well, i've completed the Mongolian war part of the timeline. please tell me if theres anything wrong, particularly about the size of the armies.
1254: Byzantine tries to get peace with the mongols, offering a fairly substantial bribe. the Mongolian diplomat (or equivalent) rejected it, saying that Byzantium is, oddly enough, the strongest, richest state in this side of the world, and Mongolia needs money and slave labor to survive.
...he was thusly executed. the reason is that the Diplomat was already in Constantinople, and therefore cant afford to let any secrets out of the capital.
less than 2 months later, Mongolia invades Byzantium, with 196,000 troops with the best artillery that the mongols has to offer, from Bulgaria, directly to adrianople. the city, already fortified because of the obvious mongol presence, takes a while to fall. the 50,000 Byzantine soldiers there were killed, wounded or simply retreated to Constantinople after a two month battle. they inflicted serious casulties on the mongols, forcing them to stop their advance and regroup.
in the meantime, another 250,000 mongols invaded Anatolia in two places. the north, from Armenia (which the mongols conquered earlier) going through the northern plains, and the south, from Syria, to the cilica mountain pass. this was, of course, predicted by Byzantium, and is heavily defended.
1255: after a year in fighting... Constantinople is under siege by an impressive number of mongols, 200,000. too bad that the capital was well defended. and supplied from the sea. and more reinforcements brought in. plus militia drafted from the civilians.
in Anatolia, the mongols are making progress. sort of. they defeated the north Byzantine army with serious casualties, over 12,000, but they still won, and advance to trebizond.
in the south, they are having problems. the Byzantine army there was led by an intelligent general, and fully used the region to Byzantium's advantage. they manage to repulse the mongols with heavy casualties. but the Mongol reserve smashed right through them, and they won the battle.
1256: the Battle for Constantinople is won. the mongols never stood a chance. with the mongol threat from Europe removed for the time being, sent some soldiers to take care of the Anatolian situation.
the various eastern and central European countries, seeing that the majority of the mongol troops were focused on Byzantium took the advantage, and pushed back the front lines. they were successful.
In anatolia, the situation is getting worse for the Byzantines. despite the reinforcements, the mongols show no signs of letting up. they were eventually pushed back to the eupherates river, and a long line of fortifications.
Byzantium seemed to be making a good stand there, with Mongolian troops failing to break the Euphrates line, and suffers heavy casualties on the way. then the attacks stop, giving both sides a chance to regroup.
1258: two year later, 240,000 Mongolians, apparently freshly sent from other regions, invade from Bulgaria to attack Constantinople again. the defenders number about 115,000, with some major artillery on the walls.
but this time the mongols pressed their attacks on the northern wall, which eventually crumbled in two or three places. the mongol troops forced their way in, but the bottle neck just serves to harm them as the Byzantine land army fought them head on, and managed to force them out of the walls, killing thousands of Mongolians. they promptly repaired that wall.
even more heartening for Byzantium, various troops from several countries, including the the Caliphate in Egypt, arrive in Constantinople, and helped destroy the mongols that were camping outside of Constantinople. the Byzantine Emperor is pleased by this turn of events.
when asked, the Egyptian commander said this: "If Constantinople is captured, they would raze it and kill everyone, including the Emperor. that would make this "wonderful" state collapse or splinter, and surrender to the mongols. then they would pursue other nations that would be rich and powerful after the fall, including Egypt."
these troops were sent to Anatolia to deal with the mongols there.
in Anatolia, Byzantium were having serious problems keeping the line from a staggering 300,000 Mongolians. fortunately some of them seemed to be poorly equipped and trained. reinforcements arrived in the form of Byzantine and allied troops, which thusly helped to surround the mongol troops, and destroyed every last one in a great battle.
1259: the mongols, made yet another attempt at invading Byzantium with fewer troops of a lower quality. these were taken care of rather nicely at Adrianople, which Byzantium liberated, and at Trebizond, which the mongols attacked.
1260: utterly humiliated, and with the mongol military smashed (at least, in the region), and facing revolts from the region bordering Byzantium, the Khan of the mongols personally came to Constantinople to make peace.
...Byzantium humiliated them more by forcing them to agree to pay for their arrogance. apparently the diplomatic convoy carried some gold with them, evidently to bargain with.
lets just say, the convoy were never heard from again. the Mongol Empire was horribly unstable, even when a different [person took the leadership. then Mongolia suffered setbacks, mainly in Europe and middle east because the mongol soldiers there were greatly reduced in number. never again will the mongols threaten Byzantium.