Well I know both players from ESOC got knocked out already, but I will add in at least the AAR of the second session. And if no one on ESOC apart from me is coming to the next session, then I will probably stop posting the AARs in this thread. Anyway, without further ado, here's the AAR.
To say the least, the second session was quite enjoyable. In the year of our Lord 1525, the world continued to burn, and the flames were still spreading.
[spoiler=In the Far East]To the north, the horde of Uzbek conquered the frozen steppes, from Manchuria in the east to the Siberian forests in the west. Still bending its knees to Ming, is Uzbek seeking to unify the remaining territories of the northern steppes before it goes on a warpath against Ming and claim the Mandate?
At the same time, in Southeast Asia, Ayutthaya and Shan (former Aya) became the dominating powers in Indochina, while Malacca and Brunei continued to take over the rest of Malaya and Indonesia. Brunei also began to colonise nearby territories and spawned colonialism. While it might not be a co-op campaign for Malacca and Brunei, would the two countries continued to grow slowly but steadily without being intervened by the outside world?[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Meanwhile in the Indian Thunderdome]The stormy weather just continued to enjoy its privilege to stay. Bahmanis, Delhi and Jaunpur all went to war, but the fates for all three countries were entirely different. With Jaunpur letting go of the alliance with Vijayanagar, Bahmanis continued to unify southern India; while in exchange letting Jaunpur take the wealthiest land from Bengal. Meanwhile, Delhi was being occupied by the affairs between Chagatai and Ming. However, this wasn't the end of the story.
After Delhi had recovered from the awkward Chinese invasion, Delhi and Bahmanis launched an attack against Jaunpur while the latter was still occupied by the war against Bengal, in which the Malaccan player, against all diplomatic manners, suddenly joined the side of Bengal perhaps to take revenge against the host for declining his request to make a tactical pause just for him without any appropriate reasons. Fighting a war on three fronts, Jaunpur soon signed a peace treaty with Bengal, taking the wealthiest land under temporary control of the former. The Timurids, on the side of Jaunpur, soon called for white peace, and Jaunpur's situation also began to look grim as time passed. Nonetheless, Delhi was forced to sign an armistice of five years with Jaunpur as most of its land had fallen to the latter with great help from its allies.
The situation in Jaunpur did not get any better however. Bankruptcy soon followed as Jaunpur attempted to raise more mercenaries to fight against the southern incursion. It was just not enough and most of Jaunpur's land had been occupied, looted, and devastated by Bahmanis. In an unstable and overextended country with extremely high war exhaustion and the riches of Hindustan being devastated by war, rebellions and internal conflicts became frequent, devastating the nation even further. A humiliating treaty was signed with Bahmanis, ceding territories to the latter as well as to Delhi. Jaunpur, now without an army, was also forced to accept the demands of different rebel factions, including returning the provinces to Bengal, ihoping for a quicker recovery process. Delhi, taking the opportunity, conquered the rich territories to its south and grew even stronger. Another war seemed very likely as both Delhi and Bahmanis had sworn to take over the land they had claims on, and Jaunpur still failed to break free from the box created by the unholy alliance between the three most powerful neighbours. Will the countries to the east and west realise the potential threat from Delhi and Bahmanis and stand together against the latter two and keep Jaunpur from getting partitioned? Or will the other countries turn a blind eye on and regret their poor decision afterwards in many separate wars against two extremely powerful Indian nations?[/spoiler]
[spoiler=In Central Asia and the Middle East]Transoxiana had been expanding. Fragmentation became a common theme. Timurids imploded again. The fate of the Timurids had not been a good one so far, but let us hoe it would get back together at some point. Qara Qoyunlu also imploded and fell apart. Independent countries now scattered across the area. If they could get back together somehow, they could defend against invasions from the east or the west. Time is running out however, and so will they stand or fall ultimately? It is going to be an intriguing story to tell.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=In the Pontic Steppe]In the Pontic Steppe, Crimea had been brought back to life, while Genoa expanded a bit. However, the Great Horde had been facing internal conflicts while being partitioned by both Muscovy and Transoxiana. Will the Great Horde survive and become great or even golden again? There is still a chance, however slim it could be.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=In the Balkans and Anatolia]The Ottomans had been feeling the burn of being contained by neighbouring countries - in fact it lost quite a few provinces to its neighbours in the last four decades of wars. On the other hand, Byzantium became bigger and better. Will the Ottomans bend their knees to Byzantium, or will the situation change dramatically and force Byzantium to submit to the rightful rule again?[/spoiler]
[spoiler=In Arabia and Africa]Down in the south, we saw constant expansion by the Mamelukes as all other nations failed to stand together as one and contain the former. Further down the south, the Rassids, Adal and Ajuuraan had been expanding relatively peacefully. Will the Mamelukes come knocking on their doorsteps at some point, or will they, being thirsty for war and glory, turn on each other and let the Mamelukes put down their misery once and for all? Will any nations wake up and form a coalition against the Mamelukean threat, just as they should against Delhi and Bahmanis?[/spoiler]
Anyway, it was a great session and an enjoyable Sunday evening. Have a nice week.
P.S.: As an extra, I have uploaded some screenshots again:
https://imgur.com/a/y303G P.P.S.: @
lordraphael if you would like to join the campaign again as another nation, please feel free to do so, and just post it in this thread or send me a pm.