The Lion of Anatolia; an Armenia AAR (D&T Mod)

[Skywalker_T-65]

And here we go with the promised update. Even though not much of note really happens!

Chapter 15: A New King, same old Armenia.​

Tarsus, Cilicia

"Is there anything I need to know about?" Gagik asked of his many advisers.

The echoing silence probably should have tipped him off somewhat. King David had beaten the Mamluks into the dirt to the point where not one nation was actually willing to fight Armenia at the moment. Thus, there wasn't a whole lot of note for the advisers to comment on.

"Well, we have heard from some of our mariners on Arab ships..." one man said slowly.

"So we know of a bunch of places we can never reach?" the King asked rhetorically.

"Err...yes?"

Shaking his head, Gagik turned to another adviser, "You. Anything else?"

"Umm...Assyria went bankrupt?"

"So we're the only nation around that can run our finances properly, check."

If this was really the only things of note going on, things were truly boring in Armenia. 'Discovering' the Indian Ocean, and dealing with the fact that everyone else was going bankrupt would only be interesting to a historian. Right now, things needed to be done darn it! Unfortunately, nothing at all was going on. Well, nothing that would make the King particularly happy maybe...

"There was...one other thing my King," a particularly brave soul added.

"Yes?"

The man walked up with a piece of paper, scrawled on by whoever had delivered it. The paper was a map! A map of...the Ottomans? And Knights? Why would they need a map of their neighbors. And more importantly, why was it important enough to bring to the King himself? It was then, that Gagik noticed something special about this map.

"Wait a second...we don't have claims on these provinces."

"Apparently we do my King."

"But...I'm not even going to question it."

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While the King was trying to reconcile the fact that Armenia evidently had historic claims on territory it had never actually held, things were progressing to the north. The Golden Horde was caught up in revolt after revolt, while the Christians surrounding it were diving in like vultures and cutting it apart piece by piece. Evidently, even Trebizond got in on the fight. David of Trebizond must have been jealous of David of Armenia or something...

"So Cousin David wants our help against the Horde?" Gagik mused, while his son ran around the study chasing his slightly (ten) older cousin/future wife Anna around, "will you two take your game somewhere else please?!"

Musegh nodded and ran out the door with Anna, leaving the King to think in peace.

We have a treaty with the Horde. But if Trebizond takes Kouban...we won't need the access to their nation anymore. But can the Greeks win on their own?

Gagik may have been a bit of an expert on running his nation, but the man didn't know the first thing about military matters. Quite odd for the son of David, but such was life. He did know enough, however, to know that even weakened the Horde would be too much for Trebizond to really handle. Something the Georgians seemed to understand themselves.

By the same token, and something that having Princess Anna around reminded him of...Armenia was tied by more than just treaties to their northern neighbor. Trebizond and Cilicia were tied in blood. Three generations of Kings and Emperors had fought side by side, and the Greeks had never betrayed their southern neighbor. Nor had they acted superior like the Romans had, back when they controlled Armenia. Risky or not...horrible for Gagik who couldn't use a sword without stabbing himself with it...but necessary. They would help Trebizond.

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With that declaration of war, the Armenian troops began to march north. Georgia may have decided to sit out this war but...

Wait...why was the Georgian army moving north too?

"They joined in anyway?" Gagik asked himself incredulously.

Evidently they had. The Georgians were nothing if not smart...they had refused to join Trebizond in the hopes that Armenia would do so. And then they had joined in with their own declaration of war. Neatly sidestepping any problems with taking territory as a mere secondary ally. It was quite devious of them really, and something that should have been impressive.

Gagik however...

"WHY DIDN'T THEY SAY THEY WOULD IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?!"

Did not view it that way.

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In the end though, this war was very uneventful. The Romans and Trebizondians had the majority of the Horde's armies busy, and only a small force had managed to evade their forces. A very small force...two thousand infantry. The combined Georgian and Armenian armies barely even noticed them, losing only 70 men to the entire Horde Army. It was almost anticlimactic when the Horde offered a white-peace to get the Cilicians out of the war. Not that one could really blame them...

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I apologize for the quality of this chapter. Not a lot of note happened at first. I hope next chapter will be more interesting, since we get involved in another major war that goes quite interestingly. I won't say with who though...that's up to you guys to guess.

 

[GulMacet]

oooh, a cliffhanger! I'm awash with anticipation!

 

[DumBMan]

A war with a Horde? Things are getting pretty interesting over there.

 

[blsteen]

An easy war with the Horde...somehow the Otto's or Persians won't be such a weak state
I like the Georgian AI's move, allied but not allied then they can turn on Trebizond after the Horde

 

[Skywalker_T-65]

Feedback:

GulMacet- And here we go with the update!

DumBMan- Actually my second war with the Horde. Oddly, both ended fairly easily (at least I kept my armies intact at any rate).

blsteen- No, the Otto's aren't as easy...


NOTE: I am experimenting with a more history book style this time. I'm finding myself not as attached to the characters as I used to be (probably because my kings/advisers are dropping like flies and I can't get enough time to develop the characters). If this proves to be easier to write, I'll stick with it and the occasional narrative moment. If it is harder to write, I'll return to the old style.

And/or try gameplay next time. I don't want this AAR to die from lack of inspiration/problems writing it after all.

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Chapter 16: The Ottomans Strike Back​

Armenian Reconquest of Yazgod, 1409-1411​

In the year 1409, the Kingdom of Armenian Cilicia had gone quite far from its humble beginnings on the Anatolian coastline. Defeating Mongols, Turks, and Egyptians, the nation had regained the historical Armenian territories, and then some. The Principality of Antioch had been reestablished as a client state inside the greater Armenian Kingdom, while its allies of Trebizond and Georgia had contributed time and time again to keeping the Kingdom in power.

All this being said, there was still territory outside its control, that the Armenians had claims on. Yazgod, formerly Eretnid territory, had been taken by Ottoman Turk funded rebels during King David I's long war with the Mamluks. This province was considered Armenian territory, and even though King Gagik Lusignan-Komnenos was leery of wars, the nobles finally convinced him to strike in the Ottomans back.

This war was considered, even amongst the sometimes hostile neighbors of Armenia, to be a justifiable war. The only ally of the Ottomans to intervene, of any significant power, were the Mamluks, still recovering from their last war with the Cilicians. On the other side of the war, the alliances that the Armenians had spent so much time developing bore fruit. The Empire of Trebizond, Georgia, Cyprus, Rome, and even Qara Koyunlu, all joined in the War.

With the support of its faithful allies, the Armenian army began to march from their bases and into Yazgod. Thirteen thousand strong, the powerful Army was still weaker than the Ottomans forces. It had been hoped in the Cilician Court that the Romans would handle the majority of the Turk's forces, just as they had with support from the Knights of St. John in the previous wars. Unfortunately, that was not meant to be.

For another nation smelled blood in the water, and pounced on the Romans as they were busy trying to defend Constantinople herself from Turkish invasion. The Empire of Serbia, long-time foe of the Romans, had decided to stab them in the back in the hopes of regaining territory lost nearly fifty years previously. This could not have come at a worse time, as the Turkish Navy defeated its Roman counterpart, sealing the Empire's forces in Anatolia, and leaving its homeland at the mercy of the Serbians and Trinacrians.

Gagik, as much as he wanted to help, knew that the Armenian Navy was no match for even the Serbians. To intervene in this war would be nothing more than a formality, and would gain the Serbs as an enemy. So he ignored the Roman's calls for help...knowing that they had long memories, and this could very well be the end of the Alliance. The Komnenos Dynasty in Trebizond supported this move however...one can only assume it was due to their own claims on Constantinople.

Perhaps understanding of the situation the Armenians were in, the Emperor in Constantinople opened his vast treasuries to support his erstwhile allies war efforts.

While it wasn't the military support that Gagik had been hoping for, it was welcome nonetheless. The extra Ducats flowing into the Cilician coffers would allow for easier reinforcement of the Royal Army, and the Navy should the latter sortie to break the Blockade of Constantinople. Of course, it could also be said trying to pay the Armenians was a move of desperation on the part of the Romans. Soon after opening their treasury, the Balkans territories began to be sieged by the Sicilians, Serbs, and Turks. Constantinople herself was under attack by the time the Armenians had taken Yazgod and attempted to break an Ottoman siege of Sinope.

Attempted being the keyword.

It was a hard lesson for an Armenian Army high off its victory over the Mamluks. The Ottoman Turks had more advanced and more disciplined troops than their Egyptian counterparts. Even under the leadership of David Aghajanian, by all definitions a master tactician, the less-advanced Cilicians were unable to win. In fact, if it hadn't been for the Georgians and Trebizondians sieging nearby Kastamon, the Royal Army may very well have been destroyed that day.

This lesson was well-learned, as David moved his army back into Armenian territory, hoping to catch the Ottomans as they finished their siege and tried to take more territory. For whatever reason though, the army instead moved towards the Anatolian heartland instead. Apparently the threat of the Romans was enough to keep the attention of the Ottoman Sultan. Two bits of good news would reach Tarsus around that time however.

First, the Mamluks offering of a White Peace freed the southern flank of Armenia from any threats. And soon after that, the joint Trebizond/Georgian forces completed their siege of Kastamon and hit the Ottoman army in its flank while Qara Koyunlu finally got their troops into the field.

This glimmer of hope proved to be false however. The northern Allies soon left the war, problems with rebels and the Horde drawing their eyes away from the Ottomans. The Romans were little better, having lost most of their previous gains to the Serbs, and still dealing with the Turkish navy preventing them from returning to fight their marauding forces. And Qara Koyunlu, while helpful, was hopelessly obsolete and outnumbered by the Turks (Mil Tech 4 to 10 on the Otto's side).

Gagik, never a fan of the war to begin with, didn't need any further convincing. The best he could hope for was leaving without losing any further territory to the Ottomans. It was readily apparent that without the support of the Knights, the Turks were just too powerful to handle at this point. It burned to admit that, but the Armenians were just not ready to fully restore Anatolia to the Christian fold. So Gagik sent a message to the Ottoman Sultan...conceding defeat. General Aghajanian died soon after...some say from shame, others from wounds that he hid during the war.

 

[DumBMan]

Too bad you lost a war. I though that you'd finally break the Ottomans, but I was wrong. Besides, awesome chapter .

 

[Skywalker_T-65]

DumBMan: I might have been able to break them too. My army and the Byzantines had roughly equal troops to the Turks, and unlike poor Qara Koyunlu (who is quickly becoming an obsolete backwater) we have roughly equal quality troops too. But when Serbia jumped in, it ruined that chance.

 

[DumBMan]

Yeah, Serbia surely picked a badtime to jump in, but I hope they won't do the same in next war against Ottomans.

 

[todesfall]

Wow, this is a great AAR!
But is it dead?

 

[Skywalker_T-65]

Dead is a harsh term I feel.


But yes, I have had little inspiration/time for EU3 lately (oddly plenty for HOI3 though, hence my larger progress there). I hope to come back to this at some point, I just don't know when that will be.

 

[todesfall]

Aww darn it.
Oh well. It was/is a good AAR!

 

[Enewald]

I hope you continue soon, I want to see how big your empire ends up.

 

[blsteen]

I hope you continue soon, I want to see how big your empire ends up.

Yes that would be good. The Ottomans need to be taken down!