For those of you without access to that forum, however -
By popular demand (original thread), I am transforming my Sassanid AAR into yet another Sassanid AAR, but now with a twist. The twist is - it is the year 634, and we are on the verge of one of the most momentous events of world history - the rise of Islam. Or, more relevantly, the collapse of the Ancient Mediterranean world in the face of Arabic onslaught.
As Persia, I will be spreading the true faith and squishing the Muslim infidels using my war elephants, for there is no god but Ahuramazda, and Zarathustra is his prophet
Unfortunately, my own subjects don't believe that -
In fact, most of the inhabitants of the critical Mesopotamian region are either pagan or Christian - Nestorians and Monophysites. The heavily Mazdeic rural areas lie to the east. Pockets of the Mazdakite heresy hold out to the north, but they are no consequence. In the Roman Syria and Egypt, scarcely anyone nowadays buys the whole "Trinity" thing, as indicated by small Monophysite crosses (indicating majority religion) over those provinces.
To the south, however, there's nothing but a sea of sand, sprinkled with camels, Arabs and false prophets. The Arabs are led by these very serious individuals (check out the number of stars, indicating EXTREMELY high military skill...) -
It looks like the elephants will have a lot of squishing to do.
Meanwhile, in some forgotten part of the world unknown to the decadent empires of the East, there are a people destined to change the face of the world forever. They are the Scots -
Well, here it is. I will be trying to destroy Arabs as Persia and to conquer the world as the Scots. Yeah, I know
