Installment the third
Money is the root of all conquest
Welcome back, Class.
And that goes for you as well, Wasa. I see you finally managed to turn up on time. We continue where we left off, in 1461. As several of you have noticed, the quickest way to increase our revenue will be to take control of one or several centres of trade. The nearest centres are Astrakhan, but one will need to fight through Ak Koyunlu to reach it, and it is relatively poor, and Alexandria, which is a core province, but currently belongs to the strong Mamelukes. Since Alexandria is so rich it is an obvious first target, but we will need to either fight a long war on land with extended supply lines, or build a larger navy to manage a landing. Either way, we will need a new and much larger army, since Usum Hasan nearly destroyed all our armed forces, and a better one as well. In other words it is time to hunker down and rearm. This means investing in landtech and coining more money, thus causing more inflation but that can't be helped.
Notice how fast the simulation can run when you do nothing but rasing armies, building galleys, and minting coins, well, that and being hit by those nasty random events? We also seem to have a new emperor, Andreas I, who is, to put it mildly, not the brightest puppet ever seen, the old one having croaked during the winter. Let us forthwith choose to adjust our internal policies towards the army, and see, it pays off: We inspire a reformation of the army event. Not that it matters much with the huge costs associated with increasing our landtech, but every bit helps. Like the exceptional year 1473. We just lost 5% inflation! Only 78% to go!
And finally, by 1475, we reach landtech 2. Our mighty navy can transport 20,000 men, so that is what it will do. Our army is 40,000 men, half of whom are cavalry. Splitting the army in two, the first half is transported to just off the coast of Alexandria, and the Mamelukes receive or declaration of war. Please notice how our navy is even now returning for our remaining men, while new armies are being recruited.
Kindly hand over that club, Dustman! While entertaining, your clubbing Lionheart during class will not be tolerated!
But I wanna learn to fight!
WHACK!
GRAB!
SLAM!
CRUNCH!
Ouch...
Sorry I broke your club, Dustman. You can collect a bandage from the campus doctor after class. Incidentally, being shorter suits you well.
Where was I. Right.
I trust you notice how our armies are having real problems with the Mamelukes despite numerical superiority? This, my students, is because of morale. Being Shiite fanatics, the Mameluke armies have, on average, much better morale than our troops. The only solution to that problem at the moment is to overwhelm their forces, preferably while small, and eliminate them before they can gather, or force them to attack our larger armies. That is why I have allocated fully half of our armies to besiege their capital of Egypt. Their eastern armies will have to march through the desert of Sinai and then defeat this large army before engaging our smaller armies besieging their western provinces. This they fail to do, though not for a lack of trying. As the provinces fall I begin sending peace offers. Because muslim provinces are hard to keep stable, I only request Alexandria, which is, of course, their most valuable province. But finally, after three years of war, they cave in. Alexandria is ours.
In the meanwhile news has come in that the Castilans, who were considering proclaiming themselves the kingdom of Spain and claiming the whole of Iberian peninsula, will stick with their old name instead, the tried and true approach.
Notice how our income has risen significantly? Feels good, doesn't it? But that Alexandria centre of trade is rather small. As described in the textbook, most provinces tend to send their trade to a centre belonging to their owner. We could improve the size of our CoT significantly by grabbing a few resourcerich provinces.... And, what would you know, Venice holds on to a number of our core provinces, those being Crete, Corfu, Istria, Croatia, Bosnia and Dalmatia? We have found a use for our surplus armies, I guess, although we will need some time to reposition our forces, and find the right moment to strike - not forgetting to guard Alexandria.
...Such as 1482. Venice has lost most of its holdings in other wars, and is currently at war with France and Austria. This might be the right time for a land grab. You know the drill: Send the mostly cavalry armies purchased at ruinous expense charging over the borders, while landing an army in Crete. The tried and true approach, you know. Our stability takes a hit as we declare war on a fellow catholic nation, but that is to be expected.
Unlike the unhappiness amongst the peasantry of 1485. Of course they revolt in the middle of a war when war exhaustion is already climbing. Yet another striking application of Murphy's law. Fortunately we can coin more money and raise even more troops. We will need them to put down the revolts.
And anyhow, in the fifth year of the war, and with significantly fewer peasants, we have occupied all off Venice save the province of Venice itself, which Austria controls. France has taken Corfu in a peace settlement, but France is much too strong to bother at the moment, so we will have to accept the provinces of Bosnia, Crete, Croatia, Dalmatia, and 300 ducats for peace. That is surely a decent prize considering the expense!
It is time to take the fight to the Mamelukes again. Unfortunately, they have been gaining some very good provinces from defections from the Timurid empire, like Basrah, Awaz, Tabaristan, Fars, and Hormouz, and are allied with Oman, which has been busy conquering the Arabian peninsula, and Baluchistan. Fortunately Persia isn't in the alliance. Perhaps an alliance of our own might be in order? Say, an alliance with Nubia, the orthodox kingdom bordering the Mamelukes? It is amazing what you can do with a few bribes, really.
Isn't it nice to see the Nubian armies whittling down the Mameluke armies while we besiege the defenseless Mameluke provinces? I sure think so. Signing separate peaces with Oman and Baluchistan is quite nice as well. No reason to focus more on this war. I could win it lefthanded.
Stop sniggering, Norgesvenn!
And an unexpected invention gains us a weapons manufactory in December 1489. An unexpected stroke of good fortune. Let us increase our focus on land rather than naval policies yet again. Most of our fighting takes place on land, after all.
And an unexpected invention of a goods manufactory in November 1491 in Bosnia. I won't complain. Instead I will happily watch the last Mameluke provinces falling, well, except for Hormouz. There's just no way to reach that province.
It is now November 1493, and it is time to temper greed with good sense. Remember the sage advice:
Don't conquer something you don't need
Case in point: We can gain a lot of provinces from the Mamelukes, but the muslim provinces just don't pay off, since they are so expensive to pacify. Let sleeping dragons lie, and let them remain until we can afford them longterm. Thus we make peace only taking Aleppo, Lebanon, Cataract, and Syria. While Syria is muslim, it is also one of the best Mameluke provinces, and a grain province at that, increasing our army support limit. It is a hard choice whether to take Syria or not, and if we were in any sort of trouble, I would let it be, but we're not, so...
But we've still got a large army, and I notice that Ak Koyunlu is now in alliance with Astrakhan and the Golden Horde. Astrakhan is a one province minor with a centre of trade. It is just too tempting, really.
And two years later, come spring 1495, the armies are in position, the declaration of war delivered, and our armies are pouring over the border.
And of course the Nobles demand some old rights restored. In the middle of a war. The sensible choice is to accept, though this decentralises power. But decentralisation is not necessarily bad, so long as you keep a firm grip on your scondary puppets amongst the nobles.
Come on! Surely you weren't planning on only controlling the monarch, were you? In that case a freak sheep slide or bathing accident could but a crimp in your plans! Always keep control of a number of secondary puppets you can steer to glory, if necessary!
Anyhow, notice how the weather is pretty bad around here? Notice those 20%+ attrition. The lesson is clear: Fight during the summer. Unfortunately, Sheyhk Ahmad of the Golden Horde seems to have realised that - he's the one with the rather large army that just annihilated the forces besieging Astrakhan and Daghestan.
Fortunately, he is also smart enough to know that, in time, we could have raised overwhelming forces, so he agrees to a white peace, withdrawing from the enemy alliance. Astrakhan and Ak Koyunlu are now defenseless against us.
So the annexation of Astrakhan (1495) and the taking of Tabriz, Kirku, Orenburg, Azerbaijan, Daghestan, Sivas, Nussaybin, and 128 ducats in 1497 from Ak Koyunlu will hardly come as a surprise for you. Except, of course, for asking me, why I disregarded the rule about not conquering poor muslim provinces? The answer to that is simple. Ak Koyunlu had to go because it was too large and too close to my centre of power. This way it can soon be annexed. If we get into real trouble we might have to shed some of the newgained provinces temporarily, but let us see if it works out.
And G'Kar, my observant student. Here's the diplomatic map of the Byzantine Empire and environs at the end of the Ak Koyunlu war. As you can see, catholic Hungary sits on a large number of our core provinces, and is no pushover, allied as it is with Bohemia and Poland. But soon, very soon, we will need to take action. For those provinces are fairly rich, and Kosovo and Serbia cuts our access to Bosnia, Croatia, and Dalmatia.
Ak Koyunlu is humbled, and Astrakhan is our second centre of trade
Our total economy is growing every year. So is our inflation.
I notice that some of you, I name no names, have been grumbling about all those royal marriages I have been arranging and the occasional handing out of gifts to our catholic neighbours, when we are already strapped for cash. Trust me, it pays to stay on good terms with the mighty of the world until you are ready to take them on, and then out. It truly does. If nothing else it means that their internal stability will plummet if they declare war on your country, it being their good and relatively trustworthy friend, and all, which will make defeating them all the much easier.
The next lesson will be on the dangers of overextending your empire prematurely and how to survive them (hopefully), as well as the consequenses of reputation or the lack thereof.
), consider releasing a few vassals (that can be diplo-annexed) to temporarily lower your BB.
