An Age of Miracles Continues: The Empire of Rhomania

[Basileus444]

Wolttaire: Guerrillas aren’t nearly as bad along the Danube as in Upper Macedonia because the Allies have been better disciplined. Being a partisan is a tough life; it’s a lot easier to say no to that if your village hasn’t been burned and your neighbors raped and slaughtered. There are still active partisans though, but Allied parties of 20 soldiers or more will be too hot for all but the toughest partisan bands to handle.

HanEmpire: Ah, makes sense now. Although now I have a quest to make an Emperor/Empress called ‘the Pineapple’.

The Danube update and the next few updates are all taking place at the same time, just in different areas. So when it’s decided to concentrate on the eastern frontier, Blucher’s still just up at Belgrade. So he’s close, but not that close, to Constantinople.

ImperatorAlexander: Varna’s a good base for attacking Constantinople. It’s the good chunk of the Varna-Constantinople highway that’s in cannon-range of the coast that’s the problem.

Allied reinforcements vary in quality depending on where exactly they’re coming from, since some of the HRE states are better at this than others. Remember though that the Romans are taking losses of their own, and their reinforcements are also new recruits. They haven’t had as much drill as peacetime tagma soldiers or experienced the peacetime training exercises (or at least not as many) so the Romans face the same issue.

Stark: Thank you for your support. It’s greatly appreciated.

Arrix85: Thank you to you as well.

InMediasRes: Thank you for your support too. I’m liking the Kindle file idea a lot. Seems a good way to make it more readable/accessible for patrons. I’ve converted some short stories from word docs on my computer in kindle files for use on my reader, so hopefully it wouldn’t be too hard with these (knock on wood). There were images in some of the stories and they came through as well, although I’m not sure what black-and-white would do to the maps.

Lascaris: Adrianople is well fortified with modern defenses. And if fortifications in any other spots in the environs of Constantinople are lacking, it wouldn’t be too hard to take 20000 Constantinopolitans, give each of them a spade, and get them digging.

I really need to get me a good atlas of Greece + Bulgaria + Turkey + Syria.

I’ve seen that claim that Basil II has a quarter-million man army and I admit I’m really skeptical at that. At best I think it’s an on-paper number and Basil would be hard-pressed to supply a field army in one spot a tenth that size. In contrast here, the Empire could put a quarter million men into the field at the same time and supply 100,000+ of them in one spot.

Boa: Don’t worry, I won’t forget you guys. I especially owe you a thank you for suggesting the Patreon idea. I wouldn’t have set that up without your suggestion. I like the idea of having 1-2 higher tiers that get new exclusive content but would keep them cheap.

I like the Amazon wishlist idea (my wish list is entirely history books). Most of my ideas come from OTL history, so reading history books is something I enjoy but oftentimes doubles as research for An Age of Miracles. Just would have to make sure my personal info is kept private.

I would like to go more into the divisions in the Allied coalition, but admittedly I shudder every time I approach the pit that is the HRE’s internal politics.

Regarding possibility of Reformation 2.0, I recently purchased Diarmaid MacCulloch’s book Christianity: the First Three Thousand Years. A few months back I read his history of the Reformation. Hopefully I’ll get some ideas.

Khaine: The Reformation was a puff ITTL compared to the OTL explosion. The fact that part of the Catholic Church (the Avignon Papacy) was willing to engage in some reform blew off a lot of the steam that contributed to the OTL explosion.

JackExpo: Thank you for supporting. I want to provide at least some AoM goodies for patrons to show my appreciation, aside from the just the sneak previews of the next update.

The Bernese League is the special child of the HRE. They’re sort of like the Swiss ITTL. They are technically part of the HRE but if Theodor ordered them to send troops to the Danube, they’d tell him to shove his order where the sun don’t shine and get away with it. They’ll work within the HRE system when it suits them, but when it doesn’t they can and will take their ball with them and go home. They’re aligned primarily with Arles and are a solid ally of Marseilles, heavily culturally influenced but as a friend, not a vassal or client.

Babyrage: I’m not even close to figuring out the details (right now I’m focused squarely on finishing up the war) but the HRE will be in for some interesting times for the next few years/decades.

Evilprodigy: That’s the Roman strategy in a nutshell.

RogueTraderEnthusiast: Yeah, the losses at the end of the Eternal War blew a hole in the Roman fortress line guarding the frontier so Ibrahim has a much easier shot at Roman Syria than even his father did. Meanwhile Blucher has to chew his way through a whole bunch of fortresses before he’s a critical threat while Ibrahim can have cavalry raiding Antioch’s suburbs within a day or two of crossing the frontier.

JohnSmith: With control of the Danube the Allies are doing alright supply-wise, but even so their cavalry strength is dwindling. So once they break away from the river, not only will logistics will be harder since barges are way better than carts, the Allies will also be less able to protect their supply trains against Roman raids.


Again a big thank you to all who signed up to the Patreon page!

 

[Basileus444]

1632 continued: On paper Lombardy possesses a massive advantage over its Sicilian neighbor to the south, with close to 8 million compared to just over 3 million subjects. Milan could, without too much effort, put sixty thousand troops into the field while the Despotate musters a mere three tagmata, the Apulian, Calabrian, and Sicilian.

Supplying those sixty thousand in the field though would be quite difficult. South of Tuscany and north of Naples the roads in the interior of the peninsula are of very poor quality, many little more than sheep tracks. Huge flocks of sheep traverse those tracks every year, pasturing in the Kingdom during the summer and in the Despotate in the winter. Agreeing that the sheep must flow given its importance to both parties, both parties leave the migrating flocks alone despite the war, much to the impotent annoyance of Demetrios III.

Coastal routes are much more promising for supply, but that means sea power is of paramount importance. Considering that Italy is a peninsula, one would think the Lombard lords agitating for war would’ve considered this. It does not appear that they did. They’re expecting a repeat of the Time of Troubles when the Milanese faced little Roman naval opposition, not realizing that was because the Roman navy had blown itself to bits fighting on opposite sides of the Orthodox War and had not yet recovered.

Instead now they enter a war with a navy Sicily itself can match ship-for-ship, never mind Egyptian reinforcements and, of course, the elephant in the room.

A very angry elephant. The Roman navy, given its poor performance on the Danube, is eager to restore its name and win some glory. The Megas Doux, Alexios Angelos, is reported to have literally cackled in the Halls of the White Palace when he received the orders to let loose his fleet. And the fleet he lets loose is immense, eighty battle-line ships, fifty two fregatai, thirty galleasses, and multiple support and smaller vessels.

Squadrons swarm over the Lombard coastline, both the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic shores. Everywhere parties are landed to raid the countryside, their progress marked by the smoke plumes of burning villages. To be fair, the peasants of the Lombard countryside know exactly what the peasants of Upper Macedonia are enduring. Blockades are established off the major ports and the estuary of the Po mined not long after the approach to Vidin is. Although Lombard fregatai and privateers sally forth to attack any targets of opportunity, the Lombard battle-line which is outnumbered four-to-one by the Sicilian-Roman, hides in port.

The main Roman thrust is aimed firstly at the island of Elba. Using Venetia, Bari, and the Dalmatian port cities as bases makes locking down the Adriatic coast rather easy. But with Naples as the closest base, blockading all of the Tyrrhenian shore (which is much more important anyway) is much harder. Elba looks like a desirable forward base.

Leo Kalomeros, now sixteen years old, serves as an eikosarchos aboard one of the Egyptian fregatai participating in the attack. Under the eyes of the Roman Doux commanding the attack, Gabriel Papagos (cousin to the Katepano of Pyrgos responsible for bringing most of Luzon under Roman suzerainty), he rescues two seamen from drowning.

Not content with that, he then swims ashore, rallying a party of armed seamen who are part of the landing force and pinned down by a Lombard battery, and leads them in a charge on the battery. Once seized, Kalomeros then commands the battery, using it against the Lombards in support of the rest of the landing troops, ‘working the guns with great skill not to be expected in one so young’.

Elba is seized quickly but Doux Papagos does not forget the young Egyptian officer. In the embankment where the battery stood he is awarded the Order of the Iron Gates. To this day, no one younger has ever been awarded that distinction. Papagos also arranges a transfer and Kalomeros enters the Roman navy, stationed to the fregata Theseus.

It is a fortunate posting as the fregata then joins the squadron that seizes Civitavecchia, the main port that serves Rome. There has been no formal declaration of war but Demetrios III has absolutely no hesitation treating the Pope and his lands as an enemy. Raiding parties then swarm out across the region surrounding Rome. The Eternal City itself as well as the major walled towns are safe, but not much else.

One party races up to Tolfa and goes on a wrecking spree, interspersed by frequent explosions, to lay waste the alum mining operations. Tolfa alum is the only real competitor to Thrakesian alum, a major export from Smyrna (16% of Smyrna’s annual export duties are on alum), so this is a good opportunity to deal an economic blow to a major rival.

More fun for the seamen and marines though are the so-called bird-hunting expeditions that prowl up to the walls of Rome, even firing some of the suburbs outside the fortifications. They are called bird-hunting because they snag five cardinals in their sweeps, their ransoms counting as prize money. The party in which Kalomeros serves captures Cardinal Cajetan, his share of the ransom/prize coming to 477 hyperpyra (3-4 hyperpyra being the monthly wage of a solider), almost 5 times the prize money he received at 12 for fighting in the Battle of the Mandrare Delta.

Also captured is Cajetan’s Secretary Jacques Almain, he who suggested the abduction of Orthodox children. The orders, signed by Emperor Demetrios himself, are quite clear. Excepting those of the rank of bishop or higher, all captured Inquisitors, Templars (they can thank King Casimir, who is never without a Templar shadow, for that), and one Father Almain are to be executed ‘as enemies of the Roman people’. Kalomeros purportedly pulls the lever that drops the secretary on the gallows. For killing Almain, all members of that party also receive a bounty of 90 hyperpyra each from the Emperor.

The Lombards haven’t been idle during all of this, launching an invasion of the Despotate following the old route used by Charles of Anjou back in the late 1200s. But because of the need to send supplies by land over bad roads the Lombard army numbers only 30,000 strong. The rest are busy trying, with little success, to stop the reeving of the coast.

They run into the city of Benevento which repels an assault, the Lombards settling down to a grim siege while a Sicilian army, only slightly smaller, hovers menacingly nearby with constant battles between outposts and foraging parties.

While the main Lombard army is pinned down accomplishing nothing in the south, Papagos moves from Elba on Livorno, landing troops to attack the city whilst the fleet blockades the fort. A small Lombard army, mainly recruits from Tuscany, and the Livorno garrison try to drive back the Romans but despite a small numerical advantage are hammered back.

Livorno resists far more stoutly than Elba and the Romans are forced to conduct a proper siege, using Opsikian tourmai that were fighting the Germans in Serbia last year. The Lombard army returns in force and for a while the Romans are forced to ‘recreate Alesia’ where the Romans are both besieged and besiegers, although because of the fleet the Opsikians are never properly besieged.

Despite some effective attacks from Lombard privateers, supplies are rarely a problem at Livorno. Much of what is needed, including gunpowder and shot, is procured in the Kingdom of the Isles, the Colonna Kings maintaining a benevolent neutrality towards the Romans despite having using a Lombard alliance to seize Corsica (which had been what forced Kalomeros’ family into exile).

Just four days after Nikopolis surrenders to Vauban, Livorno capitulates to the Romans, although the city is invested by the Lombards immediately afterwards. A quick assault to try and win the city before the fortifications are repaired is beaten back and the Lombards settle down into a desultory siege.

By deliberate design, Livorno then becomes a gaping hole in the Roman blockade. With the blockade, the price of Roman manufactures in Lombardy skyrockets. Lombard merchants hire ships, typically fishing smacks from nearby villages, and sail into Livorno carrying ‘trading passes’. Once in the city they can purchase Roman manufactures (military supplies excluded) although Roman merchants, knowing of the price increases in the interior, jack up the cost of their wares. The Lombards then ship the goods out, paying customs, and then return to their port of origin and then redistribute them for sale at the inflated prices.

Despite the price increases in Livorno, the increased transportation costs, and the fee to get the pass, the Lombards who do this make a killing. A silk shirt that costs them 10 hyperpyra in Livorno can be sold in Mantua for 85. The Romans benefit a lot too as all Lombard purchases must be made in gold or silver coinage so this trade sucks bullion out of Lombardy, where it could pay for Lombard arms or men, to where it can and does pay for Roman arms and men. The customs duties and license fees pay for the upkeep of the Livorno garrison.

On August 22, the Livorno garrison, which has been reinforced by transports entering by night to maintain secrecy, sallies out of the city to the complete surprise of the Lombard besiegers. A short sharp battle ensues, the Romans supported by cannon fire from the fleet and city defenses, and after two hours break the Lombard lines. The besiegers retire in disorder, although not in rout, yet leave a huge pile of supplies as well as thirty six cannons that are captured. It is a tremendous victory and more raiding parties fly out, ravaging the countryside for miles.

Upon news of this, the Lombards investing Benevento break up their siege. They’ve had little luck against the defenses as any time they press the garrison hard, the Sicilians in the field attack them. So they retire north, heading for Livorno and taking heavy losses from Sicilian raids and lack of supplies. But by October 1, a new siege of Livorno is established and the Roman garrison plugged back into the city.

Meanwhile the Sicilians launch their own offensive into the Kingdom, marching through Abruzzi and aiming for Ancona, which is formally invested on September 19. A heavily outnumbered Lombard relief army is smashed two weeks later and the Sicilians march in on October 8.

By this point King Cesare is asking Theodor, much to his extreme irritation, to send him German troops. Although he still has superior numbers to the Sicilians and Roman tourmai on the peninsula, they’re now pinned down by the need to contain the footholds at Livorno and Civitavecchia, mask Venetia to prevent an attack from that quarter (there have already been several raids in the area, far larger in scale than anything conducted elsewhere), and protect other coastal settlements. Genoa by itself consumes 4000 soldiers as its garrison. With all those commitments, his field army is actually slightly smaller than the Sicilian army.

Theodor rejects Cesare’s plea.

 

[HanEmpire]

Time to remove House Prodotes.
Once the Lombards drop out of the war, the Romans can start putting pressure on the Croatians to bring them to the peace table too. That'll punch a massive hole in the Allies' supply chain since Zagreb (+puppet Buda) will switch to defending their homelands instead of contributing to the invasion of the Empire. Poor Theodor, he's fallen into the classic German trap - shackling himself to walking corpses for allies.

Also an interesting note: Napoleon got himself enough money to buy an officer's commission, with recognition by the top brass at that.

 

[ImperatorAlexander]

The Italian War going so well for the Romans makes me think something disastrous will happen against the Persians.

Baring a major victory against Sicily it really does look like Cesare’s kingdom will crumble around him. It will only take one major port falling (like Genoa) to expose his heartland to the carnage in Central Italy, he won't feel safe pushing further.

 

[Βοανηργές]

Boa: Don’t worry, I won’t forget you guys. I especially owe you a thank you for suggesting the Patreon idea. I wouldn’t have set that up without your suggestion. I like the idea of having 1-2 higher tiers that get new exclusive content but would keep them cheap.

Only the best will do for the best TL! #AOMPride

The main Roman thrust is aimed firstly at the island of Elba. Using Venetia, Bari, and the Dalmatian port cities as bases makes locking down the Adriatic coast rather easy. But with Naples as the closest base, blockading all of the Tyrrhenian shore (which is much more important anyway) is much harder. Elba looks like a desirable forward base.

Venetia will be the key into the heart of the empire. Now that a foothold has been established, Pisa, Lucca, Genoa, Padua and Ravenna looks like awfully juicy targets. Focusing more on the naval aspect, have the Rhomans begun planning for joint operations together with allies against the Triunes in blue waters after Lombardy has been peaced out (together with a reorientation towards the planned Garonne Campaign)? I bet those eighty battle-line ships will be rearing to strike fear into the hearts of Bordeaux, Caux and eventually Lubeck, shattering the Latins misplaced sense of security in distance (provided countries like Empire of the North provides harbors and supplies.

PS Are Saluzzo and Nice still loyal retainers for Theodor or have they asserted their de facto independence, maybe with a little influence from Lombardy?

 

[RogueTraderEnthusiast]

ITALY FOR THE ROMANS! If Sideros doesn't get to return Italy to Roman hands I'll be a sad byzantophile. But a victory in Italy also opens up a route to hit Vienna and Buda that could trap the German army. Delicious.

Great to see Leo get a medal and some bounties. Can't wait to see where he goes.

 

[JohnSmith]

Something makes me think this war will happen in several phases, and we're only at 1 right now. The Italian and Eastern fronts look like fairly straight forward affairs. The Danube theater looks like it won't last that much longer, the Allies will probably take Adrianople and it'll conclude at Constantinople. Perhaps, the next stage will be to capitalise on German weakness and that's when all hell breaks loose in Europe?

 

[JackExpo]

"Able was I ere I saw Elba" - Leo Kalomeros' response after being awarded the Order of the Iron Gates.

 

[minifidel]

The reversals for the Lombards and the last line of the update gives me the impression that Lombardy will come out of this war either much reduced or unrecognizable; I can't help but wonder what the state of the Italian cities which were city states IOTL, and how many of them are currently wondering if a light Rhoman touch -- even a slightly heavier Sicilian touch -- might not be preferable to the current dynasty.

 

[HanEmpire]

With the Lombards so weakened and the Triunes preoccupied with punching the HRE, Saluzzo and Nice might go ahead and take a bite out of Lombardy with the Arletians' blessing. Marseille would love that since then the Count of Saluzzo and Nice will naturally become a de facto vassal to keep the Lombards off his back.

Would the Swiss and the Bernese also look to expand southwards?

 

[MarshalofMontival]

Might the Lombards invite the Arletians to lend a hand? With the Germans refusing to help and the Triunes tied up being the Germans' reluctant sidekick, there isn't really a major power left that they can invite in, aside from the Lotharingians, who I believe were busy elsewhere?

 

[HanEmpire]

Might the Lombards invite the Arletians to lend a hand? With the Germans refusing to help and the Triunes tied up being the Germans' reluctant sidekick, there isn't really a major power left that they can invite in, aside from the Lotharingians, who I believe were busy elsewhere?

The highlighted part is wrong, the Triunes are committed to this war just as much as the Germans are. They just have a different target in mind than what Theodor believes.

King Henri of the Triunes is waiting for the Germans and Romans to become tired out from the war, so that he can win it all by invading Germany on land and expelling Romans from the eastern trading posts. That means his armies are still mostly sitting at home, ready to march across the Rhine. The Arletians won't go on an adventure into Lombardy since that might cause Henri to switch targets and attack them instead. Afterall, an undefended Arles would allow him to unify France without breaking a treaty.

 

[JohnSmith]

The highlighted part is wrong, the Triunes are committed to this war just as much as the Germans are. They just have a different target in mind than what Theodor believes.

King Henri of the Triunes is waiting for the Germans and Romans to become tired out from the war, so that he can win it all by invading Germany on land and expelling Romans from the eastern trading posts. That means his armies are still mostly sitting at home, ready to march across the Rhine. The Arletians won't go on an adventure into Lombardy since that might cause Henri to switch targets and attack them instead. Afterall, an undefended Arles would allow him to unify France without breaking a treaty.

It's ironic that one of the big reasons the Allies are able to push so far into Roman territory is the Triune artillery train. Without it, they may have been repulsed at Belgrade, with a significantly better long term outcome for the Germans.

Although I doubt the Triunes can seriously threaten Roman East Asia. They're relatively self-sufficient, have much greater native manpower and ally networks.

 

[Namayan]

A very angry elephant. The Roman navy, given its poor performance on the Danube, is eager to restore its name and win some glory. The Megas Doux, Alexios Angelos, is reported to have literally cackled in the Halls of the White Palace when he received the orders to let loose his fleet. And the fleet he lets loose is immense, eighty battle-line ships, fifty two fregatai, thirty galleasses, and multiple support and smaller vessels.

Does this mean the Roman battleline ships are more than the triune ship of the lines based on your previous quotation?

Add northern france, minus scotland minus financial, administrative efficiency advancement of 60 years for the Triunes.

Furthermore according to The Command of the Oceans by N.A.M Rodger estimates a 2.6 million pound sterling expense on the part of the English navy in 1696 (in the middle of the Nine Years War). For fleet size in the same year he lists fourteen 1st and 2nd rate ships of the line, thirty six 3rd rates, forty eight 4th rate vessels, thirty five 5th rate, and thirty five 6th rates. So that’s a total of 50 ships of the line and 118 light vessels. Assuming that the maintenance costs of the ships of the line (1st, 2nd, 3rd) make up half of the expense total (aside from the light vessels there are the naval yards to maintain) that comes to an average of each ship of the line costing 52,000 hyperpyra per year.

 

[Basileus444]

HanEmpire: ‘House Prodotes’-it’s always nice when little details from previous eras get remembered. Once Lombardy is knocked out, ideally the Romans could put pressure on Croatia; they still have the key ports in Istria and Dalmatia so they have bases. More ambitiously they could push north from the Veneto and hit Austria and maybe even Bavaria directly. Although the Roman forces in Italy are mostly navy and marines, not a force that can operate far inland. That said, if you take 20 Sicilian tourmai + 10 Roman tourmai, you’ve got a good-sized force for causing havoc.

Saluzzo and Nice would be interested in getting a land corridor between them. The Bernese League wouldn’t mind grabbing some nice Italian lands either. And both could count on a lot of covert Arletian support.

ImperatorAlexander: I don’t know why you’re so suspicious of me…

The main thing going for the territorial integrity of Cesare’s kingdom is the OOC reason that one large state is much easier to draw on a map than multiple small ones, particularly on the Ireland-to-Indus base map I typically use.

Boa: There haven’t been much planning for naval attacks on the Triunes (aside from commerce raiders and in the east). Arles would be the perfect base but the Arletians won’t join unless the Romans support them with a large Roman army. Even the entire Sicilian army wouldn’t be enough. Spain might be more inclined to join in a naval war with the Romans against the Triunes but the northern coast of Spain isn’t the best for supporting a large fleet and it’d be really hard to challenge the Triune navy in their home waters while basing from Lisbon. Basing out of the EAN or Lotharingia would be nice but first the fleet would have to get there.

Saluzzo-Nice is de facto independent but given its puny size there’s not much it can do in international politics.

RogueTraderEnthusiast: I’d love the irony of Theodor camped out aside Constantinople bashing his head against the walls whilst some Roman Strategos has stormed up from Venetia via Alpine passes and is burning the suburbs of Munich.

JohnSmith: I don’t want to give much away, but you are right that the war will be divided into distinct phases. Think the OTL 30 Years War, where there was a common thread but also the context of the war changed dramatically from year to year as some parties entered and some exited the war.

JackExpo: I have a goal of working as many as possible references to OTL Napoleon with the life/career of Kalomeros. That’s the OOC reason for him being born in Egypt and why his first major feat of arms is at Elba.

Minifidel: A lot of Lombard territory definitely remembers the days when they were independent states. If nothing else, Constantinople is further away than Milan. And there’s always the Despotate model.

MarshalofMontival: HanEmpire covered much of your question. As for Lotharingia, they’re a major power in eastern waters (not up to the big three though) so they’re not keen to back the Romans. Plus being squished between the HRE and the Triple Monarchy, joining the Roman side would be suicide.

Namayan: Good question and memory. This is my fault since I never clarified. At this stage (1632) a battle-line ship is any sail-powered warship that mounts 50+ heavy guns. A third-rate ship on the OTL English model mounts at least 64 guns while a fourth-rate mounts 50-63 guns. So a lot of the Roman battle-line ships (half?) would be considered fourth-rates by the English in the late 1600s and hence not capital ships. That said, those numbers just refer to the fleet sent against Italy. There are more Roman battle-line ships in the east, there’s a reserve squadron still at Constantinople, plus some more on detached duty. So let’s say around 100-110 Roman battle-line warships, which would make it comparable to 1696 England, although the English would probably have a lead on first-rates; there’s only a couple of Roman ships that would classify as that.

I’d put the Triune fleet at slightly smaller (90?) with at least half of them, like the Romans, counting as fourth-rates by OTL English standards. But given the home-field advantage they’d cream the Roman navy, and vice-versa if the Triunes entered the Mediterranean in force (Lombards and Sicilians would balance each other out in that scenario). And both parties know it, hence while except for the east they’re just commerce raiding each other.

Hope that all made sense.




Patrons: I’m currently working on a glossary page for this TL. It’ll be a work-in-progress as I add more terms but I’ll soon start posting editions up on Patreon.

I’m also working on the first section of this TL in PDF format; I went with that rather than Kindle because I don’t know how Amazon would react. It’ll cover the TL from the beginning of the TL to the end of the War of the Five Emperors. I hope to have it ready sometime early next week. That will be available for all patrons.

I plan on converting all of the TL into PDF files with all images and maps included. I'm proofreading everything and fixing any grammatical errors I can find and may be making some minor edits, although nothing to change the general flow of the TL. Post War of the Five Emperors these will be available in a second patron tier which I’ll launch once I have a section ready to go. I also plan for that second tier, once the TL is all converted, to offer special updates on niche topics requested by patrons. Hope that sounds interesting and please let me know what you think.

Thank you again for all your support!

 

[ImperatorAlexander]

ImperatorAlexander: I don’t know why you’re so suspicious of me…

So many years of reading this builds a healthy sense of skepticism.
Are there any disaffected nobles within Lombardy willing to cut a deal with the Romans to maybe knock down House Prodotes? The main Lombard army isn't going to be returning to their heartlands anytime soon...

 

[JohnSmith]

JohnSmith: I don’t want to give much away, but you are right that the war will be divided into distinct phases. Think the OTL 30 Years War, where there was a common thread but also the context of the war changed dramatically from year to year as some parties entered and some exited the war.

I hope as the war changes, the main battlegrounds shift as well. Western Europe, particularly the lands between France and Germany need another war to cull that demographic lead they've built up. That area has also been host to most of the great wars of OTL, no reason it shouldn't be TTL.

 

[HanEmpire]

I hope as the war changes, the main battlegrounds shift as well. Western Europe, particularly the lands between France and Germany need another war to cull that demographic lead they've built up. That area has also been host to most of the great wars of OTL, no reason it shouldn't be TTL.

If only Charlemagne switched over to primogeniture.

Maybe we'll see TTL 30 Years War erupting in Germany over this mess. A perfect maelstrom of Theodor trying to restore the gutted Imperial authority, Electors and nobles rebelling against the Kaiser and fighting each other, Triunes invading from the West, inter-confessional conflicts between the Pope-in-Rome's rising demands and outraged German clergy turning radical and thus Protestant, the Polish King making an intervention, Croatia-Hungary making a grab for Austria again, etc., etc.

 

[Babyrage]

It'll be amazing (but unrealistic) if the war takes some inspiration from the OTL French Revolutionary Wars.

Phase 1: Rhomania gets invaded from every direction. Phase 2: Rhomania techs up, reorganises and pushes out the invaders. Phase 3: The barbarians scramble to form coalitions as the Romans invade everything.

 

[Deleted member 105105]

An avid reader since..... well, feels like forever now! Just went back and read it one more time.... Still the same, knocks my socks off!! While reading though.... I found this little gem. Hope it will give you as good laugh as I had....
A moment in time past:

Nov 13, 2011
Basileus444
Well-Known Member
Is anyone still reading this?