Tunisia, from Pirates to Kings - MMP 1.5 AAR

[axzhang]

I've had a few games as the Berber nations and had a blast playing them in MMP. This time around I'm going to record it as an AAR and see if I can do better than my last attempt.

Goals

-Unite the Berber nations, seizing as many provinces from Morocco/Algeria/Tripoli as possible, while keeping them as vassals to heighten the effect of piracy on Christian nations

-Conquer Alexandria and Cairo, and subjugate the Egyptians under Tunisian rule

-Conquer Italy and Austria, hopefully instigating an Imperial Crusade against me.

-Conquer Mecca and Medina, the Muslim holy lands

-Depending on the developing political situation, I might either go for the Ottomans in the 1600s or liberate Iberia from the Spanish yoke and recreate the Abbassid Caliphate.


Rules

-No reloading at all unless game-breaking

-I will be DoWing guarantees of other nations in order to draw in favourable alliances. But I won't be DoWing absurd guarantees in far-flung geographical areas that arise from the MMP 1.5 system (i.e. I might DoW Rome to draw in Naples in a war. But I won't DoW Riga simply because Naples is also guaranteeing them.)

-No by-passing the 5 year truce limit by DoWing a guarantee or ally of someone I just peaced out with.


Update to come in the evening once I get home.

 

[thebigboss-89]

will be interesting since tunisia is among the poorest places on earth in the game

 

[axzhang]

...
Double post.

 

[axzhang]

Tunisia - From Pirate Scum to Defender of Islam

We start in 1453, a poor backwater state with moderate tech penalties and ideas focused on piracy, trade, and guild practices.


In order to modernize, we move our slider one move towards innovation. Maybe one of these days, we can upgrade our pirate dingy from this:

The pirate dingy - a tried and true model

To this:

Pirates on hovercrafts!

Our pirate-king is quite lacking in the administrative department. Tis a pity, because a high admin king would be useful in changing our NIs from seafaring rascallions to landlubber royalty.

Naturally, we fund the Berber pirates to wreck havoc on Christian shipping lanes. Unfortunately, our starting capital means the most we can provide them with are a few planks of drift wood and a a bunch of rusted scimitars.

Here, we also see that Burgundy goes to war against the HRE. That's always a good sign, since Styria's lone port is a perfect point to launch our attack once they are weakened by the upstart duchy.

Inching ever closer to the discovery of pirate hovercrafts

Best investment of wood planks ever.

Here is our cue. Weakened from the recent war with Burgundy, Styria forms Austria and is DoWed by Tirol via event. The ledger says that they have a standing army of 5000, while wracked by Jewish rebellions in their capital.

To war we go! Let's hope Bohemia and Bavaria don't send help

Austria's army consists of just mercenaries, which are easily overrun by our 2000 buccaneers and 2000 cavalry units (which were a total pain to transport across the Mediterranean on a few planks of wood).

Pirates - 1, Austrian army - 0

After Morocco peaces out, we occupy Austria for 100% warscore and demand their 3 provinces (including Karnten, which has gold and jews). Making them renounce their cores on the unconsolidated Austrian duchies will be interesting once they lose the HRE title. Since they won't have cores on those lands, and will get incorporated via Austria through event later on, they will be forced to release them and remain ununified.

We peace out with Bohemia for 8 ducats soon after.

Jews and pirates go hand-in-hand. They have funny hats. We have funny eye-patches.

Algiers cancels our alliance and embargoes us. Envious of our new-found booty and Austrian gold, no doubt. We better watch out!

Not soon after, our king dies and a competent pirate-to-landlubber reformer ascends the throne. Meanwhile, the Austrians are none too happy about their current pirate overlords and decide to revolt under our rule. 9 regiments compared to our standing army of 4 regiments is going to be tricky to handle. If this was on the high seas, we'd make them walk the plank. Any suggestions for how to lure them unto our pirate dingy?

We change NIs to focus on more landlubber rulership. It's now Merchant Adventures/Humanist Tolerance/Bill of Rights/Bureaucracy. The Humanist Tolerance/Bill of rights will help immensely with conquering the Christians and keeping revolts down during the 20 years of reneging the past chaos.

 

[Valentin the II]

I see good humor and gamy tactics.
Will be folowing.

 

[Parokki]

Is Algiers Berber as well in your mod? I'm in the middle of a reasonably succesful game with them. They're quite a bit stronger than Tunisia, so the only real trouble has been from Castille and the Mamluks. Anyhow, best of luck!

 

[likk9922]

Haha, I appreciate your patronage to the Jewish people.

I'll follow this.

 

[Vladislav]

This sounds interesting. Taking one of the crappiest Mediterranean countries and successfuly invading Europe, in MMP no less! Let's see if it works.

 

[Nodscouterr]

You're using TUNISIA, and wining with them, what the hell are you smoking?

 

[axzhang]

When our stability recovers to -2, we declare war on Crete, famous for its
lucrative sugar cane production and ancient Minoan topless women:

Now this is the kind of pirate "booty" we're talking about

Meanwhile, clerics condemn our new paradigm. Needless to say, we're going to be
spending a good part of the next two decades at negative stab.

Milan is the war leader for Tunisia, Tripoli, Algeria, Morocco v. Milan, Crete.
Milan's armies are currently warring Savoy, so we settle in for the siege race
for the University province of Parma.

Unfortunately, we were not able to annex Crete before Milan peaces out with
Savoy and sends its 9 regiments back to alleviate the siege on Parma. So peace
is quickly reached for the province. The sandy beaches of Parma is an
acceptable substitute for the topless wenches of Crete.

One of the best reasons for annexing provinces in Italy is due to this event.
Every Italian province apart from the ones in Naples has a temple that's rife
for ransacking.

Strategic treasure map of the immediate world

Berber pirate support event pops up once again. This time, we have enough
capital to select the option that "exerts our influence", which gives +2 stab
+5 rep and -50 ducats. The +2 stab is key since I'm in sore need of it. You also get a much larger plunder every time the Berber pirates attack a Christian province.

More negative stability events and revolts. Here we also see Brandenberg in a PU with Burgundy

This is going to make plundering difficult. Cowardly pirates do not good soldiers make.
I actually got this event two more times, which are not shown in screenshots. Thank Allah for Bill of Rights and Humanist Tolerance for the decreased RR. Once I get more innovative, I can institute the Millet System for an additional +1 tolerance of heathens, which would further decrease RR.


-------

Croatia DoWed Cilli earlier during the year. Croatia is allied with the Ottomans, which strained Austria (the HRE)'s resources until suddenly their army regiments dropped below mine. You know what this means?

We DoW Naxos, who was vassalized by Austria earlier during the year. While I would love to DoW Austria directly, the fact that they're allied with Bavaria and Bohemia (and shares a land border with both) means that's out of the question.

Five ragtag pirate buccaneers versus the battle-weary Austrians. Some ping ponging ensues.

That's the last of the Austrian regiments.

Meanwhile, the opportunistic major states in the HRE go to war while the emperor is getting ransacked

Midway through the war, we are greeted with good news: the societal chaos is almost over! From previous experience, it's wise to fund social funding at this stage, since there are still events that can raise peasant revolts/lower taxes in each of your provinces if you don't.

Austria falls. They cede Linz, Ostmarch, and Wien (Vienna). [Insert joke about how our pirate cutlass is bigger than Ottoman cannons].

Another 100 shiny new ducats from plundering the local monastery

Wary of our thriving monk-lynching business, naturally the Papal States guarantees us, hoping that their gloriously shiny capital will be spared:

The year is 1476.
To be continued...

 

[axzhang]

Valentin the II Thanks for following. Though the only gamey thing I did so far was changing 2 NIs at once to suffer through only 1 round of reneging the past. I suppose DoWing Austria's vassal instead of it directly can also be considered gamey. But, since Tunisia really is dirt poor, I need all the help I can get.

Parokki Yup, Algiers is a major Berber power. However, Algiers and Morocco are too easy for my taste. Tripoli is a good choice too, but their primary culture is in the African group so they can't expand into the arabic territory of the Mameluks. Tunisia is perfect since they're both small and in the Arabic culture group.

Vladislavv/Nodscouterr Hundreds of hours in MMP (through it's many versions) later, I'd like to think that I've gotten a pretty good handle on the mod. I've also successfully created a pretty massive Tunisia before, though with more inflation than I'd like (6% or so after modernizing). I want to see if I can do it again and more this time around.

likk9922 I say so in jest. Jews are awesome in MMP, and give huge tax/trade bonuses for the provinces they're in. This is especially true in Italy.

 

[sprites]

nice ^^
beating revolts should be hard though ^^

 

[L Lawliet]

Just popping in to say I like your AAR and this:

-Depending on the developing political situation, I might either go for the Ottomans in the 1600s or liberate Iberia from the Spanish yoke and recreate the Abbassid Caliphate.

The Umayyads were bigger

 

[BeardedHoplite]

It is a sad day indeed when the pope bows to pirates:rofl:

 

[Vesimir]

Nothing smart to say so :

*Subscribed*

 

[axzhang]

Pirates unite Italy!

From 1476 to 1490, we warned all our Italian neighbors. This allows us to be leaders in the alliance against the aggressor states without DoWing each nation individually (and going against Bohemia, who took the HRE title after Austria).

On 1481*, Tuscany DoWs and annexes Ancona. We join the war (while waiting for Tuscany to annex Ancona). The alliance is Tuscany, Milan, Modena v. Tunisia, The Papal States, Naples, Venice, Bohemia. Naples and Venice does most of the fighting, while leech-like we merely move our armies around to become siege leaders in all of the aggressor provinces.

Milan (Lombardia) ends up getting annexed, Modena cedes Ferrara, and Tuscany cedes Pisa and Ancona after the war.
You know Italy's an unstable region when Pirates are peace-keepers between the rival city states.

Diplomat Hussein Abdul at the Tuscan peace-talks. The distant, glassy look in his eyes is his vision of a unified Italy.

In the interlude, France also DoWs Savoy, which drew in Bohemia and Venice. Venice and Bohemia both get totally destroyed, and we were considering DoWing Venice in the process. However, the AI Venice has yet to build manufactories in all of its provinces, which I know they will (as well as receive by event), so I hold off on doing so. Besides, they were allied with a relatively strong Hungary at the time.

* I forgot to turn on Materializer (the screen capturing software I use) for 2 decades before I realized what I was doing. Suffice to say that I only got involved in one war with 4 annexed provinces.

------------------------------

The Pirate Renaissance

In 1493, The Ottomans offer us an alliance after vassalizing Algiers by event. A useful alliance that we will be "honoring" for some time to come (or until we run out of Italian cities to loot, at least).

Influenced by the Renaissance of the artistic community, great works of art are commissioned for their new pirate overlords. Shiny trinkets, the merits of grog, and perfect symmetry in the Jolly Roger are common themes in the era. Wooden peg legs are all the rage among fashionistas.

Seminal mural by Da Vinci on the carefree life aboard a pirate ship

Meanwhile, the Ottomans goes to war against their chief rivals - the Mameluks.

Though we try to "honor" the alliance by collecting war taxes, the Ottomans peace out soon after for a single province despite soundly thrashing the Mameluks. If this is what "civilized" warfare is about, we're glad we're pirate scum.

Realizing we're running a bit low on looted temple cash, we DoW the Holy See:

Tunisia, Tripoli, Morocco, The Ottomans vs. Papal States, Hesse, Britanny, Genoa, Mantua, Magdeburg, Sienna, Tuscany.

And scorch the province that the Papal army is going to be sieging. Yup, we fight dirty.

We settle in for the siege race after dispatching several small Mantuan, Genoan, and Sienese armies.

Muhammud V ascends the throne after our current king dies from a siege. Pretty lackluster in all departments except military.

He's a 6 shock general, which helps with dispatching all the remaining enemy siege forces.

Peace is reached with all the Italian states:

Ransacking of all annexed provinces ensues. 3 provinces for a total of 300 ducats looted. Since I'm making +5 net ducats per year without inflation, the plundering of Italian states is my main source of revenue (apart from the Berber pirate raiding events which have given me anywhere from 6 ducats to 100 ducats every time they raid a Christian port).

We become a major power. All that looting and ransacking has elevated us among the ranks of kings. Who says that crime doesn't pay?

We are second in income in the world. This will soon change once we annex the rest of Italy.

Unfortunately, disease does not respect power or prestige. This is going to be an uphill struggle for the next several years while peasants revolt all over the place.

...especially since we now go to war against the Mameluks.

The year is 1505.
To be continued...

 

[Pjoo]

Yarr mateys! Seems like awesome AAR! Skill, humour and MMP!

Though the only gamey thing I did so far was changing 2 NIs at once to suffer through only 1 round of reneging the past.

Reneging the past is just so damn annoying, if you would've modded in more useful NIs, I wouldn't have held it against you...

I'll be following this!

 

[unmerged(90806)]

that's what i call an unorthodox way to play a berber state!
all i hope for is... an imperial crusade agains you

 

[axzhang]

sprites Yeah, revolts are going to be tough. I usually end up having to turn up army maintenance for 1-2 months to deal with the larger ones in Austria, and ping-pong for several months before they're finally destroyed.

L Lawliet Yeah, the Umayyad empire would be nice to recreate. Iberia needs to once again embrace the cradle of Islam! However, that means also conquering Ottoman North Africa in Algiers, and that's going to be awhile before I'm ready for that..

Bearded Hoplite/Vesimir Thanks for following. Yeah, the MMP 1.5 system has some strange series of guarantees from AI trying to maintain the balance of power in the region. All the Christians hate me, but they guarantee me regardless.

Pjoo Nah, I make it a policy to never mess with MMP files. I'm not confident enough in coding to edit anything and I feel like it would take away from the sadomasochism intent of the mod .

sprites Unorthodox? Sure. It took a lot of trial and error from previous games with the Berber powers before realizing that Austria is the easiest point of invasion when they form/get reamed by Burgundy. From then on, it's just playing by ear and conquering the rich city states of Italy. I really do hope they launch an Imperial crusade against me - since that just means faster coring of imperial territory once I beat them with the help of the Ottomans. However, I have yet to get an Imperial crusade launched against me playing any Muslim power apart from the Ottomans. I think screwing the AI Austria HRE has really damaged Imperial power to the point that they're too weak to launch one.

In several updates, all my warmongering is going to catch up with me big time. Be prepared for a near-collapse of the fledgling pirate state!

 

[unmerged(92044)]

Guarantees are also a cheap way to boost your relations (both in the short and long term). I believe that's why certain nations do it.

They also, of course, guarantee nations as a way of saying "dibs".