I wasn't too keen on the, rash in my opinion, suggestions above so I decided instead to expand Genoa's colonies in the east, before they get run over by the Islamic or Orthodox factions there. First, I send the Doge over to Florence to garrison it and guard the border to the south while I move our merchant to collect some textiles in Milan. I then have my experienced priest board a ship to send him east to deal with the heathens in Caffa, while ordering the construction of more ships out of Florence (a Carrack, a Lanternas, and a War Galley). Recruitment slots start off smallish in this mod to keep with the goal of making battles decivise, to force the player to pick armies carefully, and to prevent the AI from taking advantage of the increased wealth to endlessly spam armies.
Anyway, as the last things in our western colonies I send a diplomat to the Venetians to open trade rights with them and trade map information (which they accept), move my spy north and east a bit to get a better look at our surroundings, while construction a watchtower to the south. Finally, I recruit a unit of pikemen, halberdiers, arquebusiers, and musketeers in Ajaccio and and another unit of pikemen, musketeers, and a culverin in Genoa, while ordering the building of a mine there as well along with a grain exchange in Florence to recruit more merchants. Taxes in Florence and Genoa were also raised to High to help us get started. After all that, we can now see a bit more around our core provinces now, but still not much.
Now I take a look back over east. This is goign to be tricky as the border around Krasnodar and Caffa is very large and on top of that we have to worry about ships coming up from the Black Sea. I decide I need an army fast, so I recruit all the available mercenaries, minus the rockets and cannon, which amounts to one unit each of Eastern Gunners, Archers, Cataphracts, Cavalry, Halberdiers, Tribesmen, and Javelinmen. I then order the hired mercs onto a ship and move them towards Caffa to garrison the fort there while also recruiting a unit of Pikemen, Halberdiers, Arqubusiers and Musketeers in said province (as I said in an earlier post), pike and shot will make up the bulk of our armies).
Over in Krasnodar, I build a Grain Exchange in Krasnodar but there isn't enough public order to raise taxes safely above normal now. I recruit a priest, a spy, and a diplomant from the city while building a watchtower at the border with the remaining funds we have left. I then march our army there up the road into the Mongolian-held Sarkel province as far as they can move. We end up right outside the fortress and it looks undefended! We'll have to be quick and lucky if we hope to take it without a fight as we're likely to have been spotted by any nearby mongol forces who will probably move towards us to defend the threat. Maybe though, they'll be distracted enough by Muscovy to their north to make our first expansion a bloodless one. For now however, this ends the first half of our first year.
As the season ends, the Doge takes eye of a young commander and decides to adopt him. He seems qualified enough and we need more commanders so he is approved. We also receive news that the Maghreb Sultanate has allied with the Kingdom of Portugal, that the Doge's retinue has expanded, and of course an overall status report (as seen below). Hearing of an alliance made me think we needed friends as well, so I quickly sent our diplomat in the west over to Milan to suggest and alliance with Venice, against the powerful nations of Spain to the south and the HRE to the north. Happily they accepted, and hopefully, though normally rivals, together we can keep Italy free of foreign control. That done, I move aforementioned diplomat south towards the Papacy to open negotiations with them.
Finishing up in our homelands, I send our spy to scout out Germany to see if it looks like they are amassing an army or moving troops towards our borders. I then ship our recruits in Ajaccio over to garrison Genoa, along with our newest commander. As the ship with our priest on it moved further around the boot of Italy towards Caffa he spotted a large spanish army at the border between them and the Papacy. It's unlikely even with their power Spain is so rash to attack the Pope now however, but still it pushes me to use our funds to further beef up our army in Genoa. I recruit another unit of Halberdiers along with our powerful Monster Ribault and a Carrocio Standard to inspire our new recruits. I decide we need some cavalry as well, so over in Ajaccio I order train some Broken Lances, Mounted Crossbowmen, and powerful Sequito Doge, but now we're getting low on funds once more.
Back east I move those mercenary troops off the fleet and into Caffa to meet up with our freshly-conscripted regulars. The garrison is still small though, so I order up a mortar (for shooting over castle walls) two of our powerful crossbowmen (one militia grade) and some swordsmen militia, however we now have no real funds left. At leat for now, the mongols seem to have drafted a small garrison for Sarkel but there is still no army in sight. I move our new spy in Krasnodar to have a look inside. Unfortunately however, he is killed attempted to infiltrate the fortress, which is doubly unfortunate as we must now rely on mortars for breaking the walls which are poor for such purpose. I am not wanting to to wait to construct siege towers or the like as no doubt a mongol army would come down the road with reinforcements should we delay and pass up this opportunity. Before attempting an assault, I move the new diplomat from Krasnodar towards the Ottomans hoping to create a peace with them to cover our arses while we war to the north. After that, we launch our first attack.
Unfortunately, it's windy and foggy as all hell out, meaning our general Count Adorno will barely be able to see what he's doing. He orders his infantry clustered up together as tight as possible for pushing through the gates and, for the same reason, his cavalry into wedge formation. Normally, the defensive towers would be taken down first as well, but as all we have is mortars we'll be good to get the gate busted open. Therefore, he orders his artillery to immediately open fire on the gatehouse, wanting to waste no time in this foul weather. Just in case the mongols try to be heroes and sally out however, he's commanded his arquebusiers to lay stakes in front of the mortars and to line up in rank and fire formation behind them.
Trying to bust open the gates with the mortars only destroyed the gatehouse and not the gate, so General Adorno ordered the artillery to switch instead to the wall to the right of the gate. Surprisingly, they took it down without too much effort. Therefore, they were ordered to bust open the wall to the left of the gatehouse as well, to allow the men two breaches to move through before moving forward. It is likewise done without difficulty, and so the pike and halberd militia are ordered through the left side while the cavalry and swordsmen the right. The mortars and arquebusiers are also pulled up to provide support fire if needed. We try to move quickly though and take the walls so we don't have to suffer too much tower fire. It seems the mongols instead however retreat to their inner courtyard rather than meet us in battle in the breach (so much for the might of the horde) so we'll have more walls yet to deal with.
Inside their fortress, we can see the heathens have been engaging in slave trading. Truly our cause here is just (nevermind that we didn't know this before we marched in, god must have willed us here besides!). Despite the wind, the fog, the dark, and the cold, we nevertheless march our men towards their inner walls. Our proud Seguito Doge were a bit too brazen in moving forward and took some minor casualties as the mongols shot fire arrows over their walls at us. In response, we opened fire with our mortars on the wall their archers were atop. The easily spooked cowards flee their ramparts of course, and in short order we tear their last remaining defenses down and order our men a final march into their town square, intending to claim this settlement in the barbaric east for Christendom.
We are in for quite a shock however. Thinking this will be an easy mop up melee, the mongols instead charge out through their inner gate once their courtyard wall is breached, with none other than War Elephants imported from their far eastern colonies! These peculiar beasts bear on the backs men armed with arquebuses. Felling these creatures will prove difficult no doubt, but we put our trust in God (and our legions of pikemen) to win us the day. The elephants are surprisingly fast though, and our pike troops cannot reach them before they charge directly into our expensive heavy cavalry! But these are men elites, and instead of fleeing as most would they instead boldly and inspiringly hold their ground, and the fight looks so far evenly matched. Still, one unit is taking heavy losses and the beasts look like they might run amok. With our pikemen finally reaching the combat, we order the weakened lancers to pull back, while the other unit to rush forward to own pike to attempt to lure the elephants to their death. Having to contend with these creatures makes the Doge certain he made the right decision attacking the Golden Horde before they could amass an army of these monsters. Eventually, our militia holds, though even with only a few elephants suffers heavy losses, but does kill them to the last in the end.
With that dirty business done, General Adorno decides to play it safer, and fire his mortar shells into the courtyard to finish off the barbarians. That sparks their general to attempt a suicide charge out of the gate at our arquebusiers, but unfortunatley for him our pikes lay right next to them. Our gunners retreat as our hardy militia moves into mow down their commander. The general seems intent on slaying as many of us as he can before he dies moreso than winning, and charges through the pikes and towards our mortars, killing some before a rout is ordered. Our swordsmen are behind them though, and rush to meet the horsemen. They make quick leader of the mongol leader, sending him rightly to hell and his unit rushes back towards the courtyard. Finally, our men push to finish this, marching into a hail of fire arrows. Our mounted crossbowmen ride up and fire back though, and the last melee engages for the fortress of Sarkel as the night nearly ends and dawn approaches. Some more losses are taken as the mongols refuse to acknowledge when they are beaten but we take the day in the end, adding yet another colony in the east to our empire.
As we need more money after our recent bout of spending, we decide to sack this settlement. Besides, the heathen slave traders surely deserve to be punished, yes? Still, our general respects the boldness of the captured Khan's Guard, and decides to spare them, as their ransom is but a pittance anyway. After occupying the fortress we ordered the drill square and walls repaired, which were damaged during the siege, with our new funds, merge our weakened units, and order what we can retrained. Finally, a chapel is comissioned in the fortress to spread the true faith and a watchtower is erected on the border to look out for any possible retributive counterattack from the Horde. As we do so, we spot the Khan inside our province. His forces are small though and we are confident they are no threat. For his victory in the siege and expanding our Most Serene Republic general Adorno is granted the Banner of Genoa, inspiring his now veteran troops to (hopefully) further success. So ends our first year Great Council and not a bad one at that for our future. Now, have we any reasonable suggestions on how to proceed, hm?
[AoD AAR]"Age of Discovery" (9/19, French treachery in Ennery!)
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Originally Posted by Justice and Mercy
