The Shaki Khanate (sometimes referred to as Transcaucasia) is a nation in the Caucuses and part of northern Persia. It borders the Xacitarxan Khanate to the north as well as its puppet, Circassia, the Ottoman Empire to the south-west, Shekhbizin Empire to the south and Kar-Kiya to the south-east.
The Shaki Khanate also has three puppets, the Tarki Shamkhalate to the north along the border with the Xacitarxan Khanate and the other two, Samtskhe and Imereti to the east along the black sea.
Overview[]
The Shaki Khanate is reasonably sized nation with a decent army size and soldier population, despite its uncivilised status, this nation can defend itself well, with the mountains providing a base use to cut down enemy army stacks. Due to the nations large multi-ethnic status, it may be faced with nationalist revolts, keeping this nation intact may be hard. The Shaki Khanate has a few decent RGOs, it will also spawn oil in Baku eventually, yet much of its RGOs are rather unprofitable.
The Shaki Khanate has a few cores on the neighboring Xacitarxan Khanate to the north, normally the Xacitarxan Khanate will declare war on the Shaki Khanate early in the game, as it also has cores on this nation.
The Shaki Khanate will also get an event at the very beginning that leaves them with an incredible modifier for the rest of the game. "The New Iranian Intermezzo" grants:
- -10% Supply Consumption
- +10% Organisation Regain Rate
- +5% Land Organisation
- +10% Research Points Modifier
- +10% Tax Efficiency
- +5% Land Unit Defense
With all these modifiers, the terrible 'Nomadic Confederation' debuff is largely countered, and it makes the Shaki Khanate a very nice nation to defend as.
Unfortunately for the Shaki Khanate - yet fortunately for the Armenians - an event will fire in the early game, which will either allow you to release Armenia as a puppet, or play as Armenia which will be a puppet of the Shaki Khanate. Later on, another event will fire that will either allow you to release the Armenians peacefully, or declare war on them to annex them. This will be tough for both sides, due to the mountainous terrain and lack of troops on either side. Thankfully as the Shaki Khanate, you will likely be able to call in some allies to assist you with this war.
Expansion[]
The Shaki Khanate has three potential options for expansion
- Become Persia, this is perhaps one of the easier options when it becomes civilised, from here this nation can expand further into other areas around it, like Iraq or Hindustan.
- Reform into Transcaucasia, this will grant accepted populations, yet will remove some cores. In a previous version of the game, sphering the Shaki Khanate would give a decision to puppet it, instantly reforming it into Transcaucasia.
- Stay as the Shaki Khanate.
The Shaki Khanate also has decisions to integrate its puppet nations, "End the Kartvellian Autonomy" can only be taken once the Shaki Khanate has reached 75% civilisation progress (the tooltip says 50%, but its 75%) or is civilised. The other decision, "Abolish the Shamkhalate" can only be taken once the Shaki Khanate has researched Functionalism.
The only threats to the Shaki Khanate are the Ottoman Empire and Russia, depending on if these nations are viable, typically the Ottomans won't be much of a bother, however Russia has an option to expand southwards into the caucus region if it chooses to upon formation. Occasionally Persia may be a threat, so you should opt to keep your eye on the region.