We’re going to have to make do with what money we can earn now, and with the ships we can build (galleys, light galleys) or capture! So be it, we will pirate their trade routes! We do manage to establish trade routes with the Ottomans and those distant foreigners in India, but the routes are regularly blockaded so the chance of great profit is probably slim.įurther, although we can build Dhows (trade ships) I don’t believe we can make much money from the overseas trade routes, what with all of the enemy ships between the Barbary coast and the trade points. I try to sign peace deals with other major and minor nations so we can focus our forces more effectively against enemies of our choice, but all the other major and minor powers snub us, refusing to consider peace.

In 1703 we sign a peace treaty with Great Britain in return for giving them military access. I resort to fist shaking and curses.įortunately, a quick sea battle sees our fleet sink the only naval presence the Maltese have, removing any further possibility of blockades or harassment of my Mediterranean fleet. By the looks of it their province isn’t worth much either. I decide discretion is the better part of valor and forget trying to invade again soon. The Maltese are far tougher than expected and fill their city with freshly recruited troops. or not! We manage to defeat one group of the Maltese, but the next, cavalry heavy, cuts down our Camels and destroys the remaining force completely. In 1702 our invading force lands with a freshly recruited general! We have Shaturnal Camel Gunners (armed with heavy muskets), cutlass-armed Barbary Pirates and “Desert Warriors”, Bedouin musketeers. We quickly gather a small army and while our Hashshashin slip into the city and investigate its secrets. Plans for peaceful strengthening continue until 1701 when the Knights of Malta blockade the port of Tripolitania! Scurilous infidel dogs! We must make them pay! In the first couple of years the ships are merged into one fleet and we work to improve our home provinces and start to build a small army. But don’t worry, you’re not missing much. Unfortunately, due to technical cockuping on my part I don’t have early pictures from this time. A small fleet of a few Xebec’s and a couple of 5th Rates and some galleys spread across the Mediterranean and we have no army to speak of. So lets see what happens when we unify these desert people and convince them that dominating the Mediterranean should be their goal for the future! 1700 – Weakness must be overcome! We can’t convince the AI players to give us money not to pirate them (which the Barbary States traditionally did), nor can we easily overwhelm their fleets with our galleys, or invade their territories, but we can try! To the north lies Europe and all its wealth! Unfortunately, we’re going to have a hard time getting it. To the west lies the independent minor nation of Morocco and the east lies the major power, the Ottoman Empire. In Empire: Total War the player has control of Algiers, Tunis and Tripolitania, three fairly poor provinces on the north African coast. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain and Portugal, and from farther places like France or England, the Netherlands, Ireland and even Iceland and North America. According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves. …The Barbary Corsairs often made raids, called Razzias, on European coastal towns to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places such as Algeria and Morocco. In the West, the name commonly evokes the Barbary pirates and slave traders based on that coast, who attacked ships and coastal settlements in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic and captured and traded slaves from Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. The name is derived from the Berber people of north Africa. The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to the middle and western coastal regions of North Africa-what is now Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Read on for the first 20 years of the rise of the Barbary States! A short history of the Barbary States Sure enough, it has been amusing, but also really hard.

…And I also thought it would be quite funny if I could pull it off.

Why this rag-tag bunch of North African pirates? For two reasons:

So many provinces, so many troops to build, so much money! So instead of going easy, and to provide an interesting AAR, I unlocked the minor nations and decided to play the Barbary States. Empire: Total War is fun, but playing as England, Prussia, France or Spain is a bit easy really.

Empire total war darthmod fleet battle