The Eastern Menace; Ilkhanate AAR

[GMaximus]

As promised, here's my second AAR. This is much more of a 'freeform' game than my previous one, as I noticed how faction-related rules can be really hard to keep to. I don't have any goals, except perhaps doing some conquest worth the Mongols. So, let's get those heads rolling...


The early years of the reign of Khan Abu the First



The nobility of the Ilkhanate circa 1320 AD.



Jebe, the man responsible for the diplomatic state of the Ilkhanate.



News from the Khan’s family.



The achievements of the nations of the world.



Khan Abu gathers a mighty host of warriors and invades the nearby province of Trebizond. During the night, his scouts sneak to the castle and nail the chopped off hands of the border watchmen to the gates, along with a note: ‘This is the fate that befalls all who oppose the Mighty Khan’. Enraged Trapezuntines abandon caution and foolishly march out to meet the superior force of the Khan in the field.



Disturbing news from Lesser Armenia, where Jebe was attempting to gain passage to Europe to establish some connections with the Catholics. Apparently, he was assassinated around an hour after sending out his first letter – one of his servants found him dead in his office, a knife in his forehead.



The Khan, however, does not dwell on this for a long while – his scouts report that the Trapezuntines’ forces are only an hour’s march away. Quickly, the forces of the Ilkhanate line up for battle.



The Khan and his generals observe the battlefield from a nearby hill. The terrain favours the Khan’s plan – to lure the Trapezuntines out of their defensive position, and then crush them with a surprise heavy cavalry charge.



The Khan deploys his forces and sends out his dismounted Mongol warriors to harass the Trapezuntines and force them out of their position.



The Trapezuntines respond by sending out their own archers into a position where they could reach the Mongolian warriors, who had superior range. However, none of the arrows of the first volley found their targets as the Khan’s archers were protected by trees.



Uzbek cavalry charges the unprotected archers.



This forces the enemy general to move out of his position in an attempt to aid the engaged feudal sergeants that had charged the advancing Uzbeks. The Khan sees his opportunity and charges with his Iranian Ghulams, accompanied by his two sons and their bodyguards.



Witnessing the heavily armoured Ghulams emerge from the trees, the enemy general retreats his bodyguard. The Uzbek cavalry suffers losses due to the Kataphraktoi charge, yet that allows the Mongolian warriors charge the engaged archers and sergeants into the rear. The Iranian Ghulams soon follow and bear down on their foes like an avalanche, in a manner not dissimilar to the western knights, although without the impetuous folly.



The enemy infantry and archers are routed. The general, in a gallant last stand, charges downhill. However, even in such a position his Kataphraktoi are no match for the Iranian Ghulams, and the Trapezuntines are quickly torn to pieces.



The enemy are scattered like wind in the steppes.



The battle was short, but bloody; Afterwards, the Uzbeks head back to Armenia with the slaves in tow. There, new recruits are added to their ranks, then they re-join the Khan in his siege of the remaining Trapezuntines.



Nothing shall lure the Greeks out of their castle now, though; there are only a couple of warriors left. An emissary is sent to them to agree upon the terms of surrender.



Soon, the Trapezuntines agree to abandon the castle if they are allowed to retreat safely; the Khan grants them that, however the rebels are killed by the returning Uzbeks who were unaware of this agreement. A quite tallented man is assigned to rule Trebizond in the Khan's absence.



Sadly, the emissary who negotiated this surrender and was travelling with the Trapezuntines to ensure their safety was also killed in the chaos of battle. The Khan was not pleased; however, there was nothing that could be done now, so he only punished the Uzbeks for their rashness.

Thus end the first ten years of the reign of Khan Abu; so far no greater engagements took place, yet the Khan was assembling a large army with the intentions of carrying out what failed once due to the death of the Great Khan of the Mongols – the conquering of Muslim Egypt. However, he also had his eyes on another price just as great – Constantinople, which lay temptingly vulnerable with the conquest of Trebizond...

[GMaximus]

I've noticed that the Ilkhanate can pump out pretty good generals - most units I've trained end up with at least a level 1 general, sometimes a level 2 one, and rarely a 3 star general; I could swear I once built a level 4 general, too. This never happened to me with any other faction.

The middle years of the reign of Khan Abu the First



News from the Khan’s family.



News from the factions of the world.



The Khan, having left a decent sized garrison in Trebizond, personally leads the assault on the Great Constantinople, backstabbing the Byzantines; he writes in his memorials ‘Any warrior who turns his back to a possible threat is not worth having a back’.



The temporary Amir at Trebizond is poisoned during his great feast to celebrate the upcoming victory against the Byzantines. Receiving word of this, the Khan remarks that this is just punishment for a fool who celebrates a victory before it is won. The true Amir quickly sets out to return to his province.



However, the deceased regent was correct in his assumptions. The Greeks are so weak, they let the key to their former power fall into the hands of the Ilkhanate without a fight.



The Khan does not restrain his men, and Constantinople is looted.



Odd news from the south. According to the month-old reports of the Khan’s diplomats who worked in the city of Tripoli, the city was firmly under the rule of a sizeable Egyptian force. Trouble must be stirring in the Mamluk lands.



Welcome news from the grandmaster of Knights Hospitaller of the Christians. The Khan hopes that a firm alliance with the Hospitallers will allow the Ilkhanate to step onto the stage of western European politics and sign an alliance with some of the most powerful Catholic rulers, something that has been sought by many Mongolian rulers, as perhaps a common cause against some enemies could be made with the Catholics. Especially with the apparent collapse of the Golden Horde in the north, now that Mongols do not threaten the Catholics directly.



Another general murdered. The Khan has his suspicions on the Mamluks; they will be brought to a test, as after the conquering of Constantinople, the attention of the warriors of Ilkhanate is focused solely on them.



A new report by the borderwatch of Edessa reaches the Khan. Apparently, the Mamluks are engulfed in a civil war, due to the disloyalty of most of their generals; witnesses report that forces sent out by the Sultan to subdue the rebels in Damascus switch sides themselves, led by ambitious princes. A perfect time for the Ilkhanate to strike, especially at Antioch, which was immensely weakened.



Predictably, the rebels retreat into their castle.



An enemy general, stationed near Damascus, is bribed off. The Ilkhanate invading force leaves a small force to besiege Antioch and marches out against Damascus, now protected only by a relatively small force.



Battle ensues.

(Author’s note: I forgot to save the replay (hard to get into the habit of doing that), so I’ll try to make up for it with a description of the battle)

There are few reports about the battle, and many of them conflict with each other; apparently, the battle began when the Ilkhanate took the higher ground and began harassing the enemies with arrow volleys. The entire cavalry of both sides were drawn into a prolonged engagement on the right flank of the Ilkhanate, which, apparently, was won by the Ilkhanate’s hired Mamluk horsemen when they charged the enemies’ rear. The Iranian infantry made short work of both the archers and the spearmen, finally charging and destroying the catapult. The enemy leader escaped, and all the captured prisoners were enslaved.



The tiny force of rebels remaining managed to shut the gates right before the Ilkhanate’s forces could step into the city.



Antioch Muslims surrender and a new Prince of Antioch is appointed. The Khan sends out a message to the rulers of western Europe and their Pope. In this message he announces that Antioch is both the Ilkhanate's and the Catholics'.

Thus ends the second decade of Khan Abu’s rulership. His family line is strong, and his heirs are mighty warriors all. Constantinople has been named the new capital of the Ilkhanate. New armies are being mustered as the Khan grows weary of the Ottoman presence in Anatolia, who practicaly pose no threat due to the fact they are surrounded by the Ilkhanate's lands. The assassinations have seemingly ended with the fall of the Mamluks who, technically, are still alive - however, they hold only castle Kerak, along with a token garisson in Tripolis, the remnants of their semi-succesful Jihad that only invoked a Crusade from the Hospitallers. To their north are the mighty armies of the Khan, and to the east the crusading Hospitallers. It is easy to predict that their time is over, and the only thing that remains to be seen is by whose hand they will fall...

[TinCow]

It is wonderful to see a MTW AAR after all this time! Please do keep it up.

[Subedei]

Yes, a very good read. Esp. for someone on who´s computer MTW don´t wanna run any more. Are you using a mod?

[GMaximus]

Yes, a very good read. Esp. for someone on who´s computer MTW don´t wanna run any more. Are you using a mod?

I'm all too familiar with the newer PCs' unwillingness to run MTW; I still get some white blocks on the ground in the tactical map when looking at something that's far away. If you've got a newer PC, and if you haven't yet done that then I recomend you to take a look at https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79500; the buttons fix does wonders.

And yes, I'm using Blind King of Bohemia's Super Mod, which, to me, is worth getting just to play the Latin Empire or the Ilkhanate.


The late years of the reign of Khan Abu the First and the beginning of the reign of Khan Abu the Second



News from the nations of the world.



News from the Khan’s family.



Apparently, the Ilkhanate’s bodyguards are not all idiots that they seemed to be after the first assassinations.



Another former Mamluk general involved in the civil war is bought off. He and his troops doesn’t complain – the sound of ringing money warms their hearts.



Kublai, a rather talented emissary, falls to an assassin’s blade. Something must be done about those endless deaths, yet the Khan’s focus is solely on his armies.



Tripoli has strengthened recently, and is beginning to pose a threat to Damascus and Antioch. The Khan wastes no time and orders two newly assembled armies to strike.



Kubadai gathers his forces. They are made up out of what the Mamluks lack now – ranged troops and cavalry. Fortunately, the Ilkhanate has both quality and quantity when speaking of range, though cavalry is a different matter – the Uzbeks had suffered severe losses in previous battles. Still, they were good cavalry, enough to prove to the Mamluks what the successors of the Mongols are worth.



Prior to the battle, Kubadai observes the battlefield. It is nothing that the Ilkhanate had not seen – hills and forests. Perfect playground for the Mongolian archers who had proven their worth before at such a terrain.



The Ilkhanate deploys its forces in the usual manner – archers in the front, infantry in the middle, horse archers on the flanks, and heavy cavalry in the back.



The battle starts out with the Mamluks’ attempt to drive the Mongolian warriors away. They remain ignorant of the fact that they’re putting themselves at a great disadvantage, given the Ilkhanate’s ranged supremacy.



The desert archers are shrugged off by the Mongols with minimal losses, despite the fact that the Mamluks had higher ground and were under the protection of the trees.



A similar fate befalls the second party of Desert archers. Mamluks, worried that they might suffer the fate of the Turks many years back, when the Seljuk army was simply pushed off the field by the Byzantines’ Trebizond archers, move in with their heavy cavalry.



Kubadai responds by sending out his cavalry.



Hell breaks loose as more and more forces are thrown into the melee, all the while being bombarded with arrows by the Mongols.



When it becomes impossible to continue shooting due to the threat of hitting their own, the Mongols close in, charging the flank of the engaged Mamluks.



The Mamluks attempt to frighten the enemy using their newest invention, the handgun; however, Ilkhanate’s troops remain unimpressed, carving a bloody path through the enemy, defying the theories that Mamluks are superior to the Ilkhanate when a battle comes to close quarters.



The breaking point occurs when the Nubian spearmen that held the Mamluks’ flank are routed. The Mamluks are threatened to be surrounded from all sides.



Their Sultan recognizes this threat and attempts to inspire his men by diving into the combat himself...



Only to witness his men run.



Soon, he is tossed off his horse and taken captive.



Kubadai orders all prisoners killed to allow his troops to focus on the enemy. The general puts a blade into the Sultan’s skull himself, avenging the previous Ilkhanate loss against the Mamluk Sultan Baibars.



The Mamluks decide to go on the offense. This only serves the Ilkhanate, as Kubadai orders the advancing infantry to be shot down by the Mongols.



Disheartened at the loss of their Sultan, the Mamluks flee before even engaging the enemy. Kubadai restrains his men to make sure this is not a manoeuvre which the Mongols know all too well, yet when the Mamluks do not respond to the arrows that rain onto their backs, he risks and allows the troops to pursue.



The enemy are chased for hours and hours on. Kubadai demands that each of his warriors brings a pair of hands; the limbs are stacked into a pile in the eyes of the Mamluks that fled to Tripoli.



A great victory was won by Kubadai and his troops. Two Egyptian armies were crushed with relatively small losses, considering the fact that the reinforcement army remained intact.



Heartless Mamluks refuse to pay for their captured warriors. Kubadai orders them slain and their ears cut off as trophies; this act is also carried out in the sight of the already disheartened Mamluks that cower behind the castle walls. The castle itself is surrounded and besieged; there shall be no surrender.



A particularly powerful Ottoman general is spotted. The Khan is intrigued with this man – if possible, he must serve the Ilkhanate, as loyal as he is to his Sultan.



The Khan is amongst the most powerful people in the world. None can rival his glory, with the fall of Constantinople driving out the Greeks and the Franks squabbling amongst themselves. The Middle East is about to be united under the banner of the Ilkhanate.



Another emissary lost to the blade of an assassin.



Highly disturbing news. Allah has unleashed a horrible plague on Christian, Pagan and Muslim alike!



Knights Hospitaller and the Ottomans engage in hostilities over the island of Rhodes. The Khan decides to remain allied to the Ottomans, since plans were made to drive the Hospitallers out of the mainland until their presence there was still weak.



Tripoli has fallen, and Kubadai let his men loot and burn as much as they wanted.



Soon after, Kubadai was forced to stop the looting after the Khan sent a letter to him, assigning him to rule the newly captured settlement.



All souls in the lands of the Khan weep, for their ruler has fallen under the Black Death! He shall be remembered for a long time by his people as Abu the Great, under whose guidance the Mamluks were destroyed and Constantinople fell into the Ilkhanate’s hands.



The new Khan, Abu the Second. A worthy successor to his father, though many doubt will he manage to live up to the deeds of his father.



Abu the Second decides not to waste more time, and puts his father’s plans into action, invading Palestine. The Hospitaller army is surrounded – Kubadai invades from Tripoli, cutting them off from the castle, while Prince Batu moves in from Syria.



The Ilkhanate’s army is similar to the one at Tripoli; however, their foe is entirely new. Hospitallers, while lacking powerful infantry to match the Iranians in this battle, have the traditional awe-inspiring shock cavalry of Catholic nations.



Palestine is slightly different to the previous territories in which the Ilkhanate has fought before, in that the hills here are much steeper and higher. This worries Batu, since the Mongol archers may not be able to reach the crossbowmen of the Hospitallers.



Indeed, the Hospitallers deploy on the hill. The Mongolian warriors still bombard them with arrows; however, Batu knows that they cannot win that way this time, at least win the quick victory they need in order to avoid the reinforcements from Cairo that are supposedly on their way, something that would strengthen the Hospitallers greatly.



He orders the Uzbeks to take up positions on the flanks. The Hospitallers respond by sending out their entire cavalry forces.



Despite their superior numbers, the Uzbeks cannot stand up to the Knights Hospitaller. The Khan’s Iranian Ghulams are more than mighty enough to stand up to an equal amount of knights, but there’s too little of them in number.



The infantry, on the other hand, are doing more than enough to make the Grandmaster worried.



The Uzbeks are completely destroyed; the cavalry of the Hospitallers charges downhill at the Iranian infantry.



However, the Iranian Ghulams follow them and prove their worth by destroying all the Hospitallers’ cavalry, with the help of the Iranians.



After a prolonged fight, the Grandmaster is surrounded and slain. His army flees.



Unused to the new tactics and troops used by the enemy, the Ilkhanate lost more warriors than the Hospitallers. This, however, teaches prince Batu a valuable lesson – he sends out a letter to his brother, Khan Abu, and requests that Uzbek cavalry is replaced by more numerous infantry and horse archers in the armies that are recruited to fight the Hospitallers.



Palestine was taken from the Knights Hospitaller without a siege, as they decided to withdraw from Jerusalem, not having enough provisions to withstand a siege. Apparently, the rumours about reinforcements from Cairo were just that – rumours. However, the western catholics are intimidated by this act, and realize that the new Khan may not wish to ally with the Catholics; this, coupled with the reports of the horrific acts that the Ilkhanate's troops are known to commit against prisoners that were not bought off, and the fact no nation had yet managed to win against the Ilkhanate's great expansion, makes some western rulers believe that the Ilkhanate may soon roll over Wallachia, Serbia and Hungary and appear at their doorstep with unstopable, infinite hordes.



The captured Hospitallers are ransomed back for a small sum, much to the relief of the new Grandmaster.

Thus began the realm of Khan Abu the Second. The new Khan immediately orders that more men are trained in the arts of negotiation, and more shady characters are recruited from brothels and inns, all the while paying attention to his brother’s military advice and replacing the heavy cavalry with more infantry and horse archers. It seems that the rule of Khan Abu the Second will be much different from his father’s...

[Thermal]

goooood!, its nice2 see someone bring back classic medieval 1! its the only total war game i no longer own...