Introduction
Welcome to my first attempt at an AAR. By popular demand, I will be playing Byzantium. I will be using Klink's enhanced Garrison and Army Spam mod, which beefs up garrisons, gives extra money to the AI, and spams troops when the AI factions have excess funds. Difficulty is H/VH. I will also be using the following House Rules:
--Only battles with a noble in charge can be played, all others will be auto-calced.
--No sacking, only occupy or exterminate.
--No adoptions or MOH, I want to establish a linear Dynasty, no third cousins inheriting the Throne.
--No declarations of War unless there is a Casus Belli (trespassing, which includes Crusades , assassinations, things like that).
--No betraying alliances.
--Accept reasonable peace offers.
--Two units to a fleet for naval transport.
--Balanced armies, no all HAs or all Varangian Guards forces.
I have no idea whether I've bitten of more than I can chew. For all I know, I'll be swarmed and the Byzzies won't even last to 1453.
Prologue
The Crown of Basileus did not rest easily on the brow of Alexius Comnenus after he was coronated by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1081. He was an usurper, having seized the throne of the Roman Empire from Nicephorus III. Never mind that the Emperors since Isaac Comnenus, his uncle, had been dangerously incompetent or corrupt, his usurpation, despite his accomplishments as the leading General of the Empire, invited further treachery.
The external threats to the Roman Empire were even more worrying to Alexius. The Empire had fallen far from the heights it had reached under Justinian.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The eruption of a new religion and it's warriors from Arabia had robbed the Empire of it possesions in Africa and the Levant. Slavs and Bulgars had taken much of its European holdings. The Empire, however, had survived the onslaught and under Basil II, known as the Bulgar Slayer, it had recovered much of its power.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
It was hard for Alexius to believe that Basil's triumphant gains against the Bulgars were made just 50 years ago. For in 1071 the Empire had suffered a humliating defeat at Manzikert in Armenia against the Seljuk Turks. The Basileus Romanus IV Diogenes had been captured, throwing the Empire into unrest and chaos. The Turks, taking advantage of this, had poured across Anatolia, the heartland of the Empire, and took it for their own. The Empire was at its nadir, smaller than at any time in its history.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Other enemies besides the Turks threatened the Empire as well. The Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt had been pushing north by land and sea. Norman adventurers in Italy had taken the south of the peninsula from the Empire for their own. The Great Schism between Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism had made the Pope in Rome an enemy of the Empire, and his word carried great weight among the Western Powers. The Germans with their so called "Holy Roman Empire" had been a thorn in the side of Byzantium since the days of Charlemagne. The Venetians, former allies and subjects of the Empire, were liable to turn on them at any moment if it advanced their mercantile interests. The Hungarians, yet another barbarous people in the tradition of the Slavs and Bulgars, menaced the Empire's northwestern frontier.
Constantinople was the envy of the known world, first in trade, wealth and architecture. Yet envy could lead to desire, and make the City and the Empire a target for conquest. After Manzikert, it was an open question as to whether it could be successfully defended, for the days of Roman dominance were long gone.
Yet it was the goal of Alexius to eventually restore this dominance. To bring the Empire back to the heights of Basil, of Justinian and even, perhaps, of Augustus. However, his immediate goal, one that might take his lifetime, was the mere survival of the Empire. Once the rebellious Themes were retaken and a Comnenian dynasty, beginning with his son, the Kaisar John, established, perhaps his heirs could accomplish a true rebirth of glory.
So, with the Empire in the balance between disaster and redemption, Alexius Comnenus began his reign.
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