Forced March help us to do roundbout trip around Crimea. Couple of combats ensue for easy Ws. https://i.ibb.co/vvxDcXfq/1.jpg https://i.ibb.co/1Y96Fy7M/2.jpg https://i.ibb.co/5ggTxtKH/3.jpg https://i.ibb.co/QvZdNPLc/4.jpg https://i.ibb.co/ymnftqhS/5.jpg https://i.ibb.co/5Xqf1LQ3/6.jpg Diplo doesn't ...

It takes 8 Move Points to land in Crime in a single turn due to super port in Constantinople reducing Embarking cost to 1. Forced March helps us to boost 6 MP to 8. I hire extra 7 archers between 3 regions to pad up my 2nd cheapo slower stack. I roll the 2nd try on Seljuks region and extort 6 friend...

We rearrange our stack to include all Heavy Cavalry and supreme Heavy Units in the Assault of Constantinople. I pull up an extra Heavy Cav to embark to the mission of finishing off Crimea portion of Tmutarakan. We got lucky that Chernigov wasnt able to get one of our desired regions. I continue to b...

Witch Trail is shiny 2200 gold in my piggy bank. I Send Councilor to pull the last good character out of 30's zone. Spend my new cash on the 4 more Heavy Cav Mercs. I try to collect 2 more regions to fill out Anatolia 4 region province. Both Crusaders and Seljuks provide 30% chance. https://i.ibb.co...

Embezzlement trial pays 700 gold and get rids of treacherous character. My super King health degrades, storytellers praise our deeds. I cast another Spy on Nobility on the last Character with unknown loyalty. Very wealthy unloyal Character will be Burned on Witch Trial next turn. I unleash my halfba...

I use RGD to remove Thief Gang and renovate another region. Hospitaliers agree to exchange regions 2nd time. I use the opportunity to get rid of low Loyalty low Quality characters. I try to get Capitals of Hospitaliers or Crusaders to refill my coffers. New provinces hire 6 Heavy Cavalry units and 5...

I hire another backup via NonStandard units to make up for the future attrition. As expected main stack of Tmutarakan tried to conquer neutrals. Unfortunately when we cross our path random order puts us as Defenders. The issue is that they have Seasoned Defensive spears and 2 Defense generals. At le...

Daughter is born, but I won't be using Gain Character cuz our roster is fine and Successor has nice stats. We get 1 Claim naturally and I forge 3rd one artificially. We try to gain 2 key regions via Diplomacy 2nd time. Besides that I add a few begging propsals to extort nations we are in good grace ...

We grabbed another progress token, so its perfect time to go into middle Authority rank by DOWing Tmutarakan. Luck stat saved our General from untimely demise (read notifications). We hear through grapevine that Mongols appear somewhere in the eastern steppes. We play Develop Region to get tier 2 ro...

Back in green, but no token this turn. Good catch on the Recruit RGD. triple high quality heavy units helpful for Assaulting high tier garrisons. I send begging requests and exchange regions with Hospitaliers. On Suicidal is almost impossible to buy out due to imposed caps that didn't exist in Empir...

Yeap, we out of green, but we had token chance debuff for 5 turns anyway after receiving the last copy. Example of renovating the new regions. No time for Growth, only maximizing resources and Legacy. Another Spy on Nobility and Recruit NonStandard units definitely help. On top of that I spend 1200 ...

Yeap, we get Knights, more Trebuches and supports to fill up the entire 2nd row on Plains. I embark to conquest 2 regions per turn. Peace treaty with Seljuks ends, so one of the neutral regions is locked from the fast access. I send Begging for Manpower requests for my 75 Relationship neighbor frien...

Ok, neutrals rarely if ever have Cavalry, so our stack is ready as ever on the next turn. Hopefully recruiting on Hospitaliers territory leases me Knights. I time double Recruit decision for the arrival of the last batch of reserves. Our plan reinforced by the fact that Hospitalliers and Crusaders s...

We keep following our course. I edict for Manpower structures where possible. Sling more potential deals towards my neighbors as well. I'm trying to Forge a claim while pulling more forces towards Plains regions. I'll try to use full fledged stack to conquer some Anatolia neutral lands before moving...

Relying on Diplomacy again. I send 3x 30-40% requests to acquire more Manpower. Nothing new under the sun. Economy keeps funneling down the same route. I get another good decision: Recruit Mercenaries. https://i.ibb.co/vCKwV5xS/1.jpg https://i.ibb.co/MywByzSp/2.jpg https://i.ibb.co/SGN4BSS/3.jpg

We obtain another token naturally and one by Sap Authority. We sold off our Capital region, so new Capital location propels all our regions above 50 Loyalty saving us building slots. All our neighbors capped out on 75, and Seljuks are positive already. I play Remove Hostiles on Thieves before they g...

We get the 1st Progress Token, our Manpower pushes the limit, so I disband 2 skirmishers and hope that Diplo goes through. No free slots for construction, but 2 Local Authority events help to develop regions. Next turn we get a collection of free slots. I use Sap Authority for the extra Token. We co...

Peasants and a few levy spearman embark on their mission. Prospect for Resources finds Iron Vein and Copper Vein. I get and play Spy on Nobility. Queue up more Manpower and Metal buildings. https://i.ibb.co/tMxLH4GW/5.jpg https://i.ibb.co/5xGkJHL6/6.jpg https://i.ibb.co/R4N2nLst/7.jpg Crusaders and ...

My Estonia Suicidal AAR reached 10k views today. Its time to turn a page by trying to beat an interesting challenge very similar to Master of Orion 2 single planet turn 300 start. Check the first two posts of Estonia AAR to get the gist, because I won't be repeating concepts and discussing meta in g...

I will be doing a new detailed play-by-play AAR in a day or 2 covering July Challenge for Byzantines on Suicidal difficulty https://forum.slitherine.com/viewtopic.php?t=118111. I think it will be a good content since its the same type of challenge we did back in the late 90s with 4X games i.e. camp ...