The last Ferzadid Zoroastrain Emperor of the Persian Empire died rather spectacularly. Or rather, more to the point - the Persian Empire died rather spectacularly.
From the moment the descendents of Zoroastrian rebels crowned one Ferzadid Emperor to the day the Sunni and Shia in the west fell; the Zoroastrian state existed in a constant state of warfare.
After decades of resistance the backbone of Ferzadid strength would be broken by the increasingly aggressive Western Empires.
This would culminate in the reign of one particularly awful Emperor, one I simply remember as 'the Drunkard' - says all you need to know about him really, where most of Mesopotamia and Persia was lost to various Miroslavs. The Persian Empire stayed alive by expanding northwards into the tribes beyond, rebuilding their strength and eliminating many pagans along the way.
Then the Ilkhanate arrived.
Then the Golden Horde arrived.
The Francians took the two counties left.
For a while it seemed like Zoroastrianism was very dead. Then the Khan of the Ilkhanate died, allowing two Zoroastrian counts to gain independence. One of those was a countess married to the head of the Immortals; she mustered up 10,000 cavalrymen and with the 2,100 infantry of the immortals stood her ground against the Ilkhanate. However, the Ilkhanate has a tendency to steamroll over ground... That left one count.
Things developed, with the political intrigue going deep between the Serbians, Byzantines, Carpathians, Mongols of both hordes and the Francians. Everyone and their mum had a stake in what was going on in the east, already hundreds of thousands had been killed in the fighting and many more may have died in whatever ensued.
Then something spectacular happened.
The Golden Horde was invading the Byzantine Empire having already defeated the Carpathian Empire, her allies and even the Ilkhanate, and wanted some more land from the backs of Mirosalvs. This time the Miroslavs were far more prepared; the Byzantines had recovered from the hordes, the Francians even made to march onwards and the Serbians had 109,000 mercenaries and holy order soldiers awaiting orders in India.
The Serbian force was the first to reach the field against the Ilkhanate, who had up until that point, been uncontested as they lay siege to the eastern Byzantine territories. The Ilkhanate's horde attacked the rearguard of the Serbian troops, 44,000 Serbs fighting 42,000 Mongols in the battle of Kunya Urgench. If one was to be a betting man, one would bet on the Mongols - they won, losing 6,000 men after having killed 19,000.
The Mongols chased down the fleeing army as it fell back towards the main column. The retreating Serbs would score the war's first major victory after an overeager warband of 1,800 Mongols attacked tens of thousands of angry mercenaries with predictable results. The real battle would begin when the 36,000 surviving Mongols attacked the amassed surviving 38,000 soldiers. Things went pear shaped on the onset of battle, with Serbia's mercenary horse archers and light cavalry proving no suitable match for the fearsome Mongol cavalry.
The Mongols pressed their charge further and deeper into the panicking mercenaries, hacking apart the Turk cavalry of the Pencheneg band, shooting down the harassing Bulgarian warriors, slaying the beleaguered men of the Great Company.
Khagan Uighurtai was a zealous man, a paranoid man, a scheming man and a patient man. In this battle his zealotry fooled him, his paranoia failed him, his schemes wanted for military skill and his patience was lost on him. The Mongol horde, knee deep in blood and surrounded by fleeing soldiers found itself rushing headlong into a wall of Swiss, Lombard and Breton pikemen. On its flanks all the Knights of Christendom were leading heroic counter charges that were breaking the Mongolian wings and surrounding the horde. The retreating light cavalry turned back into the fray, charging down the retreating Mongolian horde and exacting bloody vengeance. Even the 3,000 auxiliaries from the small Dukedom of Kabulistan bloodied their heretic steel.
9,000 Miroslav forces died, 24,000 Mongolian horsemen of the Golden Horde died.
This was followed by the rest of the Golden Horde attacking again at the battle of Zazorasp - 26,000 mercenaries and knights fighting 20,000 Mongolian riders.
1,000 Serbian casualties, 14,000 Mongolian casualties.
Having been thoroughly thrashed twice Khan Uighurtai finally understood that this force was not one to be trifled. He sent 37,000 Mongolian soldiers to take on the last 22,000 men of the Serb host left.
16,000 Serbian casualties, 20,000 Mongolian casualties - narrow Serbian victory, one that also ended in the deaths of the heroic grandmasters who led the countercharges into the Mongolian horde. This is the point where the Serbs retreated and regrouped in the distant lands of Egypt, far from the fighting, allowing the Francian and Byzantine hosts to carry the rest of the war effort against a shattered foe - only 16,000 Mongolian soldiers remained.
Amazingly the Byzantine and Francian forces nearly lost on account of their sheer inability to work together, despite being Miroslavs religious differences made cooperation difficult... Outnumbering the Mongolians 3 to 1, they ended up killing more of their soldiers than the Mongolians.
The Miroslavs won, prompting the Byzantines to declare holy war for Turkestan against the Golden Horde. Things got spicy when the Ilkhanate rose to the defence of the Golden Horde with a brand new horde in tow, as I discovered when the 10,000 Nubian and Ethiopian mercenaries I had sent to raid the Golden Horde were acquainted with the arrows of 37,000 Mongols. In the aftermath the Ilkhanate actually attacked the Golden Horde, the Khan of the Ilkhanate was assassinated by the Serbs and above all - someone emerged from the Golden Horde.
Someone I thought was dead - the last Persian Emperor still lives.
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2120026 times)