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Miaphysite Tutorial
Part 12: Breaking Byzantium (934-949)
Smbat II responds to the young Byzantine Emperor's declaration of war by manning up and healing from the last Empire that tried to fuck with him.
Told you I'd show these off when a heresy appears. Heresies can appear randomly in your provinces, as shown by the Paulicans WAY back in part 2. As implied by that one time when we totally revoked the Duke of Karnuva the Monophysites are the heresy of Miaphysites.
A perk to having a decent level of Crown Authority is the ability to revoke infidel (Muslim, non-Christian) or heretic (Monophysites in our case) titles free of charge.
This is what happens when a heresy gets out of hand. The Zoroastrians get routinely screwed in any game that doesn't have a Zoroastrian player. In this timeline, the Manicheans at this point outnumber the Zoroastrians so much that THEY are the new orthodoxy.
In game mechanics, if the number of heretic provinces outnumber the number of 'orthodox' provinces their positions swap. I doubt this amounts to much, because the Maicheans are still being ruled by the Sunni. Besides, we have bigger problems.
Like the Byzantine Em- wait. There's a revolt going on. The Douxes are FINALLY kicking off a revolt! It's a claimant war, too! Which is weird, because there's almost no claims for the Empire.... where have I heard the name 'Bardas' before?
IT'S MOTHERFUCKING BARDAS! The guy we trapped into the matrilineal marriage and then inherited some obscure barony in the middle of fucking Italy! Holy fucking shit!
Obviously I want their revolt to succeed because then our bloodline rules Byzantium. The bad news is that cadet branch will be a bunch of Bulgarian Orthodox Christians, Bardas was at least smart enough to force her to convert. I can't join the revolt so my counterattack needs to destroy his levies.
This is called 'playing the long game'. I wanted a claimant out there, but I never expected anyone to press his claim. The game gives you lemons sometimes you know?
We march through Anatolia and engage the Emperor himself. The revolting army also engages, resulting in a curbstomp.
Of course someone else declares war. Nice timing, it's a Holy War for Antioch. As far as targets go it's a pretty good one to pick off; Antioch is my republic vassal and home to one of my Pentarchs. He'd be depriving me of Moral Authority and a lot of gold. Luckily he can't really do much to me once I send in some mercs.
The Emperor at his BEST can only raise half the men the Empire could during his grandfather's time. By comparison, his rebelling vassals can almost match what the Empire could prior to the war. Our repeated attacks are not without cost though.
King Smbat II almost gets seriously hurt again but takes it like a champ.
Proof that the Holy War for Antioch is not a real problem. They buggered off once my guys showed up to retake their one victorious holding.
Smbat II is now known as 'The Great'! A MUCH better title than his namesake, he got that name just for the sheer amount of prestige he's generated. It's not necessarily a judgment on the success of his reign; remember that the Caliph had this nickname right before his disastrous Jihad.
I make a near fatal error by seiging Constantinople itself. By giving the Emperor time to regroup, he can raise a force of 5000 men and send me a blistering defeat at Gallpoli. My levies are officially exhausted, and I now need the war to come to an end. Preferably with a payday.
Smelling blood, a Tengri neighbor declares his invasion of Wallachia begun. He brings in 2000 men, which I could normally scoff at. The garrisons at his seiges almost do, too. I'm going to rely on mercs for the three wars I'm in now.
The Doge of Antioch is off performing a task that few players ever perform: sowing discord amongst vassals.
The idea here is that I'm parking the Doge in the Emir of Arabia's central holding. Once in Petra, he'll try to convince the Emir that the Caliph is an asshole and worth revolting against. To do this yourself, place your Chancellor in the central holding of the VASSAL you want to influence, not the King's demense. Sometimes the Chancellor will hit the vassal's vassals, but otherwise he'll gun for the vassal's overlord.
I (without a screenshot, sorry) picked up a holy relic at a carnival. These kind of events are part of Sons of Abraham if I remember, and the church would very kindly want the trinket I picked up. I do so because hey, free Humble trait. It's not a terrible one to have.
Smbat II's wife died, and he truly loved her. This option is honestly risky with a 1:10 chance of picking up the Incapable trait (which is code for 'you aren't long for this world'), but I want to remarry and try to inheirit something else. I get lucky, no Incapable.
The alternative is arguably worse, it gives out Celibate (no sex, no more kids) and Depressed - meaning that I also wouldn't be long for this world.
Don't get me wrong, I am very pleased that I've defeated the Emperor and taken his gold. But now the revolters are on their own.
The winnings are enough that I can hire some mercs to relieve my levies AND expand by building a new holding! Ordinarily it's kind of crazy to do it this early, but Damascus is something I want to hold long term.
While my mercs and retinues are more than enough to end the Crimean Invasion in its crib, I make the dumb mistake of trying to seige pagan holdings. I don't have Military Organization 4 yet, so pagan counties carry a very heavy attrition penalty that saps a quarter of the men there.
Meanwhile the Caliph is desperately trying to undermine the Miaphysite faith by attacking... a Nubian Duke. He's holding one of the sites I need for my Holy Order so it's not a completely dumb move. I'm more questioning how he can declare war for that province. Either way, all of Abyssinia's been called in to repel him. Should be interesting.
My levies are now replenished enough that I can go on offense for the Antioch Holy War.
HOLY SHIT BARDAS.
Ladies and goons, I present Basileus Bardas! The guy who single-handedly ENDED the Byzantine Emperor as a great power! I'm not exaggerating, his ascension to the throne comes at a huge price for the successors of Rome. For starters, his only holding is the fucking Barony he started with. That won't stay the same for long, he can seize the county of Constantinople from the old Emperor by decision (no revoke plot required). But the old Emperor still has all his old holdings.
Crown Authority has been completely TANKED as well. He had Autonomous Vassals when he entered meaning he had no power to revoke vassal titles. While he gets back to Limited Crown Authority shortly after taking the throne, it will be generations before the Empire restores the level of unquestioned authority it once had.
No longer does the Empire command twenty thousand men. Now it's fifteen thousand, which is in a ballpark that we can defend against and win. If I really wanted to, I could declare war for Coloneia and win. But I have other fish to fry.
Like finishing off all the wars that got declared on me. With Jihads now unlocked, I can seriously look at expanding into the Duchy of Damascus. It's independent and only has 2000 men, but it's a five county duchy that we already have one county (Damascus) to.
It's just that easy. Roll in, fight their pitiful armies, roll out.
Next Time: Arabia Shatters?