Unrealistic levy size for Al-Andalus

[NewbieOne]

Something is wrong here. Look at Al-Andalus's levy size. Compare to Christian kingdoms. Out of those under 30 provinces he's able to field several >10K stacks, up to 18K per stack, and Holy War DoW everybody around him. He's been at war all the time, as has been his father before him. The levies don't deplete, the vassals don't mind. Above all, how is he able to have like 8K levies per province while being at war all the time, and while the best of Christian provinces don't even begin to compare? My best province, which is almost fully upgraded and has plenty of holdings, can't compare to that guy's output out of a backyard province with 3 holdings. It seems the constant war has no detrimental effect on him, worse, it looks like he's growing in strength all the time despite losing territory, losing money (ransoms), losing men, etc.

http://www.towerofivory.net/c1.ck2

I realise this is not necessarily a bug, more likely something WAD but very strange. Can you please tell me what's going on and rationalise his insane power level compared to everybody else? What is at play here that I'm missing? Is he making a ton of gold and capable of hiring some mercenaries that I can't distinguish from his levies? But above all, how come his levies are so huge, at least on paper? And where's all the dudes comin' from anyway?

(Yes, I know I have a -80 Tyrant modifier, which reduces my levies indirectly, as well as my crown laws reducing levy size; he still can't compare to a size 220 kingdom, even if he sits on 28-29 mostly congruous provinces. As I said, he's been at war all the time, and the same for his father, who died in my jail.)

 

[K-vald]

I would take a guess on that this is WAD and the reason behind it is that since all the Christian nations can declare a holy war on him he must have a stronger army to be able to defend against this. But if he's the only Muslim nation... well, I'll take a look at the save.

EDIT: Please upload the whole save file rather than the contents of the save file.

 

[NewbieOne]

The browser apparently detects the save file as a text file and opens it instead of saving. If you right-click and choose "save as", does it properly save the file?

Thanks for taking time to look at it for me, I really appreciate that.

He isn't the only Muslim power in my game but certainly the only one that counts in Iberia. Mauretania doesn't have any holdings north of Africa unless I've missed a barony or two but nothing county-tier, it can only send some stacks over but it doesn't have much land by now at all and borders the Byzantine Africa on the close east (which used to belong to Al-Andalus), so it's effectively been curtailed. I would say that the Shiia Caliphate is "the" Muslim power right now, basically Egypt + Arabia + South Palestine/Syria, although it borders the huge Byzantine Empire and the Ilkhanate (of the Shiia religion, if I recall correctly) and is capable of losing crusade wars to simple dukes (my vassal went on from Russia by land and took Jaffa at some point), while on the other hand I've seen it carry war to Hungary and occupy many counties there, so it must be a bit tricky for them.

 

[Asherett]

Pagans and Muslims get 100% full levies from every province (and perhaps even a bonus). This is the same case at the armies in the 1066 viking/norman invasion bookmark save - Norway certainly can't field 8500 men until hundreds of years later. Basically they don't play by the rules. Which is, I guess, exactly why they aren't playable

 

[K-vald]

The save file worked, and as Sylon says, this is indeed WAD. Also, Al-Andalus isn't the only emirate with a levy of that size.

 

[NewbieOne]

Thanks.