The Long Way Home
Developer's HtTT AAR, Byzantium GC.
Introductions
Let's face it: Things have been better. A statement like that is usually followed by the consoling counter-point that they have also, at some point or another, been worse, but in our case that's not really true. Things have never been worse. The glory that was Rome has -- over the course of Arabs, Crusaders, Seljuks, and the various other barbarians that are want to plague the city on the Bosphorus -- been reduced to merely the City of Constantine itself, and little Morea tacked on for... hrrrm... strategic depth and goat cheese. Things have been better...
... and we'll be taking the long way home.
Presentations
Greetings, dear community! I am Brother Bean, a recent Paradox employee, and I have found myself, for the past few months, working hard on bringing you the latest expansion to what could be the finest strategy game ever to hit the stalls (That's not just company propaganda either, I really do like the game!), EUIII, and, more specifically, the new expansion Heir to The Throne. My main task these past months has been to go through the history files -- bestowing dynastic information upon unsuspecting monarchs and heirs -- and writing new decisions and events related to the new mechanics we've been tacking on to enhance this already great game. My first task on this arduous work week ahead of me is to write a HtTT AAR, to show off some of the new concepts, and try to not completely bungle up that reputation of mine that King has been ridiculously hyping in another thread. Let's get to it!
So. First thing's first. Where in the world is Brother Sandibeano? Stuck in Constantinople with the Memphis blues again. I'm playing Byzantium. Small two province minor desperately holding on for dear life on the western shores of the Sea of Marmara, surrounded by fledgling crusader states and the beast that is the Ottoman Empire. Byzantium has a great pre-history as the onus of eastern Christianity, the legitimate successor state to the late Roman Empire, and a still living link between the sunlit world of the ancients, the darkness of the present medieval era, and the unknown future ahead, but all of those things are relatively moot points at the moment, as the Ottomans have us very much by the proverbial balls. IRL, Byzantium would carry on for another 54 years or so before it fell to the Ottoman Empire, so any improvement on that track record could be considered a success. We do, however, have grander ambitions than that.
House rules:
Phoenix Rising
Oh Hai neighbors!
Byzantium's starting position in the GC is perhaps not the strongest possible, but a lot of the weakness is deceptive. You start with a shitload of unclaimed cores, so declaring war is never much of a problem in the early stages of the game. We start the game by taking our sliders one step toward land, and setting government research to full speed ahead. We get a three star Commandant from the land slider change, and before we unpause we declare war on Achaea, Naxos and The Knights who say Ni, using the "Reconquest" casus belli, which, as you can see from the tooltip, is pretty damn nice.
Specific Casus Bellis are a new and great feature of HtTT. Back in the days when Casus Bellis were more or less boolean values -- either you have it, or you don't -- war resolutions often times didn't make sense, or, rather, the wars themselves didn't. This time around things are different. Some CBs are better than others, and if you have two separate casus bellis against the nation you want to justly wipe off the face of the map, you'll have to weigh the pros and cons of using either CB.
In our case, we can annex these crusaders for absolutely free, as they occupy provinces that were, before the Latin Empire of the 1200s, integral parts of the Eastern Roman Empire. It's time to throw off the latin yoke (Protip: The greek minors tend to get into all kinds of strange alliances, and receive a bundle of guarantees from various latin states, so declare ware before the computer has time to issue such nonsensical edicts.)
We convert our Monarch to a leader, load up our three starting regiments on the byzantine fleet, and land in Morea, where Achaea has initiated a siege with their one regiment army. We outnumber the enemy three to one here, so it doesn't matter much, but Achaea should probably be dealt with first. They can siege one of our provinces, and we want these wars over and done with. We knock their army out and start sieging Achaea. Back in Constantinople we recruit another cavalry unit. We also raise wartaxes and...
... conduct a population census. One of the great new features of HtTT is the National Focus, and the new Magistrate resource. Provincial decisions now cost magistrates to enact, some more, some less, and a lot of decisions -- like this population census -- can only be enacted in a province affected by the National Focus. In combination, these two features give the development of provinces via decisions a whole new dimension of pacing, momentum and strategy, especially as magistrates are fairly hard to come by. By enacting this decision now we sacrifice long term economic growth for a big boost in the short term, and situations like that abound in this system. As you can see, the pop census is sweet stuff.
Achaea falls before the might of the Imperial army, and Manuel moves on to siege Naxos and Rhodes. As these vile crusaders have clearly overextended their welcome in the Eastern Mediterranean (And lack allies and guarantees), we decide to take back Cyprus while we are in the neighborhood. We also raise some more regiments in Constantinople, and there we are. We've more than doubled our amount of provinces, and the size of the Byzantine army. Still no infamy, and we haven't been minting much either. The extra income from the population census, and those war taxes, have done the Empire good. While Manuel returns triumphant to Constantinople, for some well earned R'n'R, strange events are transpiring in far away Georgia...
Developer's HtTT AAR, Byzantium GC.
Introductions
Let's face it: Things have been better. A statement like that is usually followed by the consoling counter-point that they have also, at some point or another, been worse, but in our case that's not really true. Things have never been worse. The glory that was Rome has -- over the course of Arabs, Crusaders, Seljuks, and the various other barbarians that are want to plague the city on the Bosphorus -- been reduced to merely the City of Constantine itself, and little Morea tacked on for... hrrrm... strategic depth and goat cheese. Things have been better...
... and we'll be taking the long way home.
Presentations
Greetings, dear community! I am Brother Bean, a recent Paradox employee, and I have found myself, for the past few months, working hard on bringing you the latest expansion to what could be the finest strategy game ever to hit the stalls (That's not just company propaganda either, I really do like the game!), EUIII, and, more specifically, the new expansion Heir to The Throne. My main task these past months has been to go through the history files -- bestowing dynastic information upon unsuspecting monarchs and heirs -- and writing new decisions and events related to the new mechanics we've been tacking on to enhance this already great game. My first task on this arduous work week ahead of me is to write a HtTT AAR, to show off some of the new concepts, and try to not completely bungle up that reputation of mine that King has been ridiculously hyping in another thread. Let's get to it!
So. First thing's first. Where in the world is Brother Sandibeano? Stuck in Constantinople with the Memphis blues again. I'm playing Byzantium. Small two province minor desperately holding on for dear life on the western shores of the Sea of Marmara, surrounded by fledgling crusader states and the beast that is the Ottoman Empire. Byzantium has a great pre-history as the onus of eastern Christianity, the legitimate successor state to the late Roman Empire, and a still living link between the sunlit world of the ancients, the darkness of the present medieval era, and the unknown future ahead, but all of those things are relatively moot points at the moment, as the Ottomans have us very much by the proverbial balls. IRL, Byzantium would carry on for another 54 years or so before it fell to the Ottoman Empire, so any improvement on that track record could be considered a success. We do, however, have grander ambitions than that.
House rules:
- Byzantium must at all times attempt to be the Defender of The Faith, and to honor that commitment unless it is completely suicidal to do so.
- Byzantium may never steal provinces illegitimately from Orthodox countries.
- The Holy Roman Empire must not form.
- If the HRE does form, we must destroy it.
Phoenix Rising
Oh Hai neighbors!
Byzantium's starting position in the GC is perhaps not the strongest possible, but a lot of the weakness is deceptive. You start with a shitload of unclaimed cores, so declaring war is never much of a problem in the early stages of the game. We start the game by taking our sliders one step toward land, and setting government research to full speed ahead. We get a three star Commandant from the land slider change, and before we unpause we declare war on Achaea, Naxos and The Knights who say Ni, using the "Reconquest" casus belli, which, as you can see from the tooltip, is pretty damn nice.
Specific Casus Bellis are a new and great feature of HtTT. Back in the days when Casus Bellis were more or less boolean values -- either you have it, or you don't -- war resolutions often times didn't make sense, or, rather, the wars themselves didn't. This time around things are different. Some CBs are better than others, and if you have two separate casus bellis against the nation you want to justly wipe off the face of the map, you'll have to weigh the pros and cons of using either CB.
In our case, we can annex these crusaders for absolutely free, as they occupy provinces that were, before the Latin Empire of the 1200s, integral parts of the Eastern Roman Empire. It's time to throw off the latin yoke (Protip: The greek minors tend to get into all kinds of strange alliances, and receive a bundle of guarantees from various latin states, so declare ware before the computer has time to issue such nonsensical edicts.)
We convert our Monarch to a leader, load up our three starting regiments on the byzantine fleet, and land in Morea, where Achaea has initiated a siege with their one regiment army. We outnumber the enemy three to one here, so it doesn't matter much, but Achaea should probably be dealt with first. They can siege one of our provinces, and we want these wars over and done with. We knock their army out and start sieging Achaea. Back in Constantinople we recruit another cavalry unit. We also raise wartaxes and...
... conduct a population census. One of the great new features of HtTT is the National Focus, and the new Magistrate resource. Provincial decisions now cost magistrates to enact, some more, some less, and a lot of decisions -- like this population census -- can only be enacted in a province affected by the National Focus. In combination, these two features give the development of provinces via decisions a whole new dimension of pacing, momentum and strategy, especially as magistrates are fairly hard to come by. By enacting this decision now we sacrifice long term economic growth for a big boost in the short term, and situations like that abound in this system. As you can see, the pop census is sweet stuff.
Achaea falls before the might of the Imperial army, and Manuel moves on to siege Naxos and Rhodes. As these vile crusaders have clearly overextended their welcome in the Eastern Mediterranean (And lack allies and guarantees), we decide to take back Cyprus while we are in the neighborhood. We also raise some more regiments in Constantinople, and there we are. We've more than doubled our amount of provinces, and the size of the Byzantine army. Still no infamy, and we haven't been minting much either. The extra income from the population census, and those war taxes, have done the Empire good. While Manuel returns triumphant to Constantinople, for some well earned R'n'R, strange events are transpiring in far away Georgia...
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