So starting out as a Papist Byzantine Emperor, I realized that I could toss some of my Anatolian lands towards the Teutonic Knights as a buffer between me and the Muslim clowncars. Of course later on I also tossed them some of my de jure titles. This made them my de jure vassals. One diplomatic vassalization later and now I have land in Lithuania and a bunch of random Catholic courtiers that I gave land to. This is ended in me getting claims on bits of Hungary while the Despot of Armenia also turned out to be the heir to the Danish throne. Also somehow the Venetian Dandolo family managed to sneak in a dynasty member of theirs high into the line of succession (said kid tragically swallowed more than a few coins while mucking about in the palatial treasure vault).
As I mentioned the other day, I recently started a Persian game with the goal of converting to Nestorian Christianity and conquering, well, Persia, together with Rajasthan (the empire needed for the achievement "Master of East and West") I was hoping to face up against the Mongols, export to EUIV, and even maybe get the Persistent Survivor achievement, but when I went to look at the game this morning, it said that the save game had been corrupted. And since obviously this was Ironman, there's no old save game to restore to
So I'll just share where I had gotten by the end and a couple of neat events that happened along the way, along with some general ideas. Overall, I ended up playing the game for about 300 years, up to roughly the 1150s; despite some early setbacks that frustrated me and nearly caused me to abandon the game, by that point I had fully completed restoring the Persian Empire, and had actually extended its boundaries in the east and to a much more limited extent the west beyond the limits of any historical Persian empire, as seen here:
You can't see it, because I set them free right before I took that map shot, but I conquered Constantinople and Rome and installed Nestorian patriarchs in both, wondering (due to the presence of the Pentarchy section in the religion screen) whether it was possible to mend the Assyrian Schism (answer: no, no it isn't). That would have been useful, because Orthodoxy has, rather ironically, collapsed in the Roman Empire; through a sequence of events I don't really understand, the heirs to the throne (who were, incidentally, married to and children of my dynasty, through their mother) became Frankish Catholics, and enthusiastically set about converting, as you can see here:
The 3rd Rome has become Kiev. As you can also see, I have been extremely successful in converting the Persian Empire to Nestorianism, aided by the large number of Holy Wars I've fought and the eventual conquest of all of the Nestorian holy sites. After some stupid shenanigans involving the Patriarch of the East (note: always make sure to grant bishoprics THEN counties to people you want to make Prince-Bishops, the same except with cities for republics; doing it otherwise will lead to madness and despair), he's in charge of the de jure duchy of Antioch as the Prince-Archbishop of Antioch and the Patriarch of the East, and controls Antioch itself. Additionally, I have vassalized the Order of Saint Addai, so I have basically free holy order raising (one reason I had hoped to mend the schism was to get access to the Catholic and even Orthodox holy orders, to have more firepower to fight the Mongols with).
One surprising religious event that happened during the game, which I didn't have anything to do with besides reducing the probability of them being converted to Islam, was that the Turks reformed Tengriism (I wanted to include a screenshot, but I can't figure out how to get the forum and Steam together) As you can see from the above, they've been reasonably successful, or were until the Romans ran out of convenient targets to beat up to their south and started to conquer into the steppes instead (we could really use a steppes DLC that improved steppe mechanics and made it harder to do that sort of thing without spending a lot of time and money on it).
Other interesting religious things that happened were the replacement of Zoroastrianism by Manicheanism and Miaphytism by Monophytism, respectively, early in the game.
Besides spreading Christianity, my appointment of Persian rulers to conquered lands has also very successfully spread Persian culture:
In particular, Indo-Aryan culture has become pretty much just Aryan culture (I thought that was hilarious when I saw it). Frankish culture has also been very successful spreading in the French region and into the Dutch area (probably because a Frisian independence revolt succeeded, spread their dynasty to France, then assimilated while unifying the Crowns of Frisia and France), and Bohemian has essentially wiped out Polish.
I wish I could talk about the amazing kings that I've had, but with the save game corrupted I can't go back and check. The only names I remember are the first two, Ya'qub the Lion (yes, I was playing the Saffarids--more about that in a moment) and Ya'qub II 'the Great', the first Nestorian king of Persia. Later on, another of my kings was so virtuous he got the True Christian Knight event. That had never happened to me before, so it was kind of fun, even if a later event (one of those irritating "you just randomly lose/gain a trait" ones) gave me a mortal sin (Wroth) and took the modifier away.
I think, though I don't quite remember, that the same king who was a True Christian Knight almost managed to get "Celebrity," that is 15,000 prestige--he certainly had more than 10,000, but died before I could re(re) created Jerusalem (there were two crusades for Jerusalem; the first one was won by Scotland, who held on to it for a little while before the Muslims reconquered it, managing to convert a few parts of it to Scottish culture, the second was a little weird and ended up with an independent Scottish Sultanate (though Christian) of Jerusalem, which was also reconquered by the Muslims, helped by the fact that I had conquered nearly half of de jure Jerusalem previously). His son got there, and managed to get Saint, too, by donating a ton of money to the Order of Saint Addai. He ended up with ~20,000 prestige and ~10,000 piety...stand-up kind of guy, really. I probably could have gotten Merchant Prince if I hadn't spent another dime for a couple of centuries, but as I mentioned the save game got corrupted so that can't happen.
Somewhat surprisingly, neither Seljuk nor the Ghazvanids ever turned up in this game, despite an independent Turkish kingdom existing in Turkestan. Even more surprisingly, the Magyars never actually conquered Hungary, but instead stayed independent as the Magyars until they took over Cumania! I was hoping to have a throw down with the Mongols and Timur and see what the Aztecs could do against a variously strong and weak Western Europe, but like I said I can't play it any more.
Anyways, a few of the juicy details on how I actually played the game. Rather than starting off as the Nestorian Emir of Socotra, which is a pretty doomed position, I decided to be gamey and start off as the Saffarids, aka the most powerful faction in Persia, and send my heirs (when I got them) to the Patriarch of the East for education, giving a decent chance for them to be converted to Nestorianism rather than Sunni Islam. Thanks to the Saffarid event troops, which gave me an effective (albeit reinforcement-free) retinue long before I could have built anything nearly as large and powerful myself, I was able to conquer a good chunk of Persia and some of India before I ran into my first real obstacles: the Arabian Empire (1) and the Shia Caliphate (2). The former hardly needs explanation; I needed/wanted to conquer basically all of their starting territories, while the Abbasid caliph-emperors are some of the most powerful rulers in the game, usually. Moreover, as a Christian they could wage holy wars on me, which they unfortunately did. While I was able to beat them off a few times, they were eventually able to overpower me and take Fars, I think because of the second obstacle (memory is a little hazy).
And that was a bit of a doozy. As I was really starting to look at going west and getting irritated by Arab invasions, the Pretender Shia Caliphate event fired for the Arabian Empire (the first of three times it would happen, actually, each time progressively more laughable). At first this seemed like a good thing for me, until I found out that they weren't in Egypt (which the caliphs had conquered), Jerusalem, or Syria, or anywhere else where it would have a limited impact on me, but in Mesopotamia. When the Shia won, they had ~35,000 event troops left over (judging from later troop numbers) and a will to use them. Guess who was one of the first on their target list? They ended up taking Esfahan and Kerman from me before they eventually picked a fight with the Byzantines and had all those event troops ground down. This was the nadir of my playing experience; while I had conquered Khiva and more of India, I was getting really frustrated with being unable to win in the west and nearly gave up. Fortunately, I didn't, because with their event troops gone and alliance with the Byzantines (which I had actually started a bit earlier), I was able to start kicking them around myself, reconquering Persia and pushing into Mesopotamia. With most of north-western India behind me, growing Military Organization technology, and a nearly-unified Persian Empire, once I bordered the Arabian Empire again I was able to defeat them regularly, after which things became more or less boring to narrate.
I might do this again but convert to Messalianism instead of Nestorianism (or rather Sunni->Nestorian->Messalian). It's a Nestorian heresy that combines certain Cathar abilities (feminism) with Zoroastrian (Divine Marriage), while still being Christian. What's not to like!? The only downside is that, like most heresies, there is no religious head...
I kind of wish there were crusades for Orthodox, Miaphysite, and Nestorian countries as well. Maybe more limited than for Catholic, Muslim, Zoroastrian, or reformed pagan countries, but still something more than just the holy war.
So I'll just share where I had gotten by the end and a couple of neat events that happened along the way, along with some general ideas. Overall, I ended up playing the game for about 300 years, up to roughly the 1150s; despite some early setbacks that frustrated me and nearly caused me to abandon the game, by that point I had fully completed restoring the Persian Empire, and had actually extended its boundaries in the east and to a much more limited extent the west beyond the limits of any historical Persian empire, as seen here:
Not exactly for the West : The Achaemenids empire controlled the whole of asia minor. Still, considering how annoying it is to conquer (your troops take months to cross your Empire, and then if you don't want to break truce it is extremely slow) I can't really fault you.
Also, catholic Byzantine was a annoying surprise I had in my own Persian game, though at least it came with most of Europe so they were a strong rival for some time.
Oh, I'm aware of that; I was referring to taking Rome and Constantinople, and conquering the interior of Arabia (I figured any decent Shah would recognize the threat posed by the Arabs and take pains to pacify them).
Still, considering how annoying it is to conquer (your troops take months to cross your Empire, and then if you don't want to break truce it is extremely slow) I can't really fault you.
Well, I had Max Crown Authority (for shits and giggles, I know perfectly well that the "logical" thing to do is Medium) and the whole of the Levant, which was pretty built up. Between my retinues, my personal levies, and the levies of just the Levant and western Persia, I think I could raise something like 60,000 troops locally, which happens to be roughly equal to the entire Byzantine army (well, recall that the Abassids controlling roughly the same area of land can usually match or exceed the Byzantines in army size...). Hence, I could engage immediately(-ish) with the levies and retinues, then funnel the Indian and Central Asian troops into siege stacks as they arrived. So no worries there; actually the two wars I needed to fight to install a Nestorian Patriarch of Constantinople were both over quite quickly, after crushing a couple of Byzantine armies under horse archer retinue spam (really, the Persians should have Cataphracts too, they literally invented them...but whatever) the Emperor had a habit of giving up.
Had I been able to continue play, I probably would have turned India east of the Indus, Egypt, and Arabia into vassal kings. Yes, terrible for stability, but those areas were too remote or rugged for an administration based in Baghdad to reasonably control in the 12th century (even the Ottomans only ever established suzerainty over interior Arabia), so I figured it would make sense. After that, I might have tried to set up a client Nestorian king of Turkestan and regularize borders or convert Abyssinia/Nubia to Nestorianism or whatever while waiting for the Mongols (along with building up, of course).
One thing I thought of while playing was that there's a lack of Central Asian flavor events. I would have liked some events relating to the Silk Road (considering that I controlled most of it, both land and sea routes), just minor things that might amount to small income bonuses from the merchants or spending some money on silks, spices, and similar for minor benefits (boosted relationship with your wife/vassals/courtiers, for instance, the possibility of getting some trains, etc.), and some events relating to Chinese history (eg., the fall of the Tang in the 10th century) that might be related to the above. Generally a few more events for cultures and countries on the eastern border of the map would be nice, recognizing that unlike the Atlantic there was a there there (so to speak).
Another thing would be to slightly boost the number of pilgrimage sites available for Christians, especially for the eastern religions, and maybe to differentiate the Nestorian and Orthodox faiths more. Each of the major sects should have five or so sites open to them--an easy thing to do would be to unlock Rome for Orthodox characters if the Schism is mended (after all, Rome was important in Eastern Christianity), or make it so that characters can go on pilgrimage to any of their branch's holy sites, the way that Catholics can to theirs (in addition to Jerusalem). Maybe add some date/technology/circumstances unlocks, too--like, Miaphysites might not be able to go on pilgrimage to Antioch unless a Christian controls it and there aren't any Muslims in the way, or something.
Oh, I'm aware of that; I was referring to taking Rome and Constantinople, and conquering the interior of Arabia (I figured any decent Shah would recognize the threat posed by the Arabs and take pains to pacify them).
Well, I had Max Crown Authority (for shits and giggles, I know perfectly well that the "logical" thing to do is Medium) and the whole of the Levant, which was pretty built up. Between my retinues, my personal levies, and the levies of just the Levant and western Persia, I think I could raise something like 60,000 troops locally, which happens to be roughly equal to the entire Byzantine army (well, recall that the Abassids controlling roughly the same area of land can usually match or exceed the Byzantines in army size...). Hence, I could engage immediately(-ish) with the levies and retinues, then funnel the Indian and Central Asian troops into siege stacks as they arrived. So no worries there; actually the two wars I needed to fight to install a Nestorian Patriarch of Constantinople were both over quite quickly, after crushing a couple of Byzantine armies under horse archer retinue spam (really, the Persians should have Cataphracts too, they literally invented them...but whatever) the Emperor had a habit of giving up.
Absolute isn't so bad. Because even if every vassal hate you, you get 80% of their levies. More importantly, they don't go conquering your neighbors, and so you keep pretty borders . Also, High CA if you're not the only country of your religion is good too, so you don't suddenly find out that that super-duchy has been inherited by your biggest rival.
Had I been able to continue play, I probably would have turned India east of the Indus, Egypt, and Arabia into vassal kings. Yes, terrible for stability, but those areas were too remote or rugged for an administration based in Baghdad to reasonably control in the 12th century (even the Ottomans only ever established suzerainty over interior Arabia), so I figured it would make sense. After that, I might have tried to set up a client Nestorian king of Turkestan and regularize borders or convert Abyssinia/Nubia to Nestorianism or whatever while waiting for the Mongols (along with building up, of course).
Vassal kings aren't so horrible for stability... Well, so long as you don't give them one of the biggest kingdom. It also make it a lot easier to gather your troops (but when you're at the point of having vassal kings, you can beat anything but the Mongols with mostly your retinues anyway ). If they are at only, say 5% of your total levies, they aren't that dangerous. Even if they will always join independence factions except if they like you very much.
One thing I thought of while playing was that there's a lack of Central Asian flavor events. I would have liked some events relating to the Silk Road (considering that I controlled most of it, both land and sea routes), just minor things that might amount to small income bonuses from the merchants or spending some money on silks, spices, and similar for minor benefits (boosted relationship with your wife/vassals/courtiers, for instance, the possibility of getting some trains, etc.), and some events relating to Chinese history (eg., the fall of the Tang in the 10th century) that might be related to the above. Generally a few more events for cultures and countries on the eastern border of the map would be nice, recognizing that unlike the Atlantic there was a there there (so to speak).
Yes, it would be good to have more event from that part. I remember having a certain Marco Polo who went through my empire to go to the east, but apart from that, there was not much.
Absolute isn't so bad. Because even if every vassal hate you, you get 80% of their levies. More importantly, they don't go conquering your neighbors, and so you keep pretty borders . Also, High CA if you're not the only country of your religion is good too, so you don't suddenly find out that that super-duchy has been inherited by your biggest rival.
Eh, that's what careful management is for...even if I have to admit that I don't play close enough attention to my vassals to keep track of that sort of thing. You do have the fact that with 80% of their levies, they need a huge faction to feel safe revolting.
Vassal kings aren't so horrible for stability... Well, so long as you don't give them one of the biggest kingdom. It also make it a lot easier to gather your troops (but when you're at the point of having vassal kings, you can beat anything but the Mongols with mostly your retinues anyway ). If they are at only, say 5% of your total levies, they aren't that dangerous. Even if they will always join independence factions except if they like you very much.
Well okay, I exaggerate; I'm quoting the received wisdom of the Paradox boards (or paraphrasing it, rather), based on the addition of the -25 relations penalty for vassal kings in the more recent patch. Still, the Indian kingdoms together could probably scrape up 25,000 troops, Egypt and Arabia around 10,000 each, so if they aligned, they might actually feel semi-safe. Maybe. Probably not.
Still, it would be a bigger risk, and I felt, as I said, that it would make sense for those areas to be more independent than areas closer to Baghdad, ie. vassal kings instead of vassal dukes.
Yes, it would be good to have more event from that part. I remember having a certain Marco Polo who went through my empire to go to the east, but apart from that, there was not much.
It's 1150 The Empire of Russia currently extends from Wallachia to Perm, it also controls Most of Denmark and the Coast of Norway. The once great Kingdom of Ireland has been pushed off it's homeland by a combination of Swedish Adventurers and Local Heathens in Dublin, both carrying the Slavic Faith with them. the Irish Kingdom in name still exists in catholic hands (for some reason) but it's in Scotland fighting for Survival Against both the Kingdom of Wales and the Kingdom of Alba(Scotland), which is ironically ruled by the family that originally founded the Irish Kingdom. West Francia seems to be in a ever-lasting civil war. Danish Nobles rule England for the time being. Shia Islam has become a Heresy after Druze became the Dominate religion in the Islamic parts of Spain and parts of Africa. Poland continues to fight the Carpathia empire for control of Germany. The Catholic Church is failing to understand the definition of insanity as the Fifth Crusade for Jerusalem has recently been called, none of them have even come close to taking the city, hell the last one saw Rome sacked. Okay admittedly that last one was my doing but what can I say, things were a bit too quiet in Russia.
Eh, that's what careful management is for...even if I have to admit that I don't play close enough attention to my vassals to keep track of that sort of thing. You do have the fact that with 80% of their levies, they need a huge faction to feel safe revolting.
Well okay, I exaggerate; I'm quoting the received wisdom of the Paradox boards (or paraphrasing it, rather), based on the addition of the -25 relations penalty for vassal kings in the more recent patch. Still, the Indian kingdoms together could probably scrape up 25,000 troops, Egypt and Arabia around 10,000 each, so if they aligned, they might actually feel semi-safe. Maybe. Probably not.
Even on the Paradox forum there's no real consensus on that. I think most would agree that the kingdom of say, Afghanistan, isn't massively threatening to form in the Persian empire. I think the problem isn't so much the -25 relation penalty (it hurts of course, but with good trait, decent diplo and prestige, you should be fine. As long as you don't get an unexpected regency, of course) but the fact that kingdom will join independences factions even when same culture and religion.
Anyway, a revolt of ~50000 troops isn't really frightening. But that may be because by 1300, a Persian Empire going from the Indus to Greece have some 200-300k of troops. And can field about 50k of horse archer retinues.
Still, it would be a bigger risk, and I felt, as I said, that it would make sense for those areas to be more independent than areas closer to Baghdad, ie. vassal kings instead of vassal dukes.
Understandable. At the end I started giving kingdom like candy because, well... the internal border started to get really, really ugly, and it cleaned them up a little. Still, as I had created the republic of Oman (which was extremely profitable), I didn't create Arabia.
Yeah, flavor is a little lacking in some areas. There's a Marco Polo event chain? I haven't seen that one, probably haven't played long enough.
There is one. Reading the event file, it happen after 1300, if you are one of the indian empire, persia or tartaria, control Jerusalem, and are neither muslim, tengri (reformed or not) or from an indian religion. I'm not sure if the fact that Zoro can get the event is intended though.
You can choose to help the expedition for prestige (I think) and a gain of one or two learning points when he come back.
Even on the Paradox forum there's no real consensus on that. I think most would agree that the kingdom of say, Afghanistan, isn't massively threatening to form in the Persian empire. I think the problem isn't so much the -25 relation penalty (it hurts of course, but with good trait, decent diplo and prestige, you should be fine. As long as you don't get an unexpected regency, of course) but the fact that kingdom will join independences factions even when same culture and religion.
Anyway, a revolt of ~50000 troops isn't really frightening. But that may be because by 1300, a Persian Empire going from the Indus to Greece have some 200-300k of troops. And can field about 50k of horse archer retinues.
I wasn't quite there yet--on the verge of getting 40k retinues and only about 120k troops overall. But pretty close. I would agree that even a big revolt wouldn't be much of a threat--I actually had one happen to me, and the sum total was that I beat up some of their field armies and used my retinues (which happened to be in India) to overrun a couple of their provinces, then they surrendered. They really need some powering up, to be honest.
Understandable. At the end I started giving kingdom like candy because, well... the internal border started to get really, really ugly, and it cleaned them up a little. Still, as I had created the republic of Oman (which was extremely profitable), I didn't create Arabia.
That's why I waited until almost 1100 to form the Empire of Persia despite meeting the requirements 40 or 50 years earlier--I assimilated all of the Empire except Mesopotamia (sadly) into the de jure Kingdom of Persia, plus Sindh and Punjab. So I was able to give myself 5 titular king titles
I don't actually pay any attention to the internal borders (or wasn't by that point in the game, anyways), so that's not why I would want to pass
There is one. Reading the event file, it happen after 1300, if you are one of the indian empire, persia or tartaria, control Jerusalem, and are neither muslim, tengri (reformed or not) or from an indian religion. I'm not sure if the fact that Zoro can get the event is intended though.
You can choose to help the expedition for prestige (I think) and a gain of one or two learning points when he come back.
Interesting indeed, yes. Indian Empire is something you can get by decision after conquering all of India? (Here I decided to stop at Rajasthan to make things more interesting later; ideally the Indians would have formed the Bengal and Deccan Empires, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. I suppose I could have manipulated things...) Or do you just mean the holder of any Indian Empire title?
Zoro actually makes sense, looking at pre-Islam history, though I wouldn't place bets on it not being an oversight. Any idea of the event number(s) so I can look them up myself?
Interesting indeed, yes. Indian Empire is something you can get by decision after conquering all of India? (Here I decided to stop at Rajasthan to make things more interesting later; ideally the Indians would have formed the Bengal and Deccan Empires, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. I suppose I could have manipulated things...) Or do you just mean the holder of any Indian Empire title?
You need to hold all of the kingdoms in India as well as hold an empire level title in India to create the "Empire of India". Seeing as you hold Rajastan no one can create it.
That's why I waited until almost 1100 to form the Empire of Persia despite meeting the requirements 40 or 50 years earlier--I assimilated all of the Empire except Mesopotamia (sadly) into the de jure Kingdom of Persia, plus Sindh and Punjab. So I was able to give myself 5 titular king titles
Which make me think of the advantage of vassal kings : if the kingdom is relatively small, you get more prestige out of it (I think we should get prestige for vassals of vassals though. Well, actually I think that monthly prestige should be removed because it's far too easy to get in the 10k prestige where everybody will love you, just by not doing anything)
Anyway, Zoro has an advantage compared to other Persian empire : Shaoyshant (or however it is spelled) descendant and divine marriage. It may be why I never had to worry about revolt despite being for a long time at absolute CA and low feudal taxes (which I eventually lowered again after putting up some theocracy and republics which are better for getting money)
Interesting indeed, yes. Indian Empire is something you can get by decision after conquering all of India? (Here I decided to stop at Rajasthan to make things more interesting later; ideally the Indians would have formed the Bengal and Deccan Empires, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. I suppose I could have manipulated things...) Or do you just mean the holder of any Indian Empire title?
In this case, it's "AN indian empire", which is to say either Bengal, Deccan or Rajasthan. I'm not sure if you can form the Empire of India as a non-indian.
Zoro actually makes sense, looking at pre-Islam history, though I wouldn't place bets on it not being an oversight. Any idea of the event number(s) so I can look them up myself?
Anyway, Zoro has an advantage compared to other Persian empire : Shaoyshant (or however it is spelled) descendant and divine marriage. It may be why I never had to worry about revolt despite being for a long time at absolute CA and low feudal taxes (which I eventually lowered again after putting up some theocracy and republics which are better for getting money)
Like I said, you can get half of that with Messalinianism, which gets you the divine marriage plus Cathar feminism Of course, you don't get the Saoshyant bonuses or Great Holy Wars (which Zoros can do the moment they restore the Mobodan-Mobad), so it's still weaker. Frankly, though, I just really wanted to play a Nestorian Christian empire; maybe in the future I'll go ahead and finally do a Zoro play through (probably doing the same strategy, because damn Saffarids are easier than Karen...)
So I've been testing out the Crusader Queens mod. So much glorious chaos when all succession laws (including the egnatic branch), positions and event trees are opened for both genders and all faiths.
So in my world, the HRE was founded by Empress Catherine the Great of House Karling.
Yeah, quite a bit. Unless I suppose you go out of your way to protect them, the Zoros tend to die off quickly, and unlike a lot of the Christian denominations there's no easy way to reintroduce them (since all the main branches have a permanent religious head, you can send your children to be tutored by them until you get one that religion converts, then use your councilor on the spread cultural technology mission to convert to any heresy eventually if that's what you want). The same is true of all the religions that don't have a permanent religious head, except Judaism (due to random Jewish courtier generation).
So I've been testing out the Crusader Queens mod. So much glorious chaos when all succession laws (including the egnatic branch), positions and event trees are opened for both genders and all faiths.
So in my world, the HRE was founded by Empress Catherine the Great of House Karling.
Like I said, you can get half of that with Messalinianism, which gets you the divine marriage plus Cathar feminism Of course, you don't get the Saoshyant bonuses or Great Holy Wars (which Zoros can do the moment they restore the Mobodan-Mobad), so it's still weaker. Frankly, though, I just really wanted to play a Nestorian Christian empire; maybe in the future I'll go ahead and finally do a Zoro play through (probably doing the same strategy, because damn Saffarids are easier than Karen...)
Hum... I don't think zoro has great holy wars. The main benefits of restoring the mobodan-mobad seems to be the holy order. Maybe I'm mistaken though, so I would have to check that.
Hum... I don't think zoro has great holy wars. The main benefits of restoring the mobodan-mobad seems to be the holy order. Maybe I'm mistaken though, so I would have to check that.
No, no, they do. According to the wiki, at least--I've never played long enough to get to that point myself. Actually, every reformed religion except for the autocephalous family (Orthodoxy, Miaphythism, and Nestorianism) get Crusades/Jihads/Great Holy Wars or equivalent.
No, no, they do. According to the wiki, at least--I've never played long enough to get to that point myself. Actually, every reformed religion except for the autocephalous family (Orthodoxy, Miaphythism, and Nestorianism) get Crusades/Jihads/Great Holy Wars or equivalent.
Just looking at the list of characters you should play on the Paradox forums, it has a bunch of nice possible starts.
One character that stood out to me was Mansa Musa, Emperor of Mali. Heres the description of him on the forum.
Mansa Musa I of Mali January 1, 1312.
Why should you play as Musa? Because Mansa Musa is considered by many to be the wealthiest person ever. Before death Musa amassed an estimated $400 billion from Mali's status as the producer of HALF the world's gold and salt.
On his Hajj he built a mosque every Friday and gave away so much gold in Cairo, Mecca and Medina that their economies hyperinflated for a decade. The hyperinflation in prices also made the traders of Venice and other Italian states a killing selling their goods in Egypt. This boon to Italian trade merchants was also a major factor in the development of the Renaissance.
While on hajj he also convinced many scholars of all subjects to return with him to Mali where he built the still existing University of Sankore(along with the many other mosques and madrassas)which was able to house 25,000 students and a half million books which gave it the greatest library in Africa since the destruction of Alexandria's.
Using his wealth and generosity he turned Mali into one of the world's foremost centers of trade, culture and science and religion.
Man, with all that why the heck is Mali Sub-Saharan techgroup in EUIV.
Right now I'm playing as de Hauteville, having restored Rome. Actually, right now I'm waiting for the Mongols to turn up, let's see how they go against a Catholic Rome, Catholic Persia and Catholic Tartaria.
I'll probably wait until the converter is fully fixed before continuing much further, though.
Putting my Slavic Norse Russian game on hold for the moment, I'm going to try a new experiment, turn France Cathar when starting as a Duke, this probably won't see me burned at the stake as a heretic.
