An Age of Miracles Continues: The Empire of Rhomania
- Thread starter Basileus444
- Start date
Maybe snippets from the future/modern day? It'll be interesting teasers if you already have your vision for this TL well mapped out.
It's become much more playable ever since Wiz took over (and left) as Game Director and released 2.2 Le Guin with a revamped pop system and new ascension perks. Though all I like doing is abusing the Megastructures mod by having uncountable ring worlds and planet destroyers.
How about other Indian Ocean islands/territories closer to shore? Diu, Goa, Pulicat and Mumbai have been settled in OTL 1634 by Portugal and are quite defensible and useful for trade though I assume the majority of these lands are fiercely guarded by Vijaynagar. Rhomaion could also look further north and resettle Krokola/Morontobara (OTL Karachi)
Cryostorm
Monthly Donor
As others have said it is rather good and, like most Paradox games, has improved over the years as they modified it, the two biggest changes being space travel and the pop/planet system.
As some whose played Sin of a Solar Empire, Masters of Orion, and Distant Worlds, Stellaris is a damn fine 4x space strat and takes top seed imho. The openness to mod, the thought put into the tech progression, and openness it has. So far the DLC has been moloko plus, and made it more complete each time. I'm holding out for finding a full Honor Harrington mod, but very much recommended.
I'm not going to go into specifics since the PDF is behind a paywall and it isn't fair to the author for me to discuss something that's behind a paywall in a free forum like this.
Suffice to say that the additions/revisions to First Nineveh and Mashhadshar are welcome. To steal a pro wrestling term, you booked yourself into a corner there originally and you managed to reverse many (not all, but many) of the problems with that entire battle/negotiation period. The section about Iskander alone in the tent was quite nice as well.
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A teaser set in the modern day would be quite interesting indeed even if Basileus hasn't planned that far ahead. Heck, make it a meta update were TTL's AH forum has our TTL versions debate on the totally anachronistic Ottoman Empire that got based in Anatolia instead of Mesopotamia and went on to conquer the Balkans and not Persia
Long time ago there was teaser feom 20th century. I believe it was something about “Day which will live in infamy”.A teaser set in the modern day would be quite interesting indeed even if Basileus hasn't planned that far ahead. Heck, make it a meta update were TTL's AH forum has our TTL versions debate on the totally anachronistic Ottoman Empire that got based in Anatolia instead of Mesopotamia and went on to conquer the Balkans and not Persia
A teaser set in the modern day would be quite interesting indeed even if Basileus hasn't planned that far ahead. Heck, make it a meta update were TTL's AH forum has our TTL versions debate on the totally anachronistic Ottoman Empire that got based in Anatolia instead of Mesopotamia and went on to conquer the Balkans and not Persia
Actually I don't want the bolded part. Doing an update many years down the line from the main story means the author is either A - locked into having the story unfold in a way to have the future events happen, even if he changes his mind in the time between the teaser and when the story catches up to the teaser or B - forcing him to just say "well, I changed my mind (which is perfectly reasonable!) and now what I teased months/years ago isn't canon" like he did with the Pearl Harbor-esk attack.
I vote for more little vignettes in the eyes of relatively minor characters. Something along the lines of the guy who built the greenhouse and had D3 come in incognito. It gets away from "Great Man History" and gives us perspectives from other characters in the world.
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Β444 how are the Southern Wu's doing in Australia? I seem to remember that their states in Australia have collapsed, but I am not sure.
Their economy and government collapsed because they didn't have a source of specie to fuel their mint. They broke up into a bunch of suspiciously advanced native tribes now.
On a slightly different topic I was thinking of the ability of Roman striking power into Central Europe and I think they could go a fair bit father than the Ottomans.
The Ottomans were more or less at their limit when they besieged Vienna because any army raised to fight in Europe HAD to start from Constantinople at the start of the campaign season because all the lands beyond the city were Christian Europeans that weren’t trusted. By contrast modern day Greece, Bulgaria, and Macedonia are all core Rhoman territories that can safely be used as bases to encamp and build armies.
What this means is that Roman armies can start hundreds of kilometres closer than Ottoman ones at the start of a campaign seas. (From Constantinople to Serica (Sofia) is 550km, to Vidin is 750km.) Far from being right at the edge of their logistics Vienna and Southern Germany would in fact be well within the capabilities of Rhoman armies to not only heavily raid but occupy.
Edit: Spelling mistakes
The Ottomans were more or less at their limit when they besieged Vienna because any army raised to fight in Europe HAD to start from Constantinople at the start of the campaign season because all the lands beyond the city were Christian Europeans that weren’t trusted. By contrast modern day Greece, Bulgaria, and Macedonia are all core Rhoman territories that can safely be used as bases to encamp and build armies.
What this means is that Roman armies can start hundreds of kilometres closer than Ottoman ones at the start of a campaign seas. (From Constantinople to Serica (Sofia) is 550km, to Vidin is 750km.) Far from being right at the edge of their logistics Vienna and Southern Germany would in fact be well within the capabilities of Rhoman armies to not only heavily raid but occupy.
Edit: Spelling mistakes
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Stellaris is great but it's more of a Grand Strategy (in spaaace) slash strategy-rpg than a 4X really.
I was puttering on Patrician 4 (it's on sale on steam) and a thought arose about the Hansa, and the trade concessions Theodor made with the Triunes. He never said anything about the eastern rivers and the flow of good from Rhome. The Hansa traders with being loyal enough to swallow the pill with the Triune, they would be more than eager to see their only other route to the goods of the East, calm down and stabilize. Theodor has to go, he's bad for business every way but Kings Landing. Both him and Casimir are idiots and are wasting away their kingdoms for separate but equally personal, vainglorious crusades. The Hanseatic traders will have a vacuum to fill in Poland with another route to the black sea that isn't the Danube, when this war is over. The question they have to ask is how much more will they have to bleed? A trader from Danzig or Lubeck with the right licence of trade in black sea ports of the empire could become a very rich man in the kingdom of the germans... said licences would have so great a value that at end of the war when D3 is remembering those friends of peace, truth and prosperity, he would be so magnanimous with them. Is Elisabeth married? I can't remember but I feel like she has a kid? She is not stupid, and the real shot callers of the kingdom have seen her keep a ball of springs held together tightly by her. They could work with her and the right co-regent, a certain Czech perhaps?
Cryostorm
Monthly Donor
Yeah, I feel like whoever takes over the HRE, probably to be renamed after this war, will likely be her husband to gain legitimacy from both merging the dynasties together and to keep her on board.
Elizabeth doesn't have children afaik, which is why this war happened in the first place. And I don't think she remarried yet. There was the potential match with the King of Hungary that was blocked by Theodor, but nothing after that. But I agree that she could be very important in the post-war world and with only 28 years is still well in a marriageable age. As you say, the Bohemians could be an option. Their growing power and ambition haven't been mentioned for nothing. I'm not sure what Ottokar's age and marital status is, but iirc we have been given a name drop of a crown prince. We don't know his marital status either, but he seems a better match for Elizabeth.
@altwere: That’s an idea. I may do that, although the factors that killed them off will still be in place ITTL (not used to humans and needed as a food source during the early stages of colonization).
I’m wondering if there other good critters that went extinct IOTL that might live ITTL. I discovered the Goliath Tenerife Lizards by accident and decided to run with them.
I think expansion in India is a problem because treading on Vijayanagar’s toes is bad for one’s life expectancy. Outposts in northern India are possible, but having said that I’ve decided that India ITTL will remain largely independent from western rule. There will be coastal enclaves and temporary control over certain areas, but nothing likely the British Raj.
@Curtain Jerker: Thank you. While the end states are locked (too much of what comes later is dependent) I’m open to suggestions/ideas that might make that better. But this is a moment when Rhomania gags badly.
@Military tactics: Zeng China has the biggest army, followed by Vijayanagar. Rhomania is next, particularly if you include the Despotates. Triunes have a slightly bigger navy than Rhomania, with the Spanish and Lotharingians not far behind the two.
@Aristomenes: The Wu state collapsed and those who could get out, did. There are still Wu in Australia, but they’re on the level of small farming villages plus pastoralists.
@JSC: A big issue though is the matter of supply. Fodder for the animals is bulky to transport and hard to come by in the spring. Ottoman campaigns had to wait until there was enough grass after the snow melted before they could move.
Plus in peacetime most of the Empire’s troops are in Asia. Only 4 of the 11 themes are in Europe. So there’d be delays if you have to ferry troops over from Anatolia, although one could have, say, the west Anatolian tagmata winter in Europe to expedite things.
Now on a wartime footing that can be sped up since Anatolian troops are already in Europe. There are still the climatic restrictions to campaigning but I think Belgrade is already something like halfway between Constantinople and Buda, so being able to start there still saves a lot of the campaigning season.
@minifidel: Agreed. Naval control of the Adriatic is really useful, although the Romans don’t have the sealift capability for more than a couple of pre-war tagmata at a time.
@Duke of Nova Scotia: Using riverine trade in Eastern Europe to get to the Black Sea is a good idea, although the outlets themselves are controlled by Vlachia or Scythia, and there may be some earlier passage through Russian states too. So it’d depend on how cooperative the Russians feel like being. Novgorod certainly is bitter about its Baltic Sea access being cut off after the Great Northern War (hence the current Baltic war) and the Hansa were key backers of the HRE efforts then.
Elizabeth doesn’t have any children and is currently not married. There was talk of marrying her to the King of Hungary but that never happened.
@Cryostorm: Elizabeth right now is very likely the most eligible bachelorette in all of Christendom.
@InMediasRes: Ottokar’s married to a sister of the Prussian King (who’s descended from Her Serene Highness Theodora Komnena, daughter of Ioannes VI Komnenos). Crown Prince Vaclav is old enough to be a legitimate commander of the Bohemian contingent; I haven’t established his marital status.
Stellaris: Thanks for all the comments. I may pick it up if Paradox runs another sale; I first started seriously thinking about it during their holiday sale last year.
Special updates ideas: I’m thinking of an ‘Imperial minorities’ topical update once the war is over. With the special updates, I want to provide something extra for patrons, but at the same don’t want to make it ‘incomplete’ for the regular readers.
I do have some ideas for future snippets, but there are issues with that as Curtain Jerker pointed out. I don’t want to lock myself down, but if they end up being non-canon, what’s the point?
I like the idea of vignettes from minor characters. It’s a good way to tell stories that aren’t big enough for the ‘grand history’ of the TL proper. One off the top of my head is more on one of those women who dressed up as a man to join the Roman army. I also like the idea of ‘weird stories from TTL’ as another way to bring in stories that don’t have the significance to be in the TL proper (inspiration is from the Dollop podcast) such as an alt-Batavia.
Although all this talk about Stellaris really makes me want to get back to working on my last sci-fi story and have updates of that be the special updates. It’d be my writing obviously but it’d have nothing to do with An Age of Miracles proper.
What do you all think of these ideas?
I also must be doing something wrong with Patreon. I've had a large (in terms of percentage) number of patrons drop. Is there something more or different I should be doing to retain interest?
I’m wondering if there other good critters that went extinct IOTL that might live ITTL. I discovered the Goliath Tenerife Lizards by accident and decided to run with them.
I think expansion in India is a problem because treading on Vijayanagar’s toes is bad for one’s life expectancy. Outposts in northern India are possible, but having said that I’ve decided that India ITTL will remain largely independent from western rule. There will be coastal enclaves and temporary control over certain areas, but nothing likely the British Raj.
@Curtain Jerker: Thank you. While the end states are locked (too much of what comes later is dependent) I’m open to suggestions/ideas that might make that better. But this is a moment when Rhomania gags badly.
@Military tactics: Zeng China has the biggest army, followed by Vijayanagar. Rhomania is next, particularly if you include the Despotates. Triunes have a slightly bigger navy than Rhomania, with the Spanish and Lotharingians not far behind the two.
@Aristomenes: The Wu state collapsed and those who could get out, did. There are still Wu in Australia, but they’re on the level of small farming villages plus pastoralists.
@JSC: A big issue though is the matter of supply. Fodder for the animals is bulky to transport and hard to come by in the spring. Ottoman campaigns had to wait until there was enough grass after the snow melted before they could move.
Plus in peacetime most of the Empire’s troops are in Asia. Only 4 of the 11 themes are in Europe. So there’d be delays if you have to ferry troops over from Anatolia, although one could have, say, the west Anatolian tagmata winter in Europe to expedite things.
Now on a wartime footing that can be sped up since Anatolian troops are already in Europe. There are still the climatic restrictions to campaigning but I think Belgrade is already something like halfway between Constantinople and Buda, so being able to start there still saves a lot of the campaigning season.
@minifidel: Agreed. Naval control of the Adriatic is really useful, although the Romans don’t have the sealift capability for more than a couple of pre-war tagmata at a time.
@Duke of Nova Scotia: Using riverine trade in Eastern Europe to get to the Black Sea is a good idea, although the outlets themselves are controlled by Vlachia or Scythia, and there may be some earlier passage through Russian states too. So it’d depend on how cooperative the Russians feel like being. Novgorod certainly is bitter about its Baltic Sea access being cut off after the Great Northern War (hence the current Baltic war) and the Hansa were key backers of the HRE efforts then.
Elizabeth doesn’t have any children and is currently not married. There was talk of marrying her to the King of Hungary but that never happened.
@Cryostorm: Elizabeth right now is very likely the most eligible bachelorette in all of Christendom.
@InMediasRes: Ottokar’s married to a sister of the Prussian King (who’s descended from Her Serene Highness Theodora Komnena, daughter of Ioannes VI Komnenos). Crown Prince Vaclav is old enough to be a legitimate commander of the Bohemian contingent; I haven’t established his marital status.
Stellaris: Thanks for all the comments. I may pick it up if Paradox runs another sale; I first started seriously thinking about it during their holiday sale last year.
Special updates ideas: I’m thinking of an ‘Imperial minorities’ topical update once the war is over. With the special updates, I want to provide something extra for patrons, but at the same don’t want to make it ‘incomplete’ for the regular readers.
I do have some ideas for future snippets, but there are issues with that as Curtain Jerker pointed out. I don’t want to lock myself down, but if they end up being non-canon, what’s the point?
I like the idea of vignettes from minor characters. It’s a good way to tell stories that aren’t big enough for the ‘grand history’ of the TL proper. One off the top of my head is more on one of those women who dressed up as a man to join the Roman army. I also like the idea of ‘weird stories from TTL’ as another way to bring in stories that don’t have the significance to be in the TL proper (inspiration is from the Dollop podcast) such as an alt-Batavia.
Although all this talk about Stellaris really makes me want to get back to working on my last sci-fi story and have updates of that be the special updates. It’d be my writing obviously but it’d have nothing to do with An Age of Miracles proper.
What do you all think of these ideas?
I also must be doing something wrong with Patreon. I've had a large (in terms of percentage) number of patrons drop. Is there something more or different I should be doing to retain interest?
Which tiers, basic or above?
After first consolidated story part basic subscribers essentially get the same thing as non-subscribers (I believe glossary is the only difference?). I consider basic tier mostly as motivation for you to write something I enjoy immensely, but others might be miffed there isn't much to differentiate them from non-subscribers.
Perhaps enabling consolidated story for basic tier and reserving special updates for higher tiers?