Georgia: Trying to Matter

[Brandenburg III]

Georgia: Trying to Matter

Welcome to my first CK AAR. Surprisingly enough, it isn’t a narrative. This will shine in the same light as my EU3 Yaroslavl attempt. So it’ll be a gameplay AAR and updated often. I must say that it is a bit intimidating to not be writing a narrative in CK; I feel like I’m breaking the rules.

I’ll admit that I’m either very successful or I fail within the first 100 years. In my previous game before this one I took Rhodes, left the Byzantium Empire and later formed it. Or I can take a place like Brandenburg and find a way to get annexed.

Why Georgia? Why not? Why a gameplay AAR? I do have a real explanation for that. When I started out playing this game (I’m still starting out) I looked all over for a non-narrative gameplay CK AAR. I couldn’t find one that wasn’t masked through a narrative and if there is one somewhere, its hidden. Narratives are fine don’t get me wrong but there are so many in the CK world that its hard to find a place where I can learn how to play the game. I’m sure others are in the same boat. Hopefully a direct CK gameplay AAR will help highlight some of my mistakes and inform others of what to and what not to do.

Summary:
Country: Georgia
Family: Bagratuni
CK/DV
Difficulty: Hard
No reloads, cheating, things of that nature.
Updated at least every other day or every day if the weather remains cold... I don’t go out in cold weather
I don’t have any house rules. If anyone has some that they’ve found to be fair feel free to offer them because I’m still very new to this game.
Comments are welcome but not necessary because I'm going to do this regardless. And you can ask questions but I may not have the answers. I’m still trying to figure things out.

[Brandenburg III]

Update 1

I know what you’re thinking. Georgia, lol, noob. But I always like to think I can take a tiny nation in EU3, a small country in HoI/vicki or a small family in CK and make it worth something. I can usually do something with eu and viki but the others I’m hopeless. I’m hoping I can change that with Georgia.

Here’s my leader and his near-barren wife. Sometimes I’d fix this but I have never been able to conduct a completely successful assassination and I hate that kinslayer trait. What makes it worse is that they only have two children, one son (16) and one daughter (24).



With a small family I can’t fill my court. I have my Chancellor spot stuffed: Gabriel Sefareli aged 37 stats 8/13/10/11 (when I do this its their stats from top to bottom in their character screen.)

Steward: the son 6/5/6/10

Spymaster: the daughter 8/11/8/8

and I have a vassal: Agsartan Bagratuni (16) stats 7/11/2/6 It could’ve been worse. I could’ve loaded up as that guy.



Usually I trade whatever I have for the middle laws and make it a Feudal Contract - even when I don’t have vassals just so I don’t have to screw with it later because I will forget - but this is fine for now. And right now I’m making 13.37 a month with a 4371 manpower. Obviously I didn't take the below screenshot right away but that's how I set my sliders at the start.



Right away I have a job to marry away the daughter but I want to keep her in my court. Hey, the Chancellor is single so I put them together. I end up receiving a decent gold duty and I start building a training camp in my capital. By the way, here’s the lay of the land.



Apparently I’m allied to that nobody on my right. And I have a lot of scary Pagans and Muslims all around me. This already isn’t good.

In 1067 on Feb. 1 I raised my troops in the capital which I sent to Imertia. By April, because I try to be as cost effective as possible, I raised the Imertia regiment. On 1 April I declared war on the one province of Kasogs (where the red dot is... colors seem to blend in this region.)



We outnumber them by quite a bit and the extra land will be used for nothing more than something to steer away the infidels. No, wait, I’m playing an Orthodox nation. How about “Steer away the non-believers.”

April 11 - 28 a brief battle was fought with the Georgian armies winning and sieging. All was fine until four weeks later when the Tribe of Pechenegs attacked my vassal. Only because Pecheneg was so far away did I bother helping. Note that I’m still not sure exactly how intelligent the AI is.



Before anything notable happens (in August) I annexed Kasogs and disbanded my soldiers. If Pecheneg isn’t going to send their army I’m not going to sit around waiting for them. And I’m certainly not sending my army across the Black Sea.



You’ll notice my moron of an ally gave away a piece of his land to one of his courtiers. Way to keep yourself strong.

[Farquharson]

CK stripped down to nothing but the bald gameplay is actually quite refreshing in a way - I'm interested! And good luck with Georgia, it looks like a fun spot.

[demokratickid]

Well, another of your AARs I'll have to follow!

[Qorten]

I've also wondered why there are near to no real gameplay AAR's in CK. I guess the characters and gameplay lend themselves easy for making narratives of it then other Paradox games. It's nice to see one, I may actaully learn something and start playing CK again myself. Hold tight and give those muslim and pagan heathens a beating they'll never forget!

EDIT: You'll have to change your custom title now you know, you're ruling nations before 1399 as of now!

[Brandenburg III]

I must confess that I’m surprised anyone is reading this. Now I have to try to not embarrass myself.

Farquharson: Usually the spots I choose I’m stuck reading a book for the first thirty years with a few breaks. With Georgia I don’t have that option as the action seems to have picked up from day 1. My goal for this game is simple: Survival. If I get through it in condition, I’ll consider that a victory.

demokratickid: Is there an AAR of anyone’s you don’t follow?

Qorten: I agree that it seems CK hands itself over to the narrative but I’m hoping to change that a little. If this one finishes within a month and a half - which could be possible if I post every (other) day - I might try another CK AAR in the same format if only to get another gameplay out there to encourage others to do the same. I’m still learning the game myself and thought this would probably be the best way to learn, or to help others new to CK recognize their faults. And maybe, an AAR writer or two will come or become born in this forum as a non-narrative writer. There’s a lot that needs to be learned with this game and its much harder to learn the intricacies when its muddled in a narrative. Not that narratives are bad but everything in moderation.

I’ve been telling myself to change from 1399 to 1066 for a few weeks now. Still haven’t gotten around to it. I guess I’ll get on it sometime within the week.

[Brandenburg III]

Update 2

October 17 of 1067 the Emirate of Arabs declared war. I’m not too thrilled because I’m thinking the AI takes into account how many nations you’re at war with but I shrug it off. After all, they’re halfway across the screen.



But I would really like to have Bahrain.

Nine days later the Emirate of Edessa declared war on my vassal. By the looks of things they’re a lot closer but they don’t appear to be too threatening and I need to expand. I raised my troops again preparing for an invasion.



Nothing remarkable happened for another month or so when on December 4, Penchang finally showed up. Great timing... On the same day they began a siege in my northernmost province they offered a peace deal, asking that I pay 61. I know I’m getting off light because I can’t halve my troops, if I fight one nation I won’t have enough manpower to fight the other. I pay and continue southward.

Odessa? Edessa? I’m not sure, I wrote it both ways, sieged Tao with 995 men. The province sounds like it belongs a little further east but I’m not big on Georgian history so Tao it is. One day later I got a religious tension event for Kasogs; I almost always choose the ‘crush’ option. The people converted with a bit of looting and revolting in the process but they are Orthodox. My piety is now +141 (who cares), -7 gold.

In early February Durbant and Kartli sent declarations of war. Wow, no wonder why Georgia never makes it. This is not easy. But hey, at least Alania is still my ally.



In no time at all Kartli showed up in my capital, battling my men who had yet to leave my territory. I ended up losing by the narrowest of margins but I have more men than they do. I can win a sieging war provided Durbant isn’t too aggressive. But by July Tao fell to Edessa. A few days later I agreed to cede that province. If I hadn’t I would’ve lost everything within the first two years of loading up the game. Wouldn’t that have been humiliating. And I hate giving up provinces. I want it back.

The year ended badly with another loss in my capital and Derbent annexing my vassal. This is no fun.

On 11 January my entire army sat on Kartli. While I waited for Kartli to fall, because it took a while after the Emirates showed up and cleaned my army’s clock (I have about 700 or so left) Derbent sieged and occupied Imerti. Maybe I’ll still be annexed.

In 1070 my empty coffers handed me the negative stability event. This is more to show you my progress, or lack of it, in Kartli.



By March Abkhazia fell to Derbent and the Emirates just began a siege in Kasogs. A month and a half later (15 April 1070) Kartli fell and I had 331 soldiers left. I annexed them, forced them to renounce their claims and made them pay 23. What’s more is that there were 1150 in their garrisoned army. I’m not sure where that army was while I was sieging their province but I’m raising them now. Let’s go to Derbent!

[demokratickid]

demokratickid: Is there an AAR of anyone’s you don’t follow?

A few, because I be too lazy...

On the whole, a sucky situation in the Caucasus...

[Qorten]

That was/is a pretty tight situation. I hope you can manage it.

[Leviathan07]

Oooh Georgia... I did one of those a while ago, switched to BYZ in the early 1130s though because I was already done conquering everything up to the Volga and down to Armenia and the Caspian Sea.

You shouldn't attack the Muslims early on. They are terrible enemies and they sense it when you are weak. It's better to wait for the Cumans and other pagans to fracture and then gobble them all up. Alania especially is a very rich province and you should conquer them as soon as the useless alliance expires. Culture spread can quickly make Georgian Orthodox provinces out of the Alan/Cuman pagan ones north of your starting locations and thus make them valuable additions. Their base tax rates are all excellent and way better than most of the stuff to your south... Itil, Tmutarakan, Alania, Kasogs, also Sarkel IIRC, that's all good rich land that you should have in your desmesne, the remainder up to Ukraine is poor but many little regiments can still add up to quite army. Derbent and the Muslim lands may be tempting but don't attack them too early.

Keep the wars against Muslims short, make white peaces ASAP and aim for one province at a time. Expect the Seljuks to jump in and force you into a mega long war of attrition at some point, if you don't own the lands north of you by then and/or BYZ is also in the fight you stand no chance because the Seljuks will send wave after wave of 5000 strong regiments from all over Persia and Iraq at you.

[Brandenburg III]

demokratickid: If I had your laziness I could buy my way to heaven.

Qorten: Yes, I think Georgia’s one of those nations that shouldn’t be attempted until you know what you’re doing. I’m still learning and it’ll still show in the next few updates.

Leviathan07: I see the empires some people build and I’m amazed. I’m still trying to get to that point.

You’re right, taking down the Muslims is tempting. I want to do it not to take land, but to take them down a notch because even the small tribes have about - or more - the same amount of soldiers that I have. And one of the things I’m really bad at, and this mirrors the Paradox games I’ve played, is that I don’t usually check land value. It’s a horrible habit to have but I’m trying to retrain myself so I keep an eye out for it.

I’ll also admit to playing ahead a bit before reading your message but rest assured I’ll take this advice into this game (if I get the opportunity!) and further games I play in the region.

To any:
One more thing, I’ve noticed one Jewish province in Alania and another bordering it (Kuma and Itil) I don’t think I’ve seen any other Jewish provinces. I don’t think I’ve seen any Jewish characters in the game before but I’m guessing its possible to get them? That might be an interesting road to take.

[Brandenburg III]

Update 3

By June I’m in Derbent. Here’s a picture



You’ll notice that Derbent is helping out the Emirates. Isn’t that nice of them? Nobody will accept peace.

Two days later my leader's wife decided to have a falling out with him. I made amends because I need more than one chance at an heir. If the son dies then I am screwed and I'll need to 86 the wife. The game didn’t take the 94 gold from me though but have no fear, the event comes back again.

On June 20 the Emirates occupied Kasogs and I noticed on or around the same day, that Derbent released Semender as a vassal. The Semender army is still running around with Derbent which I don’t like so I came to a nice, happy conclusion. I declared war on the vassal while their army was still in the north and moved my own army from the Derbent capital to Semender.



27 July the falling out with wife event came back and this time I chose to hate her too. While I was playing I didn’t notice the game didn’t take the cash earlier so I was a little upset to see the event again. But that seemed to fix things. At least as far as the wife event goes. And I never had a problem with it before so no use in reporting it.



A month later, in August, Alania declared war on Shemakha. I don’t even know where that is. I went looking but I couldn’t find it and my rule is that if I can’t find it on my own, then I don’t go to war. It turns out it was pretty close but I still chose to defy the alliance. I’m at war with enough countries.

You may notice that in my screen I had a marriage pop up in the upper right corner. I ignored this for a while thinking I was going to be annexed and I didn’t want to waste my time going around looking for suitable couples. I got tired of seeing it there, taunting me as a reminder of ‘You’re going to be annexed’ so I married off the three random people to three random people in my court. I don’t like messing with things while I’m at war. I did look at their last names and kept them different but I didn’t do any further research so let’s hope there’s no inbreeding.

Now watch, one of my future leaders down the line is going to have a hump, a club foot, become blind and develop a lisp. Later he’ll be schizophrenic and kill off all his male heirs... Okay, maybe not but I did have a leader kill off one heir in another game which wasn’t cool because my second in line was a waste... the leader died a short time after the murder.

Oh! And I hired a Marshal: David Bagratuni (26) Marshal stat 11. I don’t know why I’m stating his name, it doesn’t matter much in this AAR.

October 1070 Derbent began sieging my capital 11 days before Semender fell. I made Semender my vassal because I didn’t want my bb getting too high. I thought I took a pic but this is the closest I have... you can see my successful occupation of it in the background.



In February 1071 I made peace with the Emirates by handing over Kasogs. I’m not sure what they’re planning to do with a Georgian Orthodox province but we’ll see.

Now look at this. Derbent has 902 left and they're in my capital and I have 942 and I’m in theirs.



Its starting to get exciting.

[Vesimir]

As someone already said this is refreshing and as I don't have anything else to do I'm going to follow (I never have anything to do). I always wondered why Turks in Itil turn jewish in all my games.

[Leviathan07]

Now look at this. Derbent has 902 left and they're in my capital and I have 942 and I’m in theirs.



Its starting to get exciting.

Well I hope your siege made it on time

You should never siege with such small armies if it can be helped... It drags the war out to no end... however you really are in a tight spot, your enemies now have claims on every province that they occupied from you and if they peace you by taking your last one then you will suffer great loss of land, if not complete destruction. I hope it will come through alright for you!!!

[Leviathan07]

Oh and something else... your province Guria is abysmally poor. If you make it out of this war you *NEED* to build improvements immediately. Spend ten years building improvements, it will greatly help your tax base. Each of the Georgian core provinces can give you 3000 and more soldiers with a few improvements and a good stewardship value of your king. Don't throw your money after your wives, spend it on mines and forestries and fisheries and productive investments!!

[demokratickid]

demokratickid: If I had your laziness I could buy my way to heaven.

I do have afriend named Peter you could call...

It seems Georgia is still in a nasty situation...

[kadvael56]

To any:
One more thing, I’ve noticed one Jewish province in Alania and another bordering it (Kuma and Itil) I don’t think I’ve seen any other Jewish provinces. I don’t think I’ve seen any Jewish characters in the game before but I’m guessing its possible to get them? That might be an interesting road to take.

IIRC there are three Jewish provinces Itil, Kuma and Crimea, in Kuma and Itil they are the last Khazars. You need to make some modifications to play Jewish characters.

[Brandenburg III]

Update 4

In late May I discovered my ally was still at war with Semender. Alania annexed them which I don’t wholly mind since that place is out of the war anyway. Sure it was MY province... I guess that says something about the shape I’m in.

Alania finally proved their worth (or at least part of it) by throwing the unit that had ‘liberated’ Semender, into the Derbent capital. I won it in no time... its kind of like deus ex machina but I’ll take it.



And here’s how close I came to losing my capital to occupation.



July 13 Derbent fell and was brought to peace. July 15 they recognized our claims. I think I tried making them vassals but that wasn’t an option. Is it likely they had a higher title? Not that it matters now. I disbanded my army and went on with my life: manpower is now 1747 and monthly income is 6.46. It could’ve been worse.

Let’s see, in 1072 a celibate life appealed to my Chancellor, my son’s wife died so I married him to a 26 year old Russian who became my spymaster. Her stats are 1/3/9/5 and aged 26. Its so hard to find young people in the early game which is frustrating because I’m always having to start new games due to my annexations.



And near the end of the year I lost my claim on Tao. Since I don’t have any vassals I couldn’t tell my bb, if I had any or had a lot and I don’t need any more enemies so I bit the bullet.

At 1073 my wife wants the latest fashion. Geez! She just doesn’t let up! So I tell her to shoo because I need to build up some training grounds for more inevitable declarations of war. Luckily she doesn’t resent me anymore than she already does. I developed the selfish trait and she obtained the deceitful one. Maybe she’ll leave me alone for a while... or not, I would still like another heir.

A dangerous turn of events came about 21 May 1073 with Alania’s capital being annexed by the Sheikdom of Shemakha. It seems I made the right choice on that one. The new Alania capital would be moved to the province to the left of Manych. On a side note, I tried playing as that province to the left of Manych. I waited thirty years to be annexed... its so poor and is wrong religion. If you can do something with that then you’ve got talent... or too much time on your hands.



By July I finally got back to even in terms of money. And in late August my son’s wife and he are in love. A shame he won’t send her my way because I still need another heir.



1074 the son asks for land. I was hoping he wouldn’t do that because I have almost nothing to give but I relent and tell him okay. Nevertheless he gains the reckless trait and I make him the Count of Imertia. I figure that’s a safe province because it isn’t on a real border and he won’t be annexed easily. The daughter is put in his place as steward.

Two months later I replaced my spymaster with Kvarkvare Dadiani (26) and appropriate stat is 9. In November I began training ground construction in Kartli.

Halfway through 1075 and my leader became schizophrenic. Malaria hit Kartli and by September the leader was catatonic schizophrenic.



I don’t think there’s a way to come back from this.



At least not this time. Now everyone can declare war on me again. Great.

**************************

Update 5

I was lucky enough to be able to keep the same court but this guy has a problem spawning daughters. I think he wants to field a girls softball team.



And that haircut bothers me. How can Georgia have such a cool emblem when their leader has a haircut like that? At least he has a hot wife... who looks a lot like the Steward. Hm, let’s see if he gets them mixed up at some point.

Upon my resurrection I did try signing alliances with Byzantium and a few other neighboring powers but none would accept. However the Principality of Alania, my former ally, was more than ready to sign on the dotted line. Their leader is 60 years old so hopefully the alliance will be short lived and a few other countries will change their minds. With that being said I haven’t really found the alliance system very useful. Often I ignore alliance offers just so I won’t get spammed by offers to join a war halfway across the map.



I can claim a title but it isn’t worth it right now. I need to finish building up training grounds and then get started on economical improvements after that. I’ll save the titles and prestige for a young son, if one is ever born and lives, in case he needs them.

I was making plans, good plans but my plans were changed when the Emirate of Edessa and Emirate of Arabs declared war. Let’s dance.



20 days into 1076 and Arabs called for peace. They paid 20. I’m guessing they were allies of Edessa but at least I can center myself on moving southward. I think I can win a sieging competition. I better get on my horse though because Edessa’s already in Kartli by Feb. 16.

One month later, 14 March 1076 and the Sheikdom of Albania declared war. Okay, let’s fight. I changed my plans and headed in that direction. I put blue dots in Albania’s provinces.



By the end of that month, Edessa’s in my capital and Albania is in Kartli. To make it more clear, Edessa left Kartli for my capital and Albania took the empty space in Kartli. Then, on 19 May I lost my Kartli regiment... four days later Kartli would fall and a month and a half later so would my capital.



July 15 I decide to make peace with Edessa by ceding my capital. My new capital is now Imertia. You have no idea how much I hate ceding provinces. Selling provinces in EU3 is different because I get something out of it but just giving them away like this sickens me.

By year’s end a new son was born, Ashot. And Albania moved in to siege my new capital. Again I’m hoping they’re getting more attrition than I am. Things seemed to be going well though with the fall of Albania’s capital in late January and my moving into Dwin on 26 February 1077.



At this point I’m guessing the Alania leader died because I received an alliance offer from Hovhannes Senek’erim Gardman-Aghbania. Yes, that was his name. From Suenik. Or, here.



Right now I’m so desperate to have anyone be my friend that I say okay. Meanwhile Albania got wind that their capital fell so they returned to their capital. My leader was still wandering around with 300 men but was nothing in comparison with the entire Albanian army. They have 861 men sieging their capital and I have 1165 in Dwin but I’m suffering attrition, they’re not.

With only a few days to spare, as seen in this clip and my siege of Dwin, my leader swooped into Albania’s capital around July 10 (the Albanians were beating me in the siege race) and bought enough time. The leader’s army was destroyed by this date but served its purpose.



Two days later Dwin fell and Albania became vassals, recognizing our rights over Kartli. I disbanded my army again. Things are looking good.

Around mid-August of the same year Suenik wanted to become vassals. I wasn’t sure if accepting them would’ve been good or not because they’re out there next to the Seljuk Turks. But, I reasoned, the Turks are at war with Azerbaijan and Suenik could be another buffer so I accepted.



Later, December 20, I was able to go to the moneylenders. My money shot up to +82 but my piety took a dip to -51. Who cares about the church. What are they going to do, excommunicate me?

*******************

Update 6

Looking back I didn’t expect to survive the first ten years. Yay for me.

1078 began well enough with my beginning a training ground construction in Abkhazia in July. War would come again in November when Derbent declared war. I asked for grand mobilization and by December 6 I got it... unfortunately both of my vassals already raised their armies and I didn’t have control.



From 26 Jan 1079 - 1 Feb 1079 Derbent sieged the Albanian capital... and made it fall. Mind you Derbant only had about 1000 men in that siege. I’m guessing there’s an event I haven’t had yet which forced the surrender. My aim was to have a sieging war at this point. Five days later my Imerti regiment was in Semender, sieging that province since Derbent had since retaken it. And by 15 March the rest of my units were in the province. I didn’t have much time to recover from previous wars.



The Albanian capital made a separate peace but they weren’t annexed or made vassals so that’s fine with me. Especially since I can now raise their units... or request them.

Between April first and May third a big battle broke in Semender. My Chancellor was killed, my leader and marshal were both severely wounded and I lost... I lost despite outnumbering my opponents by 1500 men. This is a strange thing for me as I’ve noticed usually the largest army wins but what can I do? New Chancellor is Buruduken Djakeli aged 33, stat 12 and new Marshal is Iakob Yakobashvili aged 48, stat 9.

For some reason at this point I was able to take over the Suenik armies. Maybe they made peace with Derbent too. I sent them to Shirvan hoping for a quick sieging war while Derbent went to Dwin, a province occupied by the Albanian vassal. I hoped they wouldn’t annex Dwin.

Then, bad news. The Emirate of Azerbaijan declared war upon Suenik. Looking over the bordering two provinces I noticed their manpower didn’t rise above 900 men spread over two provinces and the Suenik regiment had more than that. So I willy-nilly accepted the call. It turns out Azerbaijan was allied to Baalbak and Egypt... and they both honored the alliance.



Eight days later Suenik was done... well, not in exactly eight days but the Seljuk Turks, Kurdistan and the Emirate of Mosul all declared war. I was in enough trouble... I didn’t help. But I did use their regiments. Thanks Mr. Long-name!

Raising the Albanian regiment (I made it so my vassals paid me nothing so I could get these units without mobilizing) I moved them into the Derbent capital by August 19. And the Suenik regiment moved into the Azerbaijan capital. I reasoned that I’m going to need another vassal or land because Derbant is going to outsiege me. Their manpower, well, they have more of it.

In September Semender fell, those spare troops now moving toward the Derbent capital. At the same time a small Dwin army (53 men) escaped their besieged province and headed toward Shirvan. I was going to need to get a head start on the siege there if I was to win. Then, disaster.



This army came out of nowhere... I need to pay attention and stop reading Ubik. Even if I was paying attention those troops would’ve got to me. They lost almost twice as much as me (987) but I lost enough to matter (571.) May I remind you that Derbent has another unit wandering around, sieging my cities. I don’t have the luxury of a spare army to disrupt their efforts. Apparently they do.

Derbent wouldn’t accept any offers even after their capital fell in March 1080. Probably because mine was soon to fall in April. I marched everyone to Shirvan trying to get it to fall before Derbent arrived in Abkhazia. But Shirvan was two or three provinces away. Derbent was only one province away from Abkhazia..

I switched back and forth between Abkhazia and Shirvan checking the siege progress but there was nothing that could be done. I had just entered the red area of the siege in Shirvan when Derbent succeeded in their siege of Abkhazia. I was annexed.

[Brandenburg III]

Vesimir: From what I heard from Leviathan07, Georgia may have been the wrong country to start with and may be a dead-end road for beginners. A shame it couldn’t have lasted longer.

Leviathan07: Do you never spend money on wives? I always worry about rivalries. Am I putting too much into that? And while this game hasn’t portrayed it so far, I do like peacetime more; building things, becoming an economic strength and then going to conquer. But with Georgia I felt it necessary to take the initiative.

On the small armies, I really had no choice. I hate the small armies too because that means its going to take me so much longer to recover not to mention the war winds down and becomes exceedingly boring.

On investments, would you recommend building training grounds first or economic improvements? Or does it depend where you start? In Georgia I thought I could use both but with so many hostiles on my border I thought it best to build an army.

Lastly I didn’t have the opportunity to implant any advice. The game whisked me away pretty quickly after I loaded up and my fate seemed sealed. There were just too many wars and my eye wasn’t careful enough.

demokratickid: Very nasty. Too nasty for me to draw it out but I don’t blame myself. I’ll find something else to blame and go from there.

kadvael56: Thanks for the info. If the game had gone on I would’ve tried it without any mods; good to know that I won’t have to waste efforts in the future.

To all: A shame this AAR has to come to an end but as you’ve read, I was annexed. I have learned a few things by doing this so even though it was short, it was worth it. Once I get a few more updates ahead in my Algiers AAR - maybe 3 to 4 weeks - I’ll have another go at CK. Next time I’ll choose a country with a better starting condition so I have a decent chance of getting past the first 100 years. And I’ll keep with the gameplay effort and add a real effort at writing.

On the reason I went to war with Azerbaijan. That should’ve been a quick war and I was doing it for land. At that point I wasn’t confident that I would win the sieging war and a province or two of more land would’ve been welcomed. I know I was moving in the wrong direction but I didn’t have a lot of options.

Thanks to those who’ve been reading.

[Leviathan07]

Training grounds are one of the last things I build, actually. Sute they let your troops replenish 10% faster but who cares, build a fishery or a forestry and you get 5% more troops PLUS 5% more money. You spent your money on the wrong things, start investing in good stuff before the heathen Turks conquer you !!!

Oh and you got a vassal? That's cute. He's not from your family? Then revoke his title NOW! You absolutely need more land for yourself. If you get another foolish vassal, revoke his title too at once. And thank the lord for foolish counts.

Your heirs by the way should get counties rather sooner than later. You lose prestige if your heir is without land.

As for the wars, you really got hit badly here. However I think if you take care next time to concentrate your troops before you go hitting the enemy you will stand better chances. Those two-province neighbours of yours must be annexed before their distant allies come to the rescue! Keep an eye open for pagan one province minors without lieges, and kill them quickly to get more land. Land land land you need more land...