@Curtain Jerker: I have a soft spot for Elizabeth too. While Empress of Rhomania, I was originally planning for her to be the ‘faithful but barren wife’ of Andreas III, who has a roving eye (not noticing that Andreas I, whom he desired to emulate, was actually quite faithful to his wives), and then gets kicked out rather insultingly when Andreas III died. Things turned out differently because I added Maria of Agra largely on a whim, not for her benefit. So Elizabeth’s getting rehabilitated back in Germany because I feel bad about what I did to her character.
A complete 100% take-out is impossible, although if a band of cavalry escapes the battle, turns brigand, and is killed three months later somewhere in Thessaly, that doesn’t help Munich any.
@JSC: I’m so not sorry, it’s reversed itself and become anti-sorry.
The HRE, Triunes, and Spain would all appoint nobles as commanders (there are a few commoners but those are rare) but they’re all better set up, particularly the Triunes and Spain, to ensure said noble is both loyal and competent.
Salzburg surrendered peaceably and didn’t require a siege or storming, so while the inhabitants will be forced to provide lots of ‘voluntary contributions’, the Romans aren’t going to wreck the city. That’d be completely against the unwritten rules of war of the day, and counterproductive as it’d encourage any future siege targets to resist to the last.
The details are still up in the air, but I’m planning for a present-day Rhomania to still have an underlying current of distrust for the Latins and viewing them as an other.
The noise is from the thunder in the storm at Constantinople (it’s raining at the beginning of that scene). Everyone assumed that the sound of thunder meant cannon, but really Nostradamus just meant cannon. He’s annoying that way…
@CV12Hornet: I think not listening to Bogislaw is a small tip on a large iceberg…
@HanEmpire: It’s going to be lots of fun…
@Grammar Kaiser: Mood Music is always really good. I typically listen to ‘Two Steps from Hell’ while writing.
@ImperatorAlexander: Belgrade and Skoupoi might suspect some sort of Greek trick at first, but if provided suitable proof (parade of high-ranking captives?) they’d probably surrender promptly if promised good terms.
@Antony444: Theodor has really driven the Wittelsbachs, and the HRE, into the ground. A mix of confirmation bias, wishful thinking, and just plain stupidity.
@RogueTraderEnthusiast: The Romans wouldn’t trust any of their captives with weapons, even if fighting against the Persians. The Byzantines IOTL had some really bad luck with that and Demetrios is well aware of the history. Prisoners being used as forced labor battalions is highly likely; it’s not like they have to be paid properly.
But wasn’t it glorious that Theodor managed to fight all the way down to Thessaloniki? After all, Moscow is listed as one of Napoleon’s great victories on his tomb, even though the aftermath ended rather badly for him.
Yeah, when the Wittelsbachs default on their loans, things are going to get nasty really fast. At this stage, Bohemia, the next-tier 4 (Cologne, Hesse-Brunswick, Pomerania, Württemberg), and the bigger/wealthier Imperial cities like Hamburg and Bremen are the only ones that have economies that aren’t in terrible shape.
@catconqueror: The HRE still has more men. But there is now a serious shortage of trained manpower. The Bavarians were able to field a larger army than the Romans on fairly short notice, but the recruits were mostly bad. The various principalities have more men as well, but they’re busy finding excuses not to send anymore.
There are still some in the Rhineland. The German states could field more men in total than they could supply in Rhomania, so Germany’s not empty. But its A-team isn’t available anymore.
@Duke of Nova Scotia: Ibrahim has an advantage in that those most aware of the issues of the truce, in which Ibrahim is included, are also aware that a civil war in the Ottoman Empire will only benefit the Romans. So there is a sense of rallying to the throne since there isn’t a clear alternative to Ibrahim, save for his younger brother Iskandar the Younger still in Roman custody.
The Ottomans view the Triunes largely as useful tools. They’re still infidels, but they bring in lots of money through trade and while the fleet they helped build didn’t do much on the high seas, it did serve as a fleet-in-being that safeguarded the Hormuz area.
@Evilprodigy: The ghazi mindset is an inheritance from the early Ottoman days. They got started as Turkish chieftains rallied around Osman when the Romans were retaking Anatolia in the late 1200s, so holy war against the Christians is what ‘birthed’ the Ottomans. There’s always been this thread since, even if there’s been tensions as a result with the capital.
I have a specific element for each of those bits of the prophecy. So everything will come true, in some form or another.
Good prophecies are like that.
@Aristomenes: Prior to this point nobody’s willing to be the first to stick their neck out, as that might mean getting chopped off. Plus while Wittelsbach troops are tied up, so are a lot of the various princes’ troops. And there’s also Henri to consider.
There may be an alt-Mozart, but the OTL one is butterflied away.
@Imperial Inkstand-filler: Something like that is highly probable. The Crusaders IOTL often displayed a ‘stabbed-in-the-back’ attitude against the Byzantines as an excuse to justify their own failings and defeats.
@Komnenos002: The Triunes will definitely be moving east shortly. Henri’s been waiting for a moment just like this since this whole thing began.
I’m thinking (and I reverse the right to change my mind) that the Lotharingians are comparable to the Golden Age Dutch, but instead of facing the Spanish, they’re facing an alt-Louis XIV. The Triunes are quite well organized themselves and they’re a lot bigger than the Lotharingians.
@chrnno: Lotharingia can put up a good fight, especially playing defensively. But in the last two Triune invasions of Lotharingia, the Triunes were only beaten back by third-party intervention. They were winning before that happened. With its improved wealth compared to just a few decades ago, Lotharingia can do a much better job of defending itself than before, but it definitely can’t keep the Triunes from playing in the HRE if they want (and Henri does).
@CV12Hornet: Yeah, the Lotharingians have a very long and skinny country, terrible for defense. If they try to hold that entire frontier against the Triunes, they’ll lose.
@MarshalofMontival: I don’t know who said it, but it was something like ‘the prospect of hanging will concentrate a man’s mind wonderfully’. The Allied commanders won’t turn on each other if a giant Roman army is barreling down on them. That just guarantees they’ll be destroyed and they know it.
@Sciox: There were some armies in the OTL 30YW that were completely destroyed without fighting a single battle just by being forced to retreat through already-stripped territory. We’re talking starting at 20K and ending at 2K. While a lot of the losses may be desertions, not death, that doesn’t help the general/sovereign.
@JohnSmith: Well, there’s more to the prophecy than just this war. Nostradamus is a pretty tricky character, unlike me who’s a straight-shooter…
Stop looking at me like that.
@Shard: Perhaps…
@Sceonn: He will. There’s a particular insult/rebuke I’ve been saving up for Demetrios to use, but the right moment hasn’t appeared yet.
@Vince: Exactly!
@Lascaris: Yeah. The Romans would have to be led by Alexios III Angelos to screw this up. Because somehow even he could find a way to drop the ball; he’s actually rather talented that way.
@Babyrage: Theodor marching out would certainly make things easier for the Romans.
@Donald Reaver: That is a risk, but at this point the Thessaloniki garrison is 40-50% the size of the Allied army all by itself, so even a desperate Allied attack wouldn’t take the city. It might wreck a few streets though and get really messy.
@TheWanderingReader: The Age of Enlightenment should be fun. Hopefully I’ll be able to make the ideas interesting and plausible, but also somewhat different from OTL. I want the TTL world to be understandable to an OTL visitor, but still feel somewhat ‘off’.