Montferrat: Part 10: 1541-1549: The Great Crusade

I really didn't want to fight Castile and Mamluks at the same time, as both their navies were very strong, and could prevent me from moving my troops around. Removing straits from the game really drastically improves me like that - all those considerations would be completely missing in vanilla with magical bridges everywhere.

So I attacked Mantua, who was allied with Castile, Pope, and some HRE minors. The main goal was to force Castile to break their alliance with the Mamluks - and secondarily:

• take Alhambra monument slot, even if it costs 2x AE, whatever
• remove Dithmarschen and Munich Reformed centers of reformation
• convert some HRE minors to Catholicism
• remove Mantua from the map
• get some gold from everyone

One issue with this is that I had very limited time until Pope's crusade expired, and then I'd lose Holy War CB on the Mamluks.

I removed 2 of 3 Reformed centers of reformation, somehow only 1 of 3 Protestant center was left, Anglicans and Hussites never spawned theirs, so it was just 2 out of possible 8. And England was pretty wrecked between Catholic France and Catholic Scotland. It's overall pretty good Catholic showing.

Overall it went really well. Favors are ticking up like crazy so every war I have multiple allies backing me.

Finally with preparations out of the way and brief peace to get my troops back home, The Great Montferratian Crusade against Mamluks could begin, with less than a year left before CB expired.

I had 35% war score cost vs other religions (10% from being max harsh on council of Trent; 25% from age ability) and I intended to obliterate the infidels. Coalition is after all just a number.

Tunis - full annex, finally being able to take revenge for a century of coastal raids (literally had no CB until that time). Morocco - vassalize, as I couldn't core all those non-coastal provinces in any reasonable way. Mamluks - I really wanted to 100% take land, but they army was never properly broken, coalition would be really annoying, and I really just needed their monument places and coastlines for now. By our next war Sunnis will forget about the AE, and Mamluks won't be able to afford that kind of army.

After the war I restored Eastern Roman Empire, using unique Montferrat decision.

Unfortunately my Kosovo gold mine got depleted, but I'm past the point where that matters much.

Well, time to turn around and deal with France, as our truce just expired, and Gascony needs their clay back.

It's my first time playing with monuments, so here's what I have so far:

• Athens (Parthenon) - tier 1 - -10% advisor cost
• Constantinople (Hagia Sophia) - tier 1 - +0.25 tolerance of true faith and heretics
• Florence (Santa Maria del Fiore) - tier 2 - prestige decay -1%, monthly splendor +1, advisor cost -10%
• Granada (Alhambra) - tier 1 - +10% income from vassals, -5% subject liberty desire
• Mentese (Mausoleum of Helicarnassus) - tier 1 - +0.25 yearly prestige, +0.5 monthly splendor
• Milan (Duomo di Milano) - tier 1 - +0.5 pope mana, +15% resistance to reformation
• Venice (Doge's Palace) - tier 1 - +10% reform progress growth

Need some preconditions first:

• Jerusalem (Holy City of Jerusalem) - already tier 1 but I need to convert it to true faith for bonuses to start working
• Cairo (Pyramids of Cheops) - need to statify and accept Egyptian, then build them

Those bonuses are really starting to add up. For example Florence, Athens, and Cairo together at tier 3 would give 55% advisor cost discount. Malta would be 15% warscore cost vs different religions, Granada 5% admin efficiency and so on.

There are good numbers but Poland/Lithuania mostly kept losing and costing me warscore

This work of art is called "Overextension is just a number". The few coastal Mediterranean provinces I don't control mostly belong to my allies Aragon and Poland/Lithuania.

It's mostly poor clay, but it feels like I doubled my size on the map in this one war.

Castile, France, and Mamluks are all my targets, so I'm heading towards fairly Roman Empire borders.