As attentive readers will already know, our Empire is truly mighty, and large to boot. Many millions live (un)happily under the Grandmaster's (tyrannical) benevolent rule. Essentially the key to my Empire is my military and the proper organization of troops over such a vast area. That and praying everyone doesn't attack at once. Marching 50,000 men from Mecca to Constantinople takes quite a while. It feels even longer when the Austrians or some other group of foreign sodomites are lubing up to invade.
There's also our retarded little brother, Transylvania. We don't talk about Transylvania any more. They will form a meatshield against the Protestant Balkan states, but that's it. They're pathetically weak in every respect and i can't really rely on them. They're not particularly loyal either...
Now a look at my income and economic situation. You may note that i am minting an awful lot. This is all that is keeping me afloat economically at this point. My monthly income from production is gigantic, allowing me to mint enough to maintain my army of almost 140,000 men. My tax income is high due to the sheer number of provinces i own, but the military upkeep is extremely huge, so i have to mint far beyond my inflation limit. This is exacerbated further by my horrible administration caused by the rampant expansion.
The problem is not so much the amount of men, or even my manpower, but my forcelimits. Not only are they low, but the fluctuate rapidly. Often they fluctuate downwards. This means that i only barely make enough to get by even with the heavy minting. It is worth it however. At this point i can wave goodbye to economical development. The only thing holding the Empire together is my ability to blitz through the enemy until they hurt enough to accept peace with my 50k doomstack.
Without my army I'd give the Empire a few years if I'm lucky. With efficient whack a rebel and plenty of luck in regards to diplomacy, i can remain successful despite my horrendous economic situation.
Originally, rapid religious conversion to increase tax income was the basis of my economy. This has changed now unfortunately. My administration means tax income is worthless. I rely heavily on production income and minting now, just to keep me afloat. As with my army, it is organization and sheer mass that makes me economically strong despite my inefficiency. I have so many provinces and high technology that it all eventually adds up to a significant amount.
My morale is decent. My lack of military ideas besides elite regiments means that my morale is significantly inferior to the major military powers like France or Austria. What makes me superior is that i combine mass and discipline. This means i can take whatever they deal out, and i can deal out a lot more than they can take. No matter how high your morale is, 50,000 men with a 60 or so percent casualty boost is going to fuck you up. Even if i technically lose the battle, i always win in terms of casualties. Combine this with my doomstack's ability to instantly take even level four and five forts, and i can rapidly blitz through enemy territory.
My manpower is low, but because i am so large it replenishes rapidly. My maximum manpower fluctuates between 60,000 and 70,000 depending on administration levels and war exhaustion. The thing is that it replenishes by roughly 2500 a month. Assuming I'm not fighting on multiple fronts this is easily enough to sustain a bloody doomstack blitz. I do have to pull out and reinforce every now and then, but it allows me to occupy a huge amount of land before my momentum dissipates.
My generals are usually average. Thanks to the recent warmongering i am gaining military tradition rapidly. Troop leadership is an avenue i am actually improving in now. This is a nice contrast to the economical assrape of my administrative decline.
Finally a look at my ideas and sliders. In terms of sliders i have a lot of extreme right or left policies. Seeing as i don't have to care about inefficiency or internal chaos i don't have to moderate myself at all. Being shit can be liberating in an odd way.
Essentially, to summarise; My military is excellent due to its sheer mass and killing power. The problem is that moving it around is slow, so multiple front wars are difficult and dangerous. So long as my army is where it's supposed to be i cannot lose a war. Economically i am kept afloat by minting to sustain my army, which in turn puts down revolt and wins wars. Now that the end is drawing near and my land technology is past 50 i no longer need to care about inflation. My infamy is too high to turn back now. The hole I've dug is so deep that i might as well dig deeper. It can't make things worse. My very shittiness is an advantage, because i can revel in my shittiness and disregard things like infamy or administration.
So let's dig that hole deeper! Now that I've revealed to you how to make the most of a steaming turd, I'm going to beat some Muslims to death with said turd!
All the conquered territory is pretty useless. besides perhaps for production income. I can essentially just map paint freely at this point until i end up with a large multiple front war. I figure i should replace the irritating Qara Koyunhu green with a superior Byzantine Imperial purple. I should also be able to take another bite out of Khorasan and maybe the Golden Horde.
The Trannies honour the call to war. It's not like they'll be useful, but at least now they're a vassal state the Grandmaster can throw decadent church sponsored orgies at their capital whenever he likes.
The conversion work continues to go quite well. The yellow has been slowly spreading across Mesopotamia and into Iran. Now it has also begun its slow but inevitable spread into Yemen as well.
Raghead nomads raid into a nearby Arabian city. The Grandmaster doesn't care about the city or the nomads, but it does mean less tax income to build the next few hundred cathedrals with, so he decides to come down hard on the nomads.
Silly rebels.
Their capital is cracked open by my crude blitzing technique. This will probably be a pretty boring war...
Or not!
: x
(Can Hungary be considered a potatoland?)