Estonia Suicidal [Finished /w Videos] detailed Walkthrough

[SuitedQueens]

We start off with frankly weird Assault. Thats default AI logic for you. That because high XP modifier for already major Combat Power makes AI believe they can overcome relatively low Power Garrison, My Custom AI fixes that, but we are playing with default for now.



England sends Peace Treaty. The only reason we were in war is because they casted Start Crusade on me when I got Constantinople from Byzantines in our first war lap. And you know what? Norway is next on the list, but my Relationships with Papal States should save me. I cast Draft Levies in case Byzantines decide to target some region deeper in my territory. If thats the case my AutoGarriosns will be triggered and debuff them heavily.





That a serious stack to be fair. Very sturdy frontline and properly supported. I will post a video as a separate message after that one to showcase the result of this turn because its too long to explain every idea. Video will have comments embedded to provide further explanations.



Our Combat Power/2 of the Garrisons is enough to repel Byzantine smaller stacks that try to escape their doom and ruin my day by getting Just Conquered regions back whom can't put up defenses in that state or targeting Utility Peasants. I hire extra troops to merge with my main stack next turn.





I Disbanded Livonia Vassal forces last turn. But now I have to call them back because Cult Site have to be removed and potential Norvegian invasion might be on the horizon if Crusade RGD succeeds. Our Relentless leader trait almost triggered, but he got saved by Luck stat generated by Elders and Gypsies. I edict for the Large Temple to help Authority and Conversion rates.

[SuitedQueens]

LINK TO YT VIDEO SINCE THIS BOARD CAN'T EMBED PROPERLY

Context on resources and why I don't have even more troops. I was in the gutter on Manpower last 3 turns before Diplo deals didn't go through. Read other comments in the vid carefully.

https://youtu.be/i4DPKjIRq5U

[SuitedQueens]

Another turn with a lot going on potentially, so I will prime video by 2 screenshots. First is that we send as many troops to Constantinople ASAP while cleaning up the last region in our backyard. Last turn we hired a few more troops to fill up the frontage in order to debuff serious Byzantines stack before connecting with my main stack. I hire extra Levies to have enough troops for conquering 2 sets of Plain regions, and later on spit into Hills/Mountains 2nd and 3rd stacks.







We got extra 40 Manpower from Draft Levies last turn, so well played. Our Ruler health degrades to a status where Sudden Death is somewhat common. 2 Disorder tokens left to enter Fractured state. Our Heavy Cav mercs province one region grows to 8 POP, so we get walls there. Thats the last Province we grow to 12 POP, while all others disassembled Food and Health already.





HERE's YT VID with T126 RESOLUTION:

https://youtu.be/ZQ9B14hgnq4

[SuitedQueens]

Mass Abandon happens this turn. We get another token and our Authority from wins outweight harass Sortie losses. Another good thing is that you don't instantly lose a region if opponent didn't have Assault order when you Sortie like in Empires and earlier patches. We hire cheap medium cav to fill up flanking squares for 2nd Plain stacks. Pulling all our forces towards Constantinople to refocus stacks according to the goals.





Previousturn big fights on top of our region cause some Pillaging damage and modifier for 5 turns plus loss of Population. Other than that we get notifications about Mercs disbanding causing Bandits appear on Byzantine Abandoned lands, slaves appearing on Abandoned lands, Diseases on Abandoned lands. We sign Alliance with Zichia (Kessog Chiefodm) and ignore Byzantines pleas for Peace. We gonna be grinding them down for Legacy this time around and more regions to devastate their passive Legacy gains. Collapse is impossible task at Suicidal difficulty. Cumans swoop Byzantines Abandoned region, so I will trade with them on the next turn.

[SuitedQueens]

Our bait region finally falls. This allowed AI to focus their forces and merge them in a single stack, so they won't run away from the future encounters and won't surprise jump me out of the fog. In Anatolia I get unlucky since in the current patches any combat prior to Assault cancels Assault command. Byzantine Rebels remove my status, so on the next turn I will be fighting against Garrison with assigned General, which is not good for sustainability.





We get another Negative token, which is actually a net positive at this point, cuz we want to cycle through Unstable and Fragmented ASAP to lose Legacy negative modifier and Diplo penalties. Extortions from my dear friends keep me afloat with Pillaging gonna join soonish. I try to buy off region in Crimea from Cumans who got permanent control as a thirds side neutral to Byzantines attacking region that I Abandoned. As you can see our Heavy Cav Merc prove indispensable once again. I Allied myself with Slovakia. These types of deals become easier when no Holy Wars rampaging through the lands.







Here's how my rearranged stacks look like with appropriate names and Generals assigned. 2-0 also has +1 Attack in the open, but it will activate only on the next turn. Stay up for the glorious combat at the end of the vid that shows how I extended my line with cheap infantry to put my best units against their Cavalry and weaker Heavy units first.





LINK TO THE VID:

https://youtu.be/0eigL6oqIoM

[SuitedQueens]

Byzantine stack has 14 stong frontline units left, which means that our Light Horses will be lined up with their light horses. We can't hire extra Medium troops so far because we short on Manpower, so my main stack will slow down a bit. Path laid out to recapture my region and 2 no wall regions for more Manpower.



Slave Workforce we got from the last turn immediately disbands in the Christian region once again. We dealt with Cult Site, so I return forces to Vassal to free up more Manpower for Medium levies. Other than that we keep on the course of erecting the best value buildings. No edicting or new RGDs.

[SuitedQueens]

We caught Doom stack of Byzantines once again. Here's the results of all altercations that could've go wrong. And weird attack by Byzantine Vassals repelled easily.

















Our nations Fragments once again. Hopefuly we can go through this state quick like we did with Unstable because our Diplomacy gets hit by big maluses. Finally my last exposed region will be able to grow to 8 POP and get fortifications. Diplo deals allowed me to recruit more troops for replacements. Talking about Diplo: Hungary and Norway try to declare us Crusades target again. Papal State Amiable relationships should save us. We get extra Form Vassal, which will be useful for Seljuks conquests. Chief health degrades to near lethal status.

[SuitedQueens]

We deal with the weak Rebels in my Heavy Cap province. Another Byzantine Vassal suicides into me. Georgia in water has nice stack for defense to merge for AutoGarrison, but not much for attacking. harbors allow me to Embark for free, so we go for Byzantines Capital for cash infusion farming War Score on the way. My Tripoli stack starts Pillaging before moving on to 2nd Pillage location. Heavy Cav province threatened by giant Byzantine stack allured by weak region which gonna get Walls next turn.











No Crusades go through. I send potentially the last batch of Heavy Cav for Laundering to Tripoli. Noble triggers event of requesting Roads in one of my Craftsmen Borough regions. No new RGDs and we continue with our business as usual.

[SuitedQueens]

Georgia stack manages to scoot away as expected from AI whom feel that they are no match. Threatening stack desides to attack Hungary first and split into two for some reason. No Custom AI does that. Our hunter stack smashes another bystander who happened to be on top of our target region.











We start Pillaging trips on our way to conquering more regions for War Score. Since the new patch any combat overwrites Assault, so we start at regions that allow us to Assault walled cities before capturing extra unwalled target. Next turn we can gain a lot of money from devasting Byzantines capital. Here's the review of Byzantine stack that threatens our Heavy Cav Province. And thats the case because Hungary signed almost a White Peace like 8 turns ago.

[SuitedQueens]

Vanand, Byzantines Vassal, drawn to the easy Just Conquered regions that won't put up any Garrisons. We are ok with that if they won't gift back all regions back to Byzantines. And even if they do I can reconquer them back for more War Score like on Screenshot 2. We clash with another Generaled up army who we find on our path.









Siege will be quick oracles say. Nothing we can do about it besides Exit command to deal as much damage as possible. Hospitalears Order jumps out of the Fog to swoop up Abandoned regions and thats perfect. We have 75 Relationships with them after insulting Crusading targets and fighting Byzantines for so long. I separate stacks so only Heavy Cavalry gonna be assaulting Byzantines Capital.







I request more laundered Heavy Knights from Tripoli. Sign Alliance with Chernigov. Seljuks undermine our Spy Network. I sell Draft Levies and bank Forge Claim decision. Economy continues focusing on Legacy and Gold.

[SuitedQueens]

Complete destruction of the capital for 2000 Gold. Sneaky Vassal avoids all my forces and gets Just Conquered region. Tripoli grants us almost all troops. 3 Heavy Knights will be lost, but thats life. My separate stack gets pushed back by high power force that was moving through the Capital..







Oof. Hospitaliers DOW me. Thats nice because they will hold onto Byzantines regions once 10 turns timer passes because they are Neutral. We will be merging stack on the move and getting one more region per stack to Abandon. Byzantines move out leaving us the opening to raise up stack to conquer Province back. No new RGDs, economy goes for Gold and Legacy.

[SuitedQueens]

After viewing World Affairs I conclude that this game will be EASY, so I post till turn 150 update.

While we were merging on the move remnants of Byzantine Doom stack decided to move into 400+ Pwoer stack.. And results demonstrate futility of their plan. Another pick up of a Generalled up Byzantines stack. I don't post results of mundane combats against AutoGarrisons where no Generals participate. We truly dumped Byzantines this turn on Authority ladder. Altho trolling Hospitalliers stacks roaming around our regions triggering Garrisons for Authority losses (feature fixed and resource drain).













Vespians propose an Alliance to which we Agree. The sheer number of Vassals and Alliances ensured that Sweden and Novgorod stopped thinking about backstabbing us. Diseases and random - POP event devastate one of my regions. As you can see cheaper Med Infantry based stack always takes some attrition, so we have to chill this turn.









World Affairs:

1) Seljuks have tons of territories, but their stacks are not dangerous at all. They don't have heavy CAv and their Heavy Infantry is average. We crush Byzantines left and right with their Age 1 and Age 2 lists, so no nations are problematic for us.



2) Fatimids alright despite losing territories to Crusader forces. They don't have much Vassals, so Legacy income is decent. Their armies are similar to Seljuks in logic. We can crush them even quicker.



3) In Europe no nations holds significant territories, so I can bounce back between Byzantines, Seljuks and Fatimids for the rest of the game getting Legacy Concessions from them. HRE has 1 region left.



4) Same for RUS/Nomads regions. We allied to almost all of them and they are Fractured enough to not have any significant chunks of land for Legacy generation.

[SuitedQueens]

We slow down a bit to let effectiveness recover. During turn resolution Georgia and Byzantines tried to snatch regions we tried to Abandon as expected. WE caught them good. Byzantines use their super stack in Balkans to recover Zichia. I love the fact that Hospitalliers get Abandoned lands. We taxed by Rebels and Hospitalliers. Later will have to stay for longer until they starve their effectivness, because my AutoGarrison can't beat them.

[SuitedQueens]

We randomly caught another Generals. So far 0 Deaths possibly due to luck reserves accumulated during 100+ turns. Our relinquish stack almost hired. Turns out big Byzantine stack was moving towards Constantinople, so my Hunter stack path is forced. It takes 1 turn of sea travel thanks to Harbors. Clean up stack moves to finish off Byzantines Vassal.

[SuitedQueens]

We continue on our plan. Disembark without controlled port caused 1 effectiveness damage, but we end up in waters we we do have supply, so it will be healed. Since we end up in the water extra 25% Upkeep incured. We relieve Constantinople and see malicious forces gathering on both side. Hunter stack travels to get money from the Capital since we can't get to Mountains this turn anyway. Siege score is +30, which should protect us against instant Critical roll. We move out to return our Heavy Cav province. Jihad starts and we get Black Token.

[SuitedQueens]

Guess Byzantines had the same idea. Interestingly we fought against Hospitalliers first before Byzantines plus we were Defender. My Medium Cav got focused. We finished off Byzantines Vassal, so their property transitioned to us instantly with no Peace deals. I will try to get Abandoned permanently laundered region before Hungary and rebirthed Pechenegz acquired them. Rebels hit 3 Zichia regions and we get lucky with Gateway Food building by Byzantines last turn. Our Tripoli stack makes it way to new new Byzantine Capital for more cash flow. We got 600 gold from 2 Capitals last turn.

[SuitedQueens]

Byzantine slides in stack which helps me to fight on the underlying terrain instead of city. We encounter another general on our way to the new Byzantines Capital. I hire bunch of medium ships to hunt down stragglers in the seas.









We get our first Bodyguard from the Warriors Contest. That coincides with our Leader using luck to survive. I sell Draft Levies RGD that we got from Peasants Roundup. I use Send Councilor for the last boost on great General. 3 nations try to Start Crusade against me.. Lets see if Papa States save a third time.

[SuitedQueens]

We caught famous Doom Stack and unfortunately our Heavy Infantries got focused from 3 Effectivness to 0. Huge monetary gains from the Byzantines capital and we crawl to another one. I recruit few more boats. No Crusades go through, we sign Alliance with Sweden. I forge Claim for the region I intend to hold onto.

[SuitedQueens]

Backstabby stack emerges from the Hospitalliers Fog of War to reclaim 2 regions I recently gained. Another Capital on the line, but Forge Claim fails. We try coin flip to get Crimean regions from Cumans 3rd time in a row.

[SuitedQueens]

Hospitalliers moved to some target and interdicted with us, so we happily crush them. With Custom AI at least they camp and play defensively until they get a proper stacks. We get 2nd Negative token and huge influx of money from another broken Byzantines bank. Suomi DOWs now for some reason. I'm not sure they can even overcame my Vassals and Allies. Our Roster updates, but Estonia gets no new units as I said in the earlier chapters. Truly harsh version of Thieves forms in Narva. We try to get 2 regions Assaulting walled ones first.