Rise of Basileía Romaíon - A Quick and Dirty Basileía Romaíon Mod AAR

[Nikolai]

On popular demand, not the least from @Rensslaer , I'll do a quick and dirty screenshot heavy AAR for my current campaign as Basileia Romaion in the alt.hist. mod of the same name, made by @Drogan and which can be found here.

The campaign starts in 1736 and I am currently a few years into the 1800s. This will be told by highlights from my campaign, where a Byzantium in a similar state of slow decline as the IRL Ottomans, will have to reassert herself, or slowly perish.

The world is different than ours, with China much mightier (and ruled by the Yuan in civil war with Ming at game start), Persia a great power, the Abbasid Caliphate ruling Arabia and parts of Africa, the HRE being a great power based in France, the Mongols still a great power in RL Golden Horde Territory, Canute's North Sea Empire still existing, a Hellenic religion lost Byzantine colony in RL USA, RL Canada being ruled by Norse religion North Sea Empire colonies, Mexico ruled by the Aztecs, Japan being a great power, and the Byzantines, or Basileia Romaion as they are known here, having reconquered Egypt and North Africa all the way to Tunisia, as well as southern Italy, all independent at game start.

This will be a story of conquest and the Byzantines becoming a pariah in the world. In fact, we will at a point reach the max infamy limit!

 

[Rensslaer]

Curious - is Persia Zoroastrian in this mod/timeline?

Awesome to see this - thank you!

Rensslaer

 

[Nikolai]

Rules:

First step was not - as one might expect - to reclaim Egypt, which is one of the total ten needed "reform steps" to be done within 100 years to avoid a full decline of the Roman Empire.

No, we utilize the rebellion of Transilvania ("sadly" lost to Hungary during the war) who asked us for help and which we promised to help if we got Hungary as a vassal. So we did. And Hungary is now an unwilling vassal to Rome! This also means Bohemia, Croatia, Serbia and Wallachia is ours, through Hungary's overlordship over them.

Then, with the North-Western border secure, we take out Egypt, which is ours in 1741.

We annex some minors in the Greece region, and thus complete another reform.

Some law changes later (IIRC it was laws!) and anotrher reform is done.

Next few years we grow our economy.

 

[Nikolai]

Curious - is Persia Zoroastrian in this mod/timeline?

Awesome to see this - thank you!

Rensslaer

They are Sunni! Lore is the Abbasids are pushed back and Oriental Orthodox (Coptic) Christians rule Egypt, Cyrenaica and Exarchate of Africa. But there are sizable Muslim minorities there. And Persia is Muslim, but Sunni as the Shia revolution never happened in this time line.

 

[Nikolai]

Reforms continue, and the bureacratic reforms are done in 1760, which IIRC also was law based. We also take Africa and South Italy as vassals at this time.

At this time we are very naughty boys in the eyes of the world and we get Japan, Ming and the HRE plus some Italian minors fighting us. We fight it to a while peace.

Then we subjugate the Abbasid Caliphate and their vassals Yemen and Adal Sultanate.

This is not well received by the world and Japan, Ming, Persia, the HRE, Venice (a great power in their own right!) and some minors fight us. We lose half of Anatolia as you can see, but half the opponents peace out due to huge losses and finally Persia as the remaining leader give us white peace, despite being on the offensive. They lost too much.

 

[Nikolai]

The Armenians are angry though, and rebels rise up. They are easily defeated, though.

Then, in 1781, while building up our armies and navies en masse (two reforms tied to it too!), our superior (in tech and men!) armies subjugate the Commonwealth and their vassal Silesia.

At this time I lose a fight to implement cultural exclusion as a law, and half my country is NOT happy, threatening to rise up to force it through.

One of many rebellions the next decades start too, while the Commonwealth is quickly losing.

Then we win!

More and more secessions happening, all beaten to a pulp.

The law change is fixed as we start to enact it again after the setback forcing us to wait a set amount of time. Right before a civil war would have started!

While this happens, I go to war against Saxony to vassalize them, something Sweden, Andalusia, North Sea Empire disagree with. I also have been through 1 or 2 more wars to cut me down to size, which I defeated. this war lost Saxony their colony in South America, their independence and Sweden lost Pomerania and the Baltics. Also Silesia, my vassal, defied me and tried to help my enemies.

Mid war, we got cultural exclusion!

 

[Nikolai]

Mid war Andalusia managed to almost defeat me by taking Constantinople, but I regained it and kicked them out of the war!

Sweden also bowed out, and finally Saxony did too:

At this time I am the top power of the world, rich while at peace and totally not a pariah.

We then went to war with Tataria, the Mongols, to take their closest vassals to us.

Defeating thme took one year, give or take.

Another war to cut me down to size, which cost Persia dearly. Baghdad alone is 8% of my economy after I won!

Then we tried to take away some Saxon liberty, which made them rebel and we demand Vinland and Nordhafsvedr from North Sea Empire, as well as Antarctique in South America from the HRE. The latter we do not get.

But we're in Canada allright!

 

[Nikolai]

We have to peace out the HRE, which is a pity, but merely a small setback all in all.

The world in 1797, where you can see we even have colonies in Australia, something I forgot to tell you about. It's due to me annexing this Sinai based Greek trade company.

We then go to war against Persia, taking plenty provinces. But I mistook Laristan for Luristan. I wanted the latter. Oh well...

After this I did a war against Tartaria, taking Perm as a vassal and a lot of land from them, as well as almost all of Venice's lands. But I forgot to take a screenshot.

And that is where I am now.

 

[HistoryDude]

This is an interesting AAR. That ERE is large and powerful.

Will you ever reclaim Elysium?

 

[Nikolai]

This is an interesting AAR. That ERE is large and powerful.

Will you ever reclaim Elysium?

If I get the chance, sure!

 

[The Kingmaker]

Ah, I see young Master Nikolai has started another “quick and dirty” screenshot AAR. Following!

 

[Nikolai]

New big war for much of Japan's colonial empire (secondary) and Persia as vassal!

 

[Nikolai]

Not bad not bad!

 

[Nikolai]

We demanded one of the MANY renamed provinces of Elysium, but they backed down! Oh well, next time?

But Elysium wants to defend Swedish freedom it seems.

 

[HistoryDude]

Elysium's priorities are skewed. Why would they value defending Swedish freedom over keeping their own territory?

Oh, well. Hopefully you can conquer them if this disagreement escalates into a war.

 

[Nikolai]

Elysium's priorities are skewed. Why would they value defending Swedish freedom over keeping their own territory?

Oh, well. Hopefully you can conquer them if this disagreement escalates into a war.

It was not wise for them at all.

 

[Rensslaer]

There are a lot of things I like about V3 including those battle maps where the front lines look like a forest fire burning through trees.

But then there's the wallpaper maps where your conquests have odd patterns. That's partly what I dislike.

I've actually studied the mechanics of V3 more than those of EU IV, believe it or not. I was really looking forward to it and spent time reading the manual and developer diaries.

How is the AI? What are some of your thoughts on mechanics? I've seen you comment on some.

Ironic that Antarctique ended up near the equator!

That's some empire you developed there!

Rensslaer

 

[Nikolai]

There are a lot of things I like about V3 including those battle maps where the front lines look like a forest fire burning through trees.

But then there's the wallpaper maps where your conquests have odd patterns. That's partly what I dislike.

I find it works for me, but there are mods which makes it stripes like in Vicky2!

I've actually studied the mechanics of V3 more than those of EU IV, believe it or not. I was really looking forward to it and spent time reading the manual and developer diaries.

How is the AI? What are some of your thoughts on mechanics? I've seen you comment on some.

I really like the game! Naval invasions are a mess and have ruined wars for me, but land warfare I feel works pretty well, all considering. The AI...sometimes it works, often it does, you know? Like, they almost overwhelmed me when I crossed the threshold for BB wars, but it was too late, and now they're not really a problem. I love the industry game! I feel the military costs when at war is a bit too expensive though.

Ironic that Antarctique ended up near the equator!

Heh, yeah.

That's some empire you developed there!

Thanks!

 

[Nikolai]

Not sure how this game will work onwards. A new tech tree has arrived and the game works, but I am unable to do a lot of stuff until I have rediscovered stuff.

 

[Nikolai]

Elysium falls!

While Sweden struggles: