You did say rewrite history, yeah? :p
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2Comments- Golden Horde: Converted to Empire and seems to be going extremely well. Probably could've gone for a world conquest, especially if someone conquered the Ming within about 30 to 40 years. Would probably need to convert to Quest for the New World and get a Conquistador or two (with military access given to us by the Ming) to explore their terrain first, though.
- Byzantium: I had to try pretty damn hard not to convert these guys into Byezantium. Mainly the fact they seemed to want to war with me constantly if I invaded Georgia etc. I ended up sending them plenty of gifts to keep them happy and then allied with them. They usually wouldn't join me in wars, but they'd certainly ally with me again afterwards, and they wouldn't join in too. They've also decided to invade Italy and have annexed Naples.
- Ming: At this point, I think they're the biggest world power. From the glimpses I've had of their armies, they're probably bigger than the Horde's and certainly the largest in the world otherwise. They've conquered most of Tibet and the Oirat Horde and are busy wriggling themselves into India politics. If they Westernised (can the AI do that? I've forgotten), they'd certainly be on the way to world domination.
- England & France & Castille - None of them have united yet, but they're easily on their way to it.
To Next Players: I'd suggest you go for a European or Indian or African power. Unite that part of the world and be ready for whatever comes. Or someone play Ming and conquer the Golden Horde. =p That'd actually be pretty cool.
I found myself in a relatively pathetic starting position, with the edges of my Horde having been nibbled at by the various different terrible nations surrounding me. It didn't help that I was fairly low on prestige (-10% or something). had a regency for my rulership AND was not really ready for the inevitable explosion of revolts after my ruler came of age. Basically, I was fucked at this point.
On the bright side, I still had a pretty massive (30k or so) manpower base, a shit tonne of core provinces in the hands of all the enemies surrounding (beautiful Reconquest Casus Belli, perfect for annexation) and the heir had EIGHT administration skill, EIGHT diplomatic skill and a pathetic four military skill. This meant I could (after annexing as many nations around me as I dared) get up a decent infrastructure, convert to a Monarchy then Westernise.
When my heir came of age, the revolts weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be. Three stacks of five or so regiments dotted about. I easily cleaned them up (although more came very soon) with a massive stack of 30 regiments. I finished off my recruiting and declared war on an ally of mine (lol nooby Nogai) who had no other allies and was therefore an easy target for annexation.
I carried on annexing all of the smaller provinces around me until I deemed that I'd spread quite far enough and started the process of converting to a Monarcy (and the Empire! Khaganate is a far cooler title than Sultan) and Westernising my military.
Unfortunately, I couldn't complete it, as I'd just came into contact with those Chinese Merciless Ming. They'd decided that I was a nice target for conquest. The Ming are, in this game, absolutely massive. They easily compete with me in terms of ability, and they were marching massive amounts of troops (there was at least a 20k stack of mixed troops) into my eastern border. I barely managed to beat them off and offer them tribute (of about 200 ducats, it barely even registered on their "peace worth", they must have a crazy economy) in return for peace.
Over the next few years, I converted the Horde into an Empire, started sucking up to all the surrounding states (especially Byzantium, it saved me getting into war with them ALL THE DAMN TIME), conquered Georgia and parts of the Timurids (and released Armenia to be it's own country!) and married into every single Muslim nation I could find.
The end result was a very strong Golden Empire (I wish this game had transition on the names of countries based on their government type) which had a bunch of lovey-dovey nations to the West, a bunch of mixed disposition nations to the South (Timurids, I'm looking at you) and a looming yellow peril (hey, it's not racist, the country's colour is actually yellow!) to the East.
Please please please please post pictures, guys. I want to see how the world turns out.