Timurids is a nation with a multitude of problems and limitations. This thread will be a suggestion for a revamp of sorts. There will be lots of minor changes and major ones, so bear with me here if things get confusing.
TAG NAME
Timur (also known as Tamerlane) was the turkic conqueror who founded the Timurid dynasty. His realm was named as Timurid Empire. However, that was an exonym, for the Timurids called themselves "Gurkani", as in, "sons-in-law" to Genghis Khan. "Timurids" is both a dynastic name in a game where the dynastic mechanic is a bit... weird, and also a name in plural form, which gets weird in localisation for some specific events and whatnot. Ottomans (and Mughals) will probably forever be an exception, but I believe at least Timurids can be changed.
Therefore, the ruling dynasty should still be Timurid, but the tag could be renamed to Gurkani, adjective Gurkaniyan.
Yes, I know this one is really minor. But it bothers me, sorry. Moving on...
GOVERNMENT
Currently, Timurids is a Steppe Nomad Kingdom. For starters, it should be an Empire. I don't even know why it's a kingdom, to be honest. About being a horde, it's more complicated. From what I gather, Timur might have been a khan of sorts, but by 1444, the Empire was already "settled" in Great Iran. Therefore, Timurids should be an Iqta Empire instead of the current setup.
TECHNOLOGY
Obviously you can't be a Nomad Iqta, so the tech group would need to be changed. My first suggestion is to have Muslim tech and Muslim units, as that's the easiest and most palatable possibility. HOWEVER, it could also be argued that Timurids could have Muslim tech and Nomad units, at least until after the civil war due to Shah Rukh's death happens (will talk about it later). Another possibility would be to have a new tech group, Iranian (130% tech cost), which would be given to Timurids and all the Iranian nations (Persia, Khorasan, Tabarestan, Khiva, maybe Kokand, Afghanistan and Mughals). Some of the Muslim units could be moved to Iranian group (the ones about Persia and Afghan soldiers etc), but even then some new units would need to be created for both groups so it's kinda self-defeating. So, for now, I suggest that, should such a group be created, they should simply use Muslim units and have the Persian/Afghan ones chosen in the history files.
By changing Timurids to a Muslim Iqta Empire, one of the harshest issues to Timurids is solved; they don't insta-lose fighting in their own realm due to most of it being Mountails/Hills. This also gives Timurids a positive income, which is a MUST both for game design and also considering how terrible things will go from here on out.
MONARCHS
This one seems to be wrong for no reason. Shah Rukh didn't rise to the throne at 1409.1.1 as a 20 year-old. He rose in 1409.9.13, and was born in 1377.8.20. This means he was 67 years old when the game started (55yo in vanilla). Ulugh Beg's age is right at least (except for the birth date, it was 1394.3.22 instead of 1394.1.1), but Ulugh Beg was his monarch name; the real name was Muhammad Taraghay. "Wait but does that even change the game that much?" well not Ulugh Beg, but Shah Rukh certainly does. This makes him much more likely to die in the first years, mirrorring the fact he died in 1447.
There's also the matter of their stats. Ulugh Beg really wasn't the best governor out there, but Shah Rukh wasn't really terrible. If anything, Shah Rukh's stats should be better, with Ulugh Beg being a straight 0/0/0 or just half of Shah Rukh's. I suggest 4/0/2 for the father and 2/0/1 for the son.
RELIGIOUS UNITY
Timurids got heavily hit by the corruption mechanic. It accumulates +0.20 yearly corruption due to the Persia region being Shia. There's an issue, though... who said ALL of Persia was Shia by then? It wasn't. In fact, it was the Safavid Empire who made Persia a Shia state, and aggressively so. In game terms, Ismail I Safavid had 100% Piety and went on a rampage converting everything.
This means that most (if not all) Timurid provinces in Persia should be Sunni.
Maybe I went a bit too far here. But no problem, a couple more provinces could get Shia too. Four provinces giving 92% Unity and +0.04 yearly corruption. Much better and historical. Actually, shouldn't Dhimmi provinces (I also gave Yazd to Dhimmi in the history files) not contribute to Religious Unity corruption? But I digress here.
"But m-muh Shia Persia" yeah, they'd come when the Safavid rose to power. It's not difficult to have an event for that. In fact, we already have it, the event could also include insta-conversion of the capital and its neighbouring provinces.
By the way, check the guy's thread suggesting a redrawing of Arabia, it's great.
NATIONAL IDEAS
WEW LAD. Messing with NIs is always a can of worms due to favoritism and power creep. But still. I believe Timurid NIs are bad, even kind of outdated. So I have a suggestion to keep them on par with Mughal NIs.
We could even say the different modifiers are counterparts!
tolerance_own <=> tolerance_heathen
years_of_nationalism <=> religious_unity
global_prov_trade_power_modifier <=> global_tax_modifier
accepted_culture_threshold <=> core_creation
legitimacy <=> stability_cost_modifier
...Kind of. Hey, it works to me.
FERGANA VALLEY
Right now, in the Ferghana area, there's a tag called Kokkand. Historically, it's a revolter tag from Bukhara from the 1700s. They used to have no cores, but then they were stealthily added in some unknown patch (I wonder if Trin Tragula did so after my thread about post-1444 tags...). There's something that greatly bothers me with this tag, however.
They are... kind of irrelevant. From what I gather, by itself, the Kokkand Khanate didn't really have much to say in the great power dynamics of Central Asia. Meanwhile, the Ferghana region itself did have some relevance, both from housing the Kokkand Khanate and for being the first kingdom of the great Babur, also greatly disputed between Babur and the Shaybanids. This means that a tag set in the Ferghana Valley is relatively significant, but not necessarily Kokkand should be that tag. A "generic" one would probably work better.
Therefore, I suggest that either Kokkand is renamed to Ferghana, or a new Ferghana tag is added and Kokkand has its cores replaced by Ferghana's. For the sake of elegance, I'd simply rename Kokkand and properly edit its history files... but in my mod I added a new tag because I didn't have this idea before so derp.
Remember the "will talk about it later" comment in the aforementioned Timurid Ideas? This is where I explain it. My idea is that this would be the trigger:
You get Timurid Ideas if you are TIM, FGN, or an Iranian/Turkmeni/Uzbehk with a Timurid dynasty. Note how this covers the new tag (which could be KOK alright, or simply let KOK fit in the culture trigger), the Timurid tag and any other tags in the region that keep a Timurid on their throne. If you lose the dynasty (specially due to the wonky dynastic mechanics in this game...), you'll still have some other fallback NI set so as to not get Generic ones. I mean, if the devs ever add Khorasani/Kokkand/etc ideas. Anyway.
Either option to deal with this will let that northeastern area of Timurids have a historical tag instead of the weird anachronistic dead nation we have now.
PERSIA
With Persia mostly Sunni, how do we do to make them historical? Well, the only way is through events. Thankfully we already have some of them, they just need some adjustments.
From there on, they would walk with their own legs. They'll have a great Safavid ruler+general and cores in Khorasan, it will be up to them to conquer it and be great once more.
BABUR
This is an event chain I haven't scripted yet, but I do have it set in my mind.
Long story short: Babur ruled over Ferghana. Shah Rukh died. The empire exploded. Babur tried to conquer Samarkand in the mess, got it but then lost Ferghana to some Timurid rivals. Then he tried to retake Ferghana and lost Samarkand to Uzbek. Then he went back to Samarkand and lost the battle too. He then tried to capture Kabul amidst the mess and got it. Uzbek conquered Herat. Babur modernized his army, built foreign relations against the Uzbek etc. In the end, some Lodi betrayers in Delhi asked for his help, he conquered the declining kingdom and established the Mughal Empire. Also, I lost track somewhere but I know he conquered and lost Ferghana/Samarkand once more in the process.
This clearly isn't your everyday blobbing AAR. It also can't be reenacted without some serious railroading, but some DHE or two can be used.
So here's how it could be done. Quite simply, in fact:
As I said, quite simple.
MINOR PROVINCE CHANGES
Ardalan (tag) was a Persian vassal alright, but were they really a Timurid one? Wikipedia (eh) says they were independent by the time the Safavids emerged, and every mention I find elsewhere on the internet says they were Iranian vassals, but nothing about being Timurid vassals. In my opinion they would either be a dead tag or totally independent from Timurids (or maybe guaranteed by them). But that's up to the devs.
Golestan is a Mazandarani-culture, Tabarestan-core province that's owned by Timurids. Even though the Tabarestan region and kingdoms have historically included the region. In my understanding, Timurids should lose the core and give the province to Tabarestan.
Speaking of Tabarestan, remove all Persian cores there. Seriously. Persia took a LONG time to turn their eyes onto Tabarestan, it's ridiculous that they can eat the poor guys so quick.
Yazd, up to this day, has a significant Zoroastrian population. I'd give Yazd to the Dhimmi estate, if only to keep them around for longer.
NEW TIMURIDS
These "small" changes make Timurids quite a better nation to play as. They have positive balance, instead of starting with a negative one. They have a still excellent 38/48 forcelimit, with units that don't die in their own turf. Their Religious Unity will not ruin the nation. This all puts Timurids as a top-three nation in almost every metric.
However... they have something special. They aren't the Celestial Ming nor the Emperor Austria, but something much worse: a nation doomed to fail once their ruler dies. This is historical, the game starts just before the empire was about to fall. I'd guess that only Majapahit and Burgundy share this honour with Timurids.
There is an event for that historical outcome in the game's files, "The Disintegration of the Timurid Empire" (flavor_tim.1). It's... pretty bad, honestly. Not only it, but Ismail's Resurrection of Persia (flavor_tim.2) is terrible too. But that's perfectly understandable, those events were from even before the addition of autonomy to the game. I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the game since 1.0. Hell, since EU3 even. Them being outdated is to be expected.
So, we need something better.
THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE TIMURID EMPIRE
Now we've come to the proper bread and butter of the thread. This is a disaster I have planned for Timurids for the last couple of months. While it's still not perfect in my mod, the gist of it works and could be added to vanilla (along with all the other changes).
Here is how it goes.
And here is an Imgur album showing the AI dealing with it. No Persia event spawned, unfortunately. Just a reminder: the changes to Chagatai/Yarkand (that big Moghulistan to the east) and to the Bedouin minors (Arabia in the west) are irrelevant to Timurids. So don't bother about them.
RESTORE THE EMPIRE
As shown in the above pictures, there would be a decision to restore the TIM tag. It would be possible if one controls most of Khorasan+Persia regions and have a Timurid ruler. This would be available to Iranian/Turkmeni/Uzbehk Timurid rulers, and would give permanent claims in Khorasan+Persia, change the rank to Empire, give Muslim tech/units and even Iqta government (the only way to get Iqta after game start).
TL;DR
-Rename Timmy
-Change tech/units and government
-Make Persia lands Sunni
-Buff Timmy NIs
-Change Kokkand to Ferghana
-Add an event for Babur
-Make a new Disaster for Timmy
-Add a decision to restore Timmy
And that's it. Hope the devs like it.
TAG NAME
Timur (also known as Tamerlane) was the turkic conqueror who founded the Timurid dynasty. His realm was named as Timurid Empire. However, that was an exonym, for the Timurids called themselves "Gurkani", as in, "sons-in-law" to Genghis Khan. "Timurids" is both a dynastic name in a game where the dynastic mechanic is a bit... weird, and also a name in plural form, which gets weird in localisation for some specific events and whatnot. Ottomans (and Mughals) will probably forever be an exception, but I believe at least Timurids can be changed.
Therefore, the ruling dynasty should still be Timurid, but the tag could be renamed to Gurkani, adjective Gurkaniyan.
Yes, I know this one is really minor. But it bothers me, sorry. Moving on...
GOVERNMENT
Currently, Timurids is a Steppe Nomad Kingdom. For starters, it should be an Empire. I don't even know why it's a kingdom, to be honest. About being a horde, it's more complicated. From what I gather, Timur might have been a khan of sorts, but by 1444, the Empire was already "settled" in Great Iran. Therefore, Timurids should be an Iqta Empire instead of the current setup.
TECHNOLOGY
Obviously you can't be a Nomad Iqta, so the tech group would need to be changed. My first suggestion is to have Muslim tech and Muslim units, as that's the easiest and most palatable possibility. HOWEVER, it could also be argued that Timurids could have Muslim tech and Nomad units, at least until after the civil war due to Shah Rukh's death happens (will talk about it later). Another possibility would be to have a new tech group, Iranian (130% tech cost), which would be given to Timurids and all the Iranian nations (Persia, Khorasan, Tabarestan, Khiva, maybe Kokand, Afghanistan and Mughals). Some of the Muslim units could be moved to Iranian group (the ones about Persia and Afghan soldiers etc), but even then some new units would need to be created for both groups so it's kinda self-defeating. So, for now, I suggest that, should such a group be created, they should simply use Muslim units and have the Persian/Afghan ones chosen in the history files.
By changing Timurids to a Muslim Iqta Empire, one of the harshest issues to Timurids is solved; they don't insta-lose fighting in their own realm due to most of it being Mountails/Hills. This also gives Timurids a positive income, which is a MUST both for game design and also considering how terrible things will go from here on out.
MONARCHS
This one seems to be wrong for no reason. Shah Rukh didn't rise to the throne at 1409.1.1 as a 20 year-old. He rose in 1409.9.13, and was born in 1377.8.20. This means he was 67 years old when the game started (55yo in vanilla). Ulugh Beg's age is right at least (except for the birth date, it was 1394.3.22 instead of 1394.1.1), but Ulugh Beg was his monarch name; the real name was Muhammad Taraghay. "Wait but does that even change the game that much?" well not Ulugh Beg, but Shah Rukh certainly does. This makes him much more likely to die in the first years, mirrorring the fact he died in 1447.
There's also the matter of their stats. Ulugh Beg really wasn't the best governor out there, but Shah Rukh wasn't really terrible. If anything, Shah Rukh's stats should be better, with Ulugh Beg being a straight 0/0/0 or just half of Shah Rukh's. I suggest 4/0/2 for the father and 2/0/1 for the son.
RELIGIOUS UNITY
Timurids got heavily hit by the corruption mechanic. It accumulates +0.20 yearly corruption due to the Persia region being Shia. There's an issue, though... who said ALL of Persia was Shia by then? It wasn't. In fact, it was the Safavid Empire who made Persia a Shia state, and aggressively so. In game terms, Ismail I Safavid had 100% Piety and went on a rampage converting everything.
This means that most (if not all) Timurid provinces in Persia should be Sunni.
Maybe I went a bit too far here. But no problem, a couple more provinces could get Shia too. Four provinces giving 92% Unity and +0.04 yearly corruption. Much better and historical. Actually, shouldn't Dhimmi provinces (I also gave Yazd to Dhimmi in the history files) not contribute to Religious Unity corruption? But I digress here.
"But m-muh Shia Persia" yeah, they'd come when the Safavid rose to power. It's not difficult to have an event for that. In fact, we already have it, the event could also include insta-conversion of the capital and its neighbouring provinces.
By the way, check the guy's thread suggesting a redrawing of Arabia, it's great.
NATIONAL IDEAS
WEW LAD. Messing with NIs is always a can of worms due to favoritism and power creep. But still. I believe Timurid NIs are bad, even kind of outdated. So I have a suggestion to keep them on par with Mughal NIs.
Currently, Mughal NIs have 11 modifiers, and Timurid NIs have 10 (technically 11, but you can't have legitimacy and horde unity at the same time).
The following modifiers are shared between them:
cavalry_power = 0.20
technology_cost = -0.05
discipline = 0.05
war_exhaustion_cost = -0.1
prestige = 1
Then, the different ones are:
Timurid:
vassal_income = 0.25
years_of_nationalism = -5
prestige_decay = -0.01
horde_unity = 1 (also legitimacy = 1)
global_own_trade_power = 0.25
Mughal:
core_creation = -0.25
tolerance_heathen = 3
religious_unity = 0.35
idea_cost = -0.1
global_tax_modifier = 0.1
stability_cost_modifier = -0.10
Mughals is more geared towards conquering India and investing in ideas. Timurids is more focused on controlling the Silk Road and... and... getting extra legitimacy even though they had to deal with a bajillion pretenders ?__? eh.
Mughals's set is much better than Timurids's, which is a problem. Timurids wasn't meant to turn into Mughals; it only happened because a Timurid ruler finally gave up on restoring the Empire and left to the east. Of course, past Timurid rulers also had Indian ambitions, but by then, Babur really only had India to try his chance of forming an Empire once more.
Therefore, Timurids's ideas should be better. Not holy-shit-25%-core-reduction-tier, but kind of on par with Mughals's.
So here's my suggestion:
-Replace vassal_income = 0.25 in Timurid Traditions with accepted_culture_threshold = -0.1
- Change Chagatai Literature to idea_cost = -0.10
- Change Mantle of the Great Khan to legitimacy = 1 (and also rename it to "Great Timur"/"Great Tamerlane" instead of "Great Khan", come on now, the dude had a name)
- Add prestige = 1 to Timurid Architecture
- Add cavalry_power = 0.20 to Unleash the Tiger!
- Nerf Control of The Silk Road to global_prov_trade_power_modifier = 0.2
- Change Build the Largest Mosque in the World to tolerance_own = 2
- Move them around a bit
- Add prestige_decay = -0.01 to Mughal Architecture
Then they'd look like this:
The following modifiers are shared between them:
cavalry_power = 0.20
technology_cost = -0.05
discipline = 0.05
war_exhaustion_cost = -0.1
prestige = 1
Then, the different ones are:
Timurid:
vassal_income = 0.25
years_of_nationalism = -5
prestige_decay = -0.01
horde_unity = 1 (also legitimacy = 1)
global_own_trade_power = 0.25
Mughal:
core_creation = -0.25
tolerance_heathen = 3
religious_unity = 0.35
idea_cost = -0.1
global_tax_modifier = 0.1
stability_cost_modifier = -0.10
Mughals is more geared towards conquering India and investing in ideas. Timurids is more focused on controlling the Silk Road and... and... getting extra legitimacy even though they had to deal with a bajillion pretenders ?__? eh.
Mughals's set is much better than Timurids's, which is a problem. Timurids wasn't meant to turn into Mughals; it only happened because a Timurid ruler finally gave up on restoring the Empire and left to the east. Of course, past Timurid rulers also had Indian ambitions, but by then, Babur really only had India to try his chance of forming an Empire once more.
Therefore, Timurids's ideas should be better. Not holy-shit-25%-core-reduction-tier, but kind of on par with Mughals's.
So here's my suggestion:
-Replace vassal_income = 0.25 in Timurid Traditions with accepted_culture_threshold = -0.1
- Change Chagatai Literature to idea_cost = -0.10
- Change Mantle of the Great Khan to legitimacy = 1 (and also rename it to "Great Timur"/"Great Tamerlane" instead of "Great Khan", come on now, the dude had a name)
- Add prestige = 1 to Timurid Architecture
- Add cavalry_power = 0.20 to Unleash the Tiger!
- Nerf Control of The Silk Road to global_prov_trade_power_modifier = 0.2
- Change Build the Largest Mosque in the World to tolerance_own = 2
- Move them around a bit
- Add prestige_decay = -0.01 to Mughal Architecture
Then they'd look like this:
Code:
TIM_ideas = {
start = {
accepted_culture_threshold = -0.1
years_of_nationalism = -5
}
bonus = {
discipline = 0.05
}
trigger = {
#will talk about it later
}
free = yes
chagatai_literature = {
idea_cost = -0.10
}
the_mantle_of_the_great_timur = {
legitimacy = 1
}
timurid_architecture = {
prestige_decay = -0.01
prestige = 1
}
unleash_the_tiger = {
cavalry_power = 0.20
war_exhaustion_cost = -0.10
}
timurid_renaissance = {
technology_cost = -0.05
}
riches_of_the_silk_road = {
global_prov_trade_power_modifier = 0.2
}
largest_mosque_in_the_world = {
tolerance_own = 2
}
}
MUG_ideas = {
start = {
core_creation = -0.25
cavalry_power = 0.20
}
bonus = {
technology_cost = -0.05
}
trigger = {
tag = MUG
}
free = yes
an_indian_padshah = {
tolerance_heathen = 3
religious_unity = 0.35
}
mansabdari_system = {
discipline = 0.05
}
control_of_the_ulema = {
war_exhaustion_cost = -0.1
}
mughal_ibadat_khana = {
idea_cost = -0.1
}
zabt_system = {
global_tax_modifier = 0.1
}
mughal_architecture = {
prestige_decay = -0.01
prestige = 1
}
fatawa_e_alamgiri = {
stability_cost_modifier = -0.10
}
}We could even say the different modifiers are counterparts!
tolerance_own <=> tolerance_heathen
years_of_nationalism <=> religious_unity
global_prov_trade_power_modifier <=> global_tax_modifier
accepted_culture_threshold <=> core_creation
legitimacy <=> stability_cost_modifier
...Kind of. Hey, it works to me.
FERGANA VALLEY
Right now, in the Ferghana area, there's a tag called Kokkand. Historically, it's a revolter tag from Bukhara from the 1700s. They used to have no cores, but then they were stealthily added in some unknown patch (I wonder if Trin Tragula did so after my thread about post-1444 tags...). There's something that greatly bothers me with this tag, however.
They are... kind of irrelevant. From what I gather, by itself, the Kokkand Khanate didn't really have much to say in the great power dynamics of Central Asia. Meanwhile, the Ferghana region itself did have some relevance, both from housing the Kokkand Khanate and for being the first kingdom of the great Babur, also greatly disputed between Babur and the Shaybanids. This means that a tag set in the Ferghana Valley is relatively significant, but not necessarily Kokkand should be that tag. A "generic" one would probably work better.
Therefore, I suggest that either Kokkand is renamed to Ferghana, or a new Ferghana tag is added and Kokkand has its cores replaced by Ferghana's. For the sake of elegance, I'd simply rename Kokkand and properly edit its history files... but in my mod I added a new tag because I didn't have this idea before so derp.
Remember the "will talk about it later" comment in the aforementioned Timurid Ideas? This is where I explain it. My idea is that this would be the trigger:
Code:
trigger = {
OR = {
tag = TIM #Gurkani
tag = FGN #Ferghana
AND = {
OR = {
culture_group = iranian
primary_culture = turkmeni
primary_culture = uzbehk
}
dynasty = "Timurid"
}
}
}You get Timurid Ideas if you are TIM, FGN, or an Iranian/Turkmeni/Uzbehk with a Timurid dynasty. Note how this covers the new tag (which could be KOK alright, or simply let KOK fit in the culture trigger), the Timurid tag and any other tags in the region that keep a Timurid on their throne. If you lose the dynasty (specially due to the wonky dynastic mechanics in this game...), you'll still have some other fallback NI set so as to not get Generic ones. I mean, if the devs ever add Khorasani/Kokkand/etc ideas. Anyway.
Either option to deal with this will let that northeastern area of Timurids have a historical tag instead of the weird anachronistic dead nation we have now.
PERSIA
With Persia mostly Sunni, how do we do to make them historical? Well, the only way is through events. Thankfully we already have some of them, they just need some adjustments.
First, there are two very important events in vanilla, Rise of the Mushashaiya (flavor_per.10) and Rise of the Safawiya (flavor_per.11). The first one should happen relatively early in Khuzestan, while the second one should happen in Ardabil (and one has decreased MTTH if the other happened already).
Then a new event, Ismail's Resurrection of Persia, fires in Ardabil. Ardabil spawns Persia (or is ceded to Persia) with a Safavid as its ruler (or a Safavid general). Every Persian province gets a PER core if it doesn't have it already, and the non-Persian provinces in Persia region get a permanent PER claim.
Then, in a new event (actually just flavor_per.12 editted), The Qizilbash Tribesmen Assemble, Persian Separatists appear in every Persian-culture province. What's more, depending on the factors, Persia will declare war on Timurids (yeah to hell with you) to get the provinces, with the Support Rebels CB.
Once the war ends and if Persia is independent having a Safavid general, a new event, The Safavids' Rise to Power, happens. It offers the option to turn the Safavid general into a ruler.
Finally, the event Persia and Shiism (flavor_per.13) is slightly editted. Besides converting Persia and the capital to Shiite, it would also convert every neighbor province. Ideally, the capital would become a Center of Reformation for Shiite but I guess that can't be properly modded and the devs might have zero interest on implementing it, so this will have to do to help Persia in acquiring Religious Unity.
Then a new event, Ismail's Resurrection of Persia, fires in Ardabil. Ardabil spawns Persia (or is ceded to Persia) with a Safavid as its ruler (or a Safavid general). Every Persian province gets a PER core if it doesn't have it already, and the non-Persian provinces in Persia region get a permanent PER claim.
Then, in a new event (actually just flavor_per.12 editted), The Qizilbash Tribesmen Assemble, Persian Separatists appear in every Persian-culture province. What's more, depending on the factors, Persia will declare war on Timurids (yeah to hell with you) to get the provinces, with the Support Rebels CB.
Once the war ends and if Persia is independent having a Safavid general, a new event, The Safavids' Rise to Power, happens. It offers the option to turn the Safavid general into a ruler.
Finally, the event Persia and Shiism (flavor_per.13) is slightly editted. Besides converting Persia and the capital to Shiite, it would also convert every neighbor province. Ideally, the capital would become a Center of Reformation for Shiite but I guess that can't be properly modded and the devs might have zero interest on implementing it, so this will have to do to help Persia in acquiring Religious Unity.
From there on, they would walk with their own legs. They'll have a great Safavid ruler+general and cores in Khorasan, it will be up to them to conquer it and be great once more.
BABUR
This is an event chain I haven't scripted yet, but I do have it set in my mind.
Long story short: Babur ruled over Ferghana. Shah Rukh died. The empire exploded. Babur tried to conquer Samarkand in the mess, got it but then lost Ferghana to some Timurid rivals. Then he tried to retake Ferghana and lost Samarkand to Uzbek. Then he went back to Samarkand and lost the battle too. He then tried to capture Kabul amidst the mess and got it. Uzbek conquered Herat. Babur modernized his army, built foreign relations against the Uzbek etc. In the end, some Lodi betrayers in Delhi asked for his help, he conquered the declining kingdom and established the Mughal Empire. Also, I lost track somewhere but I know he conquered and lost Ferghana/Samarkand once more in the process.
This clearly isn't your everyday blobbing AAR. It also can't be reenacted without some serious railroading, but some DHE or two can be used.
So here's how it could be done. Quite simply, in fact:
After 1495 (or simply after the disaster ends), an event can happen for any nation with a Timurid ruler/heir in which a brilliant 12yo Timurid heir called Babur appears. You can deny him, but the AI will always (or almost always) accept him.
Having Babur itself would make the Form Mughals decision a lot easier. Why? Because the decision would be editted to need either 600 dev and a Timurid ruler, or 150 dev and a Timurid god-ruler (Babur itself would be one).
To make up for the Timurid prerequisite, there could also be an event that works in the same vein as that one for non-Habsburg Austria; if there's a Timurid nation alive and you have an RM, alliance and/or positive opinion from them, you could host a Timurid heir. This would be meant to keep the Timurid dynasty alive until the end of the game or so (they formed Mughals, after all).
If I recall correctly, Delhi already starts with the Lodi dynasty almost guaranteed (Pretender doomstack etc), and have events related to the Lodi being terrible rulers and getting revolts. If they ever get such revolts, the Babur-ruled nation would get an event giving CB on Delhi (Conquest if neighbor, Subjugation if not) to motivate Babur to attack.
Having Babur itself would make the Form Mughals decision a lot easier. Why? Because the decision would be editted to need either 600 dev and a Timurid ruler, or 150 dev and a Timurid god-ruler (Babur itself would be one).
To make up for the Timurid prerequisite, there could also be an event that works in the same vein as that one for non-Habsburg Austria; if there's a Timurid nation alive and you have an RM, alliance and/or positive opinion from them, you could host a Timurid heir. This would be meant to keep the Timurid dynasty alive until the end of the game or so (they formed Mughals, after all).
If I recall correctly, Delhi already starts with the Lodi dynasty almost guaranteed (Pretender doomstack etc), and have events related to the Lodi being terrible rulers and getting revolts. If they ever get such revolts, the Babur-ruled nation would get an event giving CB on Delhi (Conquest if neighbor, Subjugation if not) to motivate Babur to attack.
As I said, quite simple.
MINOR PROVINCE CHANGES
Ardalan (tag) was a Persian vassal alright, but were they really a Timurid one? Wikipedia (eh) says they were independent by the time the Safavids emerged, and every mention I find elsewhere on the internet says they were Iranian vassals, but nothing about being Timurid vassals. In my opinion they would either be a dead tag or totally independent from Timurids (or maybe guaranteed by them). But that's up to the devs.
Golestan is a Mazandarani-culture, Tabarestan-core province that's owned by Timurids. Even though the Tabarestan region and kingdoms have historically included the region. In my understanding, Timurids should lose the core and give the province to Tabarestan.
Speaking of Tabarestan, remove all Persian cores there. Seriously. Persia took a LONG time to turn their eyes onto Tabarestan, it's ridiculous that they can eat the poor guys so quick.
Yazd, up to this day, has a significant Zoroastrian population. I'd give Yazd to the Dhimmi estate, if only to keep them around for longer.
NEW TIMURIDS
These "small" changes make Timurids quite a better nation to play as. They have positive balance, instead of starting with a negative one. They have a still excellent 38/48 forcelimit, with units that don't die in their own turf. Their Religious Unity will not ruin the nation. This all puts Timurids as a top-three nation in almost every metric.
However... they have something special. They aren't the Celestial Ming nor the Emperor Austria, but something much worse: a nation doomed to fail once their ruler dies. This is historical, the game starts just before the empire was about to fall. I'd guess that only Majapahit and Burgundy share this honour with Timurids.
There is an event for that historical outcome in the game's files, "The Disintegration of the Timurid Empire" (flavor_tim.1). It's... pretty bad, honestly. Not only it, but Ismail's Resurrection of Persia (flavor_tim.2) is terrible too. But that's perfectly understandable, those events were from even before the addition of autonomy to the game. I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the game since 1.0. Hell, since EU3 even. Them being outdated is to be expected.
So, we need something better.
THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE TIMURID EMPIRE
Now we've come to the proper bread and butter of the thread. This is a disaster I have planned for Timurids for the last couple of months. While it's still not perfect in my mod, the gist of it works and could be added to vanilla (along with all the other changes).
Here is how it goes.
Shah Rukh is a somewhat decent ruler with a terrible heir, Ulugh Beg, waiting on the wings. No one likes Ulugh Beg and the whole Empire will fall if Shah Rukh dies and the new ruler is Ulugh Beg; some random newcomer from a different dynasty; or even worse, a girl.
Once Shah Rukh dies, the masses will explode. Ala-ud-Daulah Timurid rises as a pretender, and nationalists appear in the realm. Discipline will take a hit, and Revolt Risk will increase in the realm.
But firstly, the Emperor chooses a region to protect. There will be four: North (Turkmeni+Uzbek lands), Afghanistan, Khorasan (Khorasani + Iraq-e-ajam area) and Persia (Persian - Iraq-e-ajam area), all with roughly the same amount of development.
After this, the pretender will rise (choosing a province as his makeshift capital) and so will the nationalists. They won't appear in the region protected by the Emperor, however. Of course, this wouldn't stop them from occupying provinces in the region, but then they have to move to the provinces instead of simply spawning on them.
Every now and then there will be even more rebels spawning, by event. Nationalists will rise from anywhere except the protected region, Pretender's allies will rise from its capital or a neighbour province.
By itself, Timurids can handle this. They have the money, forcelimit and manpower to do so. The turning point, however, is the increased Revolt Risk from the disaster, as sooner or later the other rebels (Particularists, Peasants etc) will also rise and spell doom to the realm.
A couple days after the disaster starts, Uzbek and Qara/Aq Qonyunlu, Timurids's nemesis, will get temporary claims over Timurid lands; Aq/Qara gets over Persia if it isn't protected, Uzbek gets over the North if it's unprotected.
After a while, there will be a chance (not exclusive to the Timurid disaster, but the MTTH would decrease with the disaster going on) that Persia will rise with a Safavid. If Persia already exists as a vassal then the Safavid appears as a general, otherwise it appears with him as ruler. No, this event isn't tied to the Disaster (at best its MTTH decreases during the disaster), but initially it was meant to be Disaster-only so I decided to keep it in the .txt file.
Right after this, nationalists will rise in every Persian province (including the ones owned by other nations). If Timurids is under or has been under its disaster, or is losing against Aq/Qara, then Persia will declare too in support of the rebels. If Persia is a vassal, then it "just" gets +50% Liberty Desire.
Then, the conclusion. Unless you (the player) are a god among men, the Empire will be on the verge of breaking after some years. Then, two options will be given to you. In either scenario, the nationalists win. They will take what they occupied and declare independence. Period. The real issue is the Pretender.
One option is to negotiate directly with the nationalists, giving away the provinces and revoking cores and getting some autonomy elsewhere. If you do this, the Pretender will flee to one of the newly-formed kingdoms (depending on where his makeshift capital was), being established as the ruler. Meanwhile, Timurids itself will be demoted to Kingdom and change the tag to a more appropriate one; that is, the tag from the region protected by the ruler.
The other option is to be an asshat and flee. The ruler flees to the tag of the region protected by him, taking with him the provinces not occupied by any rebels, and the Pretender rises to the Timurid throne. However, he now will rule over ashes, for the nationalists simply destroyed the then-empire-now-kingdom and left. Timurids will keep the cores in the ceded provinces alright, but the remaining ones will get much more autonomy.
In either case, the Empire is no more. Either it gets split or it survives, but now as a kingdom and with almost no control over its own lands.
Once Shah Rukh dies, the masses will explode. Ala-ud-Daulah Timurid rises as a pretender, and nationalists appear in the realm. Discipline will take a hit, and Revolt Risk will increase in the realm.
But firstly, the Emperor chooses a region to protect. There will be four: North (Turkmeni+Uzbek lands), Afghanistan, Khorasan (Khorasani + Iraq-e-ajam area) and Persia (Persian - Iraq-e-ajam area), all with roughly the same amount of development.
After this, the pretender will rise (choosing a province as his makeshift capital) and so will the nationalists. They won't appear in the region protected by the Emperor, however. Of course, this wouldn't stop them from occupying provinces in the region, but then they have to move to the provinces instead of simply spawning on them.
Every now and then there will be even more rebels spawning, by event. Nationalists will rise from anywhere except the protected region, Pretender's allies will rise from its capital or a neighbour province.
By itself, Timurids can handle this. They have the money, forcelimit and manpower to do so. The turning point, however, is the increased Revolt Risk from the disaster, as sooner or later the other rebels (Particularists, Peasants etc) will also rise and spell doom to the realm.
A couple days after the disaster starts, Uzbek and Qara/Aq Qonyunlu, Timurids's nemesis, will get temporary claims over Timurid lands; Aq/Qara gets over Persia if it isn't protected, Uzbek gets over the North if it's unprotected.
After a while, there will be a chance (not exclusive to the Timurid disaster, but the MTTH would decrease with the disaster going on) that Persia will rise with a Safavid. If Persia already exists as a vassal then the Safavid appears as a general, otherwise it appears with him as ruler. No, this event isn't tied to the Disaster (at best its MTTH decreases during the disaster), but initially it was meant to be Disaster-only so I decided to keep it in the .txt file.
Right after this, nationalists will rise in every Persian province (including the ones owned by other nations). If Timurids is under or has been under its disaster, or is losing against Aq/Qara, then Persia will declare too in support of the rebels. If Persia is a vassal, then it "just" gets +50% Liberty Desire.
Then, the conclusion. Unless you (the player) are a god among men, the Empire will be on the verge of breaking after some years. Then, two options will be given to you. In either scenario, the nationalists win. They will take what they occupied and declare independence. Period. The real issue is the Pretender.
One option is to negotiate directly with the nationalists, giving away the provinces and revoking cores and getting some autonomy elsewhere. If you do this, the Pretender will flee to one of the newly-formed kingdoms (depending on where his makeshift capital was), being established as the ruler. Meanwhile, Timurids itself will be demoted to Kingdom and change the tag to a more appropriate one; that is, the tag from the region protected by the ruler.
The other option is to be an asshat and flee. The ruler flees to the tag of the region protected by him, taking with him the provinces not occupied by any rebels, and the Pretender rises to the Timurid throne. However, he now will rule over ashes, for the nationalists simply destroyed the then-empire-now-kingdom and left. Timurids will keep the cores in the ceded provinces alright, but the remaining ones will get much more autonomy.
In either case, the Empire is no more. Either it gets split or it survives, but now as a kingdom and with almost no control over its own lands.
And here is an Imgur album showing the AI dealing with it. No Persia event spawned, unfortunately. Just a reminder: the changes to Chagatai/Yarkand (that big Moghulistan to the east) and to the Bedouin minors (Arabia in the west) are irrelevant to Timurids. So don't bother about them.
RESTORE THE EMPIRE
As shown in the above pictures, there would be a decision to restore the TIM tag. It would be possible if one controls most of Khorasan+Persia regions and have a Timurid ruler. This would be available to Iranian/Turkmeni/Uzbehk Timurid rulers, and would give permanent claims in Khorasan+Persia, change the rank to Empire, give Muslim tech/units and even Iqta government (the only way to get Iqta after game start).
TL;DR
-Rename Timmy
-Change tech/units and government
-Make Persia lands Sunni
-Buff Timmy NIs
-Change Kokkand to Ferghana
-Add an event for Babur
-Make a new Disaster for Timmy
-Add a decision to restore Timmy
And that's it. Hope the devs like it.
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