Gamble
a. Not the way I play
b. To bet on an uncertain outcome, as of a contest
Mameluks 1669
I have an honorable reputation and +1 stability with $383 in the treasury along with 43% inflation.
I’m still in a Military alliance with Persia.
I’m at war with Persia against Baluchistan.
I have 10,000 Infantry, 48,000 Calvary and 1 cannon. Gee I have a cannon.
I’m floating along with 6 warships and 1 transport in Alexander and 6 warships and 4 transports in the Red Sea. The AI is persistent in building a fleet in the Red Sea.
Land Tech 10
Naval Tech 3
Trade level 2
Infrastructure 2
Persia is in the middle of an event that is causing a +8 to revolt risk.
Goal: Hit the Ottomans hard but first there are these conditions. Both Persia and I have to reach a peace agreement with Baluchistan. I need to get to +2 stability. Because it’s going to cost me three stability hits to DOW another Sunni country. If my stability goes below –1 I start running the risk of revolts. Persia needs to get through its revolt event problem. The Ottomans have to get into a war with another country or countries. Then and only then will I DOW them. Why walk through this minefield to fight the Turks? Well as my mother’s brother who was named Clyde, funny enough I use to call him uncle Clyde, use to say. “Boy what the hell’s wrong with you? You got a gall dang hair up your ass or what? If you do pull the damn thing out or I’ll pull it out for you and you won’t like it!” About this time he would spit some tobacco out of his mouth and wipe the brown stain off his chin with the back of a hairy arm. He actually wasn’t too bad. When I was around seven I remember him offering me a chew of his tobacco. Anyway back to uncle Clyde’s obsession with hair. I made sure never to put myself in a position (so to speak) to let uncle Clyde follow through on his threat, thank God, but I did learn a valuable lesson. If you have a hair up your ass pull it out and right now the Ottomans are the biggest hair that I’ve ever seen.
September 1671
Our land technology increased to Renaissance (11). We can now build level 3 Fortresses.
January 1672
Our stability increased to +2. Okay one goal reached
March 1672
We went with Deny Petition in Petition for Redress. Okay we’re back to +1. The other choice would have cost me 4 stability points. The peasants in Iraq are revolting and they are crushed like the vermin they are.
October1672
Baluchistan accepted peace with Persia on the following terms. Baluchistan pays $55 in indemnities. Okay Persia and I are at peace. Two goals reached.
Austria declared war upon Ottoman Empire. Cool! Bavaria and Genoa joined the war on the same side as Austria. Algiers and Armenia joined the war on the same side as Ottoman Empire. I forgot to mention that the Ottomans are already at war with Spain. At first I didn’t think this would matter but Spain landed 10,000 men and are attacking the Ottomans. Three Goals reached.
January 1673
Heretics happened to us. The peasants in Delta are revolting! The peasants in Lebanon are revolting! I don’t need this but I have plenty of troops to handle the problem and the Rebels are crushed. But I lose a stability point so I stand down my armies. I still have plenty of time.
October 1673
Our stability increased. Up to +2 again but Persia is still putting down revolts. I’ll wait a little while longer. I’m going to need Persia and their manpower.
January 1674
France declared war upon Brittany. Papal States joined the war on the same side as France. Venice, Aragon and Portugal joined the war on the same side as Brittany. I don’t think this is a problem. Aragon hasn’t been a danger for some time now and Venice is weak.
February 1674
Assassination of Noble happened to us. Our stability dropped. Down to +1 again. I’m pumping all my research into stability.
June 1674
Brittany accepted peace with France on the following terms. Full Annexation of Brittany by France.
July1674
Papal States accepted peace with Venice on the following terms. Papal States pays $31 in indemnities. Venice is beginning to annoy me. Persia’s revolt event is over so I move the land maintenance slider to 100% and start moving my armies into position. I have one revolt to deal with and then it’s time to cook the turkey.
January 1675
Damn! We went with Try to eradicate the problems in Corruption. Ah hell. I lost 4 stability points. I’m down to -2. The other choice was +10 to inflation and I didn’t want to do that. But now I have a problem. I’m half way through the turn, which means time is running out. Persia’s revolt event is over and I don’t think they are going to stay at peace for very long. So even though DOWing the Ottomans is going to put me at –3 stability I’m going to do it. It’s going to be quite a gamble but I’m going to grab that hair and pull it out roots and all.
Mameluks declared war upon Ottoman Empire. Algiers and Armenia joined the war on the same side as Ottoman Empire. Persia joined the war on the same side as Mameluks in their war against Ottoman Empire.
Persia turned out to be a great help in the war. They marched a large army to Armenia and besieged the province. Why is this so great? Well I watched a 35,000 man Armenian army march toward the Balkans to fight Austria several months earlier. Now around 25,000 came marching back to attack the Persians. The Ottomans even threw a few men their way. In the meantime I didn’t waste time.
February1675
We have initiated a siege in Sivas.
April 1675
We have initiated a siege in Adana. This was just to cover the province. I’ve learned my lesson in trying to capture Adana in the earlier wars. This time so I’m going to concentrate on some of the minimal fortresses in the area.
May 1675
We have initiated a siege in Taurus.
June 1675
We have initiated a siege in Antalya.
August 1675
We have initiated a siege in Konya.
November 1675
We have initiated a siege in Anatolia.
February 1676
We have initiated a siege in Trabzon. If it doesn’t move besiege it. If it moves besiege it anyway because it’s going to eventually stop moving.
March 1676
Our stability increased. Wow I’m at –2 again. We have initiated a siege in Adana. What can I say? I had a few extra men and I’m an optimist.
Unhappiness among the Peasantry happened to us. Just great, two stability hits and once again I’m at –3. Almost all of my provinces have 1% revolt risk just because of this. The peasants in Egypt are revolting! The peasants in Aleppo are revolting! This is serious because I don’t have enough men to deal with rebels right now. Revolts are popping up faster than pimples on a teenager’s face. As usual I won’t go into gory details of the back and forth fighting with rebels. I’ll just point out the low points because it’s more dramatic that way.
April 1676
We captured the province of Taurus from Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Empire rejected our generous peace offer! I tried for a province but the Ottomans answered “No way Jose” or something close to that.
May1676
Taurus has been besieged by Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman counter attack is starting in earnest. I repel several small Ottoman armies and continue my sieges. This is getting worrisome as the flow of Ottomans from the Balkans continues to slowly increase.
July 1676
We captured the province of Sivas from Ottoman Empire
August 1676
We have initiated a siege in Angora.
August 1676
France declared war upon Cherokee. When will they ever learn? At least they never ask the Pope to join in the fun.
October 1676
Ukraine declared war upon Ottoman Empire. Georgia and Russia
joined the war on the same side as Ukraine. Algiers and Armenia joined the war on the same side as Ottoman Empire. Now this could be very interesting! What stirred up the Ukrainians?
December 1676
Ottoman Empire accepted peace with Austria on the following terms. Ottoman Empire pays $200 in indemnities. I want to end this before all those troops in the Balkans start to find their way to me.
February 1677
We captured the province of Anatolia from Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Empire accepted our generous peace offer. I took Taurus from them. I move 10,000 Infantry 7,000 Calvary and 30 cannon to Taurus. I hope it will be enough to prevent any rebellions from succeeding there. Could I have taken more? Probably but there were some pressing problems urging me to end the war as in what happened next.
April 1677
We have lost control over Egypt to Rebel Scum. Yikes!
May 1677
The peasants in Taurus are revolting! We won a battle against Rebel Scum in Taurus. Passed the first test!
June 1677
We have initiated a siege in Egypt.
November 1677
The peasants in Delta are revolting! This continuing phase of revolt after revolt is not good. I’m running out of time and the revolt risk in most provinces is still around 1%.
I NEED STABILITY!
January 1678
We captured the province of Egypt from Rebel Scum.
May 1678
The peasants in Aleppo are revolting!
June 1678
We have lost control over Cyrenaica to Rebel Scum.
October 1678
We have initiated a siege in Cyrenaica.
January 1679
We have lost control over Aleppo to Rebel Scum. What a way to end a turn.
I gambled but I don’t know if I won or not. I’ve left the Mameluks in a precarious position. It will be another year before their stability goes up again so until then there will be revolts. The real reason I went for this war was because I was bored with the Mameluks. Every time I get close to maybe thinking I can do something with them something comes up and I have to start all over again. I finally came to the conclusion that they are never going to be ideally ready to attack the Ottomans. So I rolled the dice but I won’t know if I won until I return.
Victory count 11
By the way they continue to grow larger.
