War against the Shah

[zim]

Just thought everyone would like to know that Balkh has been taken and the anti-Kwarezhm war is going well. I've finally got the cash to recruit troops in my homelands, and should be able to give the Ghorids a nasty surprise in a turn or two.

[barcamartin]

I took Merv and Tus this turn, and my armies are closing in on Urgench, his main (only?!) recruitment center.

I will not accept peace unless he becomes my vassal and withdraws all claims to the lands I have take from him. That's that !

[askthepizzaguy]

Sounds good to me, barca and zim. I have no objections to your plans, especially if you allow me to cooperate and join in!

[zim]

As mentioned in the Council thread, I took Bukhara this turn, destroying a lot of militia and a significant number (6 units) of castle only troops, quite damaging as he only has one castle now.

He did take samarqand somehow, and I couldn't get spies in the area, so I don't know hom much of that monster army the Shah had was left behind in Bukhara, or how many were lost taking Samarqand from the rebel full stack that guarded it.

Hopefully I'm not falling into a trap.

[askthepizzaguy]

I wouldn't worry about the Shah, Zim... you both have him quite on the ropes, and even if he managed to score an epic blow for his team, uh.... you kind of have an entire Coalition on your side. We will prevail, Ghorids or no Ghords.

Fear us... cooperation is more powerful than destruction.

[The Beast of Caerbannog]

Could I just understand what you have against Khwarezm?

It was never really explained in the Council thread... that war kinda has me wondering.

[Flax]

To quote Zim in my conversations with him:

"Khwarezm Delenda Est."

[The Beast of Caerbannog]

Ah, he had to be... set free?

[zim]

Right before the war when we were still at odds and exchanging threatening IC pms Barcamartin and I discovered that the Shah was handing sensitive military information from each of us to the other, troop movements, numbers, etc. We figured he was trying to get us to go back to war (after the first "mighty" Ghazni-Seljuk war that lasted, what, one turn? ) so that he could pick up the pieces afterward.

It was a turning point in relations between me and barcamartin, and we decided it would be appropriate to teach the Shah a lesson. It's not too often a neighboring nation hands you a casus belli like that. So we planned the war and my later entry in it (barcamartin's stronger invasion was to draw the Shah's men west for me to invade from the east. It seemed to work pretty well), and cooperated throughtout the conflict. We determined that we had to push him back past Urgench because it was such a strong starting castle that leaving him with it would be dangerous. If he had followed the terms of the treaty when he agreed to them he'd still have about two stacks with which to expand westward around the Caspian Sea, but basically he's paid lip service to the ceasefires we've offered while insulting us in the Council and trying to fight back in the game. I can't speak for barcamartin, but I think the plan now is to push him completely out of the borders we had gotten him to agree to cede to us, then declare the war unilaterally over. As long as he doesn't throw all of his FMs at us, his faction should continue.

May 18, 2008 0:05:56 GMT -5 The Beast of Caerbannog said:

Could I just understand what you have against Khwarezm?

It was never really explained in the Council thread... that war kinda has me wondering.

[zim]

Oh good, the Shah took the bait. I can finally start making some money.