An Age of Miracles: The Revival of Rhomanion

[Basileus444]

I haven't revealed all of Nikephoros' cards yet. If he just wanted an army, he'd be much better off trying to court some of the strategoi. But he is playing chessmaster here.

He is only thirteen, but he's taking after his grandfather in terms of women. Demetrios has a son, Andreas, who is eighteen. He'll be introduced sometime in the next few updates.

And I do have plans for Egypt, but I'm not going to spoil them.

Here are some demographic info you guys might find interesting.

Roman heartland (Greece, Bulgaria, Anatolia, Crimea, Roman Syria): 12.2 million

Roman Italy (including Carthage): 3.2 million

Italian and Serbian vassal states: 4.1 million

Al-Andalus: 2.7 million

Total: 15.4 million (22 million including vassals)


I'm operating under the assumption that the Mameluke Sultanate has 6 million now, 4.8 million of them in Egypt. I'd thought it was more like 9 million, but further study has caused me to revise the number. ITTL figures are almost certainly higher than IOTL, but I figure that Roman medicine plus the economic boost from trading with the Empire during peacetime would help boost numbers a bit.

I'm also assuming a total of 1 million Copts (a tad more than 20% of Egypt's population). The existence of a powerful Byzantine Empire has likely, ITTL, convinced the Mamelukes to overall lighten up (except during certain extreme bouts) on Copt persecution to avoid creating a Byzantine 'fifth column' in their territories.

[Arrix85]

Thanks for the info!

About Nikephoros, I really really hate the guy, a statement about how good you are in characters building.

[Dumanios]

That's a lot of Romans. As for Al-Andalus, their population boom will come later. If Andreas dies like Dragos Cel Mare, then the empire will probably explode, resolving the war in Egypt being optional. Nikephoros, Andreas in Hungary, Demetrios, possibly Alfredo, possibly the guys in the Ottoman Empire, and possibly Leo, depending on how big his stones are. That's just what immediately comes to mind.

[Tongera]

Originally Posted by Basileus444

I haven't revealed all of Nikephoros' cards yet. If he just wanted an army, he'd be much better off trying to court some of the strategoi. But he is playing chessmaster here.

He is only thirteen, but he's taking after his grandfather in terms of women. Demetrios has a son, Andreas, who is eighteen. He'll be introduced sometime in the next few updates.

And I do have plans for Egypt, but I'm not going to spoil them.

Here are some demographic info you guys might find interesting.

Roman heartland (Greece, Bulgaria, Anatolia, Crimea, Roman Syria): 12.2 million

Roman Italy (including Carthage): 3.2 million

Italian and Serbian vassal states: 4.1 million

Al-Andalus: 2.7 million

Total: 15.4 million (22 million including vassals)


I'm operating under the assumption that the Mameluke Sultanate has 6 million now, 4.8 million of them in Egypt. I'd thought it was more like 9 million, but further study has caused me to revise the number. ITTL figures are almost certainly higher than IOTL, but I figure that Roman medicine plus the economic boost from trading with the Empire during peacetime would help boost numbers a bit.

I'm also assuming a total of 1 million Copts (a tad more than 20% of Egypt's population). The existence of a powerful Byzantine Empire has likely, ITTL, convinced the Mamelukes to overall lighten up (except during certain extreme bouts) on Copt persecution to avoid creating a Byzantine 'fifth column' in their territories.

More detailed demographics please?

[Arrix85]

Originally Posted by Tongera

More detailed demographics please?

I guess we'll have to wait at least after the conquest for something like that, some character is bound to think about the task of integrating the new subjects (including Lebanon christians, but these ones shouldn't be a problem, having a quite easily-detectable "noble heresy" sign over them).

[shakaka36]

I can't recall... Does the Empire have a centrally organized administrative structure governing the religious affairs of its Muslim subjects at this stage?

If not, I suspect one may be called for after Egypt..

[eliphas8]

Originally Posted by shakaka36

I can't recall... Does the Empire have a centrally organized administrative structure governing the religious affairs of its Muslim subjects at this stage?

If not, I suspect one may be called for after Egypt..

In the very least they allow Muslims to practice Sharia.

[Basileus444]

Originally Posted by shakaka36

I can't recall... Does the Empire have a centrally organized administrative structure governing the religious affairs of its Muslim subjects at this stage?

If not, I suspect one may be called for after Egypt..

No, it doesn't. I'm leaning towards an Ottoman-style millet system myself. But I am planning another cultural update a few TL-years down the road.

"Those are brave men. Let's kill them!"-Andreas Angelos, on the morning of August 4, 1500

1500 continued:
Andreas sweeps south, driving hard for Damascus, clouds of light cavalry in front of him, ranging as far south as Jerusalem. He has less men under his direct command than his father Theodoros did in the 1450s, but Andreas has learned from that campaign and his father’s mistakes. Theodoros had dispatched twenty six thousand men to Egypt, compared to Andreas’ fifteen thousand (and five thousand to Cyrenaica). The smaller number of men involved places less strain on the logistics.

Logistics had been the main problem Theodoros had faced, and the reason his progress had been so torturously slow. He could feed his men, but not his cannons at the same time. Thus the sieges had been conducted in the medieval manner. Andreas however can feed his men and guns at the same time, due to less of the former and the mass waves of light cavalry he has screening his troops and protecting his supply lines.

He has also established contact with Arab tribesmen living on the fringes of the desert, contracting their services to transport supplies and purchasing livestock from them. The idea though was Herakleios’, who had been studying the Ottoman military machine for the war scenarios, and saw a way to utilize the peripheral tribes in campaigns against both the Ottomans or Mamelukes.

This time Damascus, under the fire of Andronikos’ artillery, holds out for nineteen days. Andreas does not stay to relish his victory; almost immediately the army moves out, its destination Jerusalem.

Far to the south, the Ethiopians march up the Nile, forcing the petty states in between Ethiopia and Mameluke Nubia to kneel. Many of them had already been suborned by Kwestantinos, and the rest are soon forced into line by the spears of the eighteen thousand soldiers under the command of Brihan of Merawi.

At Soba, where the Blue and White Nile met, site of a major Ethiopian defeat at Egyptian hands, they encounter their first serious resistance. A fort has been erected there, guarded by two hundred men. They beat back the first assault, but when the Ethiopian artillery is brought into action, they quickly surrender. The captives are sent south to be worked in mines, while Brihan orders the construction of a small chapel. When it is done, she tells the men to rejoice, for the time has finally come to avenge the Massacre of the Innocents. The Ethiopians enter Nubia.

As Andreas marches south, the Roman navy has been active demonstrating off the Palestinian coast, and it is from their reports that the Emperor first gets word of the Mameluke host, marching up the coastal road from Egypt. When it camps at Jaffa, it numbers sixty five thousand strong.

It is a fearsomely large force, but half are at best moderately trained levies, little more than cannon fodder. Yet many are armed with crossbows, giving them a bite even kataphraktoi must respect. And they are corseted by battalions of Sudanese infantry, fighting with javelins and swords, lightly armored but fast and fearless. And behind them are eleven thousand Mameluke cavalry, armored in steel lamellar and trained since boyhood in the use of bow, lance, and mace.

Sultan Ismail is staking everything on one all-out throw of the dice. The Sultanate cannot stand up against the Empire in a long struggle; the only way to win is to knock it down hard and fast. The best way to do that is to kill Andreas. So Ismail ignores the Ethiopians, the Roman fleet, Alfredo di Lecce; if Andreas falls, they can be dealt with.

Given the overall poorer quality of his troops plus Andreas’ reputation as a general, Ismail needs the great host he has assembled. But feeding it is an impossible task, with Roman cavalry constantly nipping at his flanks and cutting down foragers. Even without the harassment, it is doubtful he would be able to do so. The army does not kill any of the local peasantry directly, but many starve to death after their food stores are appropriated.

Their plight is increased when Andreas orders his light cavalry to also ‘appropriate’ as many consumables as possible to deny them to the Egyptians. The Mamelukes march north into a land of scorched earth, hunger gnawing at them. And every day come the pinpricks of the turkopouloi. Numerous attempts are made to drive them off, most of which end badly as the turkopouloi are supported by skythikoi and black horses eager to let fly, and behind them are squadrons of kataphraktoi. Only the Mameluke heavy cavalry can stand up to their thunderous charges.

As the dance begins around the Sea of Galilee, news arrives from the south. Alfredo has broken the cordon around Alexandria and is moving south along the Nile river. In the countryside he faces little opposition, the local militia retreating to small forts. Due to the lack of stone, these small redoubts are protected by earthen embankments. Ironically that is a source of strength as they are highly resistant to Alfredo’s light artillery. Because of the need to provision Alexandria as well as his army, and the nature of his mission in Egypt, Alfredo does not have any larger ordinance.

As a result, Alfredo’s progress is rather slow, even if cavalry outriders harass caravans within eyesight of Cairo itself. Each fort must be reduced, either by fair means or foul. One is taken by Copts who betray the bastion to the Roman army, but the news gets out, prompting a savage retaliation by the Muslims upon any Christians within reach. This does cause many local Christians who do view Rhomania skeptically to drift towards Roman arms, but in the short-term it ensures that the Mameluke forts are garrisoned solely by Muslim soldiers, making progress even more difficult.

The Muslims, though usually poorly equipped and trained, fight well, for here the spirit of jihad burns brightly. The imams have been preaching constantly, presenting the struggle as an existential crisis for Islam itself. Ethiopia by herself was able to harry Medina and Mecca. Ethiopia and Rhomania combined would be far, far more dangerous.

The word is heard too by the Muslims of the Empire. Yet Andreas has not forgotten the use of pamphlets and posters during the Last Crusade. Over the past year, the Imperial presses have been flooding the Empire. Herakleios has laid out a plan to build a network of roads, hostels, ports, and shipping schedules designed to make the hajj easier and more affordable to Muslim pilgrims. To mollify the church, Herakleios has also expanded the plan to include Christian holy sites from Edessa to Alexandria, thus making Christian pilgrimage much easier as well. The program, while expensive, is projected to bring in sizeable quantities of revenue.

More importantly though, Andreas has publicly stated on numerous occasions that he has no intentions on the Hedjaz. There are no pressing political or economic reasons for seizing the region, and Andreas has already made contact with Ali ibn Saud, promising to recognize him as Sharif of the Hedjaz provided he not aid the Mamelukes (these negotiations are kept secret).

Admittedly most Muslims find the word of the Vicegerent of (the Christian) God a bit sketchy, but the most important subset of that demographic do not. The Muslims serving in the Roman tagmata adore their Little Megas as much as their Christian comrades. For them, his word is enough.

The Little Megas by this point is also again a grandfather. When the Roman army encamps on the shores of Lake Galilee, Andreas washing his sword in the biblical waters, word comes that Zeno is a father. His wife Anna of Lesbos has given birth to a healthy baby girl. Her name is Athena.

As classical Greek works have been translated in ‘modern’ Greek, printed, and sold, they have been slowly growing in popularity. While still looked down upon for their pagan and democratic ways, compared to the ‘Imperial and Christian’ Romans, the ancient Greeks are exerting a cultural influence. Patriarch Photios II said two years earlier that ‘God made both Athens and Jerusalem’, a rejoinder to Tertullian’s famous phrase ‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’

Zeno does not have much time to enjoy his good fortune, as the Roman and Mameluke armies dart around each other, Ismail trying to pin the Romans down so he can bludgeon Andreas to death before his army starves away. The Emperor too is having supply difficulties, as the fast marches means he cannot rely on his well-organized but slow supply wagons. Mule and camel trains help make up the shortfall, but even so he is forced to rely heavily on the local countryside.

Unusually for him, Zeno is staying with the main army. After the burns to his legs, Andreas is no longer such a nimble rider, so he wants his bastard son close to help him coordinate the main force. His other bastard son Andreas Jr. is also with him, serving as a member of his bodyguard.

Meanwhile, many of the officers serving in the two guard tagmata are members of a new group calling themselves ‘the Young Dragons’. They have only known Andreas as Emperor, and do not remember the bloody 1450s, the Black Day, the Siege of Constantinople, or the Last Crusade. For them Rhomania has always been bright, brilliant, and victorious.

Trained at the School of War, where their marks had been high, they were assigned to the Imperial bodyguard so that Andreas could give them additional personal training. The most prominent are the brothers Stefanos and Petros Doukas, the one commanding the Athanatoi kataphraktoi and the other the skythikoi.

But skilled subordinates does not change the fact that with around one hundred thousand soldiers eating the landscape bare, the peasantry are starving along with the Mameluke soldiery. Andreas finds this distasteful both on a political and personal level, so he finally gives Ismail what he wants, a battle. In the Jezreel valley, the army arrays for battle, the Athanatoi, Varangoi, the Scholai, and the bulk of the Thracesian and Optimatic tagmata, alongside the Order of Hospitalers, in all 37,800 men.

Ismail’s troops are hungry, and not as well equipped or trained. But they know that the only source of provisions large enough to sustain them within leagues of their position lie in the Roman camp. So they fight with the desperate bravery of men who know they must conquer or die.

On August 4, the armies meet on the slopes of Mt. Tabor. The Mamelukes number 54,600.

The Jezreel Valley today, Mt. Tabor in the backgroud, site of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ

[Tyg]

Doom is at hand, but for whom and how many?

[ImperatorAlexander]

Just out of curiosity how tall is Andreas Jr ?

[eliphas8]

I dont like this, there is are both Angelids and Doukids in the Imperial bodyguard. I cannot help but point out how dangerous those odds are for Andreas.

[Mathalamus]

can you have the Mameluke army suffer a more than 50% casualty rate?

or better, have them resist until they are all dead.

Originally Posted by eliphas8

I dont like this, there is are both Angelids and Doukids in the Imperial bodyguard. I cannot help but point out how dangerous those odds are for Andreas.

im sure they know they are in the middle of Egypt. they wouldn't kill the leader, even indirectly, until after the war is over.

[Excubitor]

Let's hope Andreas hasn't lost his mojo and can live up to his "army devourer" reputation.

[ed_montague]

Woohoo!

My instincts tell me that you've good some nasty surprise planned. My emotions, however, tell me that the Little Megas is going to prevail again. He turned back the Last Crusade; he'll crush the Mamelukes as well. After his (hopefully distant) death, is he going to be simply referred to as the "Little Megas"?

In any case, I hope Andreas and Brihan get some suitably epic meeting that is chronicled throughout the ages as the reunion of the two great Churches of the East or something. And let's hope Andreas is no longer his youthful self, if you get my gist...

When the Roman army encamps on the shores of Lake Galilee, Andreas washing his sword in the biblical waters, word comes that Zeno is a father. His wife Anna of Lesbos has given birth to a healthy baby girl. Her name is Athena.

She's alright? Thank goodness. Now we just need Zeno to survive the coming battle and return home safely.

[Elfwine]

Originally Posted by Mathalamus

can you have the Mameluke army suffer a more than 50% casualty rate?

or better, have them resist until they are all dead.

That'd be pretty unrealistic unless they're completely surrounded.

An army suffering even 50% overall is one that pretty much walked into a specular trap.

[Mathalamus]

Originally Posted by Elfwine

That'd be pretty unrealistic unless they're completely surrounded.

An army suffering even 50% overall is one that pretty much walked into a specular trap.

the Roman army can push them to a coast, surround them and kill every last solider.

but i think Andreas woudl object.

[Elfwine]

Originally Posted by Mathalamus

the Roman army can push them to a coast, surround them and kill every last solider.

but i think Andreas woudl object.

The Roman army has enough to do beating them, trying to utterly crush the Mameluke army is neither necessary to win or realistic.

This isn't MTW.

Edit: I think reading Andreas described through Brihan's eyes is going to be more than enough, given what our author does here. Andreas hasn't aged badly enough to be revolting in person.

[Alexandria Eschate]

What's with the bloodthirsty attitude, dude?

[ed_montague]

Perhaps he just wants to eliminate a potential threat to Rhomania. But calling for 50% casualties...

I can understand that sort of request towards Venice, which everybody was already expecting to get curbstomped. But these are the Mamelukes. They've been a fairly minor pain in the neck for Constantinople, but not any more than, say, the Ottomans. Certainly not as bad as Timur, or Venice. They haven't done all that much against Rhomania as compared to their neighbors. So...yeah.

[SavoyTruffle]

Here's to another epic battle!