Part 28: 1380-1399, Holding the Line.

Typhus arrives from Italy.







The Abbasids are not happy with the loss of Alexandria, and begin a war to reclaim it.



While he knows crushing enemy numbers are coming, Abi-Bakr orders the Imperial Army forward, trying to kill as many enemy units as possible before they can form an army. In a spectacular battle, we kill over three and half thousand Abbasids for the loss of sixty-four of our own men!



Men from Sicily arrive just in time to bolster our numbers against their first army.



Once that is destroyed, another army of 25,000 men arrive, but we are able to get more reinforcements in to bring our numbers up to 27,000 men.



More Muslims arrive however, and we are forced to retreat after a long and bloody battle that leaves nearly thirty thousand dead.



Our own reinforcements are not to far behind however, and we go back in with crushing numbers.



This is a war of who can get the most men into the area as quickly as possible. Another massive Abbasid force arrives, and both sides try and rush reinforcements in.



This is the battle that ends the war. We get more men in to the battle – just. During the battle that sees thirty five thousand people die, we manage to capture Caliph Mirza II and end the war.



The terms of peace between two such Goliath's are not small. They would break most other countries. This money is spent on improving the towns and cities in Tunis.







Chief Birama says that the Emperor should lower crown authority. This is the Ghanan Empire, and Abi-Bakr will not be blackmailed.



Sure enough though, Birama brings the war. It does not look like enough of the others have joined him to win it however. The defection of Sicily, ruled by all his sons, is a blow however.



The Emperor leads from the front, but he is old and slow, and is wounded in battle.



One of his sons is captured, as a wrathful arbitrary man, Abi-Bakr sends him to the oubliette. He has plenty more sons, and the others must learn to respect their old man.







The war turns in the favour of the loyalists, but the wound and his advanced age means that Abi-Bakr will not live to see the end of it.



Firhun I ends up ruling the Empire from Malta, with Tunis going to one of his brothers. He is a thrifty clerk, and a envious, proud, diligent and arbitrary man.







It takes us some time, but we are able to track down the army that Birama leads and destroy it, capturing him in battle.



Firhun then releases his brother, now king of Egypt, from the stinking hole his father crammed him into. In fact, most of the rebels are shown leanacy.



Birama is banished, and his lands taken by the Emperor, who was short on land after he had been left with just one province and his title.







The Abbasids try and reclaim some of their lost land.



Our men take to the ships and we hit their first army hard.



We get some sieges in before the next huge stack arrives, but we are able to combine our forces and match them on the field of battle.



They have the better generals however, and we are defeated and forced back.



The last wave of our reinforcements arrive and we attempt to do battle once more.







The war drags on for years, we have defeated their main armies, but we have to keep hitting formations like this ever month or so – they don't affect the war score, but slow the sieges. This is all of the armies of Ghana remaining.



The Abbasids are reinforced once more, and we lose the battle. We raise up what troops we can and some mercenaries, but I am not sure if they can reach the front in time.



The fresh troops arrive and I assault a city. They are then destroyed, but this, added to the enemies lack of progress in taking their target means the war score ticks up to 100% just before their force arrives in Giza. We win the war by the narrowest of margins.



To celebrate, Firhun reclaims Tunis from his nephew.







The next few years are spent rebuilding the army. Then some of the few remaining Muslims within the borders of Ghana get a bit uppity.



Disease weakens the peasants as they try and break the walls of the local keep, and the troops to put them down are coming in. For Firhun though, being the Emperor is stressful.



Stress leads to illness as the troops land.







The rebels are defeated, but illness turns to death for Firhun.



Bamari is twelve and a kind, brave and cynical young man.








The Abbasids start another holy war to reclaim lost territory.



The Andalusian branch of the family are looking for a good war it seems.



We take some land before the main army turns up and defeats us, we need the support to turn this around.








The fourty thousand strong Abbasid army begins to assault our castles, and all we can do is watch. Bamari comes of age.



Finally the last of our troops arrive, and the Andalusian men also take to the field, having marched across Africa to get here.



We engage their main army, which is weakened down to parity through costly assaults. But our allies turn north first, slowing their linkup, and then another 20,000 Abbasid men arrive!



Both sides make it to the battle, and it turns into the biggest and bloodiest in Ghanan history – a hundred and ten thousand men fight in the sand, and fully half never return home, but it is a Ghanan victory!



We follow up for the killing blow, but our ally moves north again, leaving our men to be slaughtered.



Our army is destroyed. We call up more levies, but we are only able to send 5,000 men in to help the Adalusian's. The rest of our 35,000 men are going to have to move in from further afield.







The war is still in our favour, with 50% war score. Fresh troops are marching towards the front, or are on boats. But this is not over yet. It is however, the end of another century!

Time for a tour of Europe!

Iberia has Portugal as the largest Christian country, with Castile, and Aragon close behind. Andalusia has not changed much in size since it was founded.



Moving up, we see southern france with some smaller nations, France holds the north strongly, but it is the Empire of Britannia that is the major player here, even if it is currently having a civil war in England.



Lombardy is the main power in Italy.



The Croatian Empire is the main superpower in Central Europe. Their lands stretch from their boarder with the Byzantines up to the banks of the Vistua.



In Scandinavia Finland has collapsed and there is a fairly balanced power structure.



Eastern Europe is dominated by the Shia Golden Horde, with Novogrod and Kiev also big players.



The Romans continue as they always have.



Our main rivals, the Abbasids are as huge as always. Only the conversion of the Horde stop them from claiming to be the predominate Muslim superpower.



Ghana is the worlds superpower however. All shall worship the snake.



The house of Ogoonu is strong.



Right, we are a little over fifty years from the end of Crusader kings, so two more slightly longer updates should take us there.