A Poland Campaign, Looking for Advice

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First of all, thanks to the developers for creating such an amazing mod.

Specifics: SS 6.4, RR/RC disabled, VH/VH, Savage AI

The current map, 50~ turns in. As the title states, I'm playing Poland:



As you might suspect, I took out the Lithuanians early by getting a crusade called on Vilnius. My FH destroyed their main army on the march to Hrodna:

He then went on to capture Vilnius, while my FL arrived from the west with a second crusader army to seize the pagan coastal holdings.

After that, the Kievans and Novgorodians declared war on me (so rude). After killing several of their stacks (1 of each army outside the gates of Polotsk in 1120 AD), and winning an ambush that destroyed the Novgorod defense army, I was able to take one of the Rus capitals. A siege of Kiev led to a sally, where the militia garrison were shown how horse archers are balanced

So that's where I am right now. The Novgorodians accepted a ceasefire and soon after, an alliance. Amusingly enough, they're now at war with the Kievans too. The Kievans have 2-3 stacks remaining around Oleshe/Pereyeslav/Bryansk, which should be dealt with easily enough, so I should have Oleshe at the very least soon enough.

I am currently allied with Hungary, HRE, Sicily, Papal States. I was allied with Venice but unfortunately they ended up warring with Byzantines early, then decided that sieging Bologna (still HRE) was a great idea despite losing Ragusa (Venice itself is still rebel held, shockingly enough). Not to worry -- my current faction heir is half-Venetian, there may or may not be revenge against the Byzantines (more on this later).

I have allied with the Byzantines (out of convenience -- Vienna, which I bought from HRE early, is not all that far away from Zagreb, and its my highest earning city, at 3300/turn), forcing a ceasefire between them and Hungary / Sicily for now. They've managed to take pretty much all the Balkans uncontested (I think disabling RR/RC sort of helped in this regard), as well as take some Hungarian lands before the truce was declared.

Anyways, I've got several options when the Kiev are vanquished (I'll try to vassalize them / get a ceasefire) -- kill the Danes, backstab the HRE, etc. But what I really want to do is take on the Byzantine juggernaut. Their military ranking is ~3x mine. Should be interesting.

However, my tech is in a really bad spot -- 1 fortress, and 4-5 castles. In fact, I had to fight with both the Rus factions with pretty much one castle (at Vilnius). It's pretty surprising how much I was forced to value my few units of Piast Nobles in this campaign! I think partially this is due to me misallocating my 10 chiv general early. It also seems like eastward expansion from Poland start position gives you rather poor regions to start with (besides Novgorod / Kiev). I think that fighting the Byzantines pushing north from Baia would be near impossible, seeing as I can't replenish high-quality units nearly as fast as Byzantines (hello endless Scholarii).

The Byzantine diplomatic situation is pretty interesting. They are at war with Cumans, Turks, Papal States, and Portugal (???). Unfortunately for the Turks, they are at war with K-Shah and Fatimids as well, so I suspect they will be rolled pretty quickly. Normally my campaigns result in Byzantines taking on too many enemies -- you can tell they are in dire straits as soon as Venice / Hungary start making headway into their lands. But obviously, in this campaign, things haven't reached this point.

My idea to open up my offensive vs the Byzantines is to launch a shoreline assault on northern Asia Minor / Constantinople which seem fairly unprotected. The bulk of the Byzantine armies are in the Balkans, with one stack pushing into Seljuk territory, so I think I'll get a couple of turns head start to rampage through the area. What should I do with the settlements I do manage to capture? Exterminate or try to hold?

I'm not sure if the Poles really have any advantages in terms of quality units. Byzantines have horse archers (and battle difficulty being VH, I can't trade well against them with my own Strzelcy unless I have the high ground). Their cavalry lineup seems incredibly strong (though maybe mounted crossbowmen will do well vs. bodyguards + Scholarii), and infantry is not bad either. Any suggestions? I do have a 7 dread general (older than 50), and an age 28 general with 4 dread (though he's only executed 2 stacks -- there is room for improvement). Any battle strategy things I'm missing?

I think it would also be prudent to wait for war between Byzantines and Fatimids as well, but I'm not sure how to get that to happen.

What could also disrupt my plans is the Eastern front. The Danes, should they choose to advance from their recent conquests of Hamburg and Magdeburg, could pose a threat (I'm only making 7-8k florins a turn, I'm not so sure my treasury would handle it). On a more long-term note, the HRE is at war with Genoa / France / Denmark. It's not unreasonable to see them collapsing within the next 25~ turns, at which point things would turn ugly for me as I have no alliances with any of those three, and its not like that front is easily defended. I suppose I'll just ally with the victor in the event the HRE falls, even if it will be expensive.

TL;DR -- best strategy to break the Byzantines in this game state?

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Ally Norway, they will probably assist you in case Denmark starts attacking, if not ask them for help via diplomacy, it costs a lot, but should work. Next ally with Geo, they will aid you vs France, in case HRE gets destroyed, which looks like is already well underway. You should also ally Egypt, their relations with Byzantines will start deteriorating once you start a war against Byzzies and it is possible they will also attack them in time.

Now with Hungary/Byzzies it will be more difficult - first get military access from Hungary, maybe improve your relation with some money gifts too, then break your alliance with Byzzies, after that you have two options: wait for them to attack Hungary and ask Hungary for military assistance vs Byzzies and offer military assistance in return, they will accept and you will get better relation with them when you take a settlement, also improves your reputation I think, and ofc Hungary will start attack them more. The other option is to just attack straight away yourself after breaking the alliance, but then i think Hungary wont be so interested in assisting you against them.

Also consider making Kiev and Novgorod your vassals. Build more castles, as 4 or 5 is not enough for a nation of that size at least 2 or 3 more should be good.

And for destroying Byzantines in the most efficient way you must take their large cities, especially Constantinople which allows them to recruit the Constantinople only units. I suggest you try and hold onto most of the gains for good, as the Byzantine cities are well developed, and destroying it all is going to take a while to rebuild, if you are going to raid only, do so in the Anatolian territories.