Trebizond AAR EU3

BlueMak

I decided to write an AAR for the game of Europa Universalis 3, playing as Trebizond (1 area kingdom).
I haven't spent much time playing the game so chances are I won't do that good. Also I am tired and I don't have a proper program to do any spell checking. If you don't mind reading it, go ahead.





I will be writting this in first person as the original notes were, following the secret duty of writting down the truth about the history

of our people. Mind you that english is not the language we are best at and it will take a few more centuries till spellcheckers appear.

30th May 1453
The easter roman empire has fallen. The only thing that remains from the old empire is the independent kingdom of Trebizond.

Surrounded by foes.
Candar to the west (purple), the Ottoman empire to the south west (light green), Ak Koyunlu to the south east (cyan) and

Georgia to the north east (blue).
Apart from the friendly Georgia that also happens to be orthodox christian kingdom, the other three of our neighbours are muslims and saying our relations are cool would be an understatement. I am sure they will not be too sad to see us die as soon as possible. That includes the Georgians who have always thought of themselves as the right successors of the empire.
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos is a well known master of diplomacy, some say he could persuade the Ottomans to just
give us Constantinople, if he was given the chance. Diplomacy is not his only skill though, he is well known for his administrative skills and he has proven himself as an above average tactician. Things are looking good for our kingdom, not as good as we weren't surrounded by barbarians and impeciles, but still good.



Our greatest issue at hand is financial. Each month we pay more than we earn and even considering our end of year major taxes, still not earning enough to pose a threat to anyone. Sooner or later we will have to go into debt and take a loan.
The first focus of our economy will be to improve our Goverment technological level to allow new thoughts and perhaps a great
idea to change our ways just enough to improve our chances.
We will try to remain at peace, unless an excellent chance comes to gain territory.


2nd June 1453.
Today is a great day. Georgia has offered us an alliance, this will prove beneficial for both our countries....I hope. We might get drawn into a war not of our choosing, but it is better to have an ally if nothing else, to be less worried about our North East borders. Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has signed the Alliance.


3rd June 1453
The court is very busy today, there is a rumour that Dulkadir and Candar have signed a military alliance with each other. Also Ak Koyunlu has allied with the Golden Horde!

23rd June 1453
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has decided to disband our only military ship. Monetary reasons. I am sure he knows best.

29th July 1453
A glorious day! Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has decided and Georgians have accepted a royal marriage between our two countries. One of our young princes and one of their princesses will get married soon!

3rd August 1453
We have reasons to believe that Candar has a working spy ring in Trebizon, this is very unfortunate.

18th September 1453
WAR! Ak Koyunlu has declared war on our allies. We have to accept their request to help them. Even if it means almost certain
war with the Golden Horde! May God be with us!

10th October 1453
The Golden Horde has captured Alania after defeating the local "army". Imereti is under attack by a larger army.
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has decided to personaly lead our mighty force of...1000men to capture or at least annoy
Erserum of Ak Koyunlu. I am sure this will not prove a bad idea any time soon.
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos wanted to train more soldiers from the men of our country, but suddently almost everyone
has decided to devote themselves to God and joined the Church. It's very probable that mercenaries will be hired, even if that means getting a much not desired load.

13th October 1453
Our wonderful allies have capture the region of Armenia from Ak Koyunlu! I knew they would do fine in this war!

15th October 1453
Imereti is under siege by Ak Koyunlu. The local Georgian army lost the battle and now the main city is under siege. Georgians claim they can hold on for years.

20 October 1453
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos leading our great *cough* army has "surrounded" the capital city of Erserum. Sooner or later the defenders will surrender. They have to!

1st November 1453
The region of Georgia (not to be confused with the name of the country or its capital) has been capture by the Golden Horde. The
Georgian ambassador tell us it is nothing to worry about.

20th November 1453
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has been informed that there is food shortage in Erserum! That is great news, for us.

28th November 1453
The 2000 strong army of Georgia tried to liberate Alania. After a one day battle the army returns to the capital of Georgia, Kartli.
All 800 of them. The Georgian ambassador told me that the reason is they wanted to merge with the 900 men still in the capital.
He refused to comment on the 3000 strong Golden Horde army following their army, rumour as, lies lies lies.

10th December 1453
The Georgian Ambassador was telling the truth. The Golden Horde army was not following their army to the capital. In fact, they
have passed them and are no laying siege to the Georgian capital city. The 500 men of the local army withdrew, only the city garrison remains.

24th December 1453
While the Golden Horde still is in Kartli, the Georgian army that attacked the Ak Koyunlu army attacking Imereti, was victorious!
Not only has the siege stopped but the Georgian army is after the muslim army back to Van!!!


5th Januray 1454
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has ordered the hiring of a mercenary infantry army of 1000 men. The army has already
departed for Erserum to help with the siege of Erserum.

28th Januray 1454
The Georgian army has reached Van, attacked the local army and won. The bad thing is that the defeated army is now marching
towards Erserum. All 2300 men of it. Hmm...

26th February 1454
Our great army came under attack by a combination the retreating muslim army and inside the city. I am sure there was a traitor
among our army, we lost the fight! 287 of our 2000 died.
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has given me the order of hiring more mercenaries and thus I was forced to take a loan.

12 March 1454
The muslim army is in pursuit! They are heading towards Trebizon! We have hired 1 infanty and 1 cavalry regiment of mercenaries, but their morale is very low. I am worried.

19 March 1454
God must love us! For no reason the muslim army has turned around and is now heading towards Van and the Georgian army
there! Ha! The cowards ran away! I am sure our might army would have kicked their asses!

7th April 1454
While our great army is almost ready to go back to Erserum, we have heard news that in a distant land to the west England has
formed a persona union with Scotland. I am not sure what that is but I doubt it anyone here cares about two villages to the west
getting acquiented.

23rd Apri 1454
Marching towards Erserum!

8th May 1454
Great news from the war. Georgia has liberated Alania and is attacking Van. Their capital is still under attack by a large Golden
Horde army. I guess they were right they were not worried about it falling soon.

10th May 1454
Erserum is under siege. Our forces will surely win! Eventualy.

24th May 1454
Hiring of another two regiments of mercenary infantry in Trebizon.

1st June 1454
While besieging Erserum, a might army of 600 men lead by some Ak Koyunlu mastermind have attacked our army. The muslim army was forced to retreat to Van after losing 46 men quickly. Our army lost 1 man when he had a heart attack when he heard the battle started without him.

7th July 1454
Georgia has signed a truce with the Golden Horde and Ak Koyunlu. We were forced to sign it too. A white peace only that we have no a 6000 army of nothing to do, a large debt and nothing to show for our war and expenses.
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos is not happy.
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BlueMak

5th December 1454
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has decided to issue a warning to Ak Koyunlu, if they declare war on any of their neighbours that will give us a Casus Belli against them.


25 December 1454
WAR! The Cypriot scum decided to declare war on us. They have the backing of Naxos and Burgundy. They must surely be working for others.
Georgia has shown their true face for a second time. They have REFUSED to join us in the war. There will be a time they will pay for it!

17th January 1455
WAR! Candar took the opportunity and declared war on us! Their army is already marching towards our capital! Things could have been better.
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has quickly recruited 8,000 mercenaries. I have my doubts that they will be ready by the time the Candar's army arrives.

31st January 1455
HA! The Georgian ambassador is asking us to join them in an alliance. It would be a cold day in Hell before Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos accepts!

2nd February 1455
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has as always wisely accepted the alliance offer by our honourable neighbours.

4th February 1455
The Candar army is upon us. Our great defenders fight outside our walls!

7th March 1455
We have won the battle of Trebizon! 142 of our 9000 strong army died while the enemy suffered 740 deaths among their 3000 army.
Now it is time to attack!
Still no contact by our new allies, they have not declared war on any of the enemy kingdoms...

9th March 1455
Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has disbanded 2 mercenary regiments and sent the other 6 to attack Sinope, they Candar swine must pay!

25th March 1455
The 2nd Army (composed of the mercenary regiments only) has succesfuly engaged with the retreating Candar army, defeated them and is now laying siege on Sinope! At the same time half the regiments of it were transfered to the new 3rd Army which is on its way to Kastamon, the Candar capital.

22nd April 1455
The 3rd Army has defeated the retreating Candar army and Kastamon is under siege! The Candar army will probably just try to interfere as much as possible both our sieges, but they will surely fail. Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos said so.

11th May 1455
A Cyprus spy has been discovered! We have reasons to believe he succesfuly tried to create a spy ring in our capital.
Their time will come sooner or later.

12th August 1455
The Candar army has defeated the 2nd army at Sinope! Bloody mercenaries are good for nothing! Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos and his army of 1000 brave infantry are marching towards sinope to take care of the enemy.

2nd September 1455
Disaster! The minister of the treasury has forgotten to renew the loan, we have gone bankrupt! The mercenary armies have abandoned us! Our 1st Army with Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos was forced to retreat to Trebizon! The people are not happy and they are not afraid to show it! The stability in our nation has dropped significaly. The minister of the treasury will be missed.

18th November 1455
Candar's army has attacked our capital. Our 1st Army was too small and demorilised to defend and Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos has decided to retreat to the Georgian territory of Imereti for the time being. The siege of Trebizon is not going well for us. It is very possible the city will fall any day now! Only a miracle can save us!

19th November 1455
The city has fallen! The city has fallen!

26th November 1455
Candar has installed a puppet government which has quickly accepted for our great kingdom to become a Vassal of Naxos, the leader of the Cyprus alliance against us. The capita is still under control of Candar... Heads will fall when Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos liberates our capital!


27th November 1455
A treacherous swine has assasinated Our great King Ioannes IV Kommenos! The great kingdom of Trebizond is no more!

GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER!


Well, that was a very fun short game
Up till the 2nd of September the war with Candar was going great, I was very optimistic that I would manage to defeat and perhaps even annex Candar. Bad luck plus an oversight lead to this ending way sooner than expected. Still fun though.

mkk

Great fun little game. The original Trebizond didn't survive much longer either.
I'd love to spend a weekend with one of these games again. It's been a while.

BlueMak

Yes, one of the best strategy games ever.
I started another game as Morea but did a stupid mistake and didn't save the txt file. I am in a couple of years so I am thinking if I should write about that or not.