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It was a hard game from the start. I had to reload several time before I really started.
I set the hardest settings and the most agressive AI. Mine starting Trebizond isn't a special
province, and it is surrounded by stronger powers, including Georgia, Turkey and the White Sheep.
I was attacked by Candar or whatever, owner of Sinop. I lost a battle, but reduced their army
so that they could not capture my province, and my defeated forces captured theirs.
About that time, I got an alliance offering from Turkey, which I accepted; earlier I gave them and Mamluks the law of passage, which was supposed to secure me from their attack. When Turkey crushed Byzantium with my help,
and I got nothing from that, I decided to be a bit nasty. Though that reduced my stability to -3, I attacked
Byzantium again and conquered Constantinople. Ain't I a bad guy... But if I hadn't done that, I'd have stayed a puny state forever. I had to destroy most of Byzantine navy though,
as I could not afford that. Then I was attacked by the White Sheep,
but Ares was on my side, and I conquered Armenia and Sivas, captured by it earlier, and just waited on a proper time
to get the rest of their provinces, which I did. Then Athens declared independance from Turkey, with 2 provinces.
I captured them, and got Morea; my vassal, Athens, were destroyed by the Turks later on, though.
And it was the time of the most heroical struggle in the game. The great war against a Burgundian-English-Aragon
alliance. I managed to transport a small army on Sicily until my fleet was completely crushed by Burgundians.
My forces captured Messana and crushed a bit larger Aragonian forces in Palermo province. Then, giant Aragonian forces
started besieging Messana, and when they were close to capturing it, they moved almost all their forces to fight me,
when I have captured Palermo; they were defeated, and I've been chasing them (with initikallly 5x smaller army)
through Sicyly several times. Aragonian and other forces attacking me in Asia Minor were defeated as well.
Eventually I got just big recompensate, but it made me believe it's time for some ambitious work. My next task was to
defeat Teke-Karaman alliance in southern Anatoly. My plan was to lure their forces to besiege Turkish provinces,
while I capture theirs. They weren't easy targets; as being at war with several western powers, they large forces in each province; I managed to defeat thyem, though. During the war, an ungly thing took place; Sivas converted to catholicism, and
I had several stability problems. Also in this time I was attacked by georgia, but defeated, took one province and vassalised
the rest; after next attack, Georgia was completely destroyed. It was a sad thing, as I gave them a lot of presents later, in order to try to annex them diplomatically in the future. I was giving presents to Turkey as well, so that it remained my dear ally. But I think during second Georgian war, it betrayed me and attacked me, and regreated it later on, when I crushed it
and took all of its provinces but Macedonia. Then I was attacked by Austria and Venice; allied with Genova and Bavaria
and several other states (only Genova liking me, the rest liking Genova), I crushed Venice and got all of its provinces but
the capital; next, I removed Venice from the map and heavily crippled Austria (with France, Bavaria and cooperating
France and Netherlands). However, this made Frirenze to attack me; after a heavy fight, I annexed it, just to be attacked
by even more deadly Siena. Moreover, a time of great Italian revolts started. It was the hardest of my wars; on and on,
giant barbarians armies were appearing and crushing my forces, twice, practically all of my Italian and Austrian provinces were captured by rebels, and many more elsewhere were revolting. I noticed also in that time what price have I paid for
my survival and for my conquests. over 60% inflation, and technology 2 while even Aethiopia had 10 (when it comes to
land technology). Still, I was forced to fight. I was allied with several nations, but were sure they'd attack me if only
I asked them for help, so my alliance was practically a pact of non-agression. Still, I had to repel genovan
attack (I captured their provinces but their capital had to wait several decades till I got mercenary cannons;
in that time, I had to repel dangerous Napoli agression, new Austrian one, Transilvanian... But also I captured
Moldavia, which revolted from Austria, and Kraina from Croatia; my forced vassals, Croatia and Transsilvania, were
later conquered by Austria. Later on, I was attacked by Lithuania; my ally, Poland, assisted me in my conquest - but only
when I started winning. We have conquered almost all Lithuania, but I was pleased with small gains over Black Sea.
Again, Lithuanian forces were on higher technology level than mine, but they proved to be dumb. As I could not please
Poland with even big gifts, I decided to ally with Russia and Kurland, and am their ally up to today. But it had
some bad sides; when I attacked Mamluks and cut a big part of it for me, Russia joined my siege of Lebanon and got it
for itself. Grrr. But me, thanks to them I got 2 Golden Horde provinces north to Caucasus. Meanwhile, Poland annexed
Lithuania, Denmark, and Czechs and stretched from Iceland to Ural; but after it converted back to catholicism, Holstein and Meklemburg separated from it. In this time, I concentrated on internal reforms. Heavy converting, and science research. I'm on some 7th land level now.Except for that, I established two colonies, in NW Africa and SE America. My American province became trade center quickly. Still, it was a time of humilitation, until recently. I've paid the largest ransom in history to Bayern and France
- some 700 000 gold. I have now a big problem, as I can't afford 3 600 000 gold to convert Alexandria,
or smaller money needed to convert some of my Italian provinces; but Siena is a nice orthodox city now f.e.
My politic was interrupted by evets, which madeseveral of my provinces catholic. It was pretty annoying.
Also, I'm a bit angry at my ally's conquests in the east. I don't want them to become too strong.
I'm not afraid of Spain, which is crippled by giant inflation. I'm not afraid of England, which is not looking
too dangerous. I'm not afraid of giant Poland, as it is busy with its little revolts. But I'm pretty afraid of
France/Bayern tandem. France is a big bad bully. Also, I can not finish Turkey off. Not only because it has a big army.
But because it is allied with big Persia (and not only), which has two trade centers in fact, and army locked at my borders.
Austria recently regained some strenght.
Two regions in the world are especially divided; Ireland, which is divided between Ireland, Poland, England and someone else,
and NW Africa, where there are colonies of every culture, from muslim Turkey, through orthodox me and some catholics, to China.
One thing that suprised me was that a new trade center appeared in Wahran, a Spanish province surrounded by Maroccan empire;
ok, I know, but it is so close to Europe?
I set the hardest settings and the most agressive AI. Mine starting Trebizond isn't a special
province, and it is surrounded by stronger powers, including Georgia, Turkey and the White Sheep.
I was attacked by Candar or whatever, owner of Sinop. I lost a battle, but reduced their army
so that they could not capture my province, and my defeated forces captured theirs.
About that time, I got an alliance offering from Turkey, which I accepted; earlier I gave them and Mamluks the law of passage, which was supposed to secure me from their attack. When Turkey crushed Byzantium with my help,
and I got nothing from that, I decided to be a bit nasty. Though that reduced my stability to -3, I attacked
Byzantium again and conquered Constantinople. Ain't I a bad guy... But if I hadn't done that, I'd have stayed a puny state forever. I had to destroy most of Byzantine navy though,
as I could not afford that. Then I was attacked by the White Sheep,
but Ares was on my side, and I conquered Armenia and Sivas, captured by it earlier, and just waited on a proper time
to get the rest of their provinces, which I did. Then Athens declared independance from Turkey, with 2 provinces.
I captured them, and got Morea; my vassal, Athens, were destroyed by the Turks later on, though.
And it was the time of the most heroical struggle in the game. The great war against a Burgundian-English-Aragon
alliance. I managed to transport a small army on Sicily until my fleet was completely crushed by Burgundians.
My forces captured Messana and crushed a bit larger Aragonian forces in Palermo province. Then, giant Aragonian forces
started besieging Messana, and when they were close to capturing it, they moved almost all their forces to fight me,
when I have captured Palermo; they were defeated, and I've been chasing them (with initikallly 5x smaller army)
through Sicyly several times. Aragonian and other forces attacking me in Asia Minor were defeated as well.
Eventually I got just big recompensate, but it made me believe it's time for some ambitious work. My next task was to
defeat Teke-Karaman alliance in southern Anatoly. My plan was to lure their forces to besiege Turkish provinces,
while I capture theirs. They weren't easy targets; as being at war with several western powers, they large forces in each province; I managed to defeat thyem, though. During the war, an ungly thing took place; Sivas converted to catholicism, and
I had several stability problems. Also in this time I was attacked by georgia, but defeated, took one province and vassalised
the rest; after next attack, Georgia was completely destroyed. It was a sad thing, as I gave them a lot of presents later, in order to try to annex them diplomatically in the future. I was giving presents to Turkey as well, so that it remained my dear ally. But I think during second Georgian war, it betrayed me and attacked me, and regreated it later on, when I crushed it
and took all of its provinces but Macedonia. Then I was attacked by Austria and Venice; allied with Genova and Bavaria
and several other states (only Genova liking me, the rest liking Genova), I crushed Venice and got all of its provinces but
the capital; next, I removed Venice from the map and heavily crippled Austria (with France, Bavaria and cooperating
France and Netherlands). However, this made Frirenze to attack me; after a heavy fight, I annexed it, just to be attacked
by even more deadly Siena. Moreover, a time of great Italian revolts started. It was the hardest of my wars; on and on,
giant barbarians armies were appearing and crushing my forces, twice, practically all of my Italian and Austrian provinces were captured by rebels, and many more elsewhere were revolting. I noticed also in that time what price have I paid for
my survival and for my conquests. over 60% inflation, and technology 2 while even Aethiopia had 10 (when it comes to
land technology). Still, I was forced to fight. I was allied with several nations, but were sure they'd attack me if only
I asked them for help, so my alliance was practically a pact of non-agression. Still, I had to repel genovan
attack (I captured their provinces but their capital had to wait several decades till I got mercenary cannons;
in that time, I had to repel dangerous Napoli agression, new Austrian one, Transilvanian... But also I captured
Moldavia, which revolted from Austria, and Kraina from Croatia; my forced vassals, Croatia and Transsilvania, were
later conquered by Austria. Later on, I was attacked by Lithuania; my ally, Poland, assisted me in my conquest - but only
when I started winning. We have conquered almost all Lithuania, but I was pleased with small gains over Black Sea.
Again, Lithuanian forces were on higher technology level than mine, but they proved to be dumb. As I could not please
Poland with even big gifts, I decided to ally with Russia and Kurland, and am their ally up to today. But it had
some bad sides; when I attacked Mamluks and cut a big part of it for me, Russia joined my siege of Lebanon and got it
for itself. Grrr. But me, thanks to them I got 2 Golden Horde provinces north to Caucasus. Meanwhile, Poland annexed
Lithuania, Denmark, and Czechs and stretched from Iceland to Ural; but after it converted back to catholicism, Holstein and Meklemburg separated from it. In this time, I concentrated on internal reforms. Heavy converting, and science research. I'm on some 7th land level now.Except for that, I established two colonies, in NW Africa and SE America. My American province became trade center quickly. Still, it was a time of humilitation, until recently. I've paid the largest ransom in history to Bayern and France
- some 700 000 gold. I have now a big problem, as I can't afford 3 600 000 gold to convert Alexandria,
or smaller money needed to convert some of my Italian provinces; but Siena is a nice orthodox city now f.e.
My politic was interrupted by evets, which madeseveral of my provinces catholic. It was pretty annoying.
Also, I'm a bit angry at my ally's conquests in the east. I don't want them to become too strong.
I'm not afraid of Spain, which is crippled by giant inflation. I'm not afraid of England, which is not looking
too dangerous. I'm not afraid of giant Poland, as it is busy with its little revolts. But I'm pretty afraid of
France/Bayern tandem. France is a big bad bully. Also, I can not finish Turkey off. Not only because it has a big army.
But because it is allied with big Persia (and not only), which has two trade centers in fact, and army locked at my borders.
Austria recently regained some strenght.
Two regions in the world are especially divided; Ireland, which is divided between Ireland, Poland, England and someone else,
and NW Africa, where there are colonies of every culture, from muslim Turkey, through orthodox me and some catholics, to China.
One thing that suprised me was that a new trade center appeared in Wahran, a Spanish province surrounded by Maroccan empire;
ok, I know, but it is so close to Europe?
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