July challenge Byzantine Suicidal

[SuitedQueens]

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 great detail again.
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The challenge description:

Will you manage to restore the Byzantine Empire (or rather the Basileía tōn Rhōmaíōn)? The year is 1208 and the empire has collapsed. Its absence has been filled by small independent tyrannies and opportunistic crusaders. The Seljuqs dislike you, but remain at peace. You only have 5 regions left, all scattered.

Lets start a brief research and formulate plans.

First is the roster and starting armies check up. Not much at all in that department, but our recruitable units are superb. It won't be an issue to crush our opposition especially considering that all our Archers has the best upgrade that pushes them to +4 support by default. The first goal is to get 2 full fledged stacks for the conquests. Our non-Merc units require heavy metal investments tho and moderate Manpower usage.











As always the trick is to go over SAU limit via Recruitment first, and then use RGDs and Diplomacy to launch further. We don't have Vassals to launder units, but our levies should be strong enough to reconquer neutral territories with lvl 2 walls at the start. Trebuchets provide Siege value and speed up of our attack/escape maneuvers in the Mountains. I refocus our regions since we don't have time for growth left and hire infantry levies + SAUs to complement already existing supports. Build more Metal and Manpower production, edict for the Hamlet.





We send out barrage of Insults to improve Relationships with Seljuks, Crusader states and other neighbors we use for trading and won't bother with conquering. We start with 5 regions and bad Capital placement (far east). We don't want to go into war with Seljuks since they are not a threat on Legacy board in terms of raw numbers and income + provide penalties for Byzantines mechanic related to Coups chance increase. My target list this game goes like this:





Short term goal is reconquering Constantinople and these 3 provinces to unlock Medium Cavalry mercs, Knight Mercs and Archer mercs. Unfortunately there is no interesting Infantry provinces, so we gotta do with SAUs which are not bad at all. Trading my Capital region for resources via Diplomacy to move the Capital and get more Manpower and Metal for recruitment. Then getting more regions to Form Vassal and increase economy and Legacy production. That should allow me to mount more stacks to go into proper war with Legacy leaders.







As far as Court goes we have only 2 great generals with superb traits. I will max out Gift to characters decision and rotation kill decisions. Our Heir is decent stat wise, but our Ruler is 0-0, so he only good for sitting on top of a Capital with 100 POW stack to reduce Coups. Ruler trait is insane tho and help to renovate regions way quicker. We have low Commerce bonus, but decent Stewardship and Piety for the Education Legacy gains. Manpower is an issue early on, but Diplomacy and new regional gains gonna help soon.











RGD readjustment costs us plenty of gold. I sell useless RGDs to gain Manpower and Metal. I play Grant Land for Legacy and resources. Double Prospect Resources on Hills to get rare metals. We get lucky 500 Gold event meanwhile.

[SuitedQueens]

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.







Crusaders and Templars don't care about us for some reason. At least Knight Orders still do, so we try to Trade off our Capital region for Manpower.

[SuitedQueens]

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 continue to assemble our first stack. Seljuks reconquer Crusaders held lands.

[SuitedQueens]

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 get out of hand. We continue recruiting Spears and beefing up Manpower and Metal. Diplomatically continue to Abandoning Claims.

[SuitedQueens]

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.

[SuitedQueens]

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 in to Constantinople. We get a random negative event in one of our specialize regions..

[SuitedQueens]

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 signed the Alliance. I will leave them alone and try to Ally, so they would help me with future Coups and reduce AI aggression. I will slow down on Edicting after this turn because on Suicidal you want to keep about 66 Authority to stay in the green.

[SuitedQueens]

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 friends. Combats go easy and somehow Peasant absorbs all arrows both fights.

[SuitedQueens]

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 gold to further readjust RGDs in Expert mode. Armenia sends us Ally Request. No Edicts this turn. Conquest goes easy again.

[SuitedQueens]

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 Empires. Another Recruit since we will be DOWing Tmutarakan very soon. Easy combats against Rebels as always.

[SuitedQueens]

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 roads and I show another example of reforming my newly gained region. Easy victory and we managed to gather forces in time to invade Tmutarakan by crossing the strait.

[SuitedQueens]

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 with. In Assault Trebuches take priority instead of +4 Support units. I will be splitting dedicated task forces of 2 Knights + 4 Heavy + 6 Archers against tough garrisons.

[SuitedQueens]

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 least our Ranged Defense upgrade save us during skirmishing phase unlike opponent troops. Most of our units got damaged, so I will pull them back for restoring HP. In the end of the altercation opponent stack ends up on Neutral territory with all supplies cut off.

[SuitedQueens]

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 Light Cavalry mercs this turn. We crush a remnants of the Tmutarakan doom stack.

[SuitedQueens]

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 halfbaked stack to take care of unwalled region of Tmutarakan. Strongholds start producing Authority event.

[SuitedQueens]

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.









Another turn of region + killing occasional army that find a way to sneak in on my territory. I play Absorb Minor on the region with lvl 3 walls and serious garrison. In 1.0.6.5 Combats on underlying terrains are very common again, so traveling with City Assault specific small stacks is dangerous cuz you will be outflanked.