The Inuit archipelago is nice, but the new continent is far more interesting. So many possibilities...
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I look forward to the stories of Greater Africa in the Far West! (the shape is not too different from the coastline up to the horn of Africa for me)
A vast continent ripe for the taking. However, if the warlike brother abandons active colonization, competitiors will arise...
I'm actually a little surprised to see that more colonizers haven't moved in.. no France, no Songhai, no England.. it looks like it's just me and wherever the Chinese landed that I haven't found yet.
Are you going for a colonial rush and colonizing that massive continent? it would take the other European powers quite a long time to find the new new world before colonizing the other one.
conquer the new world! and those resources might be good to conquer all the way down to the Persian Gulf and a direct access to the spices of the East
The Craven Empress' Conquering Brother
1551 - 1561 AD
Back to War1551 - 1561 AD
Empress Oneka was known for her hesitance to commit to war and her fear of defeat, and her commitment to not pursuing military campaigns was only made stronger after her humiliating defeat at the hands of the Holy Roman Empire. For the rest of her reign, Oneka kept her empire out of war and focused on colonizing the New World, expanding the realm through settlement rather than battle. In 1551 AD the Empress fell ill and died in her mid 50's, passing with no viable heir to the throne. Her death saw power pass to her younger brother Ladron, and the culture of Constantinople changed almost overnight.
Ladron spoke frequently of his disdain for his sister, and within days of her death, he brought his mourning period to an early end by ordering the invasion of Tangiers, destroying the minor kingdom of Morocco and successfully occupying both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, while simultaneously creating a continuous path between Iberia and northwestern Africa. The war was short and Morocco stood no chance against the great Latin Army, but Ladron committed his troops heavily and won a very rapid and very bloody victory; he sent a clear signal to the world that he was there to fight and conquer. As the Grandmaster of the Imperial Order of St. Michael Archistrategos, he called back to his empire's Crusader lineage and emphasized the importance of martial virtue. His Imperial Court was heavily staffed with military leaders and conquest-minded clergy, and his Royal Guard was staffed almost exclusively with leading members of the Order. In 1552, he took his attitude a step further and declared a new offensive against Rum.
Just over one year after his sister's death, Ladron concentrated his army along the border with Rum and gave the order to attack in late April of 1552, sending 75,000 soldiers in five armies marching simultaneously across the border into the western edge of the Sultanate. There, they encountered no immediate resistance, as the defensive army had been held toward the interior. However, within weeks of crossing over into hostile territory, the center of the battle line was attacked by a large force from Rum, which hoped to break through Bozok and cut the attacking force in two.
Initially, the defenders were able to engage a single Latin unit, but reinforcements quickly turned to flank the battle, and the Battle of Bozok ended in a bloody victory in which the Latin forces suffered more casualties but still managed to rout their enemies and send Rum's defenders falling back eastward. With this first counterattack defeated, the Latin Army was able to quickly occupy all of the border territories and move inward toward the Sultan's capital in Adana. They were dominant in their attack, but their ally in the war -- Georgia, with whom they hoped to divide territorial gains to further weaken Rum -- did not fare as well.
Realizing that the Latin Empire had a substantial military advantage, Rum and its allied Muslim forces instead turned northward to aggressively invade Georgia, pushing back its meager military as Islamic armies marched through the lesser Arpad kingdom on a rampage of sieges and sacks. The Georgians called for the assistance of their allies, and while both Greek and Sicilian soldiers moved to relieve them, they could not reach Georgia in time. The kingdom was forced to back out of the war at the cost of several provinces ceded to Rum, and what seemed to be a chance to expand into eastern Anatolia became a humiliating loss for the Georgians.
Nevertheless, the victory in Georgia was a consolation prize for Sultan Karatay III, who found his country overrun and beyond saving. Even with elite troops from Gilan supporting him, Karatay could not break the Latin hold on his country, and was forced to surrender. While he was able to keep his prized capital in Adana, most of the rest of the western border was lost.
The Latin Empire's borders continued to creep toward the east, drawing closer to the border with Syria and pushing Rum further back into a corner. Colonization continued under Ladron, albeit at a slower pace, but war was the Emperor's method of choice for growing his realm. Due to his advanced age (he was 52 when he was crowned), Ladron would not wage another war before his death in 1561, but his son -- Aurelio I -- was cut from his father's mold and would continue his policies on another front.
The Latin Empire is in a good position to dominate the Mediterranean, and its power base at home keeps improving with each war against Rum. Too bad Georgia lost some land to them, but it's unlikely to save Rum in the long term.
Why didn't you just have Rum return Georgia's cores? That might have saved a future war and more casualties.
True. You can always kill Rum later. Better to give them a slow and painful death than a quick and painless one.Expansionist greed?
These two warrior kings are a great change of attitude in comparison to Oneka. While it remains to be seen what targets Aurelio decide to focus on, the expansion of the realm may come at the cost of a slower integration of the union partner Sicily.
I'm actually really surprised at how much longer Sicily is taking to integrate than Cordoba, at least from a gameplay mechanic standpoint.
Georgia losing some territory to Rum isn't ideal, but Rum still lost the war. If anything, they've just gave you a chance to get what was an ally's land without betraying them sometime down the line...
Heresy! Those provinces can be incorporated into the realm of their rightful masters in Constantinople at a later date!
Well, you can always PU/vassalize Georgia right before forcing Rum to return the cores...
New Land in the Old World
1561 - 1566 AD
Back Where it All Began1561 - 1566 AD
Emperor Aurelio I de Zadorra took the throne in 1561 after the death of his father Emperor Ladron, a man who was known for his stern personality and his militaristic policy. Ladron revived the crusader instincts of his people by attacking the Sultanate of Rum, and signaled that conquest was at the forefront of his goals as emperor. His reign was a short one due to his age, but his son inherited his father's taste for war and expansion, and when he was elevated to Emperor, he quickly made his intentions for war public. Rum, however, was not his target. Many of his aristocratic supporters and his top military advisors, many among the elite of the Order of St. Michael, balked at the idea of leaving the Sultan be, but Aurelio argued that Rum had been reduced to a fraction of its former power and was no longer a significant enemy. Instead, Aurelio wanted to turn his attention to the west and reclaim what remained of his people's old homeland.
Almost as old as the Reconquista was the struggle between Christian monarchs to take control of the Iberian peninsula. The sons of the Jimena dynasty and their northern kingdoms had fought, conquered, split, and combined over the centuries, but by the end of Middle Ages the peninsula was split in three between Cordoba, Castile, and Portugal. The Castilians eventually conquered Portugal, leaving just two realms left to fight for control of the region. In the fall of 1562, Aurelio deployed several of his armies to Cordoba and began an invasion of Castile.
The first meeting of the two armies was in Castilla La Vieja, and its results were not what Aurelio anticipated. The Castilians, though being outnumbered almost five to one, held out for days and killed over 1,500 attacking Latin soldiers. Although the battle was a victory for the Latin Empire, it became clear that Castile, though small, would be a formidable opponent. Thankfully, theirs was not the only war going on at the time, as Castile was also involved in a war against Pomerania-France, and a great many of the kingdom's troops were far out of reach by the time of the Latin invasion. As a result, only a small portion of the available Castilian troops were able to fight in Iberia, which worked greatly in the Latin Empire's favor.
With the weight of numbers on their side, the Latin generals quickly overran southern and western Castile with a force of 60,000 men (just over half of the total Imperial Army) while the Castilians gathered a new dedicated defense army along the northern coast. For several months, Latin commanders wheeled around the Castilian defensive position Asturias, recognizing that an army of 20,000 would require a substantial battle to defeat considering the success of smaller forces earlier in the war. They were content to conquer the territories around Asturias, waiting for the right moment to engage. By the summer of 1564, the defensive army had reached 21,000 men and a battle seemed to be close at hand.
However, it was the French army that ended up engaging the Castilian defenders, as French reinforcements marched in from the east and dealt a sound defeat to the men in Asturias, routing the last of the Castilian defenders and sending them fleeing toward the coastline.
Panicked, the Castilian army marched toward Porto and attempted to recruit local mercenaries to replenish their numbers, but the retreat left them surrounded on all sides by Latin troops. With nowhere to escape and lacking sufficient naval transports to make any relocation, the 19,000-strong army marched straight westward to try and break through Braganca into the interior, where they hoped to drive back Sicilian and French troops surrounding the capital. This failed, however, and the month-long Battle of Braganca became the last battle of the war, after which Queen Ausre of Castile was compelled to surrender. She handed the southern portion of her kingdom over to the Latin Empire, from La Mancha up to Madrid.
The war was a victory in terms of the final result, but Emperor Aurelio was extremely displeased. Calling his top generals to Constantinople, he chastised them for more than twice as many men as Castile, and for struggling so greatly to defeat a smaller army. The invasion of Castile exposed the dated technology and tactics of the Latin Empire. While Castile had fielded a technologically modern army equipped with new-model muskets deployed in effective formations, the Latin Empire was still relying on a pike-heavy infantry supported by large numbers of mobile knights. Their weapons and armor were lacking, and they were only very lightly supported by cannons -- most army units had only one or two formations of basic cannons, used almost exclusively during sieges.
Aurelio recognized that his realm needed to aggressively pursue modernization, or else other kingdoms with superior technology and greater numbers -- such as France, England, and others -- would be able to best his men easily in battle. By the time Aurelio would return to continue his war against Castile, his wish would be granted.
World Map - 1566 AD
That's a rather large Ming. Looks like they're shaping up to be the endgame boss. I really hope they don't explode like they usually do.