Theodoro you say...

[Leoap]

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.

Yes sure !! I think they will help you ;

 

[Knut Skallagrim]

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

thanks, also i'm proud to say that the kings of gothia rule in Muscovy and Kiev too in my campaign. Sometimes this game can be so glorious

 

[Leoap]

thanks, also i'm proud to say that the kings of gothia rule in Muscovy and Kiev too in my campaign. Sometimes this game can be so glorious

Totally agree , the satisfaction you have achieving your goals are immense , especially with Underdogs!!!
Bravo

 

[ParadogsGamer]

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.

Hi Knut. Good points there.

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.

This is my point though. Isn't it better to make them into a March?

 

[ParadogsGamer]

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.

Great that things worked out

 

[Knut Skallagrim]

Hi Knut. Good points there.

This is my point though. Isn't it better to make them into a March?

Thanks, I usually don't make a 4 province guy my vassal if i'm a one province minor, I preferred to annex them and give to the provinces local autonomy so that i would get no rebellions, and no crimean tag to think of for the next 400 years. This is a personal choice i think since making them a vassal is advantageous, but i preferred this way since i wanted the whole crimean region as my homebase and my plan was right after to kick genoa to "rebalance" the religious unity but they got protected by castille (which was already defender of the faith :|), so i chose to cannibalize circassia and made them my vassals instead (which i immediately annexed as soon as i could). Castille eventually lost their war and here we go purple crimea.
It was a good idea just because later kiev and moldavia got their indipendence, so i had more slots for my awesome orthodox allies. I'm not a blob but for a guy that gets dowed for annex in a year i'm doing ok, also i like the fact that i've backstabbed those pesky crimeans:

me right now:

united we stand!!

 

[hajutze]

Since you already know .. (havent played that far into the game). Does Russia get claims on the Steppes/Central Asia Region (The parts OUTSIDE of the Russian region) ?

because I am planning on taking Astrakhan and I don't want to fk up the alliance with Muscovy later on

 

[Knut Skallagrim]

They had claims on crimea too when they reformed into russia, i guess that since we were longtime allies and we didn't border at all they got no malus on me. We have never had less than 180 relations since we allied, even when they had tons of claims on me, and mid game they were always cordial (and now too ofc). Right now they've lost every claim so i can't tell you if they had claims on astrakhan, but as i already said they got claims on the whole crimea and didn't mind it at all. Now that they've lost the claims i'm planning on eating golden horde with them...but thei're allied with ottos! The only war i waged against them i saw 3 stacks of 22k of muscovites deleted by 30k of ottos in sequence...it was traumatizing.

 

[hajutze]

Crimea is in the Russian region ... meh I'm going to find out ... just made Astrakhan a vassal.

 

[Freudia]

This nation makes me feel so poor. Luck-based start, but once it gets rolling it's pretty fun though. As an aside, I really hate the changes they did to hostile core creation cost, so I definitely would not recommend going through the Caucuses like I did.

But I have this silly line of vassals so it wasn't all for naught.

 

[hajutze]

The Caucasian region has a big plus - it's already orthodox, which brings down the unrest quite a lot.

 

[hajutze]

F this ... I am starting again with your way ... if one doesnt take care of Genoa right at the start they fuck up everything eventually at some point.

Can someone write a bit of a detailed plan .. because when I try it I get the whole Italian peninsula in a coalition against me and they DoW 1-2 years after the start.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

This nation makes me feel so poor. Luck-based start, but once it gets rolling it's pretty fun though. As an aside, I really hate the changes they did to hostile core creation cost, so I definitely would not recommend going through the Caucuses like I did.

But I have this silly line of vassals so it wasn't all for naught.

Good work Freudia. You've cut the world in half!

 

[ParadogsGamer]

F this ... I am starting again with your way ... if one doesnt take care of Genoa right at the start they fuck up everything eventually at some point.

Can someone write a bit of a detailed plan .. because when I try it I get the whole Italian peninsula in a coalition against me and they DoW 1-2 years after the start.

Which way are you referring to hajutze?

 

[hajutze]

Which way are you referring to hajutze?

The one you fellas are using - day 0 on Genoa.

I might try again Crimea > Genoa but this time I am going to keep be on Genoa's good side. I had 4 tried that lasted until ~1550 all of which ended with Genoa bringing the Ottos (during the couple of years both fo them are in a coalition against me).

 

[Freudia]

The one you fellas are using - day 0 on Genoa.

I might try again Crimea > Genoa but this time I am going to keep be on Genoa's good side. I had 4 tried that lasted until ~1550 all of which ended with Genoa bringing the Ottos (during the couple of years both fo them are in a coalition against me).

For me it was more like day 760 on Genoa, honestly. I allied Circassia, Georgia, Byzantium, and Trebizond. Called only Byzantium into the war vs Genoa, and me and Byzantium together could beat Genoa's navy, which made everything super easy. Can't ship troops over if they don't have a navy, after all.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

For me it was more like day 760 on Genoa, honestly. I allied Circassia, Georgia, Byzantium, and Trebizond. Called only Byzantium into the war vs Genoa, and me and Byzantium together could beat Genoa's navy, which made everything super easy. Can't ship troops over if they don't have a navy, after all.

I went with the naval strategy too As you can obviously see.
Btw, Episode 3 is live in 6 minutes...

 

[Freudia]

I went with the naval strategy too As you can obviously see.
Btw, Episode 3 is live in 6 minutes...

Sounds good. I'm about to head out for lunch so I'll check it when I get back.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

Sounds good. I'm about to head out for lunch so I'll check it when I get back.

Take your time mate

 

[Brainblow]

So which ideas are recommended?
I imagine Aristocratic and religious ideas due to increased coring cost on you, and religious to deal with neighboring Muslims, and to make culture conversion easier.
Speaking of which, have any of you guys done any significant amount of culture conversion? If I'm ever successful myself, I'll culture convert as much as possible.