Strength and Honor - A Norway AAR

[King Yngvar]

15th of february, 1572, in a castle far away from Norway

"Good day sire, here's your morning beer."

The man took the horn and swallowed it all in once with a gigantic thirst. He was and tall old man, with long white beard and long white hair, filled with old rests of food. He was not the best sight for the eye, thanks to years of drinking and years of not washing. Though if one got close one could feel the wildness in his eyes. The servant boy, Charles, had problems looking the fierce man in his eyes.

"Fill it up again Karl!"

Another horn was filled and the man was starting to get something like a smile on his face, Charles was not sure. But as the last one, this litre of beer went straight down the throat.

"Ah, that's better."

He said no more, just stared at the wall for minutes, until Charles braught up the question.

"What is your real name sire?"

"My real name? That's a question, I thought you all here liked to call me the old beast. Did you not know who I was, well you are probably too young to have lived at the time I ravaged Europe. I will tell you my real name once I have told you about my ancestors that paved the way for me..."

One could almost see the pride in the old man's eyes, as he was about to tell the glorious tale about one of the greatest adventures ever taken in military history...

[King Yngvar]

This was just a teaser, don't really have time to write it all yet though due to exams. I have played the game till around 1572 by now, so there will probably be a lack of screenies if I don't miracolously find some save games. I will start the serious writing during the weekend when my exams are finished, just needed to hear if there was any interrest at all in reading my first AAR...

[Stroph1]

One interested reader right here!

[Machiavellian]

Sounds interesting so far. I can assure you that if you write it people will read it.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Wha--this is your first AAR? Sure doesn't look like a first one... I've been here nearly a year and a half and I still rarely do something this good!

[King Yngvar]

Yeah it's my first

Here's a short continiue that i just wrote, did not have time for more...

"So you have not heard the stories of the feared lion banner of Norway young Karl? The armies that swept across Europe and Vinland, fearless warriors of the glorious empire. When I look back to those days I can feel nothing but pride at first, but I also feel anger and remorse."

Charles was waiting in anticipation for the story to begin, he finally sat down in the other chear, waiting for a reaction from the old man. He just looked at him with his light-blue eyes, scratched his dirty white beard and continiued telling the story:

~And so the story begins~

1431 was truly a great year for Norway. Not only did our usual fish trade prosper, but it was a year of freedom and opportunities. In april independance was declared after 50 years of foreign rule, the Danes were fast to try putting us back in their chains of opression and invaded Bergenshus the next month. Our army was little, but we still prevailed, the Danes were swift to retreat and never return. At the end of the summer the war was over and they recognized our independance.

It was time to take the path towards greatness. King Sigurd III the Liberator was a good king, he patched up the wounds that the great plague and Denmark had inflicted our great nation. His main goals was to restore Norway to its former glory, leaving it to his successors to make it even greater. It was not done in days, the economy had to be fixed seriously and so had the army, 5,000 man is not enough in conflict with the greater powers. In 1435, Kola was annexed, followed by Karelia, soon we were bordering the Russians. Our Swedish allies whom had fought with us against the Danish tyrrants were in need of a friend, the Russian menace had provoced them to declare war upon them in 1441. It was a short war, though we did not have so much of engagement with Russian troops, the Swedes did most of the fighting, we got to prove ourselves in a smaller battle and we got two new provinces, Onlets and Arkhangelsk.

King Sigurd had married off his oldest daughter to a young man named Håvard Olavsson of Nesheim, it was decided that Håvard would succeed Sigurd Jonsson for the Norwegian throne.
When King Sigurd was about to die in the christmas 1452, Håvard came over to his deathbed. And he was to be the one who heard the last words of the king, "lead... us...." he had problems saying the words at first, almost caughing them up, finally he got to his sences and spoke out with a clear voice "Lead Norway to greatness!". And the same sentance came in use afterwards when the old king tells the new some last words...

Håvard Olavsson was no bad ruler, he continiued the stabilizing progress that his father in law had started, but there was something more that had to be done he felt. In 1472, exactly hundred years ago, he decided to invade Denmark, finally getting a true revenge. The army had been heavily built up since Håvard came to reign, there were over 25,000 men now ready to fight for the glory of Norway. War was declared on the 20th of june, 1472, if I remember correctly. You see Karl, I have never been good with exact dates when the year already has been mentioned. Our brave warriors defeated the Danes in two large battles, one on Jylland and one in Sjælland, the Swedes took Skåne. The fighting continiued a little more until we were finally victorious in the beginning of the next year, Denmark accepted annexation. The whole country was conquered in less than a year.

There were a few rebellions during the following decade in Denmark, those stubborn sousage eaters did obviously not know what was best for them. My great admire for Håvard was his restriction of power to anyone but himself, any complaints were met with a no, and if anyone opposed him they would not live to see many days. Of course it cost some discontents and some rebellions here and there but in order to make a strong nation one must keep the subjects under dicipline, strenght at all time.

The words of a dying king was repeated on a winter night in 1482 in Akershus Castle. As Håvard was dying, he spoke his last words to his son Sjur, "Lead Norway to greatness, strenght and honor at all times!".
We had one strong king after another, great leaders they were, o' great leaders they were. Håvard had spoken of a land far to the west, still not re-unified with Norway to Sjur. Sjur of course asked him if he ment Greenland, the king sighed "that... too..." before he finally passed away.

The young king was barely twenty years, the youngest child and the only son of Håvard Olavsson and Gunnhild Sigurdsdottir. He was determined to find out what lands in the west his father ment besides Greenland, it was time to go over there and ask the Greenlanders, if there was anyone left of them...

~End for today~

"Sire, that is a great tale, new and interresting to hear for someone who posess no knowledge in history. But you have yet to tell your part in all this."

Charles could see a small smile behind the beard of the old man as he said:

"Have patienth my friend, it time for dinner now and I am very ready to get another portion of that poison they serve me... Well at least they let me drink Norwegian."

He said with a smile, flenching his yellow teeths in the sun.

Charles just stood there, but slowly he started moving towards the door.

"See you tomorrow, Sire"

Yngvar had a pleased look upon his face knowing that after a few more days of telling his story to this young man, he would not just be referred to as sire...

[King Yngvar]

Judas, Machiavellian and Stroph. I appreciate good comments It encouraged me to get up another piece of the story on the table. And this is just the interlude... The real story starts in the beginning of the 1500's...

[jwolf]

Can you clarify exactly how you played this? Did you start as Denmark and let Norway go, or were you able to start directly as Norway? And did you start in 1419, but not much happened until the 1500s when the story picks up?

[stnylan]

An excellent start. One hopes that you trampled Sweden at some point in the future.

[King Yngvar]

Can you clarify exactly how you played this? Did you start as Denmark and let Norway go, or were you able to start directly as Norway? And did you start in 1419, but not much happened until the 1500s when the story picks up?

I started as Norway, I went out of vassalship in 1431, at the same time as my dear ally Sweden. I edited the monarch file to give me one really good king... You can guess his name and his relation to the old man...

An excellent start. One hopes that you trampled Sweden at some point in the future.

Do you think they really can be left alone forever?

[Stroph1]

I am enjoying the story telling format. Keep it up!

[VPeric]

I'm thinking that's just the thing that hepened in 'the 1500s' .

Excellent AAR, BTW, and superb for your first attempt. I wish you lots of AARs in the future

[King Yngvar]

I am enjoying the story telling format. Keep it up!

I'm thinking that's just the thing that hepened in 'the 1500s' .

Excellent AAR, BTW, and superb for your first attempt. I wish you lots of AARs in the future

Thanks for all comments

Today and tomorrow I will have to finish my essay about the rise and eventual fall of the American Empire in English. So I cannot commit myself to this forum more for today. Of course I am still thinking about how I should tell the tale about King Sjur the Brave, son of Håvard the Ruthless, and father of....

[Sapphire]

Your AAR is well written. You will have one reader panting to see more!

[King Yngvar]

I do have screenshots... Just don't know how to post them...

17th of February, 1572

Yngvar was really drunk now when Charles showed up, he had poured in at least 6 litres of that mead. His head was banging now, could only hope that Charles had some more mead with him to clear it up.

"Sire, I bring you much mead with me... May you continiue your tale now?"

"Ja, ja, ja... Ich habe getrinken, oh sorry, I start speaking Deutche, sorry German, when I'm drunk... Well It was the story of King Sjur the Brave, my father that is..."

"So you are the son of a king? Why did you not tell me earlier?" Charles replied.

"Well dear Karl, I wach not drunk then wach I? It's quite impressive how much one reveals when one is drunk...." He paused for a minute before continiuing his story.

"I will tell you about my father, ja? It was an interrresting story, he used to tell me when I was young. To be exact, I was 10 years old when he came to me that summer. Declearing peace with Sweden just to spend some time with his son... That is me... Well I am too messed up from mead to tell the schtory, chome bach tomorrow and I will tell you about my father, the day after, on sunday, pherhaps about me..."

[stnylan]

so he needs to be drunk to talk, but when he is drunk enough he is too drunk?

I like him!

[King Yngvar]

(I actually had to play it over since the game had to be re-installed and I didn't remember it all, but don't worry I played it almost the same way to stick with the original story)

The next morning

"Karl! Did you steal some of that mead yesterday? It seems like I only drank 9 litres, I remember having 10! Aren't you ashamed of yourself, taking away the pleasures of an old man..."

"I just wanted to taste it sire, it was quite good actually, with the honey, but will.." He was interrupted by Yngvar quickly.

"Yes, I shall continiue with telling about my father, Sjur the Brave. When I was little we used to sit in the castle of Akershus, it was in the summer of 1510, he had made peace with the Swedes just to spend some months with his son..."


~King Sjur the Brave~

Norway was in a prosperous time under the reign of King Sjur. His father and grandfather had built up the kingdom and extended its borders in Scandinavia. Denmark had been subdued and Kola, Bergslagen and Vestgøtaland had been taken from the Swedes, who were in a pretty bad condition at that time. We actually outnumbered them two to one in armies at that time.

But then it happened, that a namebrother of me, Yngvar Gudmundsson offered his services to my father in 1483. He told of a saga he had read, yes the man was an Icelanding of course, a saga about Leif Eiriksson's travel to a land called Vinland. So it was that seven ships were given to him to explore land. He traveled far in the west, a colony was established in Vinland, on the same island as Leif Eiriksson had tried to settle long time ago (New Foundland). But it seemed Yngvar was too bold, he went so far that his fleet sunk outside the coast of the aztecs, and we would not get any new explorer until Hrafn of Borgr reported to the king's service.

However, there was a man that was willing to build on what Yngvar Gudmundsson had found. A brave nordlending named Leif Sigurdsson decided to serve the king in the hunt for colonies in 1486. He was what you foreigners would call a conquistador. And he claimed he would conquer as much land as possible in the west. Oh it was quite an adventure. First he landed in our only colony yet, Leifsland, what you would call Placentia, oh hell, I will just say the latin names so you understand. The natives on the entire island were rightfully slaughtered. Next he went for Acadie, killing the natives and letting a colony be established. His army of 8,000 horsemen moved onto Gasteste, into Micmac, Bangor, Penobscot and Megantic. Before turning back north, taking Bass-Laurente and Nova Scotia.

About 1,000 brave norsemen had died in the adventure. He turned to the harbours of Eiriksfjord, getting 2,000 Greenlanders for re-inforcement. It was probably a heavy burden for Greenland, as most of the men must have been sent into the conquistador's service for many years. In 1490 He continiued northwards from Stadacone riding up all the way to Nain. During this period we made contact with the real Skrælings, those who actually have something to defend themselves with. They were not engaged in combat in these years. By 1500 a large colony was established in the west, with Leif Sigurdsson guarding it with an Iron fist.

By now it was time to take a look at the position in Scandinavia, to defeat Sweden totally. The economy was under improvement and before war was declared (in 1505), more young men were recruited to the armies. Since over 10,000 men was in the west, we only had 20,000 men in the east to defeat around 16,000 Swedes. Of course that would not be immpossible but my father felt he needed to win and still have something left, so about 7,000 men were recruited before the war broke out. It was in this war that my father's bravery would be proven. The first war lasted for five years (until 1510), all of Sweden was ravaged by Norwegian armies. The Swedish armies were all beaten by 1508, both in Finland and Sweden. Eventually all of Sweden were in fire. In july 1510 we agreed to a peace (OOT: mistakenly pressed a button) where we got all their lands except Svealand, Gastrikland, Nyland, Finland,Tavastland and Lappland.

In september war was declared again when my father understood Sweden had to be completely defeated. Their army of 2,000 men were defeated after a few days, their lands in Finland were soon taken by Norwegian armies and Svealand was soon under Norwegian occupation. Only Lappland was the problem, it seemed like it would never fall, just like in the last war. Over 10,000 Norwegians died under the siege because of attrition, using over two years to make Lappland fall. Once again he accepted peace, though this time it was because it was immpossible to annex the Swedes though even Svealand was occupied. The peace gave Norway everything except Svealand. War was again declared in 1514, the stability of course suffered. Though Svealand was occupied Sweden could not yet be annexed. Rebellions rose up in all of Scandinavia, even in Greenland and Vinland rebellions had to be quelled. My father, King Sjur the Brave died while fighting bravely against a band of rebels. He lived to see the victory but died soon after by the wounds. I was crowned on christmas day, 1514...

~The End (for today)~

"Well, I will look forward to heard how you ruled the country sire."

"Yes, yes, it was a great era..." A splendid war he tought for him self as Charles locked the door on his way out... A splendid war...

[King Yngvar]

so he needs to be drunk to talk, but when he is drunk enough he is too drunk?

I like him!

Yes, I tried to give him some of my own personality, of course you must like him

[stnylan]

Interesting hint, locking the old man in. You've picqued my interest.

Any man who likes mead I am predisposed to like.
It's just so hard to get any of the stuff where I am

[King Yngvar]

It's just so hard to get any of the stuff where I am

Isn't it the same way everywhere? Just pretend the beer is mead