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Miaphysite Tutorial
Part 17: Free Vassals (988-1006)
With the Order of St. Anthony able to defend us if we?re in trouble, I can seriously start releasing vassals as their own states. The Duke of Transylvania gets to be independent, and we hand off a newly-established Kingdom of Wallachia to the Duke of Moldau as a consolation prize for repeatedly retracting his vassals in Bulgaria. The Duke of Sinai also gets his independence on account of being a troublesome git.
I have no idea how either Transylvania or Wallachia will fare. Hungary will eventually declare de jure war and Wallachia has a ravenous Ruthenia to its north. But that?s no longer my problem. It cuts down on the number of vassals I have to deal with and I don?t need rebellions at this point.
Sinai though? Sinai will probably get Holy War?d into oblivion.
Since a Holy Order has holdings within my boundaries I could take a decision to expel them. Did Paradox not think anyone played Miaphysites, or did they just forget to copy and paste the descriptions from the Catholic Holy Orders over?
My continued control over Baghdad and Damascus is paying off in dividends upon dividends. All of which strengthen my holdings to get more money.
I decide to declare war on the Jarwanid Caliph, but the war cuts out in the middle into an automatic white peace!
Oh look, the revolving door of Caliphs from Rincewind?s ByzLP is here! The Abbassids launched a claims war or an adventurer conquest on the Empire since there?s a gajillion of them so they?re back in the driver?s seat. The decadence is down double-digits but I could still take the-
Or not. They still have a bunch of event troops ? and I think they are event troops since there?s no way they can still have 30K troops without Baghdad, Damascus, or Medina (which the Egyptians have). I need a cheap and quick excuse to grind them down.
Ah, our sacrificial religious Duke lamb! I have no idea why he?s not localized to a religious title, I know his holdings are churches.
The last Caliph?s been reduced to a Count, but he has a shitton of gold. Sadly I can?t banish him I can only ransom him for 70. Our strategies continue to be effective for war against the Muslims.
That?s the Abbassids I know and love (to steal from)! Down to 10K men and now vulnerable to my blobbing ways.
The Byzantines though? Holy shit Byzantium. 30K men and de jure war after de jure war. They attack Georgia over FUCKING TAO by the end of this session and win. I immediately surrender because I?m caught flatfooted.
Tigris is the last ?good? holding the Abbassid Empire has. Everything to the north isn?t fantastic, and the Arabian Peninsula alone can?t stop me at this rate. I don?t have a peace treaty with them because I came in on that last war as a defender in a Holy War.
I also want Tigris gone because it contains the capitol of the Abbassid Empire and it?s the best holding the Caliph has.
De jure drift! That is a thing.
Two of the map overlays are the de jure kingdom and the de jure empire maps. If the entirety of a duchy or kingdom is held under someone that is not normally their de jure leader they will start experiencing de jure drift.
For example, Antioch is not normally a de jure vassal of Armenia. However after a hundred years enough drift has occurred that now they are. If I ever lost Antioch for whatever reason now, I get a free de jure CB against its new holder.
The war is just a non-event by this point, everyone knows the Caliphate is doomed by now. I?m handing off Tigris as a duchy to my heir the Duke of Moesia. Tigris is going to be my new heir playground instead of Bulgaria.
The Duke of Alexandria?s taken initiative and stolen another part of Egypt. I reward him with independence. If he can hold on, there will be a dynasty member as king of Egypt.
Somehow the Shia Caliph has land out here. Let?s fix that since no one else will save him. We win without any fuss since the Caliph gets to march all his men through Persia to get here.
They respond by declaring a Jihad for Egypt. I join the Duke of Alexandria in the defense, though the Jihad is anemic in size.
The Zoroastrian faith reflips its orthodoxy back to the Zoroastrians. They?re dying out fast.
Here?s an odd thing that happens. An adventurer has declared war for the Duchy of Karnuva. He raises a whopping 30K men but never shows up. After a year or two of waiting the game crashes without fail. I can?t get the war score to tick to 100 in my favor, it crashes too soon.
So I?m going to open up the console and figure out what?s going on.
Well, at least now I know why the army?s never shown up. The adventurer doesn?t have enough boats to carry all his men and he?s getting attrition on his doomstack. Hypothetically if this continued he could eventually ship out his men after losing a third of them to starvation.
But my game always crashes before that can happen and I would very much like to continue. So I am going to have to cheat to continue from this point forward. I force the adventurer to surrender as a bypass. Sorry, but I'd prefer to end this run on my terms or a game over instead of a technical issue.
500 gold? Yes please.
More good news. One of the counties in my demense has converted to the Armenian culture.
Province conversion on the cultural level is not something you can impact of your own accord. It happens one of two ways.
If you the province is the same religion as its holder (Miaphysite->Miaphysite) and there?s an adjacent province with the culture you want to convert to (in this case, Armenian), an event will fire.
Alternatively, if your capitol is surrounded by provinces that aren?t your culture and your capitol isn?t either it can happen.
The Turks and the Mongols have this happen a lot quicker for them, but for us it?s normal speed. Speed is impacted by your Stewardship rating: if it?s below 5 or above 10 the speed gets a multiplier attached to it.
New holy relic! Now I can see other events with it.
Here?s a fun strategy I think I?ve just discovered. I initially declared war on the Caliph before the truce expired, thinking if I took the Duchy of Nefoud ? his current capitol ? I could destroy the Arabian Empire. It won?t work even when I win the war. The Caliph still ends up with one barony.
But here?s the thing. I?ve got the ?Improve Diplomacy? ambition right now. Truce Breaker is a -5 to Diplomacy and a penalty to all rulers of the religion you broke the truce with.
But I?m breaking a truce with the Muslim world which I don?t care about opinions for. The real thing is that it?s a potential to boost Diplomacy past 8 before the Truce Breaker penalty expires. Right now if I didn?t have Truce Breaker I would have a 9 in Diplomacy.
It?s a neat trick if you can pull it off.
The Shia Jihad fails as well, meaning we?re finally at peace with the world.
Next Time: Final (?) State of the World, 1006 AD