Welcome to all my new readers, hopefully we'll all make it to 1821
Firstly, I have a new toy! I'm now using Materialiser, which is awesome, but means I'm taking even more screenshots.
Because of this, it's taking a while to sort out which screenshots I'm gonna use, and the dodgy internet connection means uploading would take forever.
Since it's been a few days since the last update, I'm going to post the (un-proofread) text now, and add the screenshots in when I'm back on a more reliable connection, which should be Monday.
So, for now, Part III sans screenshots:
Venkata decides that he can take no further action with the 3000 men he has with him, and decides to bring the 2000 men from the Army of Goa to fight at his side. Though Deccan outrageously refuses to provide military access, the Grand Navy are able to ferry the army of Goa round to Bengal, where they disembark and move towards Ventaka's position.
As predicted, Delhi move to reoccupy their lost territory, sending some 9,000 men at the Grand Army's 3,000. After only a week, Venkata retreats from Malwa towards Mandla, where only 500 enemy troops are waiting.
These are easily defeated, and the Army of Goa joins the Grand Army in Mandla. With his troops nearly fully reinforced, and with their morale sky-high, Venkata makes a foolish decision- to assault the forces of Delhi in Malwa.
Their defeat is a crushing one, andthey are forced to retreat to Delhi-controlled Rajputni teritory, Uidapur, there to rendezvous with Rajputana's first army under the command of King Ranmal, numbering some 5,000 men.
Around this time, Rajputana manage to get themselves involved in a war against Gujurat and Sind.
Though I'd normally love the chance to grab more territory, my army is looking very much the worse for wear fighting one war, let alone two, so I regretfully decline.
It's a good job I do, too, as Gujurati armies quickly occupy most Rajputni territory that hadn't been captured by Delhi. To stop my armies from being thrown pointlessly against the walls of the fortress of Uidapur by Ranmal, we head north into Delhian territory.
We lose the siege of Malwa, but the enemy show no sign of moving onto Mandla, fortunately. Meanwhile, we besiege Multan and fend off half-hearted attempts to liberate it by the enemy.
I decide that the only path forward is reinforcements. I commission an army of three thousand in Kondavidu, including our first regiment of cavalrymen. Meanwhile, Multan comes under our control, and we move onto Lahore. By the time the New Army is ready, and begins to move up north to join us, Lahore has fallen and we move on to Sutlej.
Delhi offer us a white peace, an improvement on the demands for money of earlier days. I refuse, naturally, but with Rajputana's war capacity down to 0% I fear it won't be long before they capitulate on behalf of the entire alliance.
Meanwhile, Khorasan have meanwhile revolted out of a single Delhian province, Kohistan, and Deccan is fighting Gondwana, Mysore and Orissa. Though its occupied one of Mysore's two provinces, most of its northern territory is controlled by Gondwana. The winner of this war may prove very important to my long term health, so I'm keeping a close eye on it.
Rajputana make peace with Gujurat at the cost of Jodphur, and are soon back up to 82% war capacity, and start besieging their own Delhi-controlled provinces. I win the siege of Sutlej, and press onwards, since Delhi still won't give me even a pitiful 25 ducats.
Chandighar is won quickly after we assault the fortress with the help of a Bihari army who arrived just two days after our own.
Since Delhi is already besieged by Bihari forces, I decide it's more in my interests to take Ladakh, and head in that direction.
Interestingly, at this point, I have 100% war capacity, 0.00 war exhaustion, +3 stability, and 0% blockade, making me the healthiest of the four parties still in the war. I've also reduced my monthly minting, as I can still make an annual profit, but inflation is still creeping up at 0.05 a year (it's currently 0.5%).
Ladakh, unfortified, is ours immediately, and Venkata brings his forces southwards again, hoping to challenge the army that defeated him before (and thus lower the enemy war capacity).
When Venkata returns to Uidapur, it is still controlled by Delhi, but the Bihari army besieging it enlist his help to free it, and the fortress falls in a few days. As Venkata lets his men recuprate, scouts investigate the enemy army, who number around 4,500 horse and 5,500 foot. Venkata, with only 1,000 horse and 6,000 foot when fully reinforced, is outnumbered. His scouts also tell him that he is an equal to the enemy general- both are 1,2,-,1 generals.
At great cost, he sends a message to the garrison in Mandla to hire two thousand mercenary horsemen, despite the enormous cost (33 of my 105 ducat treasury). In the time it takes the horsemen to be recruited, Venkata moves to Bihari-controlled Agra, with its supply limit of 10, higher than Mandla's 6 or Uidapur's 2.
In hiring the mercenaries, we complete the mission of building up our army, and are given the easy to complete mission of forming a royal marriage with Travanacore, who, unsurprisingly ("Very Likely") accept our offer. The next mission is somewhat harder- we must improve our prestige from the depressing corrent score of -15 to +10.
When the mercenaries arrive in Agra and are incorporated into the Grand Army, Venkata optimistically cries "Attack!" once more and moves towards Malwa.
The battle goes well at first, with the enemy demoralised. After a few days, Delhi offer us peace and the provinces of Multan and Chandigarh. Being neither adjacent nor particularly rich, I do not respond to the offer immediately, but leave it on my screen, pending the results of the battle.
When victory comes, it is decisive. We recieve 8 prestige for the battle, helping us on our way towards the 25 improvement we need to complete our mission, and the enemy retreat to Mandla. Confident of getting a better peace settlement in the end, we let this one disappear after a month, and set about recapturing Malwa.
When Malwa falls, Delhi finally concede defeat and are willing to accept a epace treaty worth up to 54 warscore (my warscore is 44). Naturally, I ask for Mandla and Malwa, as well as the richest of the northern provinces under my command, Lahore. The 125 ducats they pay me will no doubt come in useful as well, and all of this comes without any damage to our reputation.
Our prestige leaps to +24, and the +10 we get from completing our mission takes it up to +34. Unfortunately, being at +3 stability already, the +1 from completing our mission goes unused.
Our new mission is to vassalise Travanacore, for a loss of 1 reputation. Though I don't yet have the reputation to lose, I have nothing better to do so persue it anyway. With our relations at 135, and a Royal Marriage, we're halfway there already, and their acceptance of our alliance offer, bringing relations to 150, certainly helps.
I also lower my minting to 0, and halt inflation. I'm still making an annual profit of 3 with this, and with a fairly healthy treasury (180 ducats) I can afford it. I also, for no good reason, "Accept Religious Sects", increasing my tolerance of heretics by 1, making it +1, at the cost of 0.5 missionaries a year. Since I have no non-Hindus in my lands, I have no use for tolerance or missionaries, so this is practically pointless for now, though it does steer me towards expanding in the east rather than into Muslim lands.
Several months, four diplomats and 6.6 ducats later, our relations with Travanacore are up to +189, and we have mutual military access. Another 6.6 ducats later, and our relations exceed +200. I must however wait for another diplomat before I can see if they would even consider vassalisation.
Dissapointingly, though, they won't even consider it. I sigh, and look around for something else to do. The Rajputni peacesettlement with Delhi won them Multan and Sutlej, meaning that I can travel between my northern estates freely. Gondwana also grant me military access, as do Orissa a few months later, meaning I can my troops can also return to my homeland if I wish. Goa is still isolated by Deccan, and I consider war with them.
They've just lost most of their land to Khandesh, and I have access to all their allies (Sind and Kashmir). I recruit a unit of cavalry in Malwa, to join the Grand Army on the Sind-Rajputana border, send the New Army up to Lahore where we have a border with Kashmir, and bring the Army of Goa down to Kondavidu where I'm training a thousand cavalry and a thousand infantry.
I also splash out on a new general, Narasimha Mallikarjun, who isn't bad considering I had only 27 army tradition, and has 0,2,1,0 stats. I put him at the head of the newly strengthened Army of Goa.
When I finally get a diplomat, I follow my usual habit of checking if Travanacore will be vassalised yet. TO my surprise, they will, and my mission is completed.
The replacement is an interesting one. The Islamic government in Khandesh have recently taken control of Hindu Nagpur from the Islamic government in Deccan. My mission, it seems, is to liberate them.
Never one to turn down advice from my anonymous advisor, I abandon my plans for war with Deccan- for now. Kahndesh are also allied with Kashmir, so I leave the New Army where they are but bring the Grand Army back to Malwa, which borders Khandesh province. The Army of Goa, on the other hand, I move to Goa by sea.
While I'm waiting for a diplomat, two interesting things happen. Khorasan is annexed by my enemies-to-be Kashmir, and I notice that the independence of Khandesh is guaranteed by Sind.
Being the genius that I am, it doesn't take me long to work out a new plan. Deccan and Khandesh are both desirable targets, Sind, less so (though taking over Kutch would be nice). A declaration of war on Kashmir would bring me into conflict with Kashmir, Deccan, and Khandesh without having to fight Sind.
On the 2nd November, 1409, we declare war. Khandesh lead the alliance, so I decide to use the Army of Goa against Deccan first. The other two armies have little choice but to go with their original targets, so I have each army attacking a different member of the three-strong enemy alliance. On my side are Orissa and Travanacore, and the inital line up looks good.
We win battles in Jammu (Kashmir) and Khandesh (Khandesh) but Kondavidu, Mandla, and Lahore come under siege. We besiege Raichur Doab and Jammu, but move our troops in Khandesh into the other Deccanese province, Maharastra. To my joy, it is unfortified, and I move the troops on to join the siege at Raichur Doab, passing through the Khandeshi and unfortified Ahmadnagar on the way. Deccan offer us a white peace which we reject, and our allies in Orissa kindly break the siege in Mandla.
The opportunists in Gondwana have also DoW'd on Deccan, and occupied their capital, Golconda, preventing us from doing so. However, our warscore is high enough to net us Maharastra and Raichur Doab, and we make peace before moving to crush Khandesh.
Khandesh start to fall beneath our onslaught, but the cursed opportunists in Gondwana have declared war on them also and occupied Nagpur, the province we need to complete our mission.
News comes from the north that the province of Kashmir has fallen to the New Army, who return to Jammu in the hopes of capturing that too.
Fortunately, the Khandeshis liberate Nagpur, and I attempt to pounce on it. This time it's my own allies, the Orissans, who get it. I'm most put out.
We win the battle of Jammu, but only just, and the surviving enemies flee- fight into Kashmir! Not confident I'd win another battle, I stay put. Meanwhile, in the south, Venkata and his men, aided by the Army of Goa, are besieging Khandesh itself. I get an interesting titbit of news- Delhi and the Timurid Empire are at war over the throne of Sind. I'm most glad I'm not Delhi.
The sieges continue. A ghost army consisting of no Khandeshi troops manage to occupy an entire province, Maharastra. Chasing an army out of Ahmadnagar gives me control of Nagpur, and I'm merely waiting for Travanacore to win me control over Dadra before Khandesh is entirely occupied.
Once it is, I send the Grand Army up north to subdue the Kashmiris, and devote the Army of Goa to finishing off the one remaining Khandeshi army. The damn Gondwanans manage to occupy Ahmadnagar and force Khandesh to cede it, but since I control my main target, Nagpur, I'm not too fussed.
As I besiege Kohistan (Kashmir), Orissa invite me into a war against Bengal and Delhi. I accept, mainly out of the value I place on Orissa's alliance. With another war on my hands, I quickly assault Kohistan and after a few months take it. Khandesh willingly make peace, reducing both themselves and Kashmir to one-province minors.
I complete my mission, and lose 2 reputation. Reputation which I still haven't got. I'm not complaining though, as I have vastly increased my holdings in the north, as well as giving myself land access from Kondavidu not only to Goa but also to Malwa and Mandla.
A royal marriage with Rajputana is my next, easy to complete, mission, with the reward of losing yet more reputation. Deja vu when I'm asked to form a royal marriage with Bihar.
The next one should be more interesting. I'm asked to form an army for our nation. My forcelimit is 20.5 now, so I'll need to approximately double my armed forces.
At this point, my game crashed- too much tabbing out to write this, probably. Fortunately it was only mid-January, so I'd only lost a few days when I loaded up the autosave. The situation at this point: I'm besieging Chandighar, and one army is fighting rebels in Ladakh. Some Punjabi Nationalists have risen up in Lahore, but I've decided to ignore them for now and win the war.
I've also splashed out on a level one fort in Maharastra, but left Nagpur unfortified for now.
Chandigarh and Ladakh soon come under my control, and my armies head into Panipat where a thousand Delhian infantry are waiting. After they have been slaughtered, and the province besieged and brought under my control, I deal with the rebels.
Since I couldn't even get 25 ducats out of Delhi, I am most annoyed when Orissa make peace with them for 6. To add injury to insult, more rebels rise up in Jammu.
I have a feeling I'll end up at war with Delhi again, though, since their mission is to take Malwa.
And there I will conclude this marathon part of the AAR.
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