Pics & History of your Empire

[Babij]

I am about 30% into my second game as the Byzantines. I'm on easy mode because I suck.

1087-1100:
1087:

1097:

I just stayed where I was and built up my economy. I left Hungary alone, due to some bad experiences with them in the past.

1100-1117:
1117:

After over 10 years of peace, I launched an attack against Turkey, as they were weakened by a war against Egypt. After I had destroyed them, I took several lands to the north that were occupied by barbarians.

1120-1122:
1120:

1122:

Egypt was destroyed, eliminating the last threat from the south.

1122-1128:
1128:

I paused for breath as my forces gathered to retrain in Constantinople. By this time I had three full stacks led by my fine princes.

1128-1132:
1132:

A massive assault against the north began. I penetrated deep into Russia, and from there established a foothold.

1132-1137:
1137:

My troops gathered momentum and rolled through the northern provinces, crushing all resistance. Now my empire rivals the ancient Roman empire, and my armies are the finest in all the world. I look to the west at my ancient rival Hungary, or perhaps defeating the Almohads would enable me to dominate the south, and provide a stepping stone into Western Europe.

[dgfred]

Nice work Babij! You are playing better than you think. I would
go after the weaker of the two between Aloms and Hungary, but you could
probably take out either or both . Keep us updated and thanks for the
great screenies .

[PittBull260]

nice empire babij, but don't forget the Golden Horde will attack u with like 20,000 troops lol. So I would've just stoped at Georgia and set a nice border there, and then expand south into africa, then spain :)

[PittBull260]

i just a had a sweet battle
I modded it so that it's not 40 men in a unit, but 60 (same with cavalry) and I put the unit size on HUGE :), so this was a big battle lol

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I've conquered Spain, I'm at war with the Polish (they're just a buffer between me, the Russians, and soon the Mongols), the Egyptians, and the Byzantines (though that's mostly just naval battles, they have some kickass armies ready, as you can see in the screen), I also have an uneasy neutrality with the Pope Clement, though I have some 4-star assasins closing in in case he x-coms me, I am also neutral with the powerful Russians and Almohads, though that could change any second. I have strong border armies, and have quelled an English reappearance in Northumbria. My Prussian army is owning in Italy, with its sister army guarding the homelands. Friedrich "the Great" has now be renamed "Friedrich Karolinger" from "Prince Friedrich" because his nephew is on the throne. The Russians may honour me with an alliance soon.

[dgfred]

@ Pittbull- Why didn't your troops gain ANY valor?

[PittBull260]

@ Pittbull- Why didn't your troops gain ANY valor?

cause that was a custom battle =)
i gave them all knights, I wanted to see how mamluk troops do against high tech knights, and they did good :)

[PittBull260]

evil maniac are u using cheats? cause I duno how u can get a fortress in serbia that quick....lol, just wondering

[dgfred]

cause that was a custom battle =)
i gave them all knights, I wanted to see how mamluk troops do against high tech knights, and they did good :)

Gotcha buddy! They sure did do well.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

evil maniac are u using cheats? cause I duno how u can get a fortress in serbia that quick....lol, just wondering

The Hungarians were on some kind of economy spree, I've only used the .matteosartori. cheat.

[littlebktruck]

@ evil_maniac: Ok, I'm officially in awe.

[NodachiSam]

I've conquered Spain, I'm at war with the Polish (they're just a buffer between me, the Russians, and soon the Mongols), the Egyptians, and the Byzantines (though that's mostly just naval battles, they have some kickass armies ready, as you can see in the screen), I also have an uneasy neutrality with the Pope Clement, though I have some 4-star assasins closing in in case he x-coms me, I am also neutral with the powerful Russians and Almohads, though that could change any second. I have strong border armies, and have quelled an English reappearance in Northumbria. My Prussian army is owning in Italy, with its sister army guarding the homelands. Friedrich "the Great" has now be renamed "Friedrich Karolinger" from "Prince Friedrich" because his nephew is on the throne. The Russians may honour me with an alliance soon.

Wow you expanded pretty quickly for just 60 years!! Unless that is a modded somehow. If only it were a little closer to 1230 and the russians wouldn't be so much of a worry :D

[littlebktruck]

I don't know whether I'm more shocked at his expansion or his financial state. I couldn't dream to match either of those.

[PittBull260]

I don't know whether I'm more shocked at his expansion or his financial state. I couldn't dream to match either of those.

well its easy to get that kind of money when u control most of central europe

[dgfred]

I don't know whether I'm more shocked at his expansion or his financial state. I couldn't dream to match either of those.

I was thinking the same thing ...... at least financially

[Babij]

Nice work Babij! You are playing better than you think. I would
go after the weaker of the two between Aloms and Hungary, but you could
probably take out either or both . Keep us updated and thanks for the
great screenies .

Thanks for the encouragement, I just recently took over the two provinces in the north owned by Novgorod and HRE. My next target is a toss up between Hungary and the Almohads... I just can't make up my mind.

nice empire babij, but don't forget the Golden Horde will attack u with like 20,000 troops lol. So I would've just stoped at Georgia and set a nice border there, and then expand south into africa, then spain :)

Oh crap, I forgot about that. I'd better start building armies, lol. There's gonna be some pretty damn massive battles soon...

Anyway, here's the latest. It's just one pic, because I haven't had much time lately.

1138:


There's a bit of trouble loyalty-wise, but otherwise things are great. I've slowed production of armies a bit and I have decided that my next target should be Hungary. They shouldn't be too much of an issue, as they only control about five provinces. My sea trading empire controls the entire Mediterranean, but I'm hoping to be trading with England in due time.
I was just studying that map, and it looks like the Almohads are on the move... Spain appears to be in a spot of trouble.

[PittBull260]

here's a campaign with one of my favorite factions, the Russians/Novgorodians.

High period/expert/bkb super mod

The beggining of course was the hardest part, I had a few yrs to get rdy for the mongolian's attack. So I trained a lot of boyars =)
so the mongols came, i had 5 battles with them, all huge, the first few i didnt even have to command to win because I had great generals, there was 1 battle where I had to command and had one of my best battles :)

so now I'm pretty far in the game, and the pepacy and swedes seem to be doing the best. There were 9 crusades against me, all targeting Novgorod, none of them succeded :), one reached novgorod but didnt take it over =)

I have no allies, I'm at war with the danes currently, and they're not a threat to me anymore =)

[Babij]

Nice job vs the Mongols.

Well things have really hit the fan for me...
There I was, things going great, nothing to worry about except who to kill next. Then, WHAM! Italy nicely declares war by ambushing my trading fleet and sending a crusade towards Constantinople. If that's not bad enough, the Almohads direct their attention away from Spain and invade Egypt.

Then Malta rebels. I have a small veteran army stationed there, and because Italy attacked my trading fleet, I can't get anyone in or out of Malta! By now I'm openly cursing myself for declaring war on the HRE, who seem to have become rather powerful.

Here's some pics:
War in the Mediterranean+ Rebellion in Malta:


Italian crusade:


Almohads invade Egypt:


Right now, I feel like jumping out my window. I am attempting to pull back my armies towards Constantinople. I have two full armies in the north, so it will take them several turns to pull back. I also need one to guard against the HRE. My navy is gathering for a counterattack, so far I have won a few victories. One army is on the Hungarian border to intercept the crusaders, while a fresh army is waiting in Constantinople. Another army has pulled into Egypt to fight back against the Almohads. ARGGHH!!! MY EMPIRE!!! I'm going to kill anyone who dares to threaten my borders, and this time, it's personal...
*Calls out to imaginary advisors* Prepare for war!

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Wow you expanded pretty quickly for just 60 years!! Unless that is a modded somehow. If only it were a little closer to 1230 and the russians wouldn't be so much of a worry :D

Blitzkrieg, simultanious invasion of Prussia, France, and Denmark. Then Poland attacked me, so I finished off them and Spain with my former Crusader armies. I'm just pooling my finances, after a huge gain, I'm losing about 200 florins a turn.

[dgfred]

Has the Horde hit yet? That could really present a problem

[dgfred]

Sorry about that, the Horde comes later on .

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Now I'm losing up to 3000 florins a turn, but I'll let the Russians and Mongols duke it out then sweep up the remainder. (I hope)

[Graphic]

XL Mod
Conquest
Late
Golden Horde

This is very early on. I first focused on making forts in most procinces so I can start churning out Mongol HA's and foot soldiers while at the same time subdueing the local rebels. At some point the Russians invaded Novgorod and lost most of their troops, so I siezed that opportunity and started a siege in Muscovy (that lasted like 12 years. gah!) Novgorod got greedy too at one point, breaking the alliance to take up the seige themselves in Muscovy. I withdrawed my few units and attacked next round with a whole bunch, scared em off. I still haven't made them pay for that but in due time.

Then Lithuania decided they wanted to attack Kiev. They had the pleasure of occupying it for one turn before I scared them off too with a massive force, then I attacked them and took up siege there. It's STILL being sieged, I think there's six years left. I have a problem with beating them too badly then having to wait forever during sieges.

The Bulgarians and Byzantines have been fighting a petty war for a while. I saw an opportunity to take Constantinople when there were only three units there, them being Bulgarias last units. I tried the attack several times but it turned into an infinitely long siege. After a while I got frustrated, turned bitch, then auto-calced until it worked out so the king and heir were dead so instead of waiting 20 years I could just bribe them, which I did.

I plan on attacking Greece next as it looks very weak. That will take care of Byzantine as far as the mainland goes. I'm a little afraid of Hungary right now so maybe after that I'll use the high class boats I got with Constantinople to attack a weak Almohod province or something.

[yesdachi]

I had an interesting thing happen to me recently. I am playing a Spanish campaign early/hard or expert (I cant remember) and I am in total control, I really want to try out the lancers so I am taking it easy but the GH year, 1230, is quickly approaching so I decide to push the Russians big armies back into the corner so they can battle the Horde for me and I can wipe out what is left, at this time the Russians are the second most powerful. Well this works great until 1229 when they go into civil war and wipe half of themselves out . They totally ruined my plans but I guess the situation is worse for them.

[dgfred]

Very interesting . So it will be you vs the 'Horde'. Please keep
us posted on the battles/outcome .

[littlebktruck]

After having an idiot assume the throne, being excommunicated, being at war with all my neighbors, and approaching bankruptcy at an alarming rate, I decided that the Italian campaign was not going so well. I scrapped it, and I'm now playing an early, normal campaign as the French.

It's 1115, and I'm proud to report that things are going well at the moment. After a few turns of building I attacked the French. Normandy and Anjou fell quickly, but the English sent everything they had at Flanders. I had expected this, so I had an 800 man defensive army to face their 480 troops. Their four units of royal knights inflicted grievous casualties, but I managed to carry the day. After the battle was over, I found that I had killed all the English king's heirs! I took Aquitaine myself in 1097, and, about 15 years later, William II died, heirless. I'm currently moving through Britain and mopping up the rebels.

After England died out I started planning a war against the HRE. I just began the war; so far I've taken Lorraine and Friesland. They are spread thin; once I defeat that large army in Burgundy I don't think I'll meet that much resistance from them. I am very concerned for my southern border, though, as Aragon has the usual 5-6 units of royal knights and spain has their extremely high valor/command royals running around, too. In the "learned my lesson" category, I've concentrated on farm upgrades so far. In fact, I haven't even started on a trade network, and I'm still projecting over 1100 florins a year profit.

The requisite screenie:

[Graphic]

Not to stray off topic, but what year does the campaign end? in other words, how long do I have? I may want to scrap this mongol campaign if im going to run out of time, because i like to take it slow

[Roark]

@ Graphic: I think the end date is 1453. You can mod the end date as well... There was a thread around here somewhere...

After having an idiot assume the throne, being excommunicated, being at war with all my neighbors, and approaching bankruptcy at an alarming rate, I decided that the Italian campaign was not going so well.

I love a dry sense of humour...

[Graphic]

Jeez, that's only like 100 turns. No way I could manage that. Thanks.

[Advo-san]

Oh boy.... I just finished reading Monk's Great Khazarian war, a battle Monk fought against the mongols a couple of years ago.... This guy killed 26.000 mongols with 13.000 Danes... Damn, that is something I ve never seen before..