Empire of Nicaea without Constantinople

[Nicole]

What if the Latin Empire had remained stronger, and managed to hold off from Greek Reconquest? (Or alternatively, you can have Eprius or Trebizond do the reconquering)
How does this affect the Empire of Nicaea? Assuming it manages to remain a somewhat strong state, can it fight off the Turks and remain in power of western Anatolia? IIRC OTL correctly, much of the old Nicaean territories were lost when Constantinople was retaken.

[Midgard]

Originally Posted by Imajin

What if the Latin Empire had remained stronger, and managed to hold off from Greek Reconquest? (Or alternatively, you can have Eprius or Trebizond do the reconquering)
How does this affect the Empire of Nicaea? Assuming it manages to remain a somewhat strong state, can it fight off the Turks and remain in power of western Anatolia? IIRC OTL correctly, much of the old Nicaean territories were lost when Constantinople was retaken.

Nicaean Empire without Constantinople... hmmm. It sounds like Epirus/Thessalonika would probably be the next best choice to take the City, as barring something close to ASB intervention the Latin Empire post 1210 or so was pretty much doomed. Now, it is possible to come up with the kind of scenario where Epirus is much more successful, controlling all of mainland Greece, and Nicaea actively supports the rump Latin Empire that possesses little more than Constantinople itself - if only to prevent the Epirotes from taking it.

By 1260 or so, Nicaea is easily stronger by far than any of the Turkish states on their own, being spared the ravages of the Mongol invasion, and being more united. Thus, it should be able to retain its territories and possibly even do some expansion into the East, vassalizing or conquering various Turkish tribes and statelets. It would not try to retake the City because doing so would bring it into conflict with a strong and just as united Epirote/Thessalonian Empire, which it is not sure it can win. I can totally see Nicaea retaking pre-1204 borders in Asia within 100-150 years of its establishment; this means Trebizond is likely to be annexed, or at the least made a vassal of the Nicaeans.

The problem with this scenario is that it only delays Greek reconquest of Constantinople, not prevents it completely. Now, if the reconquest is about 50-75 years after it was in OTL, this would give the Nicaeans (or another Greek successor state) enough time to have effectively functioning state that eliminated most of the threats to it in the East, and that will be able to maintain its borders - but it will not prevent them from retaking the capital eventually.