The Horde is invading

[Mongoose]

Alright, the year is around 1235. I'm playing as the Byzantines on "very hard" with the latest version of the BKB super mod. I started in the early era, and so far my empire is: Italy up to Genoa, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, all of Turkey, Antioch, Rhodes, Cyprus, and Crete. I'm at war with the Armenians, The pope, the Seljuks and now, the Horde.

Basically, all of my provinces have only enough soldiers to stop the neighboring factions from invading, except I do have one extra stack in Turkey that I was using to invade the Armenians.

Unfortunately, the Horde has decided to attack me. I'm not sure what units they have, but they're invading Trezibond, which contains my main army of 1000 men, with 7100 soldiers (I think they have about 9 stacks). The total units I have in Turkey would probably only equal around 4000, and alot of them are busy keeping the Seljuks from attacking Antioch. My armies are a mix of Byzantine infantry, Byzantine Spearmen, Lancers, afew heavier calvary units, and abunch of mercenary units which include afew billmen and gunpowder units. I don't have any extra units in Greece or the Balkans.


I was thinking that maybe it would be best to abandon all of my land east of Nicea, so I would only have to defend two provinces. The problem is that if I did that, I'd be losing alot of land. But if all of my armies are stuck defending so many different provinces, I won't be able to fend off the Mongols and I might lose everything in Turkey.

Alternativly, I could abandon Italy and Sicily and use my forces currently fighting the pope to reinforce Asia minor, but then the pope might start attacking Greece, which would be a problem.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Martok]

You have my sympathy, Mongoose, as you face an unpalatable choice no matter what you do. That said, I agree that your best bet is probably to withdraw your forces from eastern Turkey and fortify Nicea & Trebizond. The lands of Italy and Sicily are too rich to simply abandon; and as you yourself pointed out, letting them go might open the way to a Papal invasion of Greece.

I would try and keep a decent garrison in Antioch if it's at all viable -- given both the prinicipality's wealth and strategic position, it's worth holding onto if you can manage it -- but otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to get the rest of your troops out of eastern Asia Minor and use them to reinforce Nicea/Trebizond/Big C.

[Agent Miles]

I'm not familiar with BKB, but the easy (cheezey) was to rid yourself of the GH is to assassinate the Khan.

[doctrellor]

yeah I agree, Strategically, withdraw to Nicea, and build up your defenses..

I personally wouldn't abandon the provinces, but destroy EVERYTHING in the provs that you will loose, so that the pop will be EXTREMELY unhappy and revolt a lot which will suck up A LOT of Mongol troops and reinforcements...

That way, the Mongols wont be able to make good troops AND they have to use garrisons to keep the provines "happy", so the Mongols will be stuck figting a consistnt stream of rebellions..

I know itr sounds rather "Soviet" with an utter "Slash & burn" defense, but hey, the Mongols having to waste money to build stuff, and have whole stacks to police a province.. you can group your defense and strike back slowly but surely...

I have had to do with all my games playing the Russian Steppe factions and the Byz.. I know it's a pain, but it's effective to slow down the Mongol steam roller

[Mongoose]

I withdrew all my forces to Nicea and the Mongels attacked me. This time, they had 5,000 and I had 3,000. Luckily enough, I managed to kill their Khan during that battle, and now I'm free to retake all my old provinces with out worrying about the GH. Trezibond will be a bit difficult though, as there are at least 4,000 rebel soldiers occupying it now . . .

Thanks for the tips everyone

[Don Esteban]

I think bribery might be the best way forward in Treb - then send your new -Horde against Rome

[macsen rufus]

Ah, I see you've already cut the head off the dragon

I think bribery might be the best was forward in Treb - then send your new -Horde against Rome

... and that would be your next best move, so long as you have enough of an economy left. As Sun Tzu probably didn't say: "If you can't beat em, bribe em"

So long as you can afford the initial bribe it's always nice to have a stack or two of turncoat mongols in your armies (pretty cheap upkeep, at least in the original - I don't know if BKB's altered that, though). And the Pope deserves it, what with his superstitious "Prester John" fantasies

[Don Esteban]

And the Pope deserves it, what with his superstitious "Prester John" fantasies

Precisely since he believed an Ethopian (?) christian king would miraculously appear to save Europe from the horde - much easier than actually stopping fighting amonst themselves and actually working together after all instead of just sacking constantinople occasionally

[The Unknown Guy]

They were lucky that the Golden Horde was more of a binge party moving westward than a serious invasion. Otherwise the Pope would have gotten the standard trampling treatment used with nobility (I keep trying, but I still don´t see what is the priviledge in that, exactly)

[Mongoose]

Crap, the rebels in Trezibond are invading Pathwhateveritsnameis (the province directly west of Trezibond, I think its one that the mod added). Their Khan is dead, but there are still atleast 10 stacks of Mongol rebels in Turkey, and they want land.

Luckily, I got all of the other provinces back, just not the northern ones.

[Martok]

Interesting; rebels usually aren't that aggressive (although I know it's not unheard of either). Was your garrison in that province on the weaker side?

[Mongoose]

I had 1,600 soldiers, which I guess was pretty weak compared to the Mongol army.