k in levies. Unfortunately for them in 1417 a decadent revolt started in 1417 breaking the huge Caliphate in multitude of smaller nations, from which the strongest is the Maghreb Sultanate controlling Morocco, England and Ireland.

The most important Sunni realm and the strongest Kingdom of the known world is Francia. Stretching from Brittany to Poland the Frankish rulers managed to expand their land consistently and without any major revolts. They destroyed remaining Catholic rulers in middle Europe to the point, that Fraticelli is the dominant branch of Western Christianity now.

Bulgaria's German emperors converted from Sunni to Orthodox Christianity in early 13th century. Until recently they controlled a huge realm stretching all over the Balcan peninsula, far in the Middle Europe and controlling most Eastern Slavic lands. They northernmost provinces were in Curonia and Latgale. Recently, a heir to the legacy of Dulo family successfully rebelled against the Emperor and gained himself independence as King of Bavaria. I'm sure Dulo's hunger for power can't end here as he has an ancestral claim on the imperial throne. Bulgaria also lost its lands in Libya to a newly formed Orthodox sultanate.

The other things worth mention are Empire of Mali, Island being Cathar and ruled by a Sunni Sheikh, Khorasan quickly claiming most of former Seljuk territory and really stable Mubarakid Sultanate controlling Aquitaine and Sardinia. Here are some 1452 maps:

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This is nice and all, but I think this really deserves to have its own thread, where we can exclusively talk about it there.
 
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Agreed. :)
 
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Agreed, and the mods generally disapprove of necroing old threads. On the plus side, your posts did remind me to check for the next section of this AAR, so I might have missed it if you hadn't posted. :)
 
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Thanks and sorry for necroposting. Where should I post the thread, tho? I want to make a proper Estonian AAR later, so there will be a thread for that (I think the I managed to collect enough ideas from this to make it distinct from Eastern Vikings and Baltic Lightening). If I continue this particular campaign in EUIV, I might make a proper thread for that too and copy these two posts there (as well as I link to megacampaigns, which inspired me).
 
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Thanks and sorry for necroposting. Where should I post the thread, tho? I want to make a proper Estonian AAR later, so there will be a thread for that (I think the I managed to collect enough ideas from this to make it distinct from Eastern Vikings and Baltic Lightening). If I continue this particular campaign in EUIV, I might make a proper thread for that too and copy these two posts there (as well as I link to megacampaigns, which inspired me).
There's almost always a "post your empire" thread for all the main Paradox games. Usually they're the place to post details on how your game went when not doing an AAR. Here's the one for CK2: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/post-your-ck2-empire.588410/
 
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