Georgia is still close friend, but they never bring armies to war :rofl: I keep them in my alliance just to protect them as they are orthodox state and in future wars with moslems they will hopefully bring up some armies.
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Georgia is still close friend, but they never bring armies to war :rofl: I keep them in my alliance just to protect them as they are orthodox state and in future wars with moslems they will hopefully bring up some armies.
Another war in the North
In 1723 the war time came again. I reinforced my army for about 180k men and then attacked Hungary again. This time I aimed to conquer two orthodox provinces in far north, Cheryngov and Mogilev.
The war went much swifter then before, I could see Hungary was weakened. We won most of battles and soon covered the bordering provinces.
However, I didn’t notice they converted the second one, so when I took it I had and unpleasant surprise, I took wrong-religion and wrong-culture province for a lot of BB. Guess I’ll have to convert it later.
The war with other allies continued, they also brought Burgundy in. However it was Scotland who brought about 60k men now. It took some time to kill them all, but Scotland had to pay 200d in the end. Genoa, as alliance leader peaced out for 200d soon after.
Looking back to the start of this AAR, I noticed I wanted to capture all the Orthodox provinces. Well, that was kind of an impossible goal in the beginning, but now, it doesn’t seem so unreal. We actually have to gain just 3 provinces from Abhasid Caliphate – Smyrna, Antalya and Trabzon. The latest mentioned will also give us land connection with Georgia, so I could finally annex them. Considering our BB has fallen down quite a bit, I declared war on AC even without having CB. My 200k men army marched to Anatolia, aiming to cover most of provinces and peace quickly. This didn’t go so swift…
In land we achieved many victories, but also lost many times. I thought that at LT about 45 cavalary isn’t important and I payed a price. They kept battling me only in plains provinces with stacks about 50k cavalary against my 60k infantry and cannons and always won. This lowered my warscore a lot, but it was me who conquered the provinces.
However, even when I controled Smyrna, Anatalya, Arabia, Samaria and Sivas, the warscore was still too low and Georgia didn’t manage to take Trabzon yet. I didn’t want to peace out for money, so I had to fight. I invested about 5000d into this war, lost about 200k men and in the end, after 20 years of fighting, we still couldn’t make a peace. They kept offering non-valuable provinces and winning battles. Trabzon still wasn’t conquered! But the worst problem was, that my fleet which was quite big (About 20 warships and 50 galleys) lost every battle as my NT was low. They managed to isolate me in Europe and I couldn’t reinforce my army in Anatolia. Then they started regaining control of provinces. When a peace offer for 275d came (which was nothing compared to what both sides spent on the war) I had to accept it, because it could end much worse.
This was first time in this whole game I felt frustrated. I wasn’t able to achieve my goals, but I didn’t give up. I decided to raise my income, so that I could get better LT then AC has and built bigger navy. Trade was an easiest possibility. I monopolized 9 TCs in Europe, which provided me with 120d/month from trading. This allowed me to built 50 warships fleet and gain LT 51 (last CRT improvement) sooner then AC could. It was time for war again!
When we attacked this time, they had much smaller army, and I had also an technology advantage. We quickly defeated their armies one by one before they could regroup. Then I laid the sieges on the entire Anatolia.
In the order to raise warscore I sent a group of 20k man with my ships to the south – they unloaded in Holy Land – Samaria. I did so because this was only place where AC had lower then “Large” fortresses. I soon took three provinces there.
Georgia was still failing to take Trabzon (again and again). I sent a reinforcements with 40k men there and we succed on the first try.
AC kept offering me about 6-8 provinces in peace deals, but I wanted just 3 – Smyrna, Anatalya and Trabzon for Georgia. I took some 500d as reparations for alliance too. They agreed on the first try. Right after war was finnished, I annexed Georgia. With so fucking bad monarch it was a mirracle they accepted right on the first try.
After these huge gains (8 provinces, all orthodox), map of Bulgaria looked like this:
Bulgaria in 1777
Thats all for now, will post the last part of this AAR next time
Did you at least have a CB for the second go? That would be frustrating as hell to me to have to eat 4BB for nothing, then go again for another 6 + Georgia's annexation, but I suppose in late game its no big deal.
I'll be interested to see where you have taken this for its close. Chances are I would have closed the circle, taking the otherwise unnecessary Muslim provinces of Kastamonu and in the Crimea, just so the Black Sea could be a Bulgarian lake. But, I see Hungary still has a core. That can't be allowed to continue...
I'll be interested to see where you have taken this for its close. Chances are I would have closed the circle, taking the otherwise unnecessary Muslim provinces of Kastamonu and in the Crimea, just so the Black Sea could be a Bulgarian lake. But, I see Hungary still has a core. That can't be allowed to continue...
You were right: that was some tough encounters vs the Abbasids. Glad to see that you managed to pull it off. Now for that last core of yours...
You're the only Orthodox nation left? What happened to the Russian states + Finland? Looks like the Golden Horde expanded far into Russia.
You're the only Orthodox nation left? What happened to the Russian states + Finland? Looks like the Golden Horde expanded far into Russia.
How you always know ? xD The last part of the report starts with examination of situation in Finland and Russia xD You will see
Did you at least have a CB for the second go? That would be frustrating as hell to me to have to eat 4BB for nothing, then go again for another 6 + Georgia's annexation, but I suppose in late game its no big deal.
I'll be interested to see where you have taken this for its close. Chances are I would have closed the circle, taking the otherwise unnecessary Muslim provinces of Kastamonu and in the Crimea, just so the Black Sea could be a Bulgarian lake. But, I see Hungary still has a core. That can't be allowed to continue...
For the first war I wen without CB (even though random events gave it to me like 8 times before). Second time I got another random event which gave me CB, that was why I declared war so fast after the first one.
Everything good comes to an end...
After last turn I got much closer to fullfill my goals to acquire all the Orthodox provinces – only that I didn’t own were in Rusia and Scandinavia, owned by Finland and Boyar League.
I should acquire those before 1819 ^^ Also converting those two catholic provinces should be done, however Bulgaria gets really awfull monarchs all the game and because of that chances are about 15% (highest conversion chance I ever had was like 45% which was with best administrative monarch Bulgaria gets.
In this last turn, I decided to conquer my last core from Hungary, Translylvania. It was extremely rich (gold province), but wrong/religion and culture. I attacked Hungary, their entire alliance (same as 100 years before, seems they enjoy fighting together) followed. I took 3 of their provinces in assaults right after and they gave up Translylvania without problems. Killing off allies was a bit harder, as they brought huge armies, but Genoa as alliance leader soon payed us 400d for peace.
Then I aimed north, when I wanted to gain last orthodox provinces. I waited until Finlands military alliance with Boyar Leage expired and invited them both. Bribed them up to +200, however with monarch’s diplo rating 4 (with full aristocracy) I had hard time vassalizing them. Boyar League however accepted, after like 20 tries…
Finland proved toughter nut to crack, as I never managed to vassalize them. I spent next years by managing trade and watching what was happening arround the world. I gave up my idea to annex Boyars and Finland, because only way to acquire MA was war with Baltland or Golden Horde. I didn’t have CB for neither of them and my BB was quite high. But when random event gave me a CB on Baltland, I didn’t think about it long. War was declared, after winning one big battle where 50k Baltland army was anhilated, Smolensk was taken. They knew what I wanted, as they offered Smolensk and 50d right after.
With land border with Boyars secured, I clicked “annex”, expecting rejection and maybe even vassalization breaking. But it went other way, they accepted. That was a last thing that was done in this AAR, as the year 1819 came right after.
Epilogue
In the beginning, starting as 2-province minor between Hungary and Byzantium, my first goal was to survive. Later on, I managed to remove the second-one from map, however Hungary stayed mayor country till the end of game. At one point, however, they stoped fighting me and cared just about their colonial empire. I can’t say I fullfiled my goal to own all the orthodox provinces, but if I had few more years I would be able to force-vassalize Finland and then bribe them up and annex. That would, however, require installing No-Time Limit Patch, which I am lazy to do ^^
Maybe my way to the end seemed quite easy, but it wasn’t that way. Bulgaria gets like 3 leaders (from which one is useless) through whole game, it has only 1 event (the one which gives cores on the bordering areas) and has very bad monarchs (few had a good diplo value, few had a good military, but there wasn’t any supreme one and they all sucked big time in administration, conversions were painful). However, I don’t complain, it was a challenge and I made it to the end.
Thank you all who read this and followed it till the end (I hope there’s at least one person who did J ). I hope you had fun and enjoyed reading about how I enjoyed playing ^^ It was great game and Interregnum is a great mod, I will for sure use it in future again. Well then, lets see it…
...when a Bulgarian king returned home from frozen borders of Finland, he was pleased. As he aproached a throne room, he took long time looking at the new map of Bulgarian Empire. When he walked out of the balcony, he felt proud. He fullfilled the Dream about Balkan Empire, which started 400 years ago.
Very nice finish there. Funny to see that you expanded so far north. Too bad the Finns didn't want to be your vassal though. Anyway, did very well with a little nation like Bulgaria. I hope to see another AAR from you in the future!
Thanks for possitive comments, I appreciate it. I dont know when I'll have enough time to write a new one, but I hope to write about non-european country.
Stoertbecker: I reached LT 60, infra 6, trade 5. Didn't invest into NT whole game, so it was about NT 20 in the end. Research as Bulgaria is a bit slower then other countries, as they belong into Orthodox techgroup.
Stoertbecker: I reached LT 60, infra 6, trade 5. Didn't invest into NT whole game, so it was about NT 20 in the end. Research as Bulgaria is a bit slower then other countries, as they belong into Orthodox techgroup.
Good AAR, Whiskey_. I was surprised at the challenge that you received from this, considering how easy most EU2 games tend to get by 1600. You placed yourself between the difficult foes of Hungary and Byzantium, with the gap left by the latter being filled by the Abbasids, and it gave you an interesting game in which victory could have been in question a lot longer than usual.
Nevertheless, you saw it through and earned Bulgaria their empire. Byzantium is gone and the Abbasids and Hungarians have been "encouraged" to look in a different direction.
If and when you decide to have another go at an AAR, I'll follow. Also, do consider joining in the next EU2 succession game when we start another one (probably won't be for a couple of months). Your style of writing and gameplay ability would fit right in.
Nevertheless, you saw it through and earned Bulgaria their empire. Byzantium is gone and the Abbasids and Hungarians have been "encouraged" to look in a different direction.
If and when you decide to have another go at an AAR, I'll follow. Also, do consider joining in the next EU2 succession game when we start another one (probably won't be for a couple of months). Your style of writing and gameplay ability would fit right in.
Good AAR, Whiskey_. I was surprised at the challenge that you received from this, considering how easy most EU2 games tend to get by 1600. You placed yourself between the difficult foes of Hungary and Byzantium, with the gap left by the latter being filled by the Abbasids, and it gave you an interesting game in which victory could have been in question a lot longer than usual.
Nevertheless, you saw it through and earned Bulgaria their empire. Byzantium is gone and the Abbasids and Hungarians have been "encouraged" to look in a different direction.
If and when you decide to have another go at an AAR, I'll follow. Also, do consider joining in the next EU2 succession game when we start another one (probably won't be for a couple of months). Your style of writing and gameplay ability would fit right in.
Thanks again for possitive reaction. Yeah, game was challenging until the end came, actually difference in victory points between me and Abassids was about 300 in the end, which isn't really that much.
And about SGs, I followed all of them and this project looks very interesting, so when you will be about to start a new one, I'll be surelly lurking somewhere around