Tips for Shahanshah/Tabarestan ?

[Sir Iain]

I love achievements like Shahanshah, but I haven't figured out how to get this achievement.

Intitially, you border just the Timurids and the Qara's, and they are both much stronger. Nobody likes you due to religious and distance penalties.

Any tips?

 

[axzhang]

This was my first play through on AoW, just got the achievement + Silk Road.

Both timmies and Qara are hostile at game start. Qara will rival Georgia. DoW Georgia and Qara will give you access through their territories. Vassalize them and expand through the Caucasian minors. The distance modifiers to Ottod will decrease by then, so you can RM and ally (statesman needed still). Set military focus at game start. You have a rich trade node so cash isn't a huge issue.

As insurance against Qara and Timmies DoWing you before you can ally Ottos, ally GH/Crimea once you have Georgia. Once you have a few key alliances, pretty trivial to take down Qara and eventually Timurids. I used Armenia, Iraq, and eventually Released an OPM Persia to feed. Take care not to border the Ottos until you are large enough to survive them turning hostile.

Bonus tip: I fed and integrated a complete Persia (and then took the decision to form Persia). However, using this method you start off at 75% autonomy on everything. In retrospect, it would've been better to just integrate the 6 provinces needed to form Persia then tag switch to it. You start with core on all Persian territory and it would be 0% autonomy.

 

[Happy Chappy]

DoW Georgia and Qara will give you access through their territories.

So wait, did you no-casus Georgia at the start? Wouldn't Qara still be hostile at that point, and not let you have military access?

 

[Frossa]

So wait, did you no-casus Georgia at the start? Wouldn't Qara still be hostile at that point, and not let you have military access?

Hordes have a free CB against their neighbours.

 

[Happy Chappy]

Hordes have a free CB against their neighbours.

Tabarastan isn't a horde though, and doesn't border Georgia, it does have a sea connection to those two Caucasian shia states you can fabricate claims off of though!

 

[axzhang]

So wait, did you no-casus Georgia at the start? Wouldn't Qara still be hostile at that point, and not let you have military access?

Yes, I no CB dowed Georgia. The AI will give you military access when you go to war against its rival, even when the AI is hostile to you

 

[Krajzen]

Does Tabarestan have unique NIs? I am afraid not.

 

[lordelenath]

Nope. The real bummer is the fact that Persia's NIs are garbage, too. Better then the generic set, granted, but probably the worst in the region.

 

[Rabid]

Nope. The real bummer is the fact that Persia's NIs are garbage, too. Better then the generic set, granted, but probably the worst in the region.

Yeah it's a shame, forming Persia seems like a waste with anyone when you can form the Mughals and get far more powerful NIs.

 

[TimurLank]

Just finished it, here are few quick tips on how to make it:

1. Claim dagestan and DoW 2PM that possess it, while constantly improving relations with Qara.
2. Vasalize that minor (easy) and gift (+25 relations) Qara , so that you have over +100 relations - that means they won't be hostile towards you anymore
3. Claim Astrakhan and dow Golden Horde (wait for them to go in war against crimea, kazan, etc, which happens very often). Take as many provinces as possible from them - I took 5 in first war and formed Astrakhan as vasal.
4. By now you can integrate 2PM vasal and that gives you access to circasia and georgia (easy targets).
5. After few decades of conquering those teritories you will be very strong and you can basically dow and conquer provinces from Qara. Be sure to rival Qara and improve relations with Otto which will also rival Qara - that makes you viable for allying Otto.
6. Here comes the hard part - once you eat too much teritory Otto will go hostile towards you and they also DoW me. It took me about 10+ years to get white peace somehow - with lot of luck, manuevering troops, etc.
7. After this try to grab few more provinces from nogai,crimea,ryazan, etc.
8. DoW Timurid and be sure to fight Ottos again, since they are 99% allied with Timurids. This will be very hard war (lasted almost 20 years for me), but after 10 years or s9. I peaced Ottos (I released Armenia and some other stuff, but that's irrelevant - important thing is that Ottos are out). Since I was 3 or 4 levels above Timurid in military, it wasn't too hard to beat them in battles, but be aware since they have 3 times your numbers.
10. After lot of battles, sieging, etc I took from them those 5 critical provinces and released Persia. Waited 10years and integrated persia.
11. End

I hope this helps, cheers.