tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36832329466279950422024-02-20T16:20:24.568+00:00The Happy GrognardMy Adventures in Wargamingeeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.comBlogger454125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-44153855347801852642014-11-26T16:39:00.002+00:002014-11-26T16:39:37.951+00:00Occult DabblingSo having given independence, and getting the Pope back on my doorstep, I decided that it was time to try an anti-pope - and see if that might solve the issue of the interminable Italian wars.<br />
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First step, change the laws to free investiture....<br />
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I went with Papal investiture centuries ago, mainly because under free investiture I ran into problems repopulating the court. Not being a maths type player I can't give statistics on this - but imo an man and his fifties is more fertile with a 17 year old girl, than a younger man.<br />
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That and it was just easier to let the Pope do it, get the bonus in relations and take his money.<br />
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Then we took back Spoleto from the nearly independent Duchy of Modena.<br />
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But oh dear, the Bavarians have set up an anti-pope of their own.... thou shalt have no anti-pope but mine.<br />
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So it is off over the mountains....<br />
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The fighting was pretty fierce....<br />
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There were two large battles, one involving 35,000 on each side, and another with about 25,000 on each side. While ultimately we have the advantage of numbers - have employed every mercenary we could - the Bavarians were working on home territory, and were able to pull their neutral (<i>in our war at least</i>) allies out of the ongoing Holy War for Pest. Thus we ended up fighting and defeating the main armies of England and Aquitaine in the course of the fighting.<br />
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At last the King of Italy died, and his successor, the one time King of Croatia, started pushing to vassalise de-jure duchies. Which in turn led to Zeta going into to his realm, as it was held by the Duchy of Bosnia. <br />
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Which in my book means war!<br />
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Which we win, but then the newly independent duchies in Northern Italy decide they are not true Polkarios', and give up their independence...<br />
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Which on the face of it is a bad thing. But more annoying is that the Duchy of Croatia - which has been independent for centuries - decided they had had enough of deciding their own destiny.<br />
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Meh....<br />
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Oh I did have to laugh, when the newly independent Duke of Lombardy, got kicked off is land - that bloke has always been an idiot. <br />
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Oh and we got a new Duke...<br />
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Who is not great, but he will do.<br />
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I wonder who this happened....<br />
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Which leaves the Italians with an 8 year old in charge.<br />
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Other than that we have been filling the court with heretics, and looking for the idea candidate for anti-pope.<br />
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I'm not sure what will happen, but there are only 25 years left in the game, so it will be interesting to see the results of my religious dabbling.<br />
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I probably should have gone for one heresy rather than mixing Cathars and Waldensians...<br />
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Right time to reclaim Lombardy by pushing the numpty's claim.<br />
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peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-52978312290051717302014-11-25T14:17:00.001+00:002014-11-25T14:17:59.982+00:00The Wind of ChangeAnd so just when I am getting in the swing of being a swinger...<br />
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Oh well the new chap is lustful, and as I have married him to the old Duke's wife there shouldn't be a problem - after all she was happy enough married to the oldest swinger in town....<br />
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So off he goes on pilgrimage, while the troops move up for a new round of land grabbing in Italy. This time the target is Treviso...<br />
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And of course we win...<br />
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However there is a problem, in the form of the heir...<br />
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He has low diplomacy skills, a useless wife, and in his time as Count of Trapani has made a number of enemies due to his generally ambitious nature.<br />
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I can't say I like the bloke much either.<br />
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But while I fret about this the Duke of Latium launches a war on the King of Italy for the castle in Rome, which is his last holding, apart from some tribal lands in Norway.<br />
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Oh and did I mention that we have now gone Pommeranian?<br />
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There is some scandal at court, when the Duke gets a 16 year old unmarried courtier pregnant, and does the decent thing by acknowledging the child - which doesn't go down well with the missus.<br />
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And just as they are about to appear on the Jeremy Kyle show....<br />
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He dies....<br />
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Leaving us with a problem. A problem compounded by the new Duke bringing the usual array of useless courtiers, unlanded sons, and general hangers on...<br />
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Oh and there is no hope of getting a divorce from his useless wife. A murder plot is started but dropped on account of not wanting kinslayer, which would make the diplomatic situation worse.<br />
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So out of habit, he goes on pilgrimage, and the army goes north to grab a bit more of the King of Italy's stuff....<br />
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Interestingly, the Croatian maintain strict neutrality against us, whilst fighting as an ally against the Duke of Latium - yes that war is still going on - and despite capturing the castle, and winning most of the battles, the Duke of Latium and his allies are not really progressing the warscore on account of their charging about aimlessly.<br />
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In the end it takes a 4,000 gold bribe to the Pope to get the divorce, at which point the new Duke marries the old Duke's ex-wife - meaning that she has now married the last three or four Dukes, and is de facto ruler of the Republic....<br />
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This doesn't bother me, the woman is clearly very able, but I am beginning to think that perhaps it is time for a little re-adjustment.<br />
<br />
Those with keen eyes, will have noticed that recently my holdings have fallen from 9 to 6, on account of my getting rid of the castles I was holding and focusing on the cities. The only real negative of this was that I lost some 70 ships - well maybe not lost, but they are no longer guaranteed to me, and subject to vassal approval/<br />
<br />
And with the changes to the vassal limit - changes I like btw - I am sort of in the place I was back in the early 1200's, where I am essentially locked into to marrying a specific type of woman just to get the necessary score to run my realm. And none of it is making me any money, or not significant amounts of money - the feudal tax accounts for at best 1% of my income.<br />
<br />
And sitting here watching the pygmies go at also reminds me of just how irritating vassals can be. That and the re-appearance of independence factions....<br />
<br />
No that is not strictly true...<br />
<br />
What finally pushed me over the edge was the new Duke of Lombardy, declaring war to revoke the title of the Countess of Lombardy, and then getting thoroughly spanked in the war - his blushes only being saved by her death making the casus belli invalid.<br />
<br />
This being the same Duke of Lombardy who is pushing for independence, turns up supporting every plot, has a face I want to punch and is the epitome of the useless trouble maker.<br />
<br />
Ok, the original plan, if plan there was, was to grant independence once the crown of Italy had been destroyed. But since in order to do that means fighting wars in Southern Russia, the Balkans, Holland, Norway, and then finding out that they have one castle in Timbuktu - or whatever - I really cant be arsed....<br />
<br />
So I give independence to everyone I can....<br />
<br />
Leaving Italy looking like this....<br />
<br />
Ah.... I didn't take a screen shot....<br />
<br />
No matter.<br />
<br />
It's all pretty straight forward really, the only issue is that Modena holds Spoleto, and the Duke of Medina is married to the Countess of Messina. Which means potentially two de jure wars - which I am slightly holding off on, since the crown of Italy has changed hands, and I don't drive the newly independent states into giving up their vassalage.<br />
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Oh and the Duke of Latium did this...<br />
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Creep...<br />
<br />
Still it does make it easier should I wish to set up an anti-Pope...<br />
<br />
Which reminds me I need to change the law to free investiture...<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-48094379708486008322014-11-24T16:43:00.000+00:002014-11-24T16:43:38.858+00:00Into the 14-NaughtiesSuddenly becoming Muslim - well having a Muslim Duke - is rather like attacking the Pope for the first time. When you get past the Chicken-Licken moment of thinking the sky is about to fall in, it's pretty much like having any other Doge, or in the case of the Pope, attacking anyone else.<br />
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And so the first issue at hand is settling the Piombino question...<br />
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Which is pretty straight forward...<br />
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And that sorted it's off to grab a bit more land from the King of Italy....<br />
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Oh there is one drawback...<br />
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But this is actually a benefit in a way, since the revolts were centred on Bari, which at the time was a centre for Waldensian heresy, so the the fact that it is Catholics revolting distracted from the heresy, and made the task of dealing with the heresy that much easier.<br />
<br />
In all there were three revolts - all of which were deal with easily enough by the levy.<br />
<br />
One thing that did come up was that as a Muslim, you have a lot more choice with regard to casus belli. I was tempted to go for a holy war, thus giving me more choice at the end of the war. However, there was one major problem with regard to mercenaries.<br />
<br />
You will recall there is a crusade for Jerusalem going on, and because I am now limited to hiring Muslim mercenaries, the pool of available fighting men was severely limited. Thankfully I still had the troops I had raised before the switch.<br />
<br />
Therefore I stuck to a simply de jure claim for Trent, as I didn't fancy getting stuck in a potential regional war, without the ability to hire more men, and without allies - as none of the Polkarios clan would join me.<br />
<br />
The war won, the Duke went off to Mecca - for a game of bingo - and then observed Ramadan. At which point I found myself envious of Muslims, particularly in a republic setting, because of the Ramadan feast, the options relating to charitable giving, and the options for improving vassal relationships in general. The Hajj options were better than those offered on pilgrimage too.<br />
<br />
Plus if you want a divorce, none of this horse trading with the Pope, just pay up and the wife is gone. Though as I had 4 wives, and had married them rather rashly, it was rather expensive to collect a new brood.<br />
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Still when it was settled, and I was rather liking the idea of playing as a Muslim.... so of course....<br />
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Obviously I signed up for the crusade, in order to get this...<br />
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It did mean that I would have to wait to go on pilgrimage, and hold a tournament, but it didn't affect me going to war to claim Lombardy.... well actually it did, because Italy had joined the crusade, meaning that none of my tradition enemies - Italy, Croatia, the Abbasids etc, were available for a punch up.<br />
<br />
The crusade was going badly, not helped by my having no intention of sending any troops, which was causing the Moral Authority of the Pope to fall, which in turn was leading to this...<br />
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So without a war, I fell back on Republican polictics....<br />
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Who fancies murdering a patrician.... form an orderly queue....<br />
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And it did allow my Duke to engage in his passion for sex.<br />
<br />
Being a bear of little brain, I didn't cotton on at first about the two bastard sons he brought with him, but when I gave his lustful nature free reign, it soon became clear where they came from.<br />
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Oh and if you are wondering why the crusade was going badly - well apart from one of it's leading members being the King of Italy - perhaps this will prove useful....<br />
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It's a feature of 867, pre HRE, starts that unless the player actively participates, or the crusade is on the doorstep of the big Karling kingdoms, that the crusaders are doomed because there are no big stacks, leaving the two or three large Muslim stacks to blitz everyone.<br />
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Which leads to this....<br />
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<br />
And this....<br />
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But no matter, with the crusade over it's time to get on with the fun of bashing up the Italians....<br />
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Oh no! he's called in the King of Croatia....<br />
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Time to send some troops to the Balkans...<br />
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I do enjoy killing Karlings.... especially when they are the heir to Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Bulgaria - which all sounds impressive until you realise that amounts to about 15 counties that are in a state of near permanent rebellion....<br />
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Ok, this is a touch of overkill....<br />
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But the king of Croatia is in that bunch, and if I catch and kill him, then the heir will be a 10 year old kid.<br />
<br />
And thus the war ends...<br />
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Leaving the Duke free to pursue his passions....<br />
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Even if the Pope does hate us...<br />
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Meh.... what;s he gonna do?<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-91383975155567325882014-11-23T14:40:00.000+00:002014-11-23T14:40:20.056+00:00The Mad 1390sThe Duke is in love....<br />
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And everything is looking rosy...<br />
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So of course he dies....<br />
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The new duke raises the army to carry on the war with Italy, and sets out on pilgrimage for Jerusalem gets injured in a burning building, catches a cold, and dies before he gets to the Holy City....<br />
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And so we get this bloke....<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There are no words to express how much I hate him.<br />
<br />
It's not just because he is chaste, and has poor stats, and has a rubbish wife...<br />
<br />
It's because he is from Cyprus, and the Cyprus branch of the family are a particularly annoying bunch of people, who going way back to Duchess Barbara have been a right royal pain in the backside. And, he has all the traits that make him a typical Cypriot Polkarios - lazy, greedy, and not good at anything but being a soldier. Not that he is even much good at that, since way back in the mists of time I am pretty certain that he was the chap who rebelled, and despite having all the advantages, couldn't even win that war.<br />
<br />
Hence why he is unlanded, and has become our problem.<br />
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Though on the brightside he is maimed.<br />
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And the Duke of Rashka - or whatever - clearly agrees with me, and promptly declares independence.<br />
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Which poses a real problem, because Raugia is still controlled by a mayor, and the last time this region went independent, it went into business against us, forcing us to re-conqueror to shut them down. Thankfully the Duke is a feudal Lord in Zeta, so as long as he stays independent, and keeps control of the Dukedom, there shouldn't be an issue.<br />
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<br />Houston we have a problem.<br />
<br />
Plus the Duke of Sicily hasn't taken kindly to the Island of Malta, passing into the family of the Duke of Calabria<br />
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<br />
But never mind, as the war in Italy is going well....<br />
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And the capture of Pavia has provided us with a nice bonus...<br />
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And after we sent 18,000 troops, and the Polkarios family rallied round with another 60,000 - the situation in the Balkans has resolved itself....<br />
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Plus the ending of the Italy war, and the annexation of Pavia, has left the Italian King holding one castle in Rome, and some tribal lands in Northern Norway...<br />
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And given that the Pope won't give us a divorce - so far it has cost 4,000 prestige points - I wonder where those 60,000 mercenaries are going? Or why the retinue is drawn up around the Vatican?<br />
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It looks like God is on the side of the Big Battalions today...<br />
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10,000 dead mercenaries later, no siege here, just waves of assaults, the Duke of Latium is very pleased to receive his new lands....<br />
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And if you want to see the Pope, you need to go to Constantinople - which you may remember we gave to them in the settlement of 1047.<br />
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And if you want to see the King of Italy, you will have to travel slightly further afield... but at least he can save his children from being captured and executed, as I am unlikely to send troops to the arctic circle... as fun as killing his kids is...<br />
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The New Duke of Lombardy is this chap...<br />
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Hopefully, he and the Duke of Modena, who holds the Lombard lands, will fight it out to create the de jure Duchies, and also take the few remaining de jure counties of Lombardy held by the Italian crown, or vssalize them, so we can use our war declarations for other things, like Genoa.<br />
<br />
And at the fourth time of asking the Pope has finally given us a divorce, so the administration problems have been greatly reduced. Luckily the rather good ex-wife of the previous two Dukes was still knocking around the court.<br />
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And just to show there are no hard feelings, the Pope has given us more money...<br />
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In the past 20 years the Pope has given us the best part of 200,000 gold, for various things like deposing the anti-pope, fighting holy wars, etc.... the vast majority of which has been spent on mercenaries.<br />
<br />
And then he declares a new crusade for Jerusalem....<br />
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Which of course we join.<br />
<br />
For this reason....<br />
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As we do not have the slightest interest in going to the Holy Land to fight in what will be the 5th or 6th crusade for the Kingdom of Jerusalem.<br />
<br />
However, we do have a problem.<br />
<br />
The death of the Duchess of Pisa, unfortunately occured when her heir, a bothersome chap - who has already been blinded for rebellious activity - was leading a revolt in Kabylia. Meaning that instead of him taking his dukedom, and giving us a potentially useful county in Africa, we now have to fight a war.<br />
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Oh and a peasant revolt in Salerno...<br />
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None of which is a problem...<br />
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And a new Pope means....<br />
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At which point officially we have more money than the Pope, plus we make three times more money than him.<br />
<br />
So the peasants are crushed, the leader executed, Pisa is back in our hands, though Piombino is not - which is not really an issue, since there will soon be a new Duke, and it's not like the Duke of Pisa has the ability to resist.<br />
<br />
But what is this...<br />
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Oh great... heretics...<br />
<br />
And they waste no time in revolting....<br />
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And we waste no time in crushing the revolt, forcing the leader to convert, and sending him to the knights of Caltrava.<br />
<br />
Plus the much hated Prince of Cyprus finally shuffles off this mortal coil, bringing in a new Duke, who is actually very useful...<br />
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And of course a new Duke means....<br />
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Ok, so we have had to sign up for the crusade, but if the new Duke can give us five years, we can settle the Piombino question, grab a bit more land in Italy, maybe get to a position in which the Pope can come back to Rome and be vassalised, and maybe - if miracles do happen - the kingdom of Italy can be destroyed, and the Italian Dukes given Independence, allowing us to settle down for a nice gentle run in to the end of the game.<br />
<br />
True we do have an issue with heresy, and the revolt risk continues until 1407 in Bari - but we have the troops to deal with it.<br />
<br />
When this happens....<br />
<br />
The Duke dies, and the new Duke is.....<br />
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A possessed Sunni Muslim.<br />
<br />
At which point I burst out laughing. And declare with all my heart and soul, that I love this game, and it is the best computer game that has ever been made.<br />
<br />
You can't make this shit up.<br />
<br />
For five hundred years, the Republic of Sicily has been the staunch defender of the Catholic Church. Because of us, Greece and North Africa have been converted to the faithful. We have fought and won numerous crusades, defeated 3 Jihads (<i>and only lost the 4th, after fighting for 18 years</i>), we have fought and won countless holy wars.<br />
<br />
And now because of the serendipity of seniority succession, and a deliberate policy of sending the family out into the world to make something of themselves, we have a Muslim Doge.<br />
<br />
Part of me is tempted to go the whole hog, and convert, and turn Italy into a Jihadi state - and if he was 10 or 15 years younger this would probably be a viable option.<br />
<br />
But I guess I'll just play safe, settle the Piombino question, and maybe grab a bit more land in Northern Italy. And perhaps fight a few wars with my family, depending on how much umbridge they take about my Mohammedan Doge.<br />
<br />
Mad.<br />
<br />
Love it. <br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-88009042204833946152014-11-22T01:49:00.001+00:002014-11-22T01:49:26.228+00:00The 1380'sSo having told the story thus far with a wall of text, it's time to let pictures paint a thousand words...<br />
<br />
We have a new duke....<br />
<br />
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And he's not a happy chap. He was already stressed to be dragged from his castle in Bari, and now he has caught a chill on his way to Jersualem.<br />
<br />
But we should be alright, as long as he doesn't pope his clogs.<br />
<br />
And so, as soon as he returns, it is on with the war against the King of Italy....<br />
<br />
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Things are not looking bright for old Fresco, but he does have those 3,000 troops north oft he Alps which might well cause a problem - depending on how severe the winter is.<br />
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<br />
A swift bout of murdering, shows us in a strong position in the election - even with a very weak candidate - given his age.....<br />
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And the war ends - I believe we were fighting over a castle in Padua, that was held by the Italians, even through it was in territory controlled by us. And the end of the war shows us in a nice fincial position....<br />
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The dukes has time to relax now, settle down to domestic bless with his 16 year old squeeze... at which point he drops down dead and we have a new Duke....<br />
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He is a distant relative from the Duchy of Croatia.<br />
<br />
The duchy of Croatia is interesting because it was given independence @200 years ago, and then shortly passed out of the dynasty due to daughters, but has since come back into the fold, and has proven a staunch and true ally of the republic.<br />
<br />
So while the Duke makes the traditional pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the military make their traditional prepartions for war with Italy....<br />
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The King of Italy currently as a maximum levy of @18,000 troops, so you might think sending 50.000 plus mercenaries is a tad over the top... but no matter, that's the way Sicily does things....<br />
<br />
And as soon as the Duke returns to the action starts....<br />
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Pavia is the first province to fall, and we get a nice bonus...<br />
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As Italy crumbles, I am reminded of a biology textbook...<br />
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The war ends, and the Duke of Modena gets Verona - for which he is very grateful, just as I am very grateful to him for taking the time and trouble to get the claim. What I am not pleased with him about, is the way he distributed the lands I win for him. Instead of dividing them among the Polkarios family he has an annoying habit of giving them to his cronies.<br />
<br />
And so, having learned a thing or two by now, it is off to Algeria in a Holy War to disinherit the heirs of the Duke of Modena's drinking buddies....<br />
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We have a new heir, and this one needs much less help - in the way of murder to ensure his election victory...<br />
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And here come the cavalry...<br />
<br />
This should be fun, how many of those 18,000 Abbasids do you think will make it across the desert?<br />
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The correct answer was 11,000.<br />
<br />
And I probably shouldn't have split my forces....<br />
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But my cavalry arrives in the nick of time...<br />
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And the fate of Algeria is sealed...<br />
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And with the Duke of Modena's drinking buddies son's safely installed in the church, it is time to complete a piece of long overdue business, in the form of a Holy War for Tangiers - which has the benefits of disinheriting a few more people who have annoyed me, clearing out a few more of the Polkarios clan who would otherwise be skulking around my vassal's courts, but mainly it will once and for all destroy what remains of the Byzantine Empire....<br />
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The Pope is giving us money again....<br />
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That's nice of him...<br />
<br />
And the Byzantine's are no more...<br />
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And with the fighting over, it's bac to making three times more money that the Pope...<br />
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Plus the Duke of Modena as very kindly obtained a claim on Pavia, so the new Duke will have something worthwhile to fight about.<br />
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Incidentally, as a sign of how mad the King of Italy is, he is currently fighting in Northern Norway, against the Queen of Sweden over his right to a castle.<br />
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peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-89068488082975604092014-11-21T00:20:00.001+00:002014-11-21T00:20:34.927+00:00A Potted History That Brings Us Up to DateOk, it turns out that the place I have been calling Kaybala, is actually Kabylia.... but it remains the dumping ground for dynasty members who I want shut of.<br />
<br />
And skipping through the previous narrative, I noticed that I forgotten one very important figure in the history of the Republic, and that is Constante 'the Great' who ruled from 1247 to 1265.<br />
<br />
Essentially it was he who took the reigns followed the divorce wars from my former vassals, he guided the ship during the turbulent heresy crisis on Sicily, and made the first in-roads north into the Kingdom of Italy. He also had 11 children, and can with some justification be called the father of modern European monarchy, as the majority of those children were married in the royal houses of Europe, including one of his sons to the Queen of Bavaria, a match that has proved most useful.<br />
<br />
'The Great' is a term that gets attached to a large number of rulers in the game, and often I am left wondering why, as most of the time when I see this label, I comment sardonically, 'Yeah Great Twonk more like.' <br />
<br />
But it is a label that is truely fitting for Constante, not least because of his canny ability to achieve the most unlikely arrests, 12% and the like, without the need for civil war.<br />
<br />
However perhaps the most remarkable thing about him was that he had the trait slow. And he wasn't just slow, he was almost imbecilic. His highest trait was a 6 in stewardship, the rest were 3s and 4s, and this includes the stat bumps from the mansion. Yet, I only noticed this as those incredibly small numbers shrank with age.<br />
<br />
It is true that he was blessed with exceptional counselors, and a string of talented wives, and perhaps, having grown used over time to having to make do and mend with less than stellar Dukes I have just got into the habit. Yet at no time did he play particularly did differently to the more talented, if anything he manged his vassals more ably, and more wisely, perhaps because he wasn't always trying to push water uphill in order to prove his greatness.<br />
<br />
And there is another piece of the story that I forgot to mention.<br />
<br />
Shortly after the divorce wars, the Duke of Cyprus re-founded the Kingdom of Cyprus. Which consisted of the island of Cypria and the Duchy of Archia. Having fought on the losing side on a number of occasions during the divorce wars, I find myself wondering why he thought we would not be more than a little annoyed if he started a merchant republic in Greece. We had already stamped out a similar project attempted by the Kingdom of Jerusalem.<br />
<br />
I am guessing that he inherited his brain from the Duchess Barbara - who would have been his great, great, great grandmother - because that is precisely what he did.<br />
<br />
As soon as I spotted the first trading post, on the island of Lesbos, I went into full on over reaction and launched an embargo war, the point of which was simply to warn him that unless he closed the place down I would destroy him. The tactic had worked with Jerusalem, I didn't see why it wouldn't work with Greece. But of course I forgot that his is related to the Duchess Barbara, who was never one to take the hint, was blinded - that didn't work, banished - that didn't work, she married her way back in, was imprisoned two of three times - she had balls I will give her that - though of course had had actually balls I would have cut them off - even with my squeamishness - just to finally get through her thick skull that she should stop what she was doing, and just get on with the business of making money, and enjoying spending it.<br />
<br />
So we fought a relatively short war, he sued for piece, and make signals that he would shut the merchant republic, by moving a few borders, changing his vassals around, that sort of thing, but he didn't actually shut it.<br />
<br />
I let things lie for a while, and was hopeful that it was going to die a death without any help from me, as the trading posts stayed at one or two for years. Then suddenly they began to spring up along the southern coast of Turkey and in the Holy land, six or seven of them in quick succession.<br />
<br />
Enough was enough, he only had six counties in his mighty kingdom, what was he going do?<br />
<br />
And indeed he could do nothing, I took all his holdings, and left him like that, refusing all offers of peace, for 18 months. And then despite being a tough-minded, robber baron, I finally offered him the chance of peace, when his money ran out, and he fell ill from stress.... well he is family after all... the poor love spent all the money he had building retinues to try and retake his holdings, only to have them wiped out by a boat load of mercenaries on a jolly.<br />
<br />
Yet still he refused to shut down the merchant republic.<br />
<br />
Then in a strange turn of events, the Lord Mayor of the merchant republic launched a revolt - either for independence or a coup. Either way was fine with me. I gifted the King of Cyprus the money to rebuild his finances, sent a few troops of my oan, and finally after a decade or so, and two ruinous wars - for the Cyriots - those wars hardly cost me a penny - it was all over I was back in control of all the trade in the Med.<br />
<br />
And it has stayed so ever since.<br />
<br />
And you'll remember the Duchess Augusta, and her Heretic husband, who were attempting to take over the state by stealth, using intermarriage and the feudal system.<br />
<br />
Well, just at the point it was about to pay off for them, he got himself involved ina plot to kill some lowborn or another, managed to skip arrest a couple of times, but was finally caught and banished. He ran off to her court, at which point I arrested him again, and she rebelled - or rather was provoked to rebel by my retracting vassalage. I sent the troops in, expecting a long and cmplicated war, in which she called in allies, and the whole thing to drag on for a few years.<br />
<br />
But no.<br />
<br />
I knocked over her two retinues of 250 men each, and she sued for peace, and then she and her husband went to live in Kabylia with his son, and were never heard of again.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to Italy.<br />
<br />
The conquest of Italy began partly out of a desire to try and form the Empire of Italy. But mainly because having fought my way across Greece and North Africa, and then decided I couldn't give a monkeys about either region, the only place left was Italy.<br />
<br />
And compared to those other theares, Italy was cheap to fight in. With no shipping costs, a narrow front, and I finally got to use my retinues - which until then had been primarily for home defence.<br />
<br />
The war was largely sporadic at first, Ancona was taken, then Latium, then the Pope was kicked out of Rome, then invited back - for which he paid a very large sum of money - then half of Pisa, a bit of Tuscany, and so on. Sometimes the war was pushed by claims, at other times I would take the city and return for the county, but in general it was a well mannered affair with prisoners ransomed, and those who couldn't pay ransom released.<br />
<br />
That is until the arrival of ing Fresco II, and his brother Gelantte, in 1233.<br />
<br />
Gelante annoyed me greatly when he used his position as king of Croatia - he held 2 counties - to alter the borders of my holdings in Bosnia and Dalmatia. A brief war put him back in his box.<br />
<br />
But my chief loathing was Fresco.<br />
<br />
Ok by now I have taken half of his Italian lands, and I have sponsored and aided Bulgarian rebels, who have taken the kingdom of Bulgaria from him, and there are some other niggly things, like aI have his daughter prisoner and won't ransom her, but what pushed my buttons and changed the whole tone and tenor of the Italan wars was when Fresco was paid a bribe not to burn down my trading post in Sardinia, took the money, and burnt it down anyway.<br />
<br />
From that moment on, I decided that from now on, if a Karling is cuaght on Italian soil, no argument, no deals, young, old, infrim or fit, they will be executed. And this applies to anyone married to a Karling or having the remotest connection to the Karlings.<br />
<br />
And that is the way the war has gone ever since.<br />
<br />
And as the Dukes get older, the wars grow more frequent with the changing of the guard, and the death toll in the Italian branch of the Karling clan mounts ever higher.<br />
<br />
Gone are the dreams of an Italian Empire, the plan now, if plan there ever was, is to take enough land to claim the Kingdom of Italy, and then destroy it, and set all the vassals free. pretty much the model that was carried out in Greece and North Africa.<br />
<br />
Leaving me to retire to the republic of Sicly and count my money.<br />
<br />
Oh one minor landmark of note - well major to me - is that my prestige score for the game went over the 500,000 point today.... which was nice.<br />
<br />
peace:)<br />
<br />
<br />eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-33843677602339692322014-11-20T02:01:00.000+00:002014-11-20T02:01:20.567+00:00Some Pictures from the Polkarios Family AlbumOk so before I carry on with the narrative, I have managed to take a few screenshots - a amll miracle for a technophobe like me....<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqtfRR356TdNVhbvXfrN77Oh2pDqjDEn5uqnw3OSX9HSH35Lawv3E9zGw73-_2buVQUhcxBaulnyDRK7a_w_r8KWaHnoXa02Y6OjZVDpJTvt549huqlOmDOM4yNR9v0smNDgrysqEJRTfR/s1600/ck2_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqtfRR356TdNVhbvXfrN77Oh2pDqjDEn5uqnw3OSX9HSH35Lawv3E9zGw73-_2buVQUhcxBaulnyDRK7a_w_r8KWaHnoXa02Y6OjZVDpJTvt549huqlOmDOM4yNR9v0smNDgrysqEJRTfR/s1600/ck2_2.png" height="358" width="640" /></a></div>
This is from the 1360's and shows the retinue standing ready for yet another attack on the Kingdom of Italy The standard procedure is that with each incoming Duke, he goes off on pilgrimage, and while he is away 40,000 mercenaries are shipped up the coast to Lucca.<br />
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When he return's 15,000 mercenaries, three of the smaller units, will be shipped to the sea off Sardinia, and then we attack. A solid wall of soldiers from Treviso to Genoa, and across Sardinia and Corsica.<br />
<br />
At most the Kingdom of Italy can raise about 20,000 men, but that never happens and mostly he raises about a thousand, who sit in the hills and watch as we loot our way across the plain of Northern Italy. That is assuming that I don't chase them with the cavalry. Who are primarily used to mop up those annoying retinue units that pop out of the back of the siege line, in the early stages - and will be sent forward to break up troop concentrations, if they start to form.... though these days with the Italians having so little room to maneuver, and there holdings shut down before they can raise the troops there isn't really much need to attack.<br />
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Sometimes I will widen the war to sent troops into the Balkans, and attack the Italian holdings there, but generally I don't bother.<br />
<br />
In case you are wondering, the basic attack costs @3,500 a year, and generally we are attacking for a single county or city. I stopped trying to get claims on duchies, as it is usually a waste of money, as the claim doesn't pass to the new Duke, and the Dukes are mostly in their 60's when they come to power.<br />
<br />
The most recent war, which has actually begun strung into a series of wars, at one point was costing me about 7,500 a year - this was to attack, Italy, Croatia and to aid the duchy of Tunis in a war against the Abbasids. The original intention was to let the war go on longer, but with a Duke in his 70's, there was big risk that he would die, and the incoming Duke would miss his chance to attack due to the truce period.<br />
<br />
And in case you are wondering, the money has mostly come from the Pope, who in the past ten years or so, has been milked for about 100,000 gold. He did have @220,000 gold ten years ago, and is now down to @140,000 - where as we have gone from working capital of @30,000 to @75,000 - 80,000.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNfptzf9r61I-p5diQAhWD-Q_5C9mbx3gft0GlH5eMOjpZgjKZ3MLBI8Rk2O5JrNIwkXBN0N6LDwfflH-ToKCt7ceiveaAJ8rgK_HK1xzosZ1Z56zO1IXtp256jzwMD-7SyuLXTIt8YmaD/s1600/ck2_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNfptzf9r61I-p5diQAhWD-Q_5C9mbx3gft0GlH5eMOjpZgjKZ3MLBI8Rk2O5JrNIwkXBN0N6LDwfflH-ToKCt7ceiveaAJ8rgK_HK1xzosZ1Z56zO1IXtp256jzwMD-7SyuLXTIt8YmaD/s1600/ck2_3.png" height="356" width="640" /></a></div>
The next picture shows the Republic trading zones, and basically if the Polkarios family doesn't own it, it doesn't exist. The last time I checked, we owned 96 or 97 trade posts, the other families owned 4, it would be 3, but the person holding the 4 trading post has gone into hiding, thus making it difficult to 'talk to his about charity', and there are no other operating merchant republics.<br />
<br />
Which surprised me a bit, as there is a potentially a nice little earner in the Baltic, North Sea and French coastal trade. But no one in the North fancies the challenge, and countries in the Med perhaps take not of what happened to Cyprus when they went into business.<br />
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And lastly,<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWu0T8a6_3FQlTUvD_dBFF44ie5SCObdzywVm96zAjVDWt-FrHPcpsrvK4OQIztdBYHQkb77sboe1qhVluWal-6OMXZcZ1OY1xiqAyNL0Sw-SI8uceaxiCiur11cahJg_2WVLlPK4GgU6V/s1600/ck2_4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWu0T8a6_3FQlTUvD_dBFF44ie5SCObdzywVm96zAjVDWt-FrHPcpsrvK4OQIztdBYHQkb77sboe1qhVluWal-6OMXZcZ1OY1xiqAyNL0Sw-SI8uceaxiCiur11cahJg_2WVLlPK4GgU6V/s1600/ck2_4.png" height="358" width="640" /></a></div>
This is the dynasty map.<br />
<br />
As you can see the Polkarios family have spread out to control Italy, the Balkans, Southern Greece, Bavaria, Libya and Tunisia, and there is increasing presence in Northern Germany and Poland.... and bits of Tukey and Cyprus.<br />
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What the map doesn't show is the large number of baronies, counties and duchies controlled by the dynasty - the last time I checked something like 1/4 of the English duchies were Polkarios.<br />
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This does lead to some rather odd Dukes. The Duke before the current one, was a Berber, which was fairly useful as it meant the cavalry retinue could had a large number of light cav, to make them all the more useful in running down fleeing foes.<br />
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I don't think it is too bad for five hundred years of careful play, especially considering that the whole thing began with one man and his hunchback son.<br />
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<br />
Next time I shall pick up on the woeful tale of Kaybala, the downfall of Duchess Augusta, a quick word about the slow witted Constante the great, and a potted history of the Italian wars, and how they changed with the arrival of King Fresco in 1233.<br />
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peace:) eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-51916277004825895312014-11-20T01:16:00.001+00:002014-11-20T02:01:33.266+00:00Kaybala, Heresy and the PopeAnd so we come to the modern era of the Republic.<br />
<br />
There are still vestiges of the old Imperial ambitions in my way of thinking, but by the 1250's the policy is firmly based on Italy.<br />
<br />
I mentioned at the end of the last post that the immediate problem facing the republic was an outbreak of heresy in Sicily. The heresy in question was Lollardism. And the problem was made more difficult because by cutting ties with the colonies - we still answered calls to war, and occasionally stepped in without being asked if a revolt was clearly to big for the new rulers to handle on their own - essentially there were now five branches of the family to draw upon when it came to giving out lands and titles.<br />
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The largest, and perhaps strongest of these strands was the Venetian branch of the family - however they were also the most ambitious and troublesome.<br />
<br />
But none were as troublesome as the Sicilian branch, in large part to the matriarch of the clan being possessed.<br />
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It is true that at the same time there was a Duke of Venice who believed his military prowess was because Jesus was advising him on martial matters, and he did become the head of state - something that filled me with dread, for despite the obvious strength of the army, and the financial might behind it, the last thing I wanted was for this mis-guided heretic - at the time he was a Waldavian (or whatever) - though thankfully after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and a stern chat from his zealous new wife, he converted to Catholicism, and though he continued to believe his military strategy was divinely led, the worst that happened was the levy went up to around 38K, thanks to his massive martial score.<br />
<br />
The situation in Sicily was of a different matter however.<br />
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There had long been an issue with heresy in Malta, following the collapse of the Orthodox faith, and the rise of iconoclasm. And it was something I kept an eye on. But suddenly in the period 1240 onwards, heresy began to take root among the ruling classes of Sicily. And worse the Duchess began fighting with her vassals in order to make them convert.<br />
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As a republic there is not much you can actually do. Were I a feudal ruler, I could demand conversion, and then imprison them if they refused. The option of imprisonment conversion is still available under the republic, but you have to catch them doing soemthing wrong in the first place, which is not always easy.<br />
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In an effort to contain the situation, I retracted all of her vassals, which did stem the growth slightly, but it couldn't stop intermarriage which was a problem compounded further with the arrival - seemingly from no where of the Princess Augusta.<br />
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She was from the Venetian side of the family, but beyond that I can't say where she came from, or why she was so beloved - if anything she had the same narcissistic idiocy of her forebear, Anna, Duchess of Athens and Nikea.<br />
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With the help of the mayor of Apulia, she managed to overthrow my place man in the Duchy of Apulia and get herself made Duchess - and being a republic, there was nothing I could do about it.<br />
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She then married herself into the Lollard families in Sicily, and while my back was turned fighting a Holy War for Kaybala, and following the death of the possessed Duchess in the early 1270's, Dushess Augusta, and her husband, who had been the count of Palermo, managed not only to wrestle the Duchy of Sicily from my place man, but also began revoking the titles of their vassals, and replacing the counts and barons with heretics.<br />
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Now as I said, this all went unnoticed because at the time, I was concentrating on events in Africa.<br />
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The Holy war for Kaybala, was essentially an effort to protect the newly independent Duchy of Tunis, which had come under attack a couple of times following independence. It was also a useful way of getting money out of the Pope.<br />
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The details of the campaign are simple enough. Around 40,000 mercenaries landed, laid siege to all the holdings, and when the Abbasids sent force to starve in a long march across the desert of Libya, more forces were sent, to finish them off.<br />
<br />
Having suddenly lots of holdings open, and a heresy problem that was difficult for the court Chaplain to handle on his own - not that the local population appear not to have been affected, and this heresy didn't cause any revolts, it appears to have been purely restricted to the ruling families, and particularly to the families immediately kin to Duchess Augusta and her husband - though more curiously in hindsight, it never became an issue in Apulia.<br />
<br />
And so to try and deal with the problem the Lollards were sent to Kaybala - given mainly bishoprics -to stop them breeding - and baronies - which the feudal lords were drawn from the families in Italy, principally from Spoleto and Benevento.<br />
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The reasoning behind this was simple, those Italian families were a pain in the backside, and didn't know when to leave well alone. Most of them were blind by the age of 30 because they had got themselves mixed up in plots, and none of them were much good at anything, other than breeding argumentative and silly offspring. Since the Kaybala colony was intended as a dumping ground, it was the ideal way to kill two birds with one stone.<br />
<br />
Kaybala was a pretty much a lame duck from the off.<br />
<br />
Not helped by the Duke not noticing that being independent meant that he was not meant to get involved in the politics of Sicily. On a number of occasions he got himself mixed up in the revolts of petulant Counts and Dukes, who were insistent that they would not back down over their backing of the murder of the inn-keepers daughter, preferring the indignity of having 40,000 mercenaries kick their door down.<br />
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And they could be rely on the Duke of Kaybala to pledge his support, which resulted in his army of 2 or 3,000 being kicked to death by the 10 or 20,000 mercenaries I would sent to flatten him. On one glorious occasion he spent his entire wealth hiring the Great Company, at the time some 14,000 men. He then proceeded to sent them via land through Spain and France - even though he had the ships to transport them - to attack me. Unfortunately he ran out of money - probably because he kept 300 or so ships in his capital, and didn;t disband them. The Mercenaries got as far as Grenada before the money ran out, at which point they turned around and marched back to attack him, looting as they went.<br />
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Now, it should be stated that this heresy issue was probably not helped by my actions.<br />
<br />
At the same time as I was busy trying to suppress the heresy in Sicily, there had been a long standing anti-pope in Pavia. It had long since my the tradition and the policy that Northern Italy was an entity to be appeased, and<br />
<br />
<br />
and the internet went down....<br />
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peace:) eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-42372474777356184942014-11-17T20:10:00.000+00:002014-11-17T20:10:14.764+00:00The Sicilian Divorce Wars, and JihadThe Sicilian War of Independence - from it's vassals - was a curious affair.<br />
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After a century of carping and plotting independence, no sooner was it granted than all the pygmies started bleating and wanting to come home to daddy.<br />
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And like most Empires, or indeed parents, I took a paternalist attitude to the separation. Not wanting to see the newly freed vassals immediately sink.<br />
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The African colonies, of Tunis, Tripolitania, and Cyrenica played the game, prefering to sit quiet and nation build, rather than see independence as an opportunity to flex their muscles. Perhaps because they were the most stable, and least contested.<br />
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The Greeks however took a very different attitude. No sooner had they been granted independence than they declared war on Phillopolis, an independent state, run by a Karling, which if truth be told had been an irritant for a number of years, through not so irritating that I felt the need to scratch it. However the Greeks received a bit of shock when the day after their declaration of war, I declared a de jure war for Bari, and as a short and sharp introduction the harsh world of power politics, sent an army of 20,000 to Greece to wipe out their army.<br />
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Things then got worse for them when Serbia and Bulgaria joined the war on the side of Phillopolis, leaving the Greeks with no army, facing an army of 20,000 in Phillopolis defying them to fight, and me in Italy sieging Bari, Syracuse and the Duchy of Spoleto - the two former counties having historical ties to Greece, the latter Duchy being apparently part of Greece - and later Africa, and Cyprus, for reasons best know to the game, and the way it deals with de jure and de facto realms.<br />
<br />
Oh wait, more trouble for the Greek King, 20,000 Greek Indepence rebels sprung up in his home Duchy of Achia, so that's 40,000 troops in Greece he has to fight, and I have destroyed his army.<br />
<br />
But paternalism kicked in, and while he kacked his pants, and desperately sent out calls for allies, I set a force to kill off the rebels - whilst scrupulously avoiding staying out of his wars - not that I could as I was one of those attacking him.<br />
<br />
With Bari secured, a change of Duke allowed Syracuse to return to the fold.<br />
<br />
This turned out to be doubly fortunate as it coincided with the administrative reformation within Sicily afforded by the acquisition of castles in the home provinces of Salerno and Naples/Capua, meant that Sicily could be formed into a Duchy, and ruled as a vassal Dukedom. The unfortunate thing about this was that it coincided with the reign of an Italian Anti-Pope, which combined with the ongoing Maltese iconoclastic movement would lead tot he isalnd of Sicily suffering a rather serious outbreak of heresy among the ruling elites.<br />
<br />
Eventually the Greeks were forced to sue for peace with Phillopolis, and the king, Gentile, was forced to accept that though he might be called king, the chances of him actually being king and ruling a united realm were at best slim, Not least because of the states in Greece, his was in real terms the weakest. The real power lying in Nikea, both military and diplomatic. And the Nikeans, attitude to the new king was pretty much as it had been when the kingdom was held by the Sicilian Republic, they wanted independence.<br />
<br />
The Greek Kings problems were further compounded when an outbreak of infighting in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, led to a number of deaths, which in turn led to the Duchy of Ephisus going to the King of Jeruslam, as well as a number of smaller Greek titles.<br />
<br />
And then around 1210, it happened, the long awaited - by me, the newly independent kingdoms appeared to never heard the term Jihad - occured. And rather like my surreptitious descruction fo the Greek rebels, which saved the Greek kingdom from still-birth, I answered the call, and with papal money, and my own sent troops to the Holy land to stem the flood.<br />
<br />
Having already successively fought off three Jihads, so I was aware of the magnitude of the task before me, so to be on the safe side I raised all my shipping - around 500 ships - and in 2 trips dispatched every available mercenary to the Holy land, with small forces being sent to Algeria, and Egypt to create a diversion.<br />
<br />
Having 90,000+ men in a land in which the counties can only support @17.000, and moving them in a co-ordinated manner, to coalesce into big battles of 40,000+, and then disperse to not die of starvation through of lack of supply, was a huge task - made all the more difficult by allies marching to the sound of the guns, thus hampering the supply issues, and an outbreak of disease. After 18 months of semi successful campaigning which had beaten off three larges attacks on Jerusalem and driven the Islamic forces back in Egypt, it was obvious that the forces were spent. Some of the mercenary units were reduced to 10th of their starting size. And, having already raised all available forces, there wasn't an army of any size available for hire.<br />
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Money was certainly not an issue the Pope was happy to pay, sending 20,000 or 30,000 gold over the time period of this first active phase. And the arrival in the east of the Mongols had drawn off some troops, but not enough.<br />
<br />
In a huff I did what no Polkarios Doge had done for 200 years, I scrolled into the map as tight as I could and sheltered beneath the imposing might of the Salerno mountains to hide from the world.<br />
<br />
Only in Algeria was any progress made, with the forces sent to block troops from the western Abbasid empire being sent to the jihad - and make a bit of money from loot and ransom - more than holding their own. This combined with the Jihadis not sticking to their task, of sieging Jerusalem, instead preferring to chase units of 50 and 100 men around the general area with armies of 18,000.<br />
<br />
And each time a holding fell in Algeria, the warscore went in our favour.<br />
<br />
'Ok' I thought, 'let's destroy the western Abbasid empire.'<br />
<br />
And that's what we did. 40, 000 men were sent, sieging 8 provinces at a time, in a rolling wave of destruction. The damage being further compounded when the Abbasids starting sending armies across the desert to challenge this systematic and total desolation of their lands. By the time these forces had crossed the desert, they were reduced to half of their number, and easily defeated by fresh units of mercenaries sent out to the add to plague of locusts eating the Abbasids from the inside out.<br />
<br />
Even with the Holy land pretty much uncontested, bar the small forces raised by the pygmies and the Holy Orders, the warscore was in our favour, alternating between 20 and 30%, as couty after county fell in the west,<br />
<br />
And all the while the Pope was happy to foot the bill.<br />
<br />
It was not a quick task, but it was extremely effective. In an effort to put a stop to it, the Abbasids started sending men by sea, but they were dealt with in the same way as those who crossed the desert. There wasn't even any need to chase them. Once beaten they set off back towards their home land, and again suffering heavily through lack of supply.<br />
<br />
It was an almost perfect method of warfare.<br />
<br />
The Caliph must have been pulling out his hair, as what should have been a short campaign and easy victory against an ill prepared and fractious foe, dragged on for two years, and then five, and seven, and then a decade.<br />
<br />
I started sending forces east when we reached the Morrocan border, to add to the swelling forces undertaking the same exercise in Egypt. In hindsight this was perhaps a mistake, as I should have disbanded and re-raised them and sent them by sea to Benghazi, But no matter after 12 years the Caliph might hold Jerusalem - or to be precise one holding in Jersualam - as the AI was still having problems sticking to it's task, prefering to run round with a giant newspaper trying to swat the flies of the small forces sent form the nearly independent states and Duchies, to aid their ally - but the warscore was no more than 10% in his favour - due to battle points - and the Mongols had taken Damascus.<br />
<br />
At which point we come to the that dreaded words - over-confidence and impatience.<br />
<br />
Having managed to drag the Jihad into the Trojan Wars - the war had now lasted around 18 years, <br />
<br />
Once more I had employed every mercenary available. All the provinces of Northern Egypt were under siege, and the task was between 1/3 and 1/2 complete in taking every single holding. But I also had forces moving from the west - some having to come from as far as the Malian border - but now it was my turn to get distracted by the circling forces from sticking to the task.<br />
<br />
I certainly held the upper hand. At the entrance to the Sinai I had a forces of 17,000, behind them, in the three connecting provinces, I had 17,000 men. In order to attack the Abbassids would have to pass through 2 connecting provinces to reach the bottle neck I was holding. Therefore, effectively, I could bring 68,000 into battle should the Abbasids be tempted into the attack.<br />
<br />
A couple of times I sense they were going to go for, as forces moved down from the north and from the east to move into support of the 34,000 they had in the area. As many as 90,000 men were moving into attack positions, when suddenly they moved off to the east, disappearing intot he fog of war. This move co-incided with the news that two Sultans in that area had gone over to the Mngols.<br />
<br />
Now was the chance I thought, after 18 years of war, now at last I had the chance to break through to Jerusalem, that that solitary siege, throw the warscore back in my favour, and force the Caliph to admit defeat.<br />
<br />
I waitied, maybe six months, to give those forces that had moved away chance to get well away. and then I advanced - the troops from the west had by now reached the war-zone and were taking over the siege duties, freeing more troops to move up to join the attack. In all about 55,000 men were availble.<br />
<br />
The plan was pure WWI, bite and hold tactics. The army would jump forward and lay siege to the two provinces, immediately to the front. A small force would take out a flanking province, in which there was a force of some 8,000 men who were rebels from a revolt in Baghdad. Then the rest of the army was to pass though and lay siege to the next two provinces. With the intention that as more men moved came in from the west, they would be fed through this rolling barrage, until our entire army - the fighting strength in the Holy land - if all went well would around 80,000 - with around 25,000 carrying on the siege in Egypt - and this 80,000 would be within easy march of each other.<br />
<br />
And even better the only allies in the area were fighting in Anatolia, and Northern Syria, so they wouldn't get in the way and create problems with supply.<br />
<br />
I even went to the trouble of timing marches so that units passing through the Sinai bottle neck would not drain each others supplies, thus arriving at their destination in top fighting condition.<br />
<br />
Had I left things to run as planned, perhaps things would have worked. But as we moved forward the fog of war lifted, revealing medium to large troops units - nothing massive or that couldn't be handled - but instead of sticking to the plan, I started reacting to the threats, and soon there was no plan - just units moving in uncoordinated fashion, with the result that after a few units got isolated, and were not able to march in support of the battle, we were drawn into battle and despite inflicting heavy casualties, we were forced to retreat badly bloodied.<br />
<br />
At which point after nearly twenty years of fighting, and with the prospect of twenty more looming, I decided enough was enough. I painted a huge box over all the troops in Egypt, and ordered them to march against the stack of shattered, exhausted - and victorious - Abbasids - claearly they did the same, because what resulted was an epic battle in which around 60-70,000 troops on each side were fed piece meal into a blender, in which never less that 25,000 were fighting at one time, and over the space of perhaps a month, the forces of Christendom came out victorious.<br />
<br />
And totally incapable of continuing the fight.<br />
<br />
Units that should have had 10,000 men were reduced to 200.<br />
<br />
And as I looked towards Jerusalem I could see more Muslim units gathering, numbering several thousand. I checked the book strength of the Caliph's army, his top levy was around 160,000, he had available less than 15,000.<br />
<br />
The warscore stood at 23% in his favour. So shattered were my mercenaries that I guessed it would take a year to 18 months to get a decent force together again.<br />
<br />
I was by no means defeated,<br />
<br />
But two things factors led me to dismiss my troops and retreat back behind the Salerno mountains - possibly to try again.<br />
<br />
The first was the Mongols, who had by now taken Damascus, and on a broad front were within two and three counties of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. They were, and are, an unknown quantty, and not one that at time I wanted to face - particularly in defence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.<br />
<br />
The second was the general childishness of my newly independent allies.<br />
<br />
So focused had I been in the past twenty years fighting against the Jihad, that I had paid only passing interest in events at home. But when I discovered that the King of Greece, had taken the opportunity to take control of my castles in Capua and Naples, and that the King of Jerusalem had set up a merchant republic in Epiros, and that the Duchy of Tunis was now at war with the Ducjy of Tripolitania.... and on and on was this list of just pointless and stoopid this that this bunch of imbeciles had been up while my back was turned.<br />
<br />
It was a joyful moment when I dismissed the troops and left them to it. And as luck would have it the Doge dropped down dead, and the new Doge did not inherit the Jihad - though he did get the Pope's money - and it was no problem at all to decline the request to join the fight againt the Jihad.<br />
<br />
And then six months later it was all over, ironically at roughly the point the tax and levy penalties lapsed, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was reduced to a single county, in addition to the Duchy of Ephisus, with that Merchant republic in Epiros.<br />
<br />
And given that the King of Jerisalem was the same whiney toe rag who all those years before had wound me up with his pointless plotting, it was no problem at all to declare an embargo war on him and flattent he Duchy of Ephisus, He gave in when I sent 30,000 troops to his sole county in Jerusalem, and he had the sense to shut down the merchant republic.<br />
<br />
Next on my list was Greece, who had also been doing something with Merchant republic's though I am not sure what, because one of my trade posts had disappeared, and a new family had set themselves up, they were in my republic screen, but based in a county of Greece (sans trade post) - at one point two additional families appeared, both in this Greek province. Making them difficult to plot to kill.<br />
<br />
I had long since had enough of the King of Greece, and this merchant business was the last straw. I declared war, probably for the kingdom of Greece, as by this time I still had plenty of people who had a claim on the independent kingdoms, including my Duke. The war was predictably short, and when I won I destroyed the title, thinking that it would be the end of it, and the Italian provinces, and the castles would return to Sicily.<br />
<br />
But no, they now went to Africa, and instead all the Greek provinces were now part of the Kingdom of Sicily. Oh and you can't declare war on Africa, because you are on a truce with them due to their being the Kingdom of Greece in the last war.<br />
<br />
So I gave independence once more to the Greeks - again.... if any of them wanted to be king of Greece, then it was up to them to win the wars and get the titles.<br />
<br />
I did have a celebratory cigar when I learned the news that former King Gentile 'the Apostle' had died in the dungeon of some minor Sheik or another - I know he is family and all, but it couln't have happened to a nicer guy.<br />
<br />
The next period of history bordered on the bizarre.<br />
<br />
Despite the King of Cyprus and the King of Africa being feudal rulers, of independent kingdoms, instead of their eldest son or whoever being their heir, they had the same heir as me.<br />
<br />
Now no doubt this is to do with their kingdoms being established as republics, and no doubt their is some way or another that I am to blame for not setting the succession laws, but whatever, it just made me more deteremined than ever to once and for all get rid of them.<br />
<br />
Doing so was no big deal, because to win the war I needed only to siege the Duchy of Spoleto, the two castles, and defeat whatever forces they could put into the field, usually no more than five thousand men.<br />
<br />
And so it was that in 1243, the Republic of Africa was destroyed, followed in 1244 by the Republic of Cyprus, I didn't bother about the whole breaking the truce thing, I wanted them gone, and I was less than impressed by their dance of the seven veils trick to stop me attacking them. <br />
<br />
Everything and everything that was not in Italy, and could be made independent, was given independence, and finally, after 40 years Sicily was free.<br />
<br />
Ironically, probably 3/4 of that 40 years had been taken up with fighting to save the states that I was now so glad to be rid of.<br />
<br />
And as is the way with Crusader King II, no sooner did one problem reach a resolution, than a new and potentially more serious one raised it's head.... heresy....<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-52846808146846630582014-11-17T00:00:00.002+00:002014-11-17T00:01:51.858+00:00The Age of EmpireThe period 1101 to 1204 was one of war, expansion, consolidation, and the realisation that I had become a superpower.<br />
<br />
Perhaps it would be useful to try and define what I mean by the term superpower, because anyone looking at the map would see a collection of colonies dotted around the Mediterranean in a more or less cohesive manner. They would also see that the administration of those provinces was still largely a mess. They might also notice increasing and constant friction among the dukedoms over control of the kingship titles that were firmly held at the centre.<br />
<br />
But what they would soon realize was that this apparent chaos was also the source off the growing strength of the Sicilian state.<br />
<br />
Because strategically I was in a position to place an army of 60,000 men where ever I wanted with a matter of months. This might be to fight off the latest attack in the seemingly endless wars with the Abassid's which stemmed from the castration of the Caliph's brother. But generally it was to fight small wars in Greece to vassalize the increasing number of independent states breaking away from Holy Order control, or it was to fight Holy Wars in Africa.<br />
<br />
However there was a new level of sophistication to the Imperial process. Out went the notion of holding everything at all costs. And in came a process of granting independence when the vassal became too troublesome with factional politics, or there was no strategic or practical reason for holding the territory.<br />
<br />
As with all things mistakes were made along the way. Diocleca was given independence, and promptly went into direct business competition in the Adriatic Sea. Which led to their immediate request and re-vassalisation. The Duchy of Croatia was given independence, and after two generation of daughters, passed out of the allied realm.<br />
<br />
But in general the process was a triumphal march where ever and when ever we chose to make war.<br />
<br />
Two Jihads for Tunis were fought off successfully. After the first, in an effort to deal with the mistakes of the city first policy, the inland states of Tunis were granted independence, taken by the Abassids in a Holy War - that was uncontested - and then retaken in Holy War, and reconstituted on a firm feudal footing.<br />
<br />
Tripolitania and Cyrenica, were next to fall in Holy War, which effectively nullified any threat from the Abassids. They might pick a fight against myself, or one of my client states, and instead of fighting them head on, troops would be dispatched to Algeria to lay siege as far as Morocco. If the Abassids wanted to prevent the looting, they would have to send men either by sea, or across the desert, a trek that would kill as many as half of them before they got to fight.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I might do both, fight them where they were contesting and lay waste to Algeria. The town of Constantine was sieged probably as many as twenty times during this period, and would contnue to be so until the duchy of Kybala was taken in Holy War in the next century.<br />
<br />
And all the while our trade post holding was growing. It had been more than a century since we had been able to build a trade post of our own. But the farming policy of the other families was paying dividends in spades. Officially we might be limited to to 9 or 10 trade posts, but de facto over this period our trade post holdings grew to around fifty or sixty. Which in turn, combined with a focus on the city and keep upgrades, meant a steady increase in the retinue cap, which allowed the army to grow around 30,000.<br />
<br />
This army was purely for home defence and internal security. If a vassal was caught attempting to fabricate a claim on the state, the army was sent to sit on his holdings, whilst the arrest was made. Given that by this stage the vassals could raise maybe 6 or 8,000 men tops the resultant revolt, if revolt there was, was generally short lived.<br />
<br />
The punishment for a first offence was blinding for a family member, if they were caught again, banishment. For non family members, particularly if they were from a family that had wormed their into the growing feudal arrangements and become a count, the punishment was generally a straight banishment and their holdings given to a family member.<br />
<br />
In one hundred years, not a single war was lost, and the number of lost battles could probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. If the enemy sent 10,000 men, we would send 20,000.<br />
<br />
However two events caused a slight rethink in this policy.<br />
<br />
The first was a Balkan war that coincided with fighting in Greece, and a Crusade for Hungary.<br />
<br />
For one reason or another, the standing army (<i>the retinue</i>) was sent to suppress a show of impertinence by our Vassal the Duke of Dalmatia. One unit of the retinue was caught up country sieging a county that had been given to Dalmatia to look after because it was causing problems, and we did not control, nnor wish to control the de jure duchy to which it belonged. This force of 8,000 was attacked by first a Serbian force, and this was joined by 15,000 Bulgarians. Although out-numbered 3-1, the superior leadership and technical abilities of the troops, managed to stave off total annihilation. A force of some 30,000 mercenaries were sent to screen the retreat of the shattered unit, by now reduced to some 800-1000 men, the constituent parts of the levy reduced to single figure units in many cases. The screening proved entirely successful, allowing the unit to retreat back through the Balkans and into Italy, before the mercenaries counter attacked, and destroyed the Serbian and Balkan armies, and laid siege to their lands.<br />
<br />
The result of this proved costly, and demonstrated just how expensive retinues are, when used rashly, and forced to reconstitute. The costs involved in building the parent unit over what may have been decades was forced to be paid again over the next year or so. Monthly income fell from around 2,000 a month to sometimes as low as 30 0r 40.<br />
<br />
For the sake of proving a point to a wayward Duke, it was not worth it, and the retinues would stay firmly at home from now on.<br />
<br />
The second lesson was learned in the campaign for Thracesia, in 1157.<br />
<br />
By now the Byzantine Empire - remember them? - had been driven out of Europe, and held Tangiers, a few provinces on the Black Sea, and Thracesia. In an effort to consolidate the emergent state of Nikea, and protect Cyprus, it was decided to bring this region under control - thus allowing the hotch potch of counties around the Agean to be swallowed up by the increasingly aggressive Dukes of the realm, who were firmly acting in a rational manner and trying to expand their holdings - rather than conspiring to steal my titles - for which they invariably ended up blind, and if they still persisted, landless.<br />
<br />
The campaign grew out of an earlier effort when 90,000 troops were dispatched to prevent an Abassid Holy war against the Teutonic order for one of these errant counties. The campaign was decided in a single climactic battle in which 120,000 Abassids were drawn piecemeal into my grinder of 90,000 over the period of what seemed like a month. In the end they were left with scattered forces of maybe a thousand or so, which were picked off at leisure, while the cream of Abassid society was ransomed back, and couple of towns taken.<br />
<br />
This effort, like so many wars of this time, given their religious nature, was in part funded by the Pope. Something that wasn't really factored into the thinking behind the Thracesia campaign.<br />
<br />
In hindsight, the warning signs were all there. The alarm bell which rang the loadest, and was the most ignored, was the Duke himself.<br />
<br />
The names and dates of the Duke's in this period are pretty much irrelevant. When I looked at the list to write this post the only one that stood out was Ugliano I 'the Great', and he is noticable for rebuilding the country after this campaign, and because he was a gluttonous drunkard who was beloved by a succession of Popes. What is of significance is that for the first time in the histroy of the Sicilian state the Duke had super stats.<br />
<br />
So good were his stats, that from the moment he showed up as heir I found myself drooling at the chance to play with him, I had by now grown used to managing a succession of rulers in large part propped up by their wives and counsellors. But at long last here was Duke with 20+ stats for just about everything, and if the skill wasn't 20+. it was 15+. And the traits only reinforced his greatness. What could possibly go wrong.<br />
<br />
Well the first thing that went wrong was that unlike the previous war in which the troops were shipped to Greece and marched to Nikea, this time they were shipped there. It might sound like a small thing, but shipping costs are very high, comparatively. And for whatever reason - perhaps because there was a notion that the troops would be used in a renewed effort against the Abassids - nearly 40,000 thousand troops were sent, meaning that the fleet of 234 ships made two journeys.<br />
<br />
An outbreak of disease among the invading armies inflicted heavy casualites, as did so poorly handled fighting. Resulting in another 20,000 troops being sent. And rather than dismiss the mercenaries already on the ground, and let them rebuild at their own expense, they were kept employed, and rather than rebuild they just kept dying of disease and infecting the freshly arrived troops.... can you see where this is going?<br />
<br />
Now while this is going on, I in the form of my supper stat'd Duke am sitting their rubbing my hands at the prospect of moving the campaign onto the Abassids, and possibly rolling out of Anatolia and into the Holy Land - just for fun.<br />
<br />
And so like a dose of dysentery the more troops got ill, the more troops were sent, and the more shipping costs were racked up,... and all for the sake of a couple of towns. For once the AI played a blinder. The Byzantines had two medium sized forces that they moved around the area without ever really trying to engage. I chased them, mauled them when I caught them, but couldn't kill them off. And so many men were dying of disease - units easily lost half their total, and some as much as 2/3rds - that it became increasingly risky to draw men away from the siege to drive off the circling Byzantines.<br />
<br />
What had been intended as a short campaign soon began to drag on, as the Byzantines brought in allies, which mean that the warscore fell, and even when the towns were finally taken, it was necessary to go on fighting.<br />
<br />
Soon money became an issue, as troops had to be raised an paid for in other operations, and there was money being spent on trade posts, and city improvements.<br />
<br />
By the time the campaign ended, the treasury which on accession had stood at 20,000+ gold, was down to about 7,000.<br />
<br />
And worse the states set up in Anatolia were extremely shaky.<br />
<br />
The Duke of Nikea died leaving his land to an infant girl. The Duke of Thracesia didn't last much longer and died leaving a son or 6 or 7.<br />
<br />
A falling out with the Pope lead to the drying up Papal grants, and by the time our super stat'd Duke - whose name I cannot be bothered to fnd - died the treasury was as low as 3,000 gold. It was seriously considered borrowing money from the Jews, something that hadn't been done since Merinos took a loan at the very beginning to built the trade post at Salerno, and to rig the election in favour of his son Polkarios Polkarios (uptown girl) as insurance against his untimely death.<br />
<br />
The one bright spot in this period was the capture of Aprutium in 1175, which marked the first offensive action against the Kingdom of Italy in nearly 300 years.<br />
<br />
Ugliano I steadied this decline, rebuilt the treasury - with the help of the Pope (<i>miraculously given Ugliano's traits - slooth, gluttony and drunkard</i>) and in many ways he was a character similar to Daniel. He was an outsider, the last of the Beaumont Dukes - who despite being raised in France was Italian, indeed the first Italian - and like Danial he had a hippy portrait.<br />
<br />
He also expand the holdings in Italy, when by chance an attack on Spoleto, captured the Duchy whihc had bundled in with it Lucca and Verona.<br />
<br />
However more and more time was being taken up with internal politics. As the mantra began to be chanted 'No More Wars'. And while there were small scale Imperial policing actions in Greece and Africa, to either suppress some mouthy Duke, or nurse the putative states through their period of recruitment and tax penalties, there was little or no effort at further expansion.<br />
<br />
This pulling back was in part due to the realisation that adding new territories didn't bring in any significant money - money being the focus of the period as efforts were made to rebuild the shattered treasury. Indeed Imperial expansion was counter productive to what passed for politics in the Republic - namely the systematic murder of business rivals either to get trade posts, or simply to get the money off the newest bright eyed entrepreneur. The dishonour penalty in the republic was pretty much a badge of honour, but in the Empire it was an excuse not to pay tax.<br />
<br />
Under Ugliano, something another administrative change was made. It became policy to get hold of castles in the Replican heartlands of Salerno and Capua, develop them, and turn Apulia, Sicily and Calabria over to vassals. This raised more levies in the long run, and diminished the 'too many Duchy' penalty.<br />
<br />
By the time Ugliano died finance the period of active peace had restored finances to the pre-Thracesia levels, the duchies in Greece, Cyprus and Africa had been put in a state bordering their proper constituent parts, and the vassals aquired through various holy wars and crusades assigned to their rightful owners. <br />
<br />
Ugliano should also be credited with instituting another policy, which was to have more long term effects. A more conscious effort was made to marry well. For a while it had been practice to marry sons to baroness' on the basis that they would not loaf about being paid family dues. But now, with the increased prestige of the family - the prestige score would have been over 100k at this point easily - sons at birth were being betrothed to Duchess's and Countess's, and daughters where regularly betrothed to Kings (<i>incidentally the last time I looked, the game year is currently 1340, the Polkarios dynasty score was @11,500, the Karling dynasty score was @9,000 - which is not bad when you consider the Polkarios family started with two men</i>).<br />
<br />
Which bring me to Michael 'the Fowler'.<br />
<br />
His lineage is from that loan infant Duchess of Nikea, who for a time in the 1160 and 1170's was a pain in the backside. She inherited the Duchy of Nikea and Athens, which had been bundled together in the hand out of 1047, following the first crusade for Greece. By now Nikea was properly constituted and relatively well administered and run. Thus Anna took it into her head that she wanted Athens. And despite all the other Dukes, many of whom owned bits of the Duchy, being firmly opposed to this idea, Anna fought several wars, and eventually settled for half of the Ducjy - i.e two counties.<br />
<br />
These wars - the Pygmy Wars as I called them, were very useful because they allowed me to gauge the actual strength of my vassals, since at times they were all involved in one way or another. Thus giving me a general sense of what would be required should the factions decide to actually try and win their freedom, instead of grumbling about it, and getting themselves blinded and banished for pointless plotting. At times there were armies as large as 20,000 in the field. Which was comforting to know as I had a retinue of over 30,000, plus levies and mercenaries, olf Ugliano could watch these wars, quaff his claret, and throw chicken legs over his shoulder, secure that if push came to shove it would be him doing the pushing and shoving.<br />
<br />
Anna, was a problem in another regard, she had three daughter's. One of who was married into the Venice Polkarios clan, Venice having been taken in Holy war a century earlier, who were particularly annoying to the Duke, as they not only plotted to get the republic of Sicily, but were forever trying to get the Republic of Venice - which was not going to happen, because despite being a firmly rooted feudal republic, there was no way that the risk was going to be taken of Venice going back into business. And besides, Venice had been the target of a number of adventurers and also the Italians.<br />
<br />
As an aside there were a number of adventurers who declared their intention to take the Republic of Sicily. One even managed to get 12.000 together - gosh my knees were knocking. Though perhaps not quite as much as his knees as he lay his neck on the block.<br />
<br />
My favourite was a Muslim chap from the hills of modern day Iran. He announced his intention with much ceremony, and a look at his stats showed he was a more than competent commander.Given the general level of hostility between myself and the Muslim world I was a little concerned, and having faced very large Muslim armies, and the threat coming early in the reign of Ugliano I, I have to admit to some worry. What about if the chap raised 50,000 troops?<br />
<br />
Shortly before the big day, 22nd January I believe, my chancellor was dispatched to the region where he was reported to be raising his troops, ostensibly to improve relations with the local chieftain, but really to see who many men I should prepare to fight against.<br />
<br />
The day arrived, and no sign of the adventurer. A click on his details showed him in an unknown location. Damn I thought, he's going to sneak up on me. I searched the map carefully for signs of this adventurer and his hoard, Then early in February I noticed the warscore was 100% - it must have been since January. Because the poor chap had managed to attract not a single soldier to his cause. I offered peace, imprisoned him, and because he was a good soldier gave him a command position in the standing army. I let him have secondary wives, and he resisted all attempts at conversion. Oddly enough we even got the Jihad thing for fighting in my army against a Jihad for Africa - or he might have got it before, but I only noticed it afterwards. He was no trouble, never got involved in any plots, and was generally the perfect courtier, personally killing off a number of business rivals in plots.<br />
<br />
So back to Michael the Fowler, he inherited all the vices of the Nikea branch of the family. The original Duke had been a soldier with very high martial skills and a 3s and 4s for everything else. He was sent to Nikea for two very simple reason, I didn't want to pay family dues, and I thought the Abassids would want to fight for the duchy, thus it was best to send the best soldier available. He also inherited his mother's annoying habits of sticking her nose in where it was not wanted, and obstinacy. On more than one occasion Michael almost got himself blinded for not backing out of plots when told to, but for one reason or another the matter was not pursued and Michael could carry on in the same lazy, angry, greedy, drunken way to which he had become accustomed.<br />
<br />
Michael was certainly an irascible chap, almost becoming the first Duke to get himself excommunicated, when realtions with the Pope dropped to an all time low of -50 or so.<br />
<br />
But that all changed when a crusade was called on Jerusalem.<br />
<br />
Suddenly Michael went from zero to hero in the Pope's eyes. And the crusade was very useful, because it would offer the opportunity to build on the Cyrenican holdings, and maybe even split the Abassids into three pieces.<br />
<br />
The plan was simple, the retinue would be commanded by every Polkarios male who it was thought might be useful in the future, loaded onto a ship, taken to the Holy Lands, thrown against a suitably large Muslim army, win the fight, and return home. Then mercenaries would be sent to Algeria and Egypt to siege up the warscore. If everything went well, the Muslims would be left without the usual 20,000+ army with which to murder the pygmy armies from Ireland and elsewhere, and while we effectively do the heavy lifting elsewhere, and draw off/prevent reinforcements, sufficient numbers could be built up to take Jerusalem itself.<br />
<br />
In the event the plan worked like a dream.<br />
<br />
The retinue disgorged, smashed up the only sizable Muslim army for miles, jumped back on the boats, while all those Polkarios males paraded about, showing off their crusader badges, in a style not seen for 150 years.<br />
<br />
It should be pointed out that this plan was a modified version of something that had been attempted earlier in the century when the Pope called a crusade for Jerusalem. However on that occasion we had called a Holy War - for Cyrenica probably - in the period between applying to join the crusade and the Pope accepting. Thus the Pope refused to let us join, claiming that he didn't want to get involved in out scheming. He then jumped in a boat, sailed for the Holy Land, got defeated in his first battle and captured, and that was the end of that crusade.<br />
<br />
This time we didn't declare Holy War, we just used the opportunity to siege our way Africa making money from ransom and loot.<br />
<br />
And thus in 1202 or 1203, we got the task of dividing up the Holy Land.<br />
<br />
Now I say 1202 or 1203, because the actual date doesn't matter. the important date in Sicilian History is 1204.<br />
<br />
Because here's the thing.<br />
<br />
The Kingdom of Jerusalem would have a 30 year, tax and recruitment, penalty. It was bound to suffer, long before that 30 year expiry date, and possibly in the very near future, a jihad to retake Jerusalem. I was scraping the bottle of the barrel to find Polkarios males to fill all the various counties, and frankly they were not the cream of the crop. And the reality of the situation is that the only person guaranteeing their security is me. I am the only person with the money or the troops, and having seen off three jihads, I also have the experience. But I recognise fighting off a Jihad for Jerusalem is a challenge on a different scale to fighting off a Jihad for Sicily or Tunis.<br />
<br />
If the state had nearly bankrupted itself in Thracesia, this task would face all the same logistical challenges, plus an enemy far larger and more determined than the Byzantines had the means and capacity to be.<br />
<br />
Which makes me think that the crusade must have finished in 1202, because one thing is certain, by 1204 we had been saving money and had 30,000 gold on hand, and knew we needed more to fight off the Jihad.<br />
<br />
So when in 1204, the drunkard Michael 'the Fowler', and the equally drunken me - this being late at night when I had been quoffing a rather pleasant bottle of Malbec - recieve the news that some bushy bearded, cross eyed, 16 year old toss pot, who is only there because there is no one else, is plotting to get the supreme republic of Jerusalem, I have had enough.<br />
<br />
I'll tell you what. Here, you are independent, good luck with that.<br />
<br />
Oh and Cyprus, you are independent.<br />
<br />
And so is Africa.<br />
<br />
And so is Greece.<br />
<br />
Good luck, now 'F; off and leave me to make money, which is all I ever wanted to do.<br />
<br />
Ok in doing this it appears that the Italian lands now belong to the Kingdom of Greece. Oh and the Bari, because for various historical reasons is part of the Duchy of diarhoiaicon, and Syracuse is part of the Duchy of the Agean - well I'll tell you what let's have a war to see who gets to keep the de jure lands in Italy shall we.<br />
<br />
Ok, perhaps it was an over reaction. But in that one Malbec fuelled moment of honesty, the Imperial adventuring came to an end.... well sort of.... but we will come to that later....<br />
<br />
And it wasn't just the whining of yet another idiot - if the AI in Crusader Kings II needs anything, it really needs to do something to address the issue of there's being so many absolulte morons in the game.... but then I suppose if you are young, ambitious and never done a days work in your life, this kind of thing is to be expected - so maybe the AI is spot on.<br />
<br />
No, the real reasons for reaching the end of my tether are simpler.<br />
<br />
a) I never wanted to be an empire in the first place.<br />
b) I had reached my vassal limit<br />
and more importantly...<br />
c) none of this land, and none of these idiots, were making me any money.<br />
<br />
At most they are sending a couple of hundred in vassal tax, which is nothing compared to what I am making in trade, and in no way makes up for what they are costing me to defend.<br />
<br />
Oh and as a by product, of the end of Empire, I go from having one or two allies.... if I'm lucky.... to something around 30.... (<i>the current figure is 77, most of whom can't fight... but then most of the one's who can, can't... if you see what I mean</i>) <br />
<br />
Oh and more oddly I suddenly find that I own things that I never knew I had.... like those islands off Achia. Well it turns out they are not there for decoration, but they are a county, and I own them, and they happen to be the perfect naval base for sending armies into Greece to rough up the newly independent King of Greece.<br />
<br />
If you thought getting an Empire was hard, then you try giving one away....<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-85305830631212301132014-11-14T14:45:00.000+00:002014-11-14T14:45:36.656+00:00The 3 Emperors ContinuedBefore returning to the momentous reign of Zenobios 'the Apostle', I briefly want to return to his predecessor Daniel.<br />
<br />
It may seem an odd thing to say in a computer game, that a particular ruler, who happened to be the playable character at a particular moment in the game, instigated a policy of anything. After they are just a picture and a bunch of stats through which the player accesses the database and program for playing the game.<br />
<br />
But the truth is, if Daniel had been super-stat'd, of whom great things were expected, perhaps instead of settling for the natural borders of the Sicilian republic, and not pushing vassalage on Benevento, and not getting needled by the Abassids and the Byzantines, and just accepting that peace was better than war, then perhaps it wouldn't have dawned on me just how expensive the wars with Byzantium had been.<br />
<br />
I mention this because I noticed a post on the Paradox forum discussing had anyone ever been to war with the Pope, and someone commented that they didn't understand why when he had been to war with the Pope, despite all his money, he only raised a couple of the cheapest mercenary units. I will no doubt at some point in the future discuss the economics of mercenary warfare - and my experiences - but there is a perfectly good reason why the Pope has so much money and uses so few troops, because f he used more troops he would not have so much money.<br />
<br />
After the conquest of the Island of Sicily, there was a period of peace that lasted for about 15 years, and in that time the available budget - i.e. the money actually available to spend - went from 2000 gold, to around 10,000 gold. The yearly income at the time being around 2000 per annum, and the money that was spent, was using to upgrade the trade posts, to build improvements in the cities (<i>including the building of 8 universities</i>), and the creation and maintenance of a standing army, which by this stage had grown to around 14,000 men, in two units of 7,000.<br />
<br />
All of this was only achieved because there were no wars, and no mercenaries to pay.<br />
<br />
But back to Zenobios.<br />
<br />
He became the head of the head of the Polkarios clan in 1038.<br />
<br />
At the time there were two issues that needed to be dealt with. The first was easier to solve than the second. The first being that the dominance of the trade routes into and along the Adriatic were under threat from the rival trading houses. And the second being that the growing nymber of trade posts in Greece and North Africa, were becoming pawns in an increasingly hostile war of words with the Byzantines and the Abassids.<br />
<br />
The first issue was solved in the traditional manner by means of murder plots. The rival families were worked right to left, until a large chunk of trade posts were stacked together, then the holder dispatched and bingo the trade posts are shared among the survivors. It is clearly not an ideal method, becuase there is a huge amount of chance involved, but if you do it often enough, for long enough, you get what you want in the end.<br />
<br />
The second issue did not have a ready answer. I didn't want to get into another war, partly because I was enjoying watching the money roll in, but mainly because I had no interest in any of the territory. There were clearly security issues, but my logic was simple, if I could see off the Byzantines with a budget of 2000, then I could certainly fend off any attack by them with a budget of 10,000. And, I really didn't see why the Abassids would be interested in attacking me, when they appeared to be under pressure in the east from the advancing Shia, and the rapidly growing state of Georgia.<br />
<br />
And besides the disastrous policy of sacrificing a generation of the Polkarios family to the whims of city politics, instead of setting them up as feudal rulers, meant that even if I did go to war and win, I had next to no-one who could occupy the captured provinces - there certainly wasn't any point in asking the annoyingly large family in Beaumont if they fancied a Dukedom, because they would refuse to come to court, so I couldn't give them the land even if I wanted to (<i>and it would have been a waste due to my idiotic policy of giving out the towns and not the castles</i>). And believe me I did try to get so of the Beaumont residents to come. And by now there were ten or fifteen men in that castle that could have proved useful.<br />
<br />
This dynastic issue was not helped by Zenobios, and his vow of absolute chastity.<br />
<br />
However this vow of chastity, combined with his zealous nature, and his generally virtuous character - ok he was the guy how instigated blinding people, so he didn't have the kind trait - but he was temperate, and charitable. In short he was the poster boy of the Vatican. Even with the negatives for being caught red handed in the act of murdering his business rivals, his rating with the Pope was never below 90%. And it only took a visit from the chaplain or the chancellor, and a few well placed words, and the Pope was back to loving him again.<br />
<br />
And his piety score was huge.<br />
<br />
All of which was to pay dividends in 1045 when the Pope called a crusade for Greece.<br />
<br />
No sooner had the proclamation been issued than Sicily was signed up. And despite by now having around 15,000 gold, on the off chance Zenobios wondered - no pressure like, and only if you feel like it - but could the Pope possibly see his way to sending some money. 'Certainly dear boy,' replied the Pope, 'would 5,000 be enough.' 'You couldn't make it 15, could you?'<br />
<br />
Zenobios had by this point already used some of his 2,000 piety points to hire every military order available. And with the money from the Pope, 5 of the biggest mercenary unites were hired, and there was still more than 20,000 left to spend.<br />
<br />
In all around 50,000 troops were sent. The army arriving before anyone else and set to laying siege to the western coast of Greece. One unit of the standing army was also sent, and used to rotate all the available family members, and all the best soldiers, through it's command positions. With the result that practically every male in the republic had the crusader badge - for doing little more taking a boat trip across the Adriatic, and going on a sightseeing trip to watch the vast army of mercenaries laying siege.<br />
<br />
As crusades go this was a bit of a non-event. The Byzantines were taken by surprise - though to be honest for me the only surprise was that it had taken twenty years for the Pope to notice that the supposed bastion of Orthodox Christianity had converted to the heathen.There was a bit of fighting around Athens, a bit more fighting around Constantinople, and that was about the sum total of the campaign. The AI armies did there usual thing of wandering about aimlessly, while we stuck to our task of besieging those towns in western Greece that had our trade posts, which had been the cause of so much diplomatic angst over the past decade.<br />
<br />
And then in early 1047, with the warscore barely over 30%, it was all over. The crusade was won..<br />
<br />
When you are the Earl of Desmond, crusades are a bit of a novelty. You might take the levy from your capital, and a few chums, and spend three or four months sailing to where-ever, and attach you force of a few thousand men to the largest force you can find, and when you get down to a few hundred or so, disband them and go home. More generally you just sign up to please the Pope without the slightest intention of sailing anywhere. Indeed such a novelty was crusading to me that after my first crusade a misread the option to 'Present Debutante' as 'Distribute Presents', thinking that I would be giving my courtiers some exotic gifts as a token of my adventure - and instead gaining a slow witted, greedy girl who was promptly married off to one of my enemies in Wales in the hope of degenerating their dynasty.<br />
<br />
So I clicked 'Praise the Lord' for a successful crusade, and was prepared to go back to back to the business of minding my own business and making money.<br />
<br />
When suddenly my jaw hit the floor.<br />
<br />
At best I had hoped that I would gain the three coastal provinces that I had successfully sieged.<br />
<br />
But no.<br />
<br />
The desmense counter showed that I was 169 over my allowed score of 9.<br />
<br />
The western Byzantine Empire had ceased to exist. For all practicle purposes the Byzantine Empire had ceased to exist. They had gone from a monolithic entity, to a rump state in Croatia, a couple of provinces in Turkey, and a few bits and pieces in the Caucasus mountains, around the Black Sea, and some fragments in Iraq.<br />
<br />
Apparently because I had contributed most to the crusade, everything belonged to me.<br />
<br />
To which my reply was, 'I don't want it'.<br />
<br />
All I had ever wanted was a nice little republic, and enough land to enure that the republic was secure. Yet suddenly I was looking a gift horse in the mouth, and was inundated with Greeks bearing gifts.<br />
<br />
A search of available family members revealed that there were precisely four landless adult males available to which I could give land. They being the sons of those family members with the wit, guile or good fortune to get hold of a castle and establish themselves as feudal lords, and therefore escape the trap of my disastrous city first policy of province distribution - I know I keep banging on about this, but it cannot be emphasized enough how stoopid this was, and if this had not been an Ironman game I would have searched desperately to find a save that would undo this mistake - though it should also be pointed out that at this stage I was still nor aware of the error - that would come much later with an event in Syracuse.<br />
<br />
My problem was how to give this away, and more importantly who to give it to?<br />
<br />
I decided that for my own protection, I would parcel out the land between the military orders. The dukedoms I would share out among my family. And the Kingdoms I would keep for myself.<br />
<br />
At this point in hindsight the city first policy worked in my favour - generally. I paid no heed to the de jure Dukedoms. If a duchy had four counties, then four of the military orders got one county each. The castles and bishoprics were assigned to newly created vassals. It took an hour or so, but in the end I was pleased to just be rid of it all. Oh and I gave Constantinople to the Pope, who was so happy with my that he gave me another 10,000 gold.<br />
<br />
Each of the family members got a couple of Dukedoms, distributed without regard to where those Dukedoms were, for instance Nikea was bundles in with Athens. The idea was essentially that if they they would get the prestige, and if they wanted to go and get the land then it was up to them.<br />
<br />
And as a totally ill-considered plan, poorly executed, and completely illogical, in the short term it was a work of absolute genius.<br />
<br />
Everyone loved me.<br />
<br />
Not only was practically everyone in Sicily now a Duke, but they were also a crusading band of brothers. And yes Palermo was the seat of the Duke of Athens, and the Cyprus was now ruled from Bari etc, but it all seemed to be working just fine.<br />
<br />
The Pope loved me so much that even with the -250 penalty for borrowing money, our relationship was still 100%.<br />
<br />
Indeed the Pope could not have been happier, given that he now had masses of new converts sending him money.<br />
<br />
And thus Zenobios became known as 'the Apostle'.<br />
<br />
And more importantly the reserve of money that for 150 years had been 2000 gold, had now moved to 15,000 and up to 20,000.<br />
<br />
A few of the new majors did go into business, mainly in Nikea. Merchant republics were set up by the Knight's Templars and the Knights of Caltrava, but they were very short lived affairs, lasting at most five or ten years. Perhaps because of the background of those entering the military orders, what tended to happen, and happen rather quicky, was that the majors became replaced by the barons. There was some infighting, which occasionally included the Dukes from my family - and the low born majors who took over the Dukedoms. But in general the main problem I had was despite being as a careful as I possibly could I ended up with vassals that I had no idea who they were, or why I had them. There would be a baron here, or a bishop there, the occasional county that for one reason or another did not form part of a duchal realm included in the vast parcel of land dropped in my lap by the crusade for Greece.<br />
<br />
It was at around this time that I realised the power Sicily had become.<br />
<br />
My attitude was simple, if you think this vassal or that baron belongs to you, then come and take it off me. There were a few turf wars in Greece, but it was settled simply enough by the dispatch of 20,000 mercenaries, the war were quick and fairly cheap. And it helped matters that three of the military orders were controlled by family members. Thus if one of their members got a bit uppity, they were as likely to be put in their place by their brothers as by me.<br />
<br />
In fact the major problem facing the Republic at this time was Malta.<br />
<br />
Which although recently converted to Catholicism, had become a hotbed for iconoclasm, leading to two rebellions. It was to be expected, given the collapse the religious conversion of the Byzantines, and the loss of Constantinople, first to the Muslims and then to the Pope, but far more time and effort - and frankly troops - were committed to trying to solve the issue of heresy in Malta, than anything to do with Greece.<br />
<br />
There was a Holy War for Dalmatia in 1054, but that was as much to check a Serbian advance to the sea, than it was to further humiliate the once proud Macadon's. Who didn't cease being proud, and if anything their attitude grew much arrogant and haughty. But I had long since stopped bothering to send diplomatic to curry their favour, with Damacus taking their place in the triangular diplomacy, which included Pavia and Rome.<br />
<br />
When Zenobios died in 1063, the issue most pressing to the future of the republic was how to get a vote passed to achieve maximum centralization, thus ensuring a desmense holding of nine.<br />
<br />
The root of the problem was gouging peoples eyes out.<br />
<br />
Zenobios, having introduced the punishment, pursued it with a passion. His cruelty extending to the torturing to death of a number of prisoners. The more worldly might suggest his extreme chastity may have been the cause of his passion for sadism, but who can say.<br />
<br />
The point is that despite there being no factions, and despite there being a general brotherliness engendered by the crusading spirit, people didn't like Zenobios enough to vote for the law change. He didn't help matters by not even attempting to win people round. He simply put up the law, and when it was voted out with hardly any more votes than his own, he would put it up again. It didn't apply to him anyway. His stewardship, combined with his wife and the steward, were enough for the +1 not to be an issue. And the only reason for proposing the change was that it was allowed.<br />
<br />
And key to the opposition were the church.<br />
<br />
The Pope may have a poster of Zenobios on his bedroom wall, but his own bishops were unlikely to given his, and the regimes general, dishourable conduct in murdering for profit; and at least three of the bishops would have no idea if they had such a poster because they had no eyes. And neither did at least one of the Dukes, or a number of barons and majors.<br />
<br />
The blinding was useful for stemming rebellion, and nipping political opposition in the bud, but it was completely counter productive when it came to gaining assent for the passing of this law.<br />
<br />
As was the chaotic mess of vassals inherited from the crusade.<br />
<br />
It fell to his successor to try and resolve the issue. He was already stressed when elected. But a serious attempt was made to win people around by bribery, and holding a tournament. This got to within 6 votes of passing the new law. But before another attempt could be made, the poor chap was injured trying to save people from a burning house while on crusade, and then caught a chill which finished him off before he got to Jerusalem.<br />
<br />
At which point the cause of Centralism got a massive stroke of luck with the election of the Count of Bari, and Duke of a couple of places in Greece.<br />
<br />
He inherited much of the goodwill stirred up by his ill-fated predecessor, and it just so happened that at the very moment he was elected, he had been planning a feast - feasting not being an option in a republic, this chance to meet and greet will probably be the first and last in Sicilian history - with the invitations sent out, another round of bribery and awarding of honours commenced, and at the end of the feast, with everyone in a good mood, and agreeing that the new Doge was a very nice man and not at all like that tyrant Zenobios, the bill was once more proposed and duely passed.<br />
<br />
Michael then went on pilgrimage, returned to hold a tournament, and then reverted to the being the same old tyrant that the Duke of Amalfi has always been, and presumably always will be.<br />
<br />
Soon the eyeballs were rolling around the dungeon floor again, and it was pretty much business as normal.<br />
<br />
Michael is known to history as 'the wise', and one of the reasons is that he attempted to solve the issue of Greece.<br />
<br />
By the time of his accession in 1064, many of the counties granted to the Military Orders had declared themselves as independent. There were constant rebellions, particularly in those counties controlled by the Knight's Templar. The issue became more pressing when in 1068 a Jihad was called by the Abassids against the Knight's Hospitallers. The principle target for the Jihad was the island of Cyprus, but as a byproduct of this successful Jihad, a number of counties in central Greece also came under Abassid control. The Papal response was almost instantaneous, within a month of the fall of Cyprus a second crusade for Greece was called. The pattern was similar to the first crusade, but the outcome was entirely different, because by now the Polkarios family had matured enough to have the family members needed to absorb and control the newly won territory.<br />
<br />
And perhaps more significantly had dropped the city first policy, preferring instead to establish a feudal system. This change in part being adopted due to the Syracuse Event referred to earlier. Where a family member was castrated by the lowborn major, who had also obtained the Dukedoms assigned to the poor chaps father. The success of the crusade proved timely as the castrated kinsman was made a bishop, and his siblings, and all other Polkarios males, where moved out of the cities and made counts and barons in the newly re-conquered Greek territories. The mayor in question was murdered, and it became a priority to bring those counties outside of the direct control of the Doge, into the feudal system, and to get those duchal titles back into the Polkarios family.<br />
<br />
Thus began the process of reconstituting the duchies for the purpose of promoting good and sound governance.<br />
<br />
All of which made sound entirely obvious and something that should have been sooner, But it flies in the face of the Jeffersonian notions on which the republic had been founded, namely that they should stay clear of foreign entanglements and wars, to fiercely maintain Independence, and it is the manifest destiny of Amalfi to rule the Kingdom of Sicily.<br />
<br />
This adoption of the feudal system, and the moves control and re-order Greece, and the internal structure of the Republican state, were the first tangible admission of Imperial design and ambition. And, a rejection of the Jeffersonian principle.<br />
<br />
Obviously I realise Thomas Jefferson was not around in 11th Century Italy, but they encapsulate the ideas which underpinned the game I was playing. I say was playing, because the result of the crusade in 1047 changed everything.<br />
<br />
The situation in Greece was messy, with a hodge podge of independent counties, military orders, and Sicilian Dukes attempting to push de jure claims, and intermarrying in order to push their own strengthen their duchal titles and positions.<br />
<br />
The reality of the situation is that it could have been entirely sorted in a decade, if the issue had been pushed but relations with the Abassids were at breaking point. Two successful crusades. victories in a number of Holy Wars, and the planting of Catholicism in Greece, had effectively made the Sicilian state the champion of Christianity.<br />
<br />
By now the first crusader states in Greece were firmly established, if the dynasties controlling them were still rather weak in numeric terms. And guaranteeing their survival was the Sicilian fleet of 230 ships, and the monetary power, reinforced by Papal grants, to put 40,000 troops on the ground without stretching the resources of the state.<br />
<br />
Matters came to a head in 1091 when a jihad was called against Sicily.<br />
<br />
This caused a great deal of alarm, and indeed anger.<br />
<br />
Which is where we reach the point of the story concerning the Caliph's brother's testicles.<br />
<br />
The paper strength of the Caliph's army was around 120,000, and the Jihad dragged in a number of allied Muslim states, including what was left of the Byzantine Empire and the Spanish. So in theory the Jihad could muster maybe 180,000 men.<br />
<br />
To fight this onslaught the Sicilian army numbered some 17,000 retinue troops, a Levy of around 20,000, and the money to buy every mercenary in Europe, if need be, which at the time was about 80.000 men.<br />
<br />
In hindsight it was no contest, and in reality it wasn't either. For the very simple reason that the Muslim's had to come by sea, the largest fleet they had was 320 ships, meaning that the those 30,000 men would immediately be attacked by superior numbers of troops when they landed. And being disorganised, would be beaten and destroyed.<br />
<br />
But as I say emotions were running high among those waiting to defend the Sicilian homeland, and it was decided that anyone and everyone captured would be castrated.<br />
<br />
Despite torture, particularly blinding being a commonplace punishment for the past 60 years, no one had been castrated. Which explains the outrage caused by the Syracuse Event.<br />
<br />
Thus when the first 20,000 jihadi's piled off their boats, and a were soundly thrashed, the castration began.<br />
<br />
The first up was an emir in his 50's. And quite by chance, the next on the list was the Caliph's 16 year old brother. I gave the order and was immediately sickened to the pit of my stomach.<br />
<br />
Hang on.... I hear you cry.... you are the bloke who throws babies out of windows.... you're the one who has been gouging people's eyes out..... you're the one who not ten minutes ago admitted to torturing people to death.... you have done far worse things than cutting the Caliph's brother's balls off.... what about what you did in Ulster when the ruling family swore vassalage to you and you then systematically destroyed the dynasty by having the married women killed, and then marrying every man matrilineally and every woman to the oldest person you could find from the furthest distant land?<br />
<br />
Yeah, but that was different.... it wasn't done in anger.... and there was a point to it... I gained something... this was just spite.....<br />
<br />
I stopped at two... if you'll pardon the pun.... and instead ransomed those who could pay, and blinded those who couldn't.<br />
<br />
In truth I was so disgusted at what I had done to that boy that I had to go and have a lie down for half an hour. And I seriously found myself questioning is I really wanted to carry on playing. I mean it is a given that when you play Crusader Kings II you do have to throw - ok you don't have to - but it is an accepted part of the experience that your moral compass gets shelved, if not completely thrown out the window.<br />
<br />
Those testicles were to be the source of my more over the next fifty years than any trade post, or county or matter of honour.<br />
<br />
And suffice to say that from that day to this, I have scrupulously avoided pushing that button.<br />
<br />
The jihad was a total failure.<br />
<br />
The fighting lasted about 18 months, before the Caliph realised it was hopeless. By the end of it he was reduced to about 20,000 men, and the Muslim King of Spain was my prisoner, unable to raise the money to pay his ransom.<br />
<br />
At which point I counter attack.... which not I have the mercenaries and the military orders at hand.... and take Tunis in 1098 in a Holy War. The Duchy of Tunis fell much earlier but I deliberately dragged the war on systematically sieging my way across North Africa as far as the Moroccan border, and Tobruk, and a show of power and punishment, that was to become a feature of the conflicts in the next century.<br />
<br />
The Caliph's attempts to raise the troops to oppose this destruction of his territory only led to further incursions by the Shia, and resulted in an African uprising in Sudan, which further weakened his ability to prevent my locust-like advance.<br />
<br />
And because it was a Holy war, and I was spreading Christianity at the point of a sword, the Pope was only too happy to keep sending me money.<br />
<br />
The fighting stopped in 1098 when the Pope died, as I didn't want the negatives from the grants affecting the ongoing realtionship.<br />
<br />
I would like to say that the settlement of Tunis was without error, but for whatever reason I forgot the lessons learned in Greece, and just doled out the counties, completely forgetting the Syracuse Event. I don't know why. But as soon as I had handed over the last county I cursed myself, and vowed that it would never happen again.<br />
<br />
Michael died in 1101.<br />
<br />
And the dawning of a new century, heralded the dawning of the decidedly and unashamedly Imperial era of the Sicilian Republic.<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-6874442307136068372014-11-14T01:54:00.000+00:002014-11-14T01:54:32.354+00:00The Three EmperorsThe title of this post is rather misleading, as pedants will immediately point out that none of the three were emperors. Indeed none of them came even remotely close to being emperor. And perhaps more relevantly none of them wanted to be emperors.<br />
<br />
However the title seemed apt for what these three achieved in their lifetime.<br />
<br />
And before I begin, when thinking of this period in the history of the Sicilian republic, I was reminded of the old Chinese proverb (<i>that I made up this morning</i>), "don't go seeking monsters in mirrors."<br />
<br />
Those who have been following will recall that a one hundred year war with Byzantium for the kingdom of Sicily was brought to an end when in 1024 Musa became the first Muslim Emperor of Byzantium, thus opening the empire up to any non Muslim that wished to bite chunks out of it by way of Holy War. And there were a number of eager wolves circling the arrogant and dogmatic Musa's realm. The Serbs and Bulgarians to the north, and the Georgians to the east, all entered into the free for all; along with the various Orthadox princes unwilling to convert to Islam, ethnic Greeks, Croats and Dalmatians seeking independence and religious freedom, and of course iconoclast rebels. And there was the Duke of Amalfi, who at this time was Leon I, a.k.a 'the old', who had adopted Norse culture and was living it up in the Polkarios mansion whihc by now was completely maxed out, and dominated the skyline of Amalfi.<br />
<br />
It certainly overshadowed the Barratt homes of the rivals merchant families, who if they were lucky got the chance to fit a new kitchen, or have plastic windows fitted, before they were despatched by the Polkarios murder gangs.<br />
<br />
But there was a problem in the republic. A problem that had been exercising the minds of the council and old Leon for some time. And the name of the problem was Daniel.<br />
<br />
The story of Daniel is interesting in itself. His father was the youngest son of the one of the Doge's (<i>It may have been Polkarios Polkarios (so good they named him twice) but I forgot to check - it was one of the first Dukes</i>). He was born after his father's death, his father having died in his late seventies. At the time it was the practise to have two male children tutored by the Doge, and all the rest tutored by soldiers - if the soldiers had other skills then so much the better, but the primary focus was on martial skills.<br />
<br />
Daniel's grandfather, also called Daniel, went through this education system, and because there were at the time a lot of children, mainly girls, and because of the succession system, his existence was largely unnoticed until he came of age at 16, and turned out to be a genius theologian. So good were his skills that an allowance was made in the rule of not paying family dues and he was immediately found a wife and set to work as the court chaplain.<br />
<br />
The plan was that he was sire three children and then found a suitable Bishopric, in order that the family would use it's growing wealth to push him towards becoming the Pope.<br />
<br />
However, that plan was scuppered when after two children, Daniel succumbed to the lure of Beamont castle and went off to become the baron. <br />
<br />
After much cursing of that damned castle, it was decided to just forget about the idiot, there were more pressing matters, like war with Byzantium for the foot of Italy.<br />
<br />
And indeed Daniel was forgotten, and then suddenly out of the blue his grandson became the nominated heir to Leon I. It came as a complete surprise, and was all the more startling because Daniel refused to come to court. Which broke what had become a tradition of naming the new emperor regent, designated heir, and High Admiral, those giving them the prestige needed so as not to have to put any money into the election. And worse Daniel was young, in his late thirties or early forties, and not generating much more prestige than a newly spawned random rival candidate.<br />
<br />
And worse his stats were terrible.<br />
<br />
After a run of brilliant strategists, with very good martial scores and decent stewardship and diplomacy, here was a spy, and not a particularly good one, his intrigue was about 10, and all his other stats were 6 and below.<br />
<br />
It didn't help him that he was unmarried, and his liege the Baron of Beaumont, who was a cousin of his, and about 10, refused to let him marry any of the women we tried to send.<br />
<br />
Plus his picture. I'm not sure which facepack it comes from but he was basically a hippy, with long hair, straggly beard, and saggy eyes that gave him the impression of smoking too much weed.<br />
<br />
The obvious solution was tried, namely to have him murdered. When the plot didn't go anywhere, the spymaster was sent to help things along, and though it jogged a few people's arms, it was all taking too long, and not really getting beyond 70%. Meaning that the farming of the rival families was falling behind schedule - one of them even had the audacity to expand their mansion - which in turn meant that more money had to be allocated to the election campaign, as Daniel on his own was only generating a little over 2000 prestige points. And it had become policy to always be at least 1000 points higher than the nearest rival to ensure there were no surprises when distracted by events elsewhere - like fiighting wars.<br />
<br />
It was a huge problem, and one that did not have an easy solution, beyond waiting and seeing how things turn out.<br />
<br />
Leon I wasn't that old. He got his name because when he became Doge he was over fifty, and didn't have any other distinguishing features, like a hunched back, or being greedy. And as a brilliant strategist, he could well live to live past 75, he at the time of Daniel's nomination was in his mid to late sixties.<br />
<br />
Suffice to say Daniel became an annoyance, his stoned face smiling out from the family screen, in his little cameo frame..... grrrrr....<br />
<br />
But there were more important things than scowling at the hippy, and cursing the name of Beaumont, and in 1025 Apulia fell and the Serene Republic of Sicily was established. And the following year, Leon I died.<br />
<br />
One can picture the scene, there is the much loved and revered Leon being launched from Amalfi harbour in his burning galley, and up rolls in Daniel in the 11th century version of a flower power VW camper.<br />
<br />
I was not best pleased to see him. And neither were the court or the rest of the family.<br />
<br />
At which point I must digress, because what happened after the Holy War for Apulia was the start of a huge mistake in game play terms, and the reason for my making up a Chinese proverb.<br />
<br />
Now bare in mind that I did not have a large pool of males to draw from, due to the penchant for joining military orders, a generation of entirely girls, and the reluctance of the only relatives I could find not wanting to leave Beamont castle. But I did have maybe 9 or 10 males that I could draw upon, ho had either just reached, or were about to reach maturity - until that point all my conquests had been towns and then counties, and fed directly into the ducal desmense.<br />
<br />
And being a merchant republic, and therefore considering castles as effectively speedbumps in times of crisis, I blithely assumed, 'meh, it'll be fine, I'll give each of them the county, they'll run the city, and I'll randomly regenerate some vassals for the castles and the temples.... what can go wrong?"<br />
<br />
Well clearly I didn't consider that for the past 150 years, I had murdered my way to get control of and keep control of Amalfi. And that putting family members into the viper's nest of city politics, was probably not the best idea, for the long term growth of the dynasty.<br />
<br />
The city of Apulia was the first to go, the family member dying in suspicious circumstances, the penny didn't drop until much later... much much later.<br />
<br />
But in the short term it was great, no penalty for wrong government, no factions, everyone is happy.<br />
<br />
Now the reason Daniel gets included as one of the the three emperors, is because he showed my a valuable lesson, and laid in place a way of thinking that was to serve me well over the next 150 years when the money from trade, and the sea power provided the ships of the mansion, took Sicily to an Imperial power.<br />
<br />
First I found him a good wife, as it turned out a very good wife. Which when added to the buffs provided by the newly completed mansion, took him from being a hippy loafer to a ruler with good solid stats - not stellar, but solid 10's. This combined with an excellent pilgrimage - he gained zealous and brave - and a couple of good hunting trips gave him diligent and +2 martial - and he went from using the rounded scissors to wielding the battle axe no problem.<br />
<br />
Thus in 1030, the island of Sicily was taken in Holy War.<br />
<br />
And again the istake was made in randomly assigning the castles and giving the few remianing family members the towns.<br />
<br />
Wile not trying to justify this mistake but it did have one distinct benefit, namely that it weeded out the weak. While the more enterprising and perhaps lucky, managed to get hold of the castle, establish themselves as feudal lords and thus preserve the family from the machinations of low born majors and business rivals.<br />
<br />
But that is putting a spin on what was a very poor decision on my part.<br />
<br />
Daniel ruled for 12 years, and from his marriage produced a lineage that would provide more Dukes than any other. And perhaps most significantly took the Dukedom away from the realm of purely soldiers, and in more int he direction of diplomatic, stewardship and intrigue skills.<br />
<br />
He also established very good relations with the Pope, which under Leon had become rather stained, not least because the Pope at the time had fabricated a claim on Capua and was threatening to use it.<br />
<br />
Which brings us to Zenobios, who was also from Beaumont, and also refused to leave that damned castle to receive his honorary titles, and also required money and effort to secure his election. But Zenobios had another issue, he had taken a vow of absolute chastity.<br />
<br />
Luckily for the republic, when Daniel died his wife, who by then had had fie or six children, was still in his twenties, and she - with her excellent stats - became Zenebios's consort. And dutifully for the republic outlived him.<br />
<br />
In the wider world Musa had died, and been replaced as the Byzantine Emperor by his son, Husam. Who if it was possible was even more a character from central casting then his father. He had dungeons filled with people who refused to convert. He was fighting Holy Wars with everyone and anyone he could find. Which was fine with me, because all of these wars in the Balkans and Caucasus's, meant that I was free to get on with building my trading base, and develop my towns.... and in hindsight, wonder why the family members I had put into run the towns were dying off.<br />
<br />
Occasionally there would be a dispute over a trading post, but pretty much it was a time of peace.<br />
<br />
Because the simple fact is, that when I looked at the Byzantine Empire, and considered how much time and effort it would take to conqueror it, I had no desire to even try. Officially I was still part of it, though an independent part as I had always been, and technically they could still a de jure claim on me, but having just driven them out, and looking at the chaos that had resulted from the switch to Islam, I seriously doubted they would bother.<br />
<br />
However another threat was developing to the south, in the form of the Abassid Empire. At one point in the dim and distant past I had considered taking Tunis and using it as a base, but the idea was dismissed rather promptly as I couldn't see what I would do with it beyond the simple acquisition of territory. <br />
<br />
But, at around this time I happened to notice that the Abassid's had taken the whole of Africa, apart from a few isolated places in the mountains of Ethiopia. I wouldn't have noticed by the Caliph had joined Husam in trying to pick fights over trading posts.<br />
<br />
I thought at first that it was a Muslim thing - co-religionists ganging up - and it might well have been, not that it stopped them from slugging it out in Iraq.<br />
<br />
To return to Zenobios for a moment, he brought with him something else - Greek culture.<br />
<br />
Which may seem rather an odd thing to say, seeing as with the exception of the Viking fetishists, all the Dukes had been Greek. But until Zenobios there had been no blinding or castrations. I was vaguely aware that it was possible from reading a forum post. But given that I was in Italy in close proximity to the Pope, and leading a strictly Catholic life, and perhaps just not scrolling down that far in the intrigue screen, such things didn't happen. Not least because ransoming those who refusing to stop backing plots, or annoyed he in some other way that lead to their arrest seemed much more appropriate for a dynasty so focused on making money.<br />
<br />
The discovery came about due to Leon I accidentally expelling the Jews. It was entirely by accident, as to that point I had had numerous Jewish councilors (<i>though sadly few technology bonuses</i>), and any attempt to convert them was entirely by accident because they happened to be in court when a heretic was about. But late one night, probably after a few beers, I had the intrigue window open, and whilst trying to close a pop up window which overlaid it, the Jews were no longer welcome in Sicily.<br />
<br />
It was whilst looking for the button that says, 'COME BACK JEWS', that I found the blinding and castration buttons. I happened to have a prisoner handy. And thus Zenebios established the new law of Sicily - if I don't like you, or you do something that annoys me, or you don't stop doing something when I ask you, or more generally because I can - well you ain't seeing the sun come up.<br />
<br />
I decided that castration would be kept for special cases.<br />
<br />
At which point the title becomes even more irrelevant, because I have only managed to get through one and bit of the emperors - who were not emperors - that I intended.<br />
<br />
Oh well....<br />
<br />
More tomorrow.... when we shall get to the fateful year 1047, and the incident with the Caliph's brother's testicles.<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-23164925823617324352014-11-13T02:48:00.001+00:002014-11-13T02:48:37.040+00:00The Founding of the Republic 867-1025The curious thing about Crusader Kings II, especially for a game that relies so heavily on the characters, is that it is often hard to remember a damned thing any particular character actually did.<br />
<br />
You might play with a particular King or Duke for 30 years, and know the ins and outs of who he is sleeping with, who he likes and dislikes, the details of the feuds with various nobles, and when you go back and look at a list of rulers, you will have no idea who any of those people are.<br />
<br />
I thought it only right to go and have a look at the actual facts of the dates involved in the founding of the Sicilian Republic and was rather surprised at what I found.<br />
<br />
These are the bald facts of when provinces were taken.<br />
<br />
Capua - 879<br />
Naples - 883<br />
Salerno - 909<br />
Taranto - 909<br />
Kroton - 959<br />
Brendision - 977 <br />
Rhegion - 985<br />
Messina - 1001<br />
Bari - 1025<br />
Apulia - 1025<br />
The Republic of Sicily founded - 1025<br />
<br />
The remaining four counties of the island of Sicily were not taken until 1030. Benevento and Foggia are a story unto themselves.<br />
<br />
What surprised me was that it took 12 years to take the first province. Which suggests that far from taking the approach of fabricating a claim, the actual way in which we took Capua was to fight a war for the city, and then to come back after the truce period to take the county.<br />
<br />
For those that don't know, in Crusader Kings II if a republic has a trade post in a province this is a causus belli (sic) - a reason for war - and that once you hold the city then you have a further justification for war. I know that the count of the province was in his sixties, and the heir was about 2 at the start of the game, so I presume that that the war for the city must have after the count died, which in part explains the 12 years.<br />
<br />
Although what also explains the 12 year gap in the first conquest is it demonstrates the time and effort that went into founding the trading empire and into deplomacy.<br />
<br />
When playing the Earl's of Desmond I worked on the principle that if I had 300 gold then I was ready for war. This would employ one lot of cheap mercenaries - the 150 gold variety - and would ensure I had enough money to pay them for 9 months. This would give me @2000 troops on top of my levy, and would be more than enough for a small war - of which the conquest of Capua would be an example.<br />
<br />
And yet, thinking back, I seem to recall that I was working on the principle that I needed 500 gold on hand at all times.. Since my priority was to build trade posts, upgrade them, build the family mansion, and more importantly not get involved in a war with the King of Italy, who controlled Apulia, or more importantly the Byzantine Empire which had conquered the Island of Sicily and the provinces of Kroton and Rhegion, which form the Duchy of Calabria.<br />
<br />
I was making money, around 40 or 50 gold a month, and there was the bonus of the odd 300 here and there from killing off the new boy in the business world. But there was also the issue of Venice and Genoa to contend with. The Venetians trade posts were advancing down the east coast of Italy at an alarming rate. And, after taking control of the bay of Naples, my priority was to get hold of the vital port of Corsica, which would allow me to get control of the North African ports and offer me a way to Spain.<br />
<br />
At that point the rival families had taken control of Sicily and the Italian seas to the North and South of Amalfi. And while my campaign of murder against them was progressing well, plotting is a slow business, and there always seemed to be another child or brother, to take the place of the murdered rival.<br />
<br />
Plus at that point I was also very wary of any botched assassinations ruining my standing with the Pope. As I have mentioned before the last thing I needed was to be excommunicated, and open myself up to an all comers war.<br />
<br />
However the Venetian situation was sorted in 876 when it was annexed by the Byzantines. The same thing happened with the Genoese at around the same time. One moment their trade posts are springing up in Sardinia and along the French coast, the next they are gone. The cause appeared to be revolt about crown authority. They did reappear shortly afterwards, but were once again stamped out with Genoa was taken and briefly held by one of the French Karlings.<br />
<br />
And so that was the end of any outside competition. And by the 882, when the first Duke Merinos died, and was succeeded by Polkarios Polkarios (cue Billy Joel), the first conquest had been made, Naples was to follow shortly, and a pattern had been firmly set of triangular diplomacy between Constantinople, Rome and Pavia.<br />
<br />
There was ongoing tension the Duke of Salerno, which was eased slightly by his being restricted to the county of Salerno due to Taranto being taken first by the Italians, then by a Muslim adventurer, then by the Byzantines, then by the Duke of Salerno himself following a Byzantine revolt. The cause of the tension was twofold, he had a de jure claim on Amalfi, and we had a trade port in his territory and I suppose he had seen what happened to Capua and Naples and didn't want the same thing to happen to him.<br />
<br />
But luckily for us, whenever the situation appeared to be heading for war - a war we frankly did not want - something would happen to diffuse the situation. Obviously there was the distraction of Tarantino for him to deal with, but he also had to fight off a not entirely serious Byzantine attempt to push a de jure claim on him. I say not entirely serious, because they only sent a token force at first, and then the whole thing fell apart when the Byzantine's collapsed into a massive revolt. Which as I mentioned above allowed the Duke of Salerno - by this time ably assisted by the deposed Count of Capua - who happened to be a genius with 20+ ratings in diplomacy, intrigue and learning - who was presumably urging him not only to push the de jure claim, but to then follow up with pushing his claim on Capua.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself wondering if there is a God, I really urge you to play Crusader Kings II, because there will be times when you wave your hands in the air like an Evangelical and rapturously thank the lord.<br />
<br />
Because what happened in 900 was just such a moment.<br />
<br />
Karl arrived.<br />
<br />
Karl is an unlikely angel I will admit.<br />
<br />
He was a pagan Norse raider who somehow had go together a force of 30,000 vikings. By now I had grown used to fighting off small bands of viking raiders intent on pillaging my lands but this was something I didn't expect.<br />
<br />
Karl descended on the Italians and drove them out of Apulia. He then chased them up the coast with marauding units of 8000+ men. I can't tell you where they went because they disappeared into the fog of war. I suppose I could have sent my chancellor to find out, but he was too busy buttering Karl up diplomatically, and I couldn't send the court chaplin because Karl had imprisoned him when I sent him to try and convert the pagans.<br />
<br />
Add to this that by now the Byzantines had settled whatever differences they had, meaning that the Duke of Salerno had bigger things to worry about than pushing a de jure claim on me.<br />
<br />
Which is not to say that I would have lost the resulting war. Indeed, I would have won it, I had already fought a short campaign against him to get control of his city - using my trade port.<br />
<br />
The point was I didn't particularly want the county of Salerno, or the Duchy, I wanted to focus on building my trade.<br />
<br />
Another piece of luck occurred around this time too.<br />
<br />
I had built a port in Benevento in an effort to block the Venetian advance and at least contest the Adriatic. When they were annexed, the port became rather a liability because it didn't have a clear route back to the Bay of Naples. This was streadily being rectified by my murdering my rivals, and lady luck handing my the necessary ports in Calabria, Sicily and Apulia to make the connection around the foot of Italy.<br />
<br />
But the real piece of luck came in the form of the Duke of Benevento having two daughters and no sons. I tried to get a marriage with his eldest daughter, but the Duke refused, on the grounds that we were 'trade' and therefore too common for his blue blooded daughter. So I had him murdered, and with him out of the way, the girl agreed to the betrothal and thus the Polkarios family had their foot in the Benevento door.<br />
<br />
In theory, the plan if you will, was for Polkarios Polkarios's (so good they named him twice) son to marry her, and then being the eldest he would inherit Amalfi, the two would be joined into a single realm and peace and light would shine throughout the world.<br />
<br />
What I forgot to factor in was the Barony of Beaumont.<br />
<br />
The Barony of Beaumont became for the period of around 150 years the bane of my life. It was a swear word. I loathed the place with a passion.<br />
<br />
The basics of the story is that the first Duke, Merinos, married a woman who was the heir to the barony of Beaumont - mainly on the basis that she had good stats, but more importantly she was cheaper than paying for a debutante to come to court - when he died she returned to Beaumont, and she happened to be pregnant. Because I resent paying family dues, when some loafing sons got the religious bug and wanted to go off and fight the infidel with the religious orders, I was only too happy to let them go - not really knowing or understanding the consequences. Thus suddenly instead of the putative Duke of Benevento being my heir in the ducal elections, up pops these relatives I had completely forgotten about in Beaumont. And worse they have been breeding, there are loads of them, and they all like hanging out in a drafty old castle in France instead of growing merchant republic in Italy - meaning that I can't give them titles or land, and none of them will accept invites to court no matter how much money I pay them.<br />
<br />
But back to Karl.<br />
<br />
For the space of about 5 or 6 six years he appears content with sending thousands of men up the coast into the Kingdom of Italy. And I am content to send him tributes of 100 gold or so every couple of years, and include him in the diplomatic circuit. Like so much else in the game, I don't understand the mechanics of a pagan invasion, and with figures crossed was happy to sit it out, on the assumption that now he had settled in Apulia, he would become civilised and his thousands of men would dwindle down from their 20,000, and follow the normal rules of levies and recruitment.<br />
<br />
Ok, that wasn't happening.....<br />
<br />
But no matter, he was sending the men north, and not bothering me.<br />
<br />
then in 907, all that changed when a war band of 25,000 men suddenly turned and attacked the Duchy of Salarno. Their siege equipment was clearly not up to much, because despite outnumbering the defenders 10 to 1, they took the best part of a year to take Taranto and Salarno. There was a brief exchange with the Byzantines in Calabria but 909 I was faced with a wall of screaming pagans on my border, Karl had stoppped playing nice and all my diplomatic efforts were rebuffed.<br />
<br />
On paper I was doomed.<br />
<br />
According to the realm chart I had around 4500 men, and was doomed go the same way as the Duke of Salerno - who also had around 4500 men.<br />
<br />
What was different was that while Karl was laying siege in Salerno, I had been busy murdering 6 business rivals before that had chance to get started, meaning that I had 2000+ gold and was therefore able to hire 2 of the biggest mercenary groups.<br />
<br />
Thus I waited for Karl's troops to split into two units - due to continued clashes with the Byzantines to the south - and in 909 launched a Holy War. With his forces now split I outnumbered each seperate force by roughly 5 or 6 thousand, and was able to destroy them both in a single battle - the second force arriving just at the point the first force was about to break, meaning that they inccured huge morale penalties.<br />
<br />
His forces were totally routed, and almost destroyed. A token force fell back to Taranto, but it was wiped out by my pursuing forces. Mopping up the garrisons was a formality. And the doom for Karl the Conqueror came when the Byzantine's crossing the Salerno Mountains and crushed the few thousand men he still had in Apulia.<br />
<br />
By 910 the pagan presence in Italy was gone.<br />
<br />
Karl's prestige was ruined, his religious authority wiped out and pretty much all of his money gone.<br />
<br />
I had him as a person of interest for a while, and noticed that he was being touted as the leader of some pagan tribal thing in Ireland for a while. And there was some talk of him leading another invasion, but it all came to nothing.<br />
<br />
However there had been a fundamental change in Italy.<br />
<br />
The stage was now set for what was to be a hundred year long between myself and the Byzantines, the key to which was my ability to always have 2000 gold on hand to raise the mercenaries to fight them. It was not a constant war. And it didn't begin immediately with the defeat of Karl.<br />
<br />
There was a period of about five or six years in which both sides pretty much gone on with each other, but in the 920's the Byzantines decided they didn't want two independent, and by 927 when the first Polkarios Duke of Benevento came into being with the death of the Duchess, firmly independent Duchies in 'there' Kingdom of Sicily.<br />
<br />
It couldn't have helped matters that the Duke of Benevento had an annoying habit of getting involved in every war he could. And, from a Byzantine perspective this was all the more bothersome because the Benevento branch of the family had married into the leading families of Croatia and Bulgaria. Thus whenever there was a Croatian ot Bulgarian uprising or war, off would go the Duke with his 2000 men, to get his additional prestige points for fighting as an ally.<br />
<br />
It was just as annoying for me. Because I ended up being his protector, putting down revolts, for him and twice saving him from the Italians who had decided they wanted Foggia. To give you an idea of the military skill of the Benevento Duke's - or perhaps to demonstrate the limitations of the AI - on one occasion the Italians were advancing with 15,000 men. I had raised a force of about 25,000 men - city improvements and by mansion had by now given me a sizable levy, the rest were mercenaries - I had a large unit of 10.000 in the centre and two flanking units of @7,5000. The tactic was simple, get the larger Italian force to attack one of the units - they were all in hilly or mountainous terrain, and then thrown in the other two units and crush them. Because the Duke of Benevento had been fighting somewhere in the Balkans, he had a force of about 1000 men.<br />
<br />
So on come the Italians, they are going to fall for the trap - when suddenly the Duke of Benevento changes ut to meet them, gets his whole force wiped out, has some of his commanders captured, and for no reason at all gives a huge boost to the enemies war score.<br />
<br />
Anyway, we won and the Italians were forced to pay Benevento a large reparation.<br />
<br />
A similar thing happened when the Byzantines pushed a de jure claim on Foggia. And when they tried to push a de jure claim on us the Byzantine emperor was forced to raise taxes, borrow from the Jews, and from some other group related to the Orthadox church and was still left 600 gold in debt.<br />
<br />
The pattern for the wars was simple enough. After those de jure claims and the costs the Byzantines incurred, they stopped attacking. Which handed us the initiative. We would attack and take the city, then after ten years - a shorter period depending on deaths - go back and take the county.<br />
<br />
And the pattern of the campaign was pretty much the same. Forces would be sent to besiege Apulia, which the main force would work it's way down the toe of Italy and into Sicily.<br />
<br />
In terms of territory gained it was pretty slow going. As mentioned above, Kroton fell in 959, then to lessen the numbers needed for the Apulian sieges Brendision was taken in 977, Rhegion in 985, and finally Messina in 1001.<br />
<br />
After 1001, there was a lull in the fighting, because crusading started, first in Spain and then in Lithuania. But also because of legalism I couldn't absorb any more counties. And by now I was running into diffculties with my dynasty due to an entire generation of only daughters, and the loss of previous generations to allowing sons to go off and join holy orders - difficulties that were compounded by Beaumont castle, and the reluctance of anyone to leave it, unless they were forced to due to their being elected Duke.<br />
<br />
The Byzantines were also pretty much spent. After each defeat, their empire would erupt into anarchy, and while we spent the intervening period getting together the necessary 2000 gold for the next campaign - by trade and murder - they spent the time fighting iconoclasts and the various pretenders and ethnic rebels that took the latest defeat as a sign that they should rebel. Also the Abassids were pushing them hard in the east - with a successful Jihad for Anatolia.<br />
<br />
And then a most extraordinary thing happened.<br />
<br />
The Byzantine Emperor named a Muslim as his successor.<br />
<br />
My eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw this. It was all the more extraordinary because the person in question was not even a Byzantine - he was related to the Emperor - but he was an Abassid. Effectively the Byzantine were going to hand themselves over to the Abassid empire and dissolve themselves.<br />
<br />
In the end sense prevailed, and an Orthadox candidate was found.<br />
<br />
But there then followed a period of three or four extremely elderly Emperors, before once more a Muslim was named as a successor. And in 1024, the Byzantine Empire took a bottle of gin and a packet of razor blades into the bathroom, ran a nice hot bubbly bath, climbed in, slit their wrists and waited for the painter David to record the moment in all it's gory detail.<br />
<br />
Because in 1024, Musa became the Emperor of Byzantium.<br />
<br />
At the time my Doge was an equally unlikely fellow, Leon I 'the old'.<br />
<br />
He had been tutored by a Norse soldier and though born Greek, had decided to adopt viking culture. Which was rather quaint, as he was also Catholic. He was the first of a number of Norse Doge's, and started the trend of capping the pilgrimage to Jerusalem by erecting a runestone to his ancestors.<br />
<br />
Because Musa was 'a person of interest' I followed the chaos of his accession with some interest, as one after another the Dukes, Counts, Barons and Majors were forced to convert to Islam. There was rioting and uprisings throughout the Greek side of the Empire, and less than helpfully the Abassids went on the offensive in the east.<br />
<br />
It didn't help matters that Musa was straight out of central casting - he was pure Lawrence Olivier in the Four Feathers - or Khartoum - or whichever film it was.<br />
<br />
I wasted no time, and rejoiced that the tedium of attack the town, wait ten years, capture the county was gone - and launched a Holy War for Apulia.<br />
<br />
By this stage the Byzantine's couldn't have resisted even if they weren't engulfed in the choas of forcible Islamisation, my forces were too strong - I had now a sizable levy, a retinue of about 10,000, plus the money for mercenaries, and a tried and tested plan of attack.<br />
<br />
And in 1025, with Apulia under my control, I was able to usurp the title of Kingdom of Sicily from the Byzantine Empire.<br />
<br />
In a little under 150 years, the Polkarios family had gone from a trading house in a single tiny county, to being the effective kings of South Italy, with a trading empire controlling all the seas around Italy and stretching out as far as Spain and well into the seas of Greece. Without any outside competition, and what competition their was in Amalfi was best described as limited. The rival families owned the odd trading post here and there, and even the occasional far flung trading region, but only because I had long since passed the limit where I was able to build new posts - by now I had the legal right - based on the mansion and my family size etc to hold around 6-8 trading posts, yet I actually owned more than 20.... and they were all fully built and garrisoned. I was easily earning 1000 a year, and maybe by now getting on on for 1500 to 1800.<br />
<br />
I had achieved everything that I had dreamed of when I started to play.<br />
<br />
I had money. I controlled a decent chuck of territory, without any real rival. And I had a solid base on which to build further. Plus I was at peace when I wanted and at war when I wanted.<br />
<br />
Little did I realise how that was all about to change......<br />
<br />
peace:)<br />
<br />eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-12580051817334862622014-11-12T03:03:00.000+00:002014-11-12T03:03:00.705+00:00Opening GambitThe year is 867.<br />
<br />
An unprepossessing chap in his late 50's, whose only saving grace is a high diplomatic skill, has recently been elected as the Doge of the county of Amalfi. He has a hunchback son, who is not a bad soldier, but is pretty much rubbish at everything else - oh and there is another pronlem. Merinos - the father - is a Catholic, his son Polkarios Polkarios (so good they named him twice) is Orthdox.<br />
<br />
And as Merinos counts his 200 or 300 gold coins and looks out at the world, he sees a tough election race with the other families, Muslims controlling Sicily, and Apulia, the Duke of Salerno to the south that has a de jure claim on Amalfi, the Byzantine Empire that has a de jure claim on Amalfi, the states of Naples and Capua to the north, and beyond that Rome. But perhaps most importantly, beyond that the Karling controlled Kingdom of Italy, who if need be - and the inter family rivalry is not pulling them apart can summon half of Western Europe to the gates of this tiny Italian city.<br />
<br />
In short the prospect is not exactly great.<br />
<br />
There are however a couple of chinks of light.<br />
<br />
The count of Capua is in his 60's, and his heir is a baby. If a claim can be fabricated against his land, and an attack made during a regency, there is a strong possibility that it would be successful - meaning that if everything goes tits up, at least there will be a second county from which to continue fighting.<br />
<br />
And there is enough money to build a trading posts in Amalfi and Naples and to pay the 300 or 400 gold to win the election by 5 or 600 votes/respect points. And if the steward gets his act together and overseas the construction of the trade posts, we could be in business by the end of the year.<br />
<br />
At which point I should say something about the other families in your republic - they are pigs, they are farm animals, they should be treated as such and farmed accordingly.<br />
<br />
Look I am not saying I am proud of having a two year with leprosy thrown off the castle walls - some of the kids in the face packs DLC's are cute looking kids - but I had a 1 in 4 chance of getting the trading post in Padua, or where ever, that I needed to control that particular region of sea.<br />
<br />
I mention this because one of the how to videos I watched went on about how play politics with the other families to get what you want. Which was all very nice, but if you really need to bribe someone to get their vote, a 2 year old asks for a lot less and likes you a lot more than a forty year old - plus he has no respect so is irrelevant when it comes to the election of the new Duke.<br />
<br />
Basically each patrician gets one child and then it is off to the abattoir. <br />
<br />
Cruel I know... but that is the game....<br />
<br />
And when the child racks up enough trade posts through the various murders, then it goes the way of it's father.... work right to left... and when the last one has four or more, one of them will come to you...<br />
<br />
Cruel I know.... but that is the game....<br />
<br />
Oh and if you can kill of a family, then a new family spawns, and if you kill them quick enough you will get the 300 gold they start with - due to the mechanic of a liege inheriting the title and wealth of an unheired vassal.<br />
<br />
I used to do a similar thing when playing as a Desmond. If I needed money, I would find a major or a bishop with money, arrest them and banish them - though they have changed the way banishment works, so I think you might have to kill them and their family now to get the dosh - not a probem with bishops - ok ypu rack up the tyranny points, but if you spend the money wisely and wait long enough it all works out in the end....<br />
<br />
At which point I hear you cry but what about that patrician with the level 20 intrigue skill? That I just can't kill....<br />
<br />
Which brings me to the Max Miller joke about the master builder whose son wanted a brother or a sister, and when he told him that it wasn't that easy, the son told him to put more men on the job.<br />
<br />
My solution to this problem was to have a spymaster, and three other's at court who could be spymasters, and then to find five or six soldiers with decent (10 plus intrigue). Marry them to women with 10 plus intrgue - and the necessary fertility scores... bingo.... suddenly you have a pack of wolves running the streets....<br />
<br />
Add to this an utterly cynical approach to being caught redhanded in the act of murder.... if the justified imprisonment pops up - arrest them, send them a gift and release them.... if they run off to Pisa or where ever, good luck to them, just find some to take their place and away we go again.<br />
<br />
Ok, now I will admit that after a spate of 10 or 15 murders over the space of 2 years, when all of my towns - by this point I held Amafi, Capua and Naples - where engulfed in disease fumes, I did back off a bit, thinking that this might be paradox's way of telling you that it was not how they intended the game to be played... and perhaps it is not. But frankly if you prefer contested elections, units of 250 archers wandering from post to post - and worse units of 250 archers commanded by your character on the whim of a gigging 14 year old patrician - and sticking firmly you trade post cap, and paying the family tax, then good luck to you.<br />
<br />
I prefer having my doge's backside firmly sat in the CEO's chair, and a trade post income from 30 trade posts, when I have a limit of 5, and not shelling out money for some hippy looking character to loaf about my court.<br />
<br />
And as I mentioned above if you can get 3 families killed down to children, and then keep bumping off the new guy.... well let's put it this way.... when you are earning 300 a year, you feel rich..... heck when I was playing as the Earl of Desmond, 300 was my target to start a war... 5 or 6 trade posts will give you 300.... five or six murders will give you 2000.... and in the early game 2000 builds you a mansion.... it upgrades your trade posts.... and most important of all it buys you mercenaries....<br />
<br />
Because let's not forget.....<br />
<br />
Poor old Marinos, sitting there in Amalfi, looking out over the city walls and the comforting mountain of Salerno.... that seems to hide his tiny state from the vengeful eyes of the King of Ilaty and the Byzantine Empire.... not to mention whoever those thousands of Muslims in Apulia and Sicily belong to.... poor old Marinos has got barely 1500 men.... he's in hock to the Jews... all his neighbours - Salerno, Baples, Capua, Taranto, Beunvento (sic), Foggia are all as strong as him. He is stuck unless he can get the money together to pay for mercenaries... he certainly isn't going to solve the military imbalance with forming alliances, because he can't afford the bride price.<br />
<br />
Which brings me back to the question of religion.<br />
<br />
Having played as a Catholic before, I know the score... I know how to get a divorce... I know what upsets and what pleases the pope.... and perhaps most importantly I see there is one pope and I know he is in Rome. When I look at the Orthadox faith there is more than one head, I don't understand the rules... can I be excommunicated? do they have crusades? what happens if I am excommunicated? can a crusade be called against me?<br />
<br />
I could go and find the answers.<br />
<br />
But it is far more simple and less hassles, given the threats that already exist, to just make my hunchback son Polkarios Polkarios (so good they named him twice, I love it) convert.<br />
<br />
And so the second choice was made - we are going to farm the merchant familes, and we are going to be strictly, and I mean strictly, orthadox Catholics (with a large C). If the Pope says jump, we are already in the sky....<br />
<br />
Ok... ok.... I now know that the Pope can't call a crusade on Orthadox Christians...<br />
<br />
Or maybe he can...<br />
<br />
Who knows?<br />
<br />
All I know is I am 350 in the hole to the Jews.... I have two trade posts, when I need three to control the Bay of Naples.... and the king of Italy is sending an army 4 times the size of the force I can raise in a holy war for Apulia, and the Byzantines have set an army 6 times the six times the size of mine to contest Sicily with a Muslim army five times the size of mine.<br />
<br />
Oh and if I am going to have anywhere to run, I need to find the 5 or 600 gold to fabricate the claim on Capua.... and then find the money to pay to mercenaries needed to ensure we can take the place.<br />
<br />
And all the while my chancellor is shuttling between Salerno and Rome, in an effort to placate them both.<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-8498841486291251112014-11-12T01:42:00.001+00:002014-11-12T03:03:25.824+00:00The Context of the GameAs I mentioned in an earlier post my earlier games were mainly playing as the Earl's Desmond - I did have a few tries as the Count of Norfolk, and few attempts at various European Counts, but I mainly played as the Earl of Desmond.<br />
<br />
The Irish Earl's have the advantage off being independent - meaning that they do not have a liege lord, who requires money off them and can end your game by revoking your title, and winning any subsequent war because they are the Godwin's, or the Karling's or any of the other mega families, that can crush an lowly count with a click of their fingers.<br />
<br />
Having got hooked on the standard game I started buying the DLC's when they were in a Steam sale, and one of the DLC's I purchased allowed you to play a merchant republic.<br />
<br />
Now there is a way in which you can go from playing the standard feudal game, to becoming a merchant republic. And if you have an understanding of how the various holdings work, the laws of succession, etc, it is easy to do. The problem is that is practice it is decidedly difficult to create the circumstances.<br />
<br />
One method is you conquer two duchies, in one you make your son the major of a city, you give him the county and then grant him the Duchy - this sets up the merchant republic. You then either need to change the succession laws - or only have one son - to a form of elective succession and rig the election by controlling all the castles, cities and bishoprics, counties, duchies.... and come to think of it you might also need to be a king, because you have to be one feudal ranking higher than the lord major (your son).... and if you really want to do it right, you are best killing every other male in your dynasty just ot be on the safe side.... and.....<br />
<br />
Well in short it is in principle easy, but in practice almost impossible to achieve.<br />
<br />
And it becomes totally absurd when you try and set it up because your ruler is in his 60's, on the assumption that he is about to die, and he then goes on to live until he is 77. And you realm is crippled by all sorts of demesne penalties, and the Lord Major starts voting for people other than himself to succeed, and starting factions to promote that other person.<br />
<br />
Which is not to say it can't be done. I have managed it - partly by accident a few times - but then run into the problem of what do you actually do in a merchant republic?<br />
<br />
I mean, I know you build trade posts and in theory make lots of money. But what about the other families? How do you stay in power? How do you grow?<br />
<br />
I watched a few 'how to' videos online. And read a few bits and pieces on forums and blogs, trying to get a basic grip on what a merchant republic is, and more importantly how to play as one.<br />
<br />
A couple of things that none of them mentioned.<br />
<br />
As the Doge of a merchant republic you have no power.<br />
<br />
You can't forcibly convert anyone.<br />
You can't revoke their title.<br />
You can't imprison someone who castrates your cousin.<br />
You can't stop counts over throwing dukes.<br />
<br />
Well OK, you can - if you can catch them plotting something, you can imprison them and then you can do all those things - and of course their is always the idiots who want to make a point by saying 'no' when you ask them to stop joining in plots.<br />
<br />
And you can always plot to have them killed.... but other than that....<br />
<br />
Oh and there is no matrilineal marriage.....<br />
And, no feasts.... so no opportunities to make friends.... and you lose the opportunity to improve vassal opinion....<br />
And you take a permanent hit for wrong government type, if you go down the path of feudalism for you growing empire - in order to prevent your cousin being castrated.....<br />
<br />
But you make a loot of money.... and you spend a lot of money....<br />
<br />
And we get ahead of ourselves.<br />
<br />
It should be pointed out that this current game was my second attempt at playing as the Amalfi.<br />
<br />
The first ended after about 20 years, when I accidentally spent half of my war budget buying a princess for a 67 year old courtier, who promptly died, and the princess buggered off before I could marry her to anyone else. Leaving me facing 15,000 Byzantine troops, who soooooooo wanted me to swear fielty.... sod that....<br />
<br />
So when I started again I had a basic idea of what would happen in the early game.....<br />
<br />
Or so I thought.....<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-52631905961393762912014-11-12T01:01:00.001+00:002014-11-12T01:01:43.623+00:00The Sicilian SuperpowerIn my current game, the year is 1304.<br />
<br />
I am the Duke of Amalfi, Patrician of the merchant house of Polkarios - my official title fluctuates, sometimes I am the Serene Doge, sometimes the Merchant Prince, currently for some reason I am the Head of the Merchant League - it depends on what nationality the currently Duke is, and what we own in terms of land and titles. But as far as I am concerned I am the Duke of Amalfi, ruler of the Kingdom of Sicily, as those are the only titles I am really bothered about.<br />
<br />
I have a permanent standing army of 38,000 men.<br />
I have a personal levy of 21,000 men<br />
If I really have to, I have around 10,000 men that I can call up from my vassals.<br />
<br />
In peace time I make @230 gold a month.<br />
And have a working capital of that never falls below 20,000 gold, and is generally around 25,000 - 30,000. <br />
<br />
All of which may not sound much but to put those figures into context, my northern neighbour the King of Italy currently has a total of 12,500 troops to call on, and an income of a little over 300 gold a year. The last time I checked he had 72 gold to spend.<br />
<br />
It makes the campaigns between us rather one sided, as I generally attack with around 80,000 men, and he can do little but stand and watch, and perhaps use what forces he has to better effect elsewhere.<br />
<br />
In terms of trade, my family controls all of the trading zones along the North African coast from Morocco to the Nile, and from Spain to the Black Sea. We have 83 fully kitted out trading posts. There are no other trading companies, I have seen to that, and the four other families in Amalfi have a total of three trading posts between them.<br />
<br />
Usually I am on good terms with the Pope, but on occasion I have kicked him out of Rome to solve a factional problem with my vassals. And got him to pay me 20,000 gold in order to return from his sojourn in Constantinople.<br />
<br />
All of this in Ironman mode, which for those that don't know does not allow for any saving the game and going back. If you make a mistake then you will have to pay for it - and believe me there have been a ton of mistakes along the way, some that could be repaired and others that could not - and some that nearly brought my whole empire crashing to the ground.<br />
<br />
But it's an interesting story - at least to me and I wanted to write a series of articles outlining a potted history of the game to date, and to offer some tips that I have picked up along the way.<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-24210025656208867162014-11-11T19:00:00.000+00:002014-11-11T19:00:48.342+00:00More Than A GameIt's been a while since I wrote anything here, mainly because I haven't been playing any wargames or hobbying.<br />
<br />
What I have been doing is playing a lot of Crusader Kings II.<br />
<br />
For those that don't know this is a computer game set in the Middle Ages, in which you play a lowly count or a mighty Emperor, and manage a fractious - and frankly annoying family through several hundred years of bloody history - and it does get very bloody at times (especially if you are Greek but more about that later).<br />
<br />
Yeah, yeah.... we know... we've played Civ....<br />
<br />
Well maybe, but what sets Crusader Kings II apart from other strategy games is that it is not about conquering the world. It might say that the aim is to rise from count to emperor, and when you start playing it is easy to get drawn into that mindset. But before long you realise that this is a game that is about the characters - a role playing game if you will.<br />
<br />
I can't think of another game that has affected me so deeply emotionly... which I know sounds daft but here's an example.<br />
<br />
I was playing as the Earl of Desmond, a roguish Irish Clan. The father was a schemer, and managed to get himself married to an English princess. He immediately came up with the great plan of murdering her family, so that she would become queen, he king, and the Earl's of Desmond would rule England.<br />
<br />
He killed her two elder brother's, and a cousin, and then a couple of other relatives, all the while dreaming of the riches that would come to him.<br />
<br />
Well he had to do something while he waited for the clever Scottish lawyer he had hired, to fabricate a claim on the Duchy of Munster.<br />
<br />
After the fifth or sixth murder, with the Pope breathing down his neck and threatening to excommunicate him, the Earl bothered to look at the succession criteria for the English crown, and was disappointed to learn that a) it is elective, and b) in order to be considered for election you have to hold an English Duchy..<br />
<br />
An attempt was made to murder his son - sorry that should be marry his son - into the Duchy of Cornwall. His son's first wife having died of pneumonia two weeks after the wedding, his second wife died in child birth a year later, the third wife was murdered by his father for some reason or another (plotting to kill the Earl's son I think), and so by the age of 24 it was time for the heir to county of Desmond - the Scottish lawyer still not having fabricated the claim, despite eight years of trying - to marry again. The wedding was fine, the trouble was that on the wedding night it was revealed that an attempt had been made to poison the bride's father. She was understandably annoyed, and fled back to Cornwall. And refused to come back.<br />
<br />
It took fifteen months of comical escapades, trying to push her out of windows, snakes in her bed, highwaymen attacked her coach, etc before she was finally dead and the son was free to marry.<br />
<br />
There was only one choice, the 14 year old Duchess of Flanders, and Countess of Brugge. Ok the son would have to continue banging out the bastards with the lowborn women while he waited for her 16th birthday. And what was more the girl was happy with the betrothal.<br />
<br />
Hurray for the Earl's of Desmond.....<br />
<br />
And things got better.<br />
<br />
The Scottish lawyer finally came through. And what was more the English princess also paid dividends when the new king - the one relative they hadn't killed - sent 20,000 troops to help.<br />
<br />
And in no time at all the Earl of Desmond was no longer the Earl of Desmond but the petty King of Munster.<br />
<br />
And his son, or rather his son's son, would be the Petty King of Munster and Duke of Flanders.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately the Duchess was not what they had expected. The girl who turned up was a lazy, greedy, cruel, weak, sick thing that absolutely repulsed everyone.<br />
<br />
In time honoured fashion they tried to kill her, and hopefully marry her sister. But that plan was scuppered by the sister dying of small pox.<br />
<br />
There was nothing for it but for the son to hold his nose and do his best to get a son - or at least a daughter who could be married off to one of the children his father was knocking out at a prodigious rate. (He eventually had twelve children with seven different women - 9 of them born after he was 50).<br />
<br />
It took a while - three years - but eventually a child was born. A son.<br />
<br />
Ahhhhh..... not quite the son that was expected for a rapidly growing petty Kingdom that now reached Kildare and was banging on the gates of Dublin.<br />
<br />
The child was an imbecile.<br />
<br />
By now the old Earl/King was dead, and the son - being the new King - was eventually able to get a divorce after buying an indulgence, and having his chancellor and bishop camping out in Rome trying to get the Pope to see what a nice guy he really was - yes there was that business able killing those children because their father refused to surrender, but he did it to prevent further bloodshed, and yes he had murdered his uncle in a fit of rage, but he did let his cousin's off with banishment.... and the business about breaking the truce was a simple misunderstanding of the rules of war, he genuinely thought the truce was for two months not ten years.<br />
<br />
By the time the divorce came through the 'idiot' - as he was affectionately known by his father - had typhus, and so did the mother, so when she unceremoniously boarded her ship back to Flanders on a cold November evening, as far as everyone was concerned that was the last they thought they would see of either of them.<br />
<br />
And besides, there were a couple of sons from the previous liaisons, so the idiot was irrelevant.<br />
<br />
The new wife, was a chosen for love. A careful search was made, in the most diligent manner of all the potential brides. Until the perfect girl was found. She brought no alliance, but by this time none was needed, as the wars were going well and the alliances were provided by the marriages of his numerous siblings.<br />
<br />
The wife was a genius, And the two son's she produced carried the gene. It was a forum warrior's wet dream - made all the more creamy when those son's were betrothed to girls who also had the genius gene.<br />
<br />
Well that is until an outbreak of typhus killed the eldest son, and the next eldest died in an 'accident'.<br />
<br />
And suddenly, fifteen years after he disappeared, the imbecile is back in the frame, as the heir to what is by now the Kingdom of Ireland.<br />
<br />
A word beginning with 'F'....<br />
<br />
Not 'F' because he is an imbecile per se..... but 'F' because the structure of the Kingdom requires he have certain skills, particularly stewardship - which he doesn't have.<br />
<br />
What he does have, thanks the guardianship of the Bishop of Paris, is a set of traits to make him the most noble and virtuous knight that ever lived; diligent, humble, charitable,patient, and brave. Ok he can't talk but by some miracle he does have a skillset that with the decent wife might make him a decent king.... just not of Ireland at that particular time.<br />
<br />
But compared to the genius younger son the choice is a no brainer.... or maybe not.... as it means changing the succession,.... and then that means having to wait ten years before changing it back.... and that means having a king that can live ten years.... and have all his vassals on board.... and a lot can happen in ten years..... and there is no guarantee that the imbecile will live long enough to make it an issue - he has health issues other than the imbecility.... every time I check on him during this period of about a year or so as I decide what to do, he has some new illness.<br />
<br />
The bizarre twist to the tale is the ex-wife, in what can only be considered an act of spite, has married the youngest of the three banished cousins.<br />
<br />
That marriage is ended by murdering him before a child can be born, and an outbreak of disease finally does for the Duchess.<br />
<br />
Meaning that the imbecile is now the Duke of a realm at the centre of a lengthy and ongoing war between France, England and the HRE. Which is really the issue that finally forces the change in the succession law for first born to last.<br />
<br />
The change made, the imbecile is marked as a person of interest - more out of curiosity - and I get on with the game.<br />
<br />
The genius king turns out to be a wise and great ruler. Bringing all Ireland under his control, making inroads into Scotland and Wales, he is tyrannical when he needs to be and just when he doesn't. He rules for nearly fifty years, with just one queen - who he loves - and then a succession of young brides when she eventually dies. During his reign there are no civil wars, the reversin of the succession laws is made without opposition. In short he is the personification of everything a medieval king should be.<br />
<br />
And much to my surprise, so is the imbecile.<br />
<br />
He swims with the tide in Flanders, losing a county, regaining it, snatching another, changing allegiance when he has to to, is the marshal of both France and the HRE, twice runs for the HRE, and finally dies aged 68, leaving the Duchy of Flanders to his one remaining son - who is basically a psychopath and everything that his father is not - and quite probably everything that his grandmother would have been had she been a man.<br />
<br />
I didn't cry when I learned of his death. But my blood did run cold, and it was like I had reached the end of great novel.<br />
<br />
My king being the virtuous man that he was sent the widow and the son a gift. In part for the loss of his half brother. But mainly as an apology for the way her husband and his father had been treated, and essentially robbed of his birth right - and in recognition of his great life that he had made despite every adversity that had been placed in his way.<br />
<br />
And you don't get stories like that with Civ....<br />
<br />
Anywho....<br />
<br />
I am currently in the middle of a game, and I want to record a potted history of it here, and this will act as a suitable introduction....<br />
<br />
peace)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-83077881349934265812014-02-27T22:18:00.000+00:002014-02-27T22:18:25.163+00:00Family GamesWith the half term holidays, comes chicken pox.<br />
<br />
Which offered the chance to break out the figures and play a game of Chain of Command with my eldest lad.<br />
<br />
He choose the Americans because they had more figures, whilst I played the Germans.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but the long and the short of it was that the game was decided on my choice to overwatch a squad, so that they could pour everything into a squad that was trying to take cover behind a hedge. They managed to pin the squad, and despite the efforts of the senior commanders to get them moving again, eventually the squad broke, sweeping away the platoon sergeant and the .30cal.<br />
<br />
At which point we called it a day.<br />
<br />
I was very pleased with how the rules played. The lad picked up the basics pretty quickly, he's nearly six, and was enjoying the game until things went against him. At which point he tried to bring his Lego Castle prison wagon to his aid - at which point it all became a little like the Lego Movie. Especially when I went for a cigar prior to clearing away and watched him playing with the figures and the scenery.<br />
<br />
With the money my mum gave me for my birthday I bought Bang!.<br />
<br />
Originally I was a little worried because I didn't notice until I got home that the game is for 4-7 players. But we have been playing it with three - the youngest is not yet old enough - and having a great time. <br />
<br />
What could be more healthy than a family shooting each other, or playing pass the parcel with a stick of dynamite?<br />
<br />
peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-69480099764511953882014-02-25T22:34:00.002+00:002014-02-25T22:34:55.469+00:00Nazi Dino WarsSome more support weapons for the US...<br />
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While I was painting them a piece a synchronicity happened because I was mulling over organizing an event to promote the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" http:="" ilkleygamersclub.blogspot.co.uk="" target_new="">Ilkley Gamers Club</a> when a tweet popped up regarding a craft fair to raise money for the local school, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" http:="" news="" riends_of_ashlands_primary_school_holding_county_craft_fair="" target_new="" www.ilkleygazette.co.uk="">Ashlands</a>.<br />
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'Aha', I thought 'what if I work out some dead simple game involving US soldiers fighting Dinosaurs? And charge a small fee to play, to cover the cost of the Haribos you win for killing the beasties?' And in the meantime, hand out cards with the various links and websites.<br />
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Sprinkle in the odd tank or two, maybe some Nazi's - who have obviously created the Dinosaurs - and maybe some packs of Top Trumps...<br />
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Speaking of Top Trumps, I notice that you can now get a Bolt Action deck. I wonder if they have the correct weapon ranges, or do the rifles all have a maximum range of @160 feet?<br />
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peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-51729549723923185242014-02-23T20:28:00.001+00:002014-02-23T20:28:38.476+00:00Support List 3 and 4For my birthday I got...<br />
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US heavy weapons and some M3 half tracks... plus a relatively peaceful day in which I could make a start painting them.<br />
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peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-9016841573118286192014-02-22T19:25:00.000+00:002014-02-22T19:25:30.208+00:00Losing, Winning, and Unobserved EleganceThe WWII project is back on the front burner....<br />
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Last night I went to <a bradfordgamerssociety.org.uk="" front="" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" http:="" target_new="">Bradford Games Society</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" https:="" lh5.googleusercontent.com="" s4wgwt2i="" skt2uo5ag8="" target_new="" w523-h575-no="" yzosphm-i="" z8="">My entry</a> in the painting competition came in last place... lol...<br />
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But on the bright side I got to play Small World, which is a game I have wanted to play for a long time. And I won... w00t.... with a grand total of 98 points.<br />
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On the way home I amused myself by reading reviews of Chain of Command on my phone. This amusement was greatly increased when I read a review that complained that there was no morale system - this was in addition to a number of over pointless complaints, the main one being that Chain of Command was not Bolt Action.<br />
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Note, the morale system is built into the shock mechanics, the addition or removal of which, gives you an organic morale system that means as your troops get panicky they move less, fight worse and generally prepare to run away.<br />
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peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-91967867556603400662014-02-20T22:16:00.000+00:002014-02-21T09:30:38.878+00:00The Scarlet PimpernelIt's been a quiet day on the painting front.<br />
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Other than undercoating some PSC Americans, I have been mainly reorganising my storage and trying to rationalise the figures I have and intend to use. In typical wargamer fashion I have four projects on the go, and none of them are really in a state to play the game that was intended when the project began. True I probably could play CoC with the WWII stuff, except the US don't have any heavy weapons - something that should be rectified shortly as my birthday is approaching.<br />
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In other gaming related news, I have been trying to find a venue for the club, and continuing in my advertising efforts. And, in doing so I have rediscovered the joys of Twitter. I haven't used it since the Arab Spring business, when I found it an invaluable tool for keeping in touch with what was really going on, as opposed to what the media reported. Which I realise makes me sound like a conspiracy theorist, but when the news is reporting what a reporter can see at the end of the runway in Italy, and via twitter and various websites, you can track the refuelling planes aiding a stealth bomber raid coming from the US to bomb Libya, it's sort of difficult to believe the news when they tell you it has been a quiet day in the air campaign.<br />
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Whether it's the brevity of the medium, or the demographics of the user, twitter has proven a useful way of getting in contact with people to gauge their opinion of the idea of having a gaming club in Ilkley. And what's more a number of women have expressed interest.... OMG.... women at a gamer's club!!! Whatever next?<br />
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Meh, what can you do?<br />
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Right I have a figure for the painting competition tomorrow, and it's off to Lumb Lane - wish me luck - having lived in that part of Bradford for five years - including the era of the crossbow killer, prostitute murders and a couple of shootings - I am hoping for less than eventful journey, with a convivial evening sandwiched in between.<br />
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peace;)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-34654371161239742392014-02-19T19:48:00.002+00:002014-02-20T22:16:24.800+00:00Look Out ColonelTwo batteries of British guns...<br />
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peace:)eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-88835174062338543922014-02-18T21:53:00.001+00:002014-02-18T21:53:07.860+00:00Battling on Two FrontsA temporary ink shortage brought the Sudan production line to a halt...<br />
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But the British keep on coming.<br />
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The process has somewhat speeded up, as I have skipped the highlight stage, instead opting for using a very thin single colour coat over heavily inked white primer- which kind of does the same job - and on these smaller scale figures doesn't really affect the finished model.<br />
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In other news the advertising efforts continue apace to try and drum up interest in establishing a gaming club in Ilkley. The word is starting to spread, and with it the inevitable problems. Ok, in the great scheme of things they aren't problems, and in a sense are to be expected in a hobby with the stereotype of 'mom's basement'. But I did smile at the criticism of not giving contact details, when I have set up a <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" https:="" ilkleygamesclub="" target_new="" www.facebook.com="">facebook</a> page, a <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" http:="" ilkleygamersclub.freeforums.net="" target_new="">forum</a>, a <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" http:="" ilkleygamersclub.blogspot.co.uk="" target_new="">blog</a>, and now a <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" https:="" lkleygamers="" target_new="" twitter.com="">twitter</a> account, and advertised all of them. <br />
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But what can you do? No one said it would be easy.... well ok.... I have said a number of times that it would be easy, but we needn't go into that now... and it was in a completely different context..<br />
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One thing I am very mindful of is not pushing one aspect of gaming/gaming culture more than any other. One of the great problems of gaming is the compartmentalisation of various groups, which were they to mix - or more accurately be given the chance to mix - would find they have much in common and could learn from each other - even if that does sound overly preachy, and rather like a Coke advert, but you know what I mean.<br />
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I remain hopeful that somehow the various divergent groups that I either know, or suspect, are active within the town, can come together to form an vibrant club. After all someone is buying the wargame figures in Boyes. <br />
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peace:) eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683232946627995042.post-49996610336725695692014-02-17T22:26:00.001+00:002014-02-17T22:26:47.731+00:00Banging the DrumAnd so the games club inches onward...<br />
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A <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" http:="" ilkleygamersclub.blogspot.co.uk="" target_new="">blog</a> and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3683232946627995042" http:="" ilkleygamersclub.freeforums.net="" target_new="">forum</a> have been added. So that's the new media handled - I might try twitter but for the time being I shall spare the world my podcasting skills.<br />
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The advertising campaign is slowly getting underway, in that I getting the links posted around the place. It would be great if readers could spread the word, either to people who theyt think may be interested and on forums, blogs etc.<br />
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peace:) <br />
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<br />eeorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02657816556456124166noreply@blogger.com0