Ethiopia's path to glory.

[Dinner]

OK, so with EU3 coming out next month I've decided to give EU2 one last run and since I've played just about every other nation on the planet I thought I'd give Ethiopia a chance. It's not suicidal like playing the Inca or an African pagan (though this can successfully be played by agreeing to convert as part of a peace deal) and in some ways it is even more difficult then trying to be the world's only Hindu state attempting liberate India from the muslims. The reason is although the Hindu kingdom starts with just one rather poor provence it is surrounded by many rich provences (including two CoTs) which share your religion and culture. Ethiopia, however, is one of the poorest, most backwards, and most isolated Kingdoms on Earth at this time so it represents a greater challenge.

So the ground rules... The game will be set to very hard, no cheating (though this report will be story based so I may have to add in one event just to make the game reflect the story and the reality of the game), no exploits, no loan sharking, and no multiple bankruptcies. If ethiopia can manage a top 10 finish then I will have done truly well. Especially since Ethiopia's starting known map is one of the worst in the game and it is surrounded by enemies who hate her fro being orthodxed Christian. So without further ado... We shall start the game.

Ethiopia and the known world in 1419. As you can see Ethipia makes up 7 rather poor provences at the horn of Africa and the population is pitiful. The known world consists of Nubia (who is equally poor but at least Orthodoxed Christian, a small part of Egypt, and a few highly hostil uncolonized lands. I will do my damnedest to make sure no one else colonizes those lands; the must be ethnic ethiopian if ethiopia is to succeed. That may take over a century or two to accomplish though.

[Dinner]

King Yeshaq had ruled Ethiopia for but a short four years buy the time New Year's day 1419 came around and he had spent most of it consolidating his power and weeding out possibily disloyal lords or members of the army. Yeshaq looked around his kingdom and he was satisfied, it was mostly dirt roads and mud bick houses but he saw no reason why this wasn't a good thing however he did feel that Ethiopia didn't know enough about the outside world nor did it engage in any meaningful amounts of trade. He there for ordered his lords to begin researching ways to finance and promote trade with other nations (game note: trade slider set to 100%). Yeshaq also decided that although his nation faced no outside threats it was always good to have friends so he dispatched an abassador to Nubia with gifts of gold and fine Ethiopian wool carpets (game note: impriving relations with Nubia).

In time relations with Nubia improved and the King arranged to marry the eldest daughter of the Nubian king plus he arranged trade agreements (this was something of a joke since dispite spending money to promote trade Ethiopia didn't trade with any outside nation [trade tech 0 which means we can't send merchants]) plus he got his new father in law to agree to share maps and learning between the two Christian nations of Africa. As a result of trading maps and learning he gained copies of several ancient Greek texts which facinated him. Yeshaq learned of great lords who conquored vast nations and who had far more knowledge of science and learning then Ethiopia had dispite the fact that these ancient men had died more then one thousand years ago.

Yeshaq had gained a vage understanding that the Byzantine Emporer in Constantinople ruled most of the world and that the Patriach in Constaninople was the head of all Orthodoxed Christians including the people of Ethiopia. The problem was the path to Constaninople was blocked by a group of satan worshippers who controlled Egypt. It would be difficult to send messengers to Constantinople (game note: we learned the location of Constaninople when we traded maps with Nubia) but the King decided to send ambassadors in disguise with gifts and letters to help reestablish contact with other Orthodoxed people.

It took almost two years but when the ambassadors returned the king was filled with both wonder and dismay. The wonder was at how advanced the rest of the world was compared to Ethiopia and the dismay was at how low the Orthodoxed peoples had sunk. The mighty emperor who in the ancient texts controlled half of the world had been reduced to controlling just one same provence (Morea had already been taken by the Ottomans); still the city was unlike anything the ambassadors had ever seen before. More then 110,000 people lived there and there were massive structures unlike any ever known in Ethiopia or even the Egypt now controlled by followers of satan. The massive city walls, the tremendous cathedral, and the palace which was without peer in the city of Constantinople inspired awe in each of the east African visitors. So much so that they hired artists to draw and paint pictures of everything they could see plus they made tremendous efforts to collect works of knowledge and learning which they would bring back to Ethiopia.

Yeshaq could hardly believe the news when he heard it. That an all powerful Orthodoxed Empire capable of building the wonders of Constaninople had been brought so low and that his own kingdom was so petty compared to the rest of the world filled him with fear. If Byzantium could be brought so low then what hope did Ethiopia have? Clearly, massive changes were needed and Ethiopia could no longer stay as it had always been. Yeshaq's first order of business was to dispatch merchants (game not: we just got trade tech 1) who would earn money but also bring back knowledge of the outside world (by trading maps with Byzantium we learned of most of the Mideast, North Africa, and Europe). The more Yeshaq learned the more he dispared since Ethiopia was truly pathetic compared to most of the rest of the world.

Still, he was determined to act dicisively. He had merchants bring back crops from around Europe and the middle-east so that improved varieties could be growning in Ethiopia. He was determined to make Ethiopia more open minded towards change so he commissioned several guilds who would study various aspects of agriculture, literature, religion, metal working, stone working, and just about anything else he could think of. The purpose was to bring Ethiopia up to the standards of the rest of the world, improve farm output, and to help Ethiopia become more advanced. In time it bore fruit (game note: event made capital population +2000) but Yeshaq wanted more. He wanted his capital to look like those in Europe and the middle east even if they were only small copies. Yeshaq wanted at least one city in Ethiopia which didn't have dirt roads and which wasn't made of mud brick but to do that he needed manpower and money.

Yeshaq resolved to expand his Kingdom and to enslave those who fought against him. The Ethiopians had always remained in the highlands were the rains watered their crops and their people were most at home. To create a great kingdom Ethiopia would need ports and control over the east African lowlanda but Ethiopia had little manpower and less money. Never the less Yeshaq targeted Mogadisco for colonization since the native there seemed less militant and he taxed his people ever more to pay for it. In time that small colony grew into a city many of the natives joined the city. Next Yeshaq targeted Massawa so that Ethiopia would have a land connection with its ally Nubia. The other proved to be to miltant to colonize so Yeshaq raised a small army and, one by one cleared those provences of natives then colonized them. The captured natives were enslaved and forced to build stone paved roads throughout ethiopia (infastructure 1 achieved) after that Yeshaq redirected the manpower towards achieving his dream of building a new capital.

Awaz was the ancient capital of Ethiopia but it's dirt streets and mudbrick houses didn't project the image of modernatity which Yeshaq desired so a site was located a short way from Awaz and a new city was built using slaves from the new colonies. Sewers were dug, streets were laid out according to the designs from the ancient Greek and Roman texts, streets were lined with cobblestones, and new buildings built. It was a vast improvement over the old capital but it was nothing special by world standards. Still, small walls were built around this small city hub and large areas were left undeveloped so that in the future new civil buildings could be constructed. By the time Yeshaq died in 1436 there was atleast a level one colony in all of east Africa and three provences had advanced to the point they could be reasonably called cities. A large amount of debt was pilled up to do this plus the tax burden on the peasants was crushing but Ethiopia as a nation had advanced greatly.

[Dinner]

Side note, two provences I colonized right away without much trouble (Mogadisco and Massawa) while the others I had to kill the natives one provence at a time then establish a colony before Oman did. It worked even though Oman established two colonies in east Africa because the native rebelled and killed their colonists each time.

[Dinner]

King Endraveyes ruled Ethiopia for just four short months so nothing new or important happened during his short reign. He just continued his father's colonization campaign in east Africa. After Endraveyes died of the plague his uncle Taqla Miryam took the throne. Taqla spent most of his reign appointing tax collectors and building small mud brick fortresses in each provence. Sure, these small level one forts weren't grat but nothing existed in these places before so it was a big imporvement. Taqla also continued modestly expanding the capital and colonizing the horn of Africa; what is more Taqla forcably began reloating people around his kingdom. Ethnic Ethiopians were moved to the coasts and the barbarian tribesmen who had been enslaved were moved inland. The result was that for the first time these two distinct ethnic groups began merging into a unified Ethiopian ethnic group and since everyone was forced to speak Ethiopian on pain of death slowly but surely the cultural mixing began to create one unified cultural group in the horn of Africa. This would take many decades to complete however.

After Taqla diued his son Amda Iyasus took the throne. Amada did exactly what his father had done by continuing to colonize the horn, dispatching merchants to the world's centers of trade, and extending the alliance with nubia. The sole difference was that Amda begain building a large caverly. Based upon his readings of Byzantine texts (it was 1433 and Byzantium was still around) Amda had learned about western knights and how they had traveled around in armor on horse back. Amda had fallen in love with this image and he wanted Ethiopia to have a class of knightly lords who would fight to the death on his command (game note: we've been shifting to arisocracy for some time). So Amda created a lordly class of knights who road on horse and who's code demanded that they fight for their lord.

[Dinner]

Here's a teaser shot (After work today I will write the story):



At this point I have fought two wars and am now in my third war. The first war was against Oman, I had built a small fleet in my one full city port along with a small mixed cav and infantry army. I first landed in the CoT of Zanzibar and after taking that I burned Oman's trading posts in Socotra and Baharain then finally I landed in his low level colonies on the east side of the Arabian pennusula. After those colonies were taken without a fight I moved down to the provence just north of his capital (took it) then took the capital of Oman. He offered me peace giving me Zanzibar and his two little colonies.

I didn't want to pay to have the army sitting around so I immediately swung north and declared war on the mamaluks. It was a lone drawn out war and I really wanted to take Alexandra but there was just no way. Instead I settled for Judea which I released as a vassal hoping to atleast get one more Christian Kingdom in this area. To my surprise the revolters in Lebannon declared their independence creating the Catholic Kingdom of Syria. For a long time the Mamaluks left Syria alone then suddenly they invaded so I am forced to once again go to war against the Mamaluks to save one of the only Christian nations in my neighborhood.

Byzantium still exists but it is beseiged by the Ottomans and will likely die very soon which is a petty but I have no hope of helping them. I've also been active trading maps first with Norway (to get the northern part of Europe), then with one of the Hindu states in India, and finally with China. This has given me knowledge of most of the old world. My plan is to wait until the Europeans discover most of the Americas then trade maps giving them knowledge of Asia and me of the Americas. We'll see if it works. In the mean time I'm trying to win KoJ another provence or two so it won't constently be under threat of annexation.

Here's a shot of Europe in 1451. Spain has formed early, France is consolidating all the French provences, England is having a bit of trouble, Sweden took Murmansk but lost Skane to a revolter which created a new Kingdom in Scandinavia, while Denmark has been reduced to a one provence minor.



The state of East Africa and the Indian Ocean. I now have a CoT at Zanzibar though it is a poor one with a different culture and religion. I burned the Omanese trading post earlier and I really want to claim Socotra but I don't have the money. Maybe after the war with the Mamaluks if Oman hasn't snapped it up by then.



Eastern Europe and Central Asia. I'm not sure how Holestien got that piece of land in northern Russia.

[Dinner]

I've now played up to 1487 and will be posting a few more teaser shots before posting the story in character. There have been big developments.



Ethiopia's map may look the same but the last 30 years have not been wasted. All but two of the colonies in the hole country are now cities which actually pay us revenue. Also Nubia is our vassal and we now have tax collectors in all the home home provences along with level 1 forts in all of our lands. Last but not least please don't overlook the arts establishment in our capital. Edit: Oh, yeah. I tried to colonize Socotra but my attempt failed and now the Omanese have it again.



In southern Africa our CoT in Zanzibar is now orthodoxed Christian. The capitals of the three pagan states are now known to us as well.



Big changes in the mideast and southeastern Europe. Our war against the mamaluks stopped with KoJ getting one provence taking control of all of modern Israel. The KoJ then went to war against Hajiz and did very well withjust limited support from me. I contributed a grand total of 8k cav and 4 ships; I used the cav to help him win fights and the ships to help him seige port cities. He did the rest on his own. Christian Syria/Leb still exists but has been completely inactive. The big story though is in Byzantium; when last we saw them they were on their last leg and beseiged by the Ottomans. Ragusa declared war and brought in it's allies Hungary and Austria who did all of the heavy fighting. They saved Byzantium then spent nearly five years fighting the Turks before being declared on by Venice, France (who didn't seemed to just attack in Holland), Poland, and Lithuania. Byzantium let everyone duke it out while it made immediately made peace only to reenter the war after it had rbuilt its armies and after the Ottomans were pretty wasted fighting years of warfare.



In western Europe England is having trouble as is Spain to a lesser degree. France has be come a giant.



So you folks can see what is going on in Eastern Europe. Hungary didn't do so well in the mega bash up since it was already deeply involved in it's war against the Turks so it lost some land. Poland has pushed into Germany. Austria has lost its CoT to France. It seems the Hapsburgs have their work cut out for them. While in Russia unification is going slowly.

[Jonny]

I tried Ethiopia once, but quickly became bored with the pursuit. It looks like you're off to a pretty decent start.

I guess I should fire up EU2 one more time before I go out and get 3... I think I may try one of the West Africans, I don't believe I've done that one before.

[lord of the mark]

ah i remember when you played ethiopia the "other way" When i have a chance i'll try to comment on this game and AAR.

[Main_Brain]

Very Nice =)
Could you post how the Tech Situation of '87 ?

[Ecthy]

Funny to see what's happening with the Ottomans and the Byzantines in your game.