Theodoro you say...

[ParadogsGamer]

After like 15 retries I actually managed to escape to Ireland! I was so happy. But then I found out that my assumption that I would gain a core on it when Crimea took my capital was wrong . Ended up having to consule core it. Cheat, I know, but it took allot of work and I wasn't gonna let it get ruined. Now the year is 1499, I have like 100 ducats debt and I just finished my first colony in Greenland. Gothic escape to America FTW!!!

That sounds like some ride. Why Ireland?
Anyway, episode 2 is Live

 

[hajutze]

If I may again ... give a tip ... at least to most people who arent ParadogsGamer

You need to restart until you get e Dip adviser (seriously they could make it so you always start with 1 star dip adviser this would save soooo much time).
> Hire the adviser
> RM Byz, guarantee Circasia and Georgia.
> Next month - ally Byz, start increasing relations with Circasia and Georgia
> A couple of months later (didnt count them) RM C&G
> Next month ally them
> Start claiming on Crimea

It should be fast enough for Crimea NOT to attack you. Most of the times Crimea and GH start fighting before Crimea allies Ottomans.
DoW Crimea and call C&G. If you're lucky Georgia is not going to be dogpiled by hordes until this point.

Annex Crimea, increase autority, core it all. You'll need to waste ~60 mil points on harsh a month or two after the coring is done.

I managed to annex Crimea with 4 infantry units while they were allied to Ottomans (for some reason they just didnt move their transport ships to destroy me)

Outcome - the year is 1456. Allied to both Poland and Muscovy and C&G (my next targets )
I assume now that I control all of Crimea Poland wont go all Domineering on me ... again. Cored all of Crimea

 

[Freudia]

I have some fairly large respect for those of you who can get this start to actually work. All of my attempts have ended in Crimea declaring on me. Does just having a bunch of alliances deter them from attacking you?

 

[hajutze]

Circasia has 7-8k army, Georgia has 11k, Byz has ... some.

Even if they DoW you (and when you have both Circasia and Georgia as allies ... they just don't), chances are - you might win.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

If I may again ... give a tip ... at least to most people who arent ParadogsGamer

You need to restart until you get e Dip adviser (seriously they could make it so you always start with 1 star dip adviser this would save soooo much time).
> Hire the adviser
> RM Byz, guarantee Circasia and Georgia.
> Next month - ally Byz, start increasing relations with Circasia and Georgia
> A couple of months later (didnt count them) RM C&G
> Next month ally them
> Start claiming on Crimea

It should be fast enough for Crimea NOT to attack you. Most of the times Crimea and GH start fighting before Crimea allies Ottomans.
DoW Crimea and call C&G. If you're lucky Georgia is not going to be dogpiled by hordes until this point.

Annex Crimea, increase autority, core it all. You'll need to waste ~60 mil points on harsh a month or two after the coring is done.

I managed to annex Crimea with 4 infantry units while they were allied to Ottomans (for some reason they just didnt move their transport ships to destroy me)

Outcome - the year is 1456. Allied to both Poland and Muscovy and C&G (my next targets )
I assume now that I control all of Crimea Poland wont go all Domineering on me ... again. Cored all of Crimea

Very good strategy. I did pick up the advisor later on, but yeah he could be useful as a starting strategy.
Did you consider turning Crimea into a March? They are after all non-core, wrong-culture, wrong-religion, mostly worthless provinces (except Crimea proper of course)?

 

[hajutze]

The thing is, I just can't beat Genoa . So I need 1-2 more provinces so I can keep Poland as Defensive. As soon as they get the PU if you're 1 province minor they turn domineering on you. And from personal experience they beat the shit out of Muscovy mid game.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

I have some fairly large respect for those of you who can get this start to actually work. All of my attempts have ended in Crimea declaring on me. Does just having a bunch of alliances deter them from attacking you?

Hi Freuida
Yes exactly. That is the general idea. I chose Trebizond and Byzantines for the navies. hajutze rolls with another strategy. But it's the same theme

 

[Freudia]

Hi Freuida
Yes exactly. That is the general idea. I chose Trebizond and Byzantines for the navies. hajutze rolls with another strategy. But it's the same theme

Alright, good that I understand the strategy behind the opener then. I'm giving it a few more shots; this current attempt actually has resulted in Crimea just sitting there and Genoa eventually declaring on them instead of Crimea declaring on me or Genoa. Strange game.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

Alright, good that I understand the strategy behind the opener then. I'm giving it a few more shots; this current attempt actually has resulted in Crimea just sitting there and Genoa eventually declaring on them instead of Crimea declaring on me or Genoa. Strange game.

The bad thing about that is that Crimea will eventually win that war and take Genoa's lands. And then you'd be really screwed. That's why I chose the naval strategy and DOWed Genoa asap for their lands, except Azov, which is a death trap.
Let us know how it goes

 

[Freudia]

The bad thing about that is that Crimea will eventually win that war and take Genoa's lands. And then you'd be really screwed. That's why I chose the naval strategy and DOWed Genoa asap for their lands, except Azov, which is a death trap.
Let us know how it goes

Crimea won that one, as you said. Next attempt has a very early GH declare on Crimea, who has no allies, so this might be the one. Here's to hoping, cause I'd like to play more than five years of game time.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

Crimea won that one, as you said. Next attempt has a very early GH declare on Crimea, who has no allies, so this might be the one. Here's to hoping, cause I'd like to play more than five years of game time.

Ok so prepare a war with Genoa while Crimea is busy. Take both provinces from them, not just Caffa. Then money should start rolling in from the trade.

 

[Leoap]

i want to try to attack Crimea on Day 1 ...and vassalize them

 

[Leoap]

Ok so prepare a war with Genoa while Crimea is busy. Take both provinces from them, not just Caffa. Then money should start rolling in from the trade.

This was my first experience with Theodoro.


- Declaring war on Genoa on day 1. Figth war against Genoa and Austria, luckily after a couple of there attempted of landing in my capital , nobody turned up again. conquered 2 provinces and was was able to enforce war reparation , that really help me since i was
nearly gaining 2.2€ a month
- Allied Georgia and Trebizond
- After that declared war on Circassia, got 1 province
- Created army of 6 units and small merchant fleet
- Starting to gain good amount of money , thanks to Crimea Trade node
- Was tiring to build alliance with Poland.... just needed 5 points to get an alliance with them.
- Crimea deled war on me , fighting war against them and ottoman , that i think will annihilate me

My conclusion is that if Crimea wasn't allied with the ottomans i could fight the war , and maybe win .....
Getting alliance with Poland is vital , and i got so close to this.

Maybe an idea could be to attack Crimea on Day 1 ....

 

[ChildeR]

Not really. As you will be able to see, it was all well planned.
And of course makes things much easier.

Ah, I missed the fact that Georgia was on your side. Otherwise the war would likely have stalled on 99% until Crimea sieged you down so QQ could annex Trebizond. They wouldn't have settled for vassalization with that sort of advantage.

 

[Freudia]

Ok so prepare a war with Genoa while Crimea is busy. Take both provinces from them, not just Caffa. Then money should start rolling in from the trade.

It worked. Now I can finally play the game.

Also I'm amused to no end at how my luck likes flip-flopping. Was having some garbage luck earlier with Bulgaria, and then the game goes and gives me a free core on Caffa as Theodoro ('Orthodox Deserters' event). Of course, it came at the loss of the Gothia line, but Rurikovich is okay too, I suppose.

 

[atwix]

Theodoro gets attacked real freaking quick by Crimea. Quite the hopeless starting position.

is muscovy less then 30 days diplomat travel time? If so, alter your diplomats to get +100 opinion quicker, after allying the obvious countries.

Making Crimea a vassal shouldn't be that hard.

But theodoro sure is a challenge..

Nothing compared to my Yaroslavl attempt though

 

[Knut Skallagrim]

My strategy is quite different with theodoro. I've done till now 20 tries and managed to save myself 5 times (so it's not SO RARE to survive to crimea).
The problem in your survival is crimea dowing you in less than a year. They've 8k and you can build even 6k but will not survive.
So what to do? Just admit that without luck theodoro would be already dead, and that you need to play the traitor a bit. The way i like tbh.

What i do day one 1? Build 5k of inf in theodoro, send diplomat to circassia to strenghten relations and... CLAIM THAT GODDAMN CRIMEA. Not the capital ofc, yedishkul or whatever is the name will suffice.
What does happen then?
Golden Horde happens, i love them. They always ally Uzbek and till November 1445 wait to attack an underdog nearby, which can be Kazan (more rare) or... CRIMEA. They'll destroy them in a second since crimea has to strenghten their relations with ottos (will require MAX 2 years from game start). And this is the right time for you to come in. If you did everything with the right timing you will be able to declare war to crimea with your new claim while they've still no allies and are dead to golden horde. I think that's enough said. You need some restarts since crimea will likely dow you before they get dowed by golden horde but trust me, it repays itself back. Because after this war you'll have 2-3 new provinces, your rival will be no more (i always partition it with golden horde so that crimea is dead in 5 years from the game start) and you'll have plenty of time to focus genoa. I kicked them off of crimean peninsula just in 1569 but that's because i had a lot of problems on keeping the muslim lands i conquered. I think it's a valid strategy because it will permit you to skip a war with ottos, at least for crimea.

ONE VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: During the war with crimea send your free diplomat to strenghten relations with muscovy. They'll be the only reason you'll stay alive in that hell that is the tartar region. And be aware of Poland / Lithuania. They'll be domineriing towards you so don't waste your time trying to strenghten their relations. My allies were circassia, georgia and muscovy, later i managed to ally kiev and moldavia. It's becoming an interesting orthodox campaign.

 

[Leoap]

It worked. Now I can finally play the game.

Also I'm amused to no end at how my luck likes flip-flopping. Was having some garbage luck earlier with Bulgaria, and then the game goes and gives me a free core on Caffa as Theodoro ('Orthodox Deserters' event). Of course, it came at the loss of the Gothia line, but Rurikovich is okay too, I suppose.

Hope Crimea docent attack you now... try to ally Poland ASAP

 

[Freudia]

Hope Crimea docent attack you now... try to ally Poland ASAP

Crimea got vassalized by GH, so I'm safe from them for now. On the other hand, I can't attack them without attacking GH either. I do have Muscovy as an ally though so maybe Muscovy can help out in that war.

 

[Leoap]

My strategy is quite different with theodoro. I've done till now 20 tries and managed to save myself 5 times (so it's not SO RARE to survive to crimea).
The problem in your survival is crimea dowing you in less than a year. They've 8k and you can build even 6k but will not survive.
So what to do? Just admit that without luck theodoro would be already dead, and that you need to play the traitor a bit. The way i like tbh.

What i do day one 1? Build 5k of inf in theodoro, send diplomat to circassia to strenghten relations and... CLAIM THAT GODDAMN CRIMEA. Not the capital ofc, yedishkul or whatever is the name will suffice.
What does happen then?
Golden Horde happens, i love them. They always ally Uzbek and till November 1445 wait to attack an underdog nearby, which can be Kazan (more rare) or... CRIMEA. They'll destroy them in a second since crimea has to strenghten their relations with ottos (will require MAX 2 years from game start). And this is the right time for you to come in. If you did everything with the right timing you will be able to declare war to crimea with your new claim while they've still no allies and are dead to golden horde. I think that's enough said. You need some restarts since crimea will likely dow you before they get dowed by golden horde but trust me, it repays itself back. Because after this war you'll have 2-3 new provinces, your rival will be no more (i always partition it with golden horde so that crimea is dead in 5 years from the game start) and you'll have plenty of time to focus genoa. I kicked them off of crimean peninsula just in 1569 but that's because i had a lot of problems on keeping the muslim lands i conquered. I'm not very big (have crimea + georgia).

ONE VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: During the war with crimea send your free diplomat to strenghten relations with muscovy. They'll be the only reason you'll stay alive in that hell that is the tartar region. And be aware of Poland / Lithuania. They'll be domineriing towards you so don't waste your time trying to strenghten their relations. My allies were circassia, georgia and muscovy, later i managed to ally kiev and moldavia. It's becoming an interesting orthodox campaign.

WOW well done !! in my next game i will try to attack Crimea first and not Genoa