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What's funny is that if the Byzantine Empire had gone Catholic, made an antipope, and pressed his claim on Rome, this might have been able to be finished ages ago due to Crusades. "Mend the Schism" is a complete trap option, in my opinion, that only divides and weakens Christendom further.
What? That's not even related to my comment at all! Do you really want this thread to be locked a third time? And this time with Czoklet taking an indefinite break from his AAR it might never be unlocked again.
 
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And it's more gamey than anything, there is not a lot of reasons for an ingame Byzantine Empire to go Catholic.
At least as evil as it may be, the Empire seems plausible from what was the Roman Empire in the Middles Ages along with the dire setting it has been fighting for 200 years. :p
 
I hope Czoklet enjoyed Christmas, wherever he is. Hopefully not at the bottom of a river after Xenoi agents got him.

Even if this never is reactivated, it still makes for good reading every 6 mos. or so. I think part of what killed it was Czoklet's insistence on keeping up with the updates to the game; it became relentless and far too much work for him. We really ought to have picked a patch and stuck with it. I'm really sad it ended on such a cliffhanger... I would be so much happier if we'd have managed to get through Ravenna.
 
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And it's more gamey than anything, there is not a lot of reasons for an ingame Byzantine Empire to go Catholic.
At least as evil as it may be, the Empire seems plausible from what was the Roman Empire in the Middles Ages along with the dire setting it has been fighting for 200 years. :p

Honestly, that depends. It took many centuries after the church schismed politically for meaningful doctrinal/ritual differences to be cited as the reason the two churches couldn't unite. The schism(s) itself was almost solely based on who the ultimate of the church should be - the Patriarch in Rome (as everyone outside of Constantinople's jurisdiction believed) or the Patriarch closest to the Emperor of Rome (the original justification for why Rome had supremacy over, say, Jerusalem and Constantinople's justification for being Eucumenical Patriarch/Pope - Rome wasn't even part of the Empire even more and the Pope in Rome was independent). If the IRL Byzantines had conquered Rome and made the pope their vassal, there's not really a reason for them to dispute his status as head of the Church - what they cared about was that the church wasn't independent of the state.

The game mechanics aren't really significant RP wise - in both scenarios, the Empire conquers Rome and establishes the supremacy of the Emperor over the Roman See. But if you go the convert/vassalize route, you don't get to restore the pentarchy/give all Christian realms autocephalous churchs, which I guess our Emprah wanted to do.

If we're arguing 'things Czolket could have done to make the game less hopelessly grimdark', he also could have just spammed diplomacy at the Xenoi the whole time to make them never fight a war with him. Sometimes you take the more challenging route because it's more fun, even if you lose.
 
So...anybody wonder what would happen once we actually defeat the Horde, Timurids, and the Xenoi?
 
So...anybody wonder what would happen once we actually defeat the Horde, Timurids, and the Xenoi?
The only reason the Empire stands united is the common threat it faces, once it disappears I don't see how it would hold :p
 
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So...anybody wonder what would happen once we actually defeat the Horde, Timurids, and the Xenoi?
Likely fragment into hundreds of micro-states as the former unity is gone, leaving the empire to rip apart at the seams. In the end, there would either be a new world order, or a continuation of the Roman Civil War cycle of "New Emperor usurps, New Emperor dies, New Emperor's son is bad, New Emperor's son is no longer Emperor"

Edit - And no, when I say New World Order, I am not referring to the conspiracy theory type.
 
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So...anybody wonder what would happen once we actually defeat the Horde, Timurids, and the Xenoi?
There are two possible routes. Route one, the empire collapses in on itself due to lack of outside forces keeping pressure on unity, or two, the Emperor is overthrown and replaced with a republican system that favors inclusiveness and religious tolerance.
 
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So... Any new word from Czoklet? This AAR looks less likely to be resumed every month that passes.
 
So... Any new word from Czoklet? This AAR looks less likely to be resumed every month that passes.
Judging from his reddit history it looks like he's moved past AARs and EU4 in general and on to multiplayer and other non-Paradox subreddits. He hasn't spoken about TIM anywhere both here and there. There's a chance he might be trying to finish the mod on the side, but with the next update fast approaching he'll likely have to start over or at the very least fix a lot of stuff.

Speaking of which, I'm thinking about attempting to mod the the TIM world for Czoklet to use if he decides to resume the AAR. Anybody want to help out?
 
I can do some basic modding stuff. At the very least we'll pick a game version and stick with it.
 
I can do some basic modding stuff. At the very least we'll pick a game version and stick with it.
We should probably wait until Mandate of Heaven drops and build the mod on that patch. Can anybody get ahold of Czoklet's save or at least the most recent screenshots? I think we should work on getting the borders right first before moving on to other things.
 
We should probably wait until Mandate of Heaven drops and build the mod on that patch. Can anybody get ahold of Czoklet's save or at least the most recent screenshots? I think we should work on getting the borders right first before moving on to other things.
Hey Zen,
So I can try to help, but other than light mods where I made a custom nation, I am not very proficient at modding.
 
We should probably wait until Mandate of Heaven drops and build the mod on that patch. Can anybody get ahold of Czoklet's save or at least the most recent screenshots? I think we should work on getting the borders right first before moving on to other things.

The problem is, Czoklet never provided an EU4 save. We don't know almost any of the borders outside of the old world, because he had some surprises there (particularly, I believe, in America and East Asia), and did not want to spoil them. Now, we might never know :( Any chance that someone can contact him in Reddit to get some final answer on this?