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Chapter 44: Conquering a peninsula
11 June 1260

Dear Diary,

It is war! After a long time of peace, there had been an incident between villagers of both mine and king Ragnar's country. That's the moment everything started to spin out of control. I must confess that I found it the perfect opportunity to let things go astray. Holland was divided by the Nords, and that needed to change. So one thing led to another, and before anyone knew it, there was a war between the two greatest factions of Calradia.

The army I had gathered consisted of 14 lords with all their men. I took myself 30 of my finest Sarranid mamlukes, 30 of my best Swadian sharpshooters and 30 promising Nord recruits. During the campaign I would need to train them into huscarls, some of the meanest fighters Calradia has ever seen. I also ordered Miles de Gloucester, my constable, to recruit more Nords, Sarranids and Swadians while I was away. With everything in order, all arranged, I was ready for the campaign. I rode out towards Wercheg, the most northern Nord city.

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Me an my army rode out.

While I was on the road to the first city, along with more than 1700 men, I met a few of the enemy nobles. First I saw jarl Meltor, who really didn't like me. There was no way he would walk over to me, so I attacked and took him prisoner and rode on to Wercheg. But as I approached their gates, I saw both king Ragnar himself and jarl Irya riding in the field. The jarl was closer to the city, so I first intercepted him. I bashed the army, consisting mostly of huscarls, by the sheer number of elite forces. Unfortunately he escaped. Then I moved on to the enemy leader. We were polite, but still I needed him prisoner for a swift progress. So I charged with my army, and knocked out his force of over 300 men. Unfortunately he escaped, but his army wouldn't bother me during the siege of Wercheg.

Then the moment I rode north for arrived: I laid siege to the city of Wercheg. Within four hours I had ladders prepared, and attacked with my entire army. There were only 300 defenders against my 1700 attackers, how bad could it be? But to be sure I ordered archers to fire a lot of bolts onto the walls while the rest of my men stormed the ladders. Despite my sheer number, it was a heavy siege. Those huscarls were quite some strong defenders. In the end they were all killed, although the lonely jarl Irya managed to sneak away. But my losses were a lot heavier. 355 men dead and 199 wounded: it was a bitter victory.

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The attack on the city of Wercheg was hard, but luckily I was a beacon to victory for my men.

After I captured the place, I immediately bought some salt. A war wasn't enough to stop my lust for trading. To secure my newly conquered peninsula, there were still two castles to overwhelm, so I decided to ride to these northern bastions. But when I wanted to march out, I noticed that lords Karaban, Stamar and Tirida abandoned the army to ride back to their cozy little fiefs. Those chickens... With many dead and wounded and them leaving, my manpower was halved, I noticed when I rode near the village of Jayek. That's where I met jarl Surdun. Even though he sympathised with my cause, he was loyal to his king, and I couldn't let him escape with his army. So with my remaining 824 fit men I charged him, and killed almost all his soldiers. He escaped barely, after which we marched on, to Alburq castle.

Before we reached that place, a messenger came running towards me: my newly conquered city was under siege by jarl Dirigun, and more were on their way. Immediately I turned around, and rode back. The first one I met was jarl Bulba.He too sympathized with my cause, but didn't want to abandon his master. I taught him the unwiseness of that decision. Unfortunately he escaped too, so I moved on to the city, where I faced the small siege camp, encircling an even smaller city defence. Luckily my army, slowly refilling their ranks, accompanied me, so we ended this nonsense quite fast by capturing that porky jarl Dirigun.

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In the hilly northern landscape I led my army against some renegade jarls and their armies.

After the capture of this noble, the peninsula was really mine. Now I stand here on the walls of Wercheg, smelling the dyeworks that colour the city and look out to the village of Jayek. The war is still only a few days young, but still I made great progress. but at what cost? Many men died, some lords ran off and the Nords are now raiding my villages. It's time to go home already, to put two men in the prison tower and capture some castles on the way.

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*****
Gameplay notes
Here is a picture of Floris' current stats:
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The first phase of the war shows the conquest of the city of Wercheg just a few days after it started.
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history dude: It's all about preparations and declaring war when you ready :). Hurray for Floris!

Enewald: How dare they running away from the army. They have indeed no honour.
 
Chapter 45: The face of war changed
14 June 1260

Dear Diary,

The war is barely a week young and already I've changed the rules of confrontation. Now I'm back in my capital, preparing myself for a hunt. A manhunt. It started to dawn right after I had captured the city of Wercheg in a lighting attack. The fighting had been severe, and the losses high. Many dead, even more wounded: some nobles couldn't take it and ran away. After just three days of war, even though I already captured one of their major cities, my able fighting force was cut in half. Given the Nords time to prepare, and I would face utter defeat. Those huscarls were a pain in the pork. I needed to change my tactics, and needed to do it fast.

I just couldn't figure out what to do, so I continued as planned. I gathered the ones left and marched towards the next target: the castle of Alburq. Everyone farmer had fled, no jarl dared to oppose us now: without any trouble we arrived at the gates of that castle. Since Artimenner was still in a bad shape from the previous battles, Jeremus oversaw the construction of the ladders. It took him five hours instead of the regular four: too bad. After he was finished, we attacked in the middle of the night. The fortress proved to be a big problem to take. Not only were the walls high, but it was situated on a strategic hill. My men had to walk uphill under a rain of arrows and axes coming down. I first ordered everyone to hold their positions and let the sharpshooters do their job, but I quickly realised they that while the Nords easily reached my men, my sharpshooters had a hard time hitting them. So then I ordered a full-scale attack. Lots of men charged from all sides to the ladder, and threw themselves against a wall of defenders. Even though I won that way, the price was terrible high. All 177 defenders were dead, but at the cost of 149 dead soldiers at my side, along with 250 wounded.

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I ordered a full-scale attack upon Alburq castle after my sharpshooters couldn't reach their archers. Still I felt so glowing-in-the-dark...

Four days after entering the war, my army had already gotten two hard beatings. Two more lords, Regas and Rafard, chickened out and rode off. If I would continue like this, I wouldn't have anyone left to fight for me in another week. I wanted to persue the two lords and order them to stay, but I couldn't: three Nord jarls were spotted in the area, and if I left my newly conquered castle alone, it would certainly fall back into their hands. So I decided to turn around and face them with the men I had left, which was still a greater amount than they could muster with the three of them.

The first jarl I encountered, named Knudarr, was actually quite friendly towards me. We had a nice conversation, but when I brought up the point of loyalty, he made it quite clear that he would remain at Ragnar's side, no matter what. It pained my heart to write down my next move, but I knew that it had to be done. Before this friendly man could ride away, I ordered my men to capture him. There was no way that I would allow him to recapture Alburq castle behind my back. This action shocked many, especially Knudarr's men, who immediately charged. But even though he had quite some huscarls with him, they were in the open field no match for my mamlukes attacking from the side. With Knudarr in custody, I moved forwards, to the next one, jarl Harald. Since no-one from Knudarr's army had escaped alive, he hadn't heard of the tragedy that had befallen his comrade, and he welcomed me warmly before I put him in chains. Once again his army was no match for the combined forces of the Hollandic nobles.

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I had forgotten to exchange my crossbow for a lance when I rode to battle against the jarls: no turning back, there were some men blocking my way.

While I was busy with fighting the armies of Knudarr and Harald, the third one, jarl Tulug, attacked the lonely lord Cruhask. Of course I could have let him loose as a punishment for not participating in my ordered fights, but I decided against that. Instead I rode to help like a true cavalry should, and arrived in the nick of time to save him from defeat. When Tulug saw my army arriving, he decided it was unwise to stay: he left his men fighting while he himself chickened out. I would see him later, I think.

While I was busy with those three jarls near Alburq castle, a fourth managed to slip past me. I heard about him the moment he started to besiege Wercheg all alone. Normally a siege of a city would be unwise to perform alone, but the number of defenders was still quite insufficient to withstand a fullscale siege. Immediately I rode back. Some Nord messengers tried to stall me by offering 1700 denars for jarl Meltor, one of my prisoners. Not only was I offended by this low amount, I had to hurry and had no time for such trivialties as negotiations. I rode on, until I met this new thread: jarl Logarson. The moment he noticed my coming, he abandoned the siege and fled. But I was faster, caught up with him, defeated his army and put him in chains. I needed to get back to Khudan as fast as possible to drop off all those prisoners.

I turned once more around, and rode the road I had rode quite a few times now, passing through the village of Jayek once more. When I approached this unassigned fief, I saw a black smoke coming from the buildings. It was being raided by jarl Gerlad, I soon found out. That was something I couldn't allow: I confronted him with his crimes by charging and destroying his army. Between the fleeing farmers and screaming soldiers he managed to escape, but his army of 155 men didn't. Another blow in the face of the Nords.

The next stop was the Nord castle of Jeirbe. Even though I had my army with me, which was still a considerable force, I decided not to besiege the place. Not yet. I would have to build a siege tower, which would take two days to build, and I rather put my five very important prisoners first in the prison tower before continuing. So I rode on, until I saw that jarl Haeda was raiding the village of Tismirr, right in front of my capital's doorsteps. Of course I charged, and defeated his army. He escaped, but still I was able to put quite a lot of people in the prison cell.

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Many nobles resident nowadays in the cells of Khudan.

Not only were there the jarls I captured, but also some older ones from long defeated factions. Like Sanjar khan, or Druli noyan. In total there are 13 nobles in my prison tower. But that's still not enough: I'll need to fill it up until they are packed tightly together. If the Nords can't muster an army anymore, the war will be a piece of cake. This is the new tactic. The war is become dirtier every day. A new kind of fighting has dawned to Calradia: the hunting season has opened. Let's prepare the men for a manhunt. Jarl season has just opened.

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*****
Gameplay notes
Floris' stats haven't changed much, so it's time to show you my financial situation. As you can see, quite some of my factories are under sequestration and don't make me money. That needs to change by conquering all the Nord cities:
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Holland has conquered Alburq castle and the nearby village. That's all that has changed:
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FlorisDeVijfde: You've got quite a fitting nick for this AAR :).
I agree: without the preparation, it would have taken me a lot longer to get this far.
Thanks for subscribing!

Enewald: Unfortunately, nobles can't die. They wander like immortal gods upon the surface of Calradia, and the only way to get rid of them, is to lock them deep away in dark dungeons. Or to get them expelled from the lands altogetehr, but that takes quite some more work than just lock them up.
 
So..... Any update coming along?
 
Sorry i was absent that long, kind of got occupied with other Games and then my PC died and i had to build me a new one together, leave a note on my userpage when you post a new chapter, i shall be reading it =)
 
And... I'm back!

Sorry for my absence in the mids of the holiday season... Well, I guess you know why ;). Anyway, I'm going to work on the new chapter. I hope to post it tomorrow or Monday at last.

Nodscouterr & history dude: Soon! Within a few days now :).

Polar Mongoose: Thanks! Good to hear that you had the time during my absence to read quite a part.

Alexspeed: I was absent too, although for a very different reason. Sad to hear your computer died :(. I hope you managed to save your savegames? I'll notify you when the new chapter comes along.
 
Chapter 46: Last remnants of the army
20 June 1260

Dear Diary,

The war had taken quite a different course than I had imagined it would. When I started it twelve days ago, I had thought I would surprise them, force them back, take their castles and conclude some business while I were at it. In a way that had happened, but absolutely not as I had thought it would. The fighting is over... For now. And while my men rejoice with the returned Lezalit, I can't feel any happiness. War has changed forever, I can feel it in my snowcold bones.

Two weeks ago I had mustered around 1700 men and 14 lords to accompany me to victory. But in these weeks much has happened, and a lot of lives had been lost in an enormous short timespan. I had conquered Wercheg, but at what price? In a week time my army had been reduced to just 700 men and a handfull of lords. How would I win this war with only so few? Despite my prisoners there were still 26 free jarls at that time, not including king Ragnar himself. If he was smart, he would gather them all and crush my small band. I'm glad that hasn't happened.

Six days ago I threw my recently captured prisoners in the brick of Khudan, and reevaluated my situation. The risk of an all-out mobilization of the Nords was still very high, with that many still roaming free. I needed to hunt them down one by one, and lock them all away before they could destroy my fresh victory. Where to start this mad manhunt? I looked in my backpack, and saw a lot of fish and salt. That moment I remembered my business plan: I needed to relinquish myself from many fiefs and reevaluate the operation of some businesses. I also needed desperately to trade... What better than to combine them all? I would set out to Curaw, a border city, where I would sell the salt and go on from there on to finish it all and capture some nobles on my way. Unfortunately nothing happened the way it is supposed to go. In Curaw the prices of salt had dropped dramatically and to top it, my freshly conquered city of Wercheg was under siege. So I gathered my men and rode out, through the snowy cold landscape. Two jarls had dared to ride onto the peninsula: Tonju and Tansugai. With my army of 700 men I broke their siege by just appearing. They tried to ride away, but couldn't escape my wrath. Unfortunately they managed to evade capture, but their armies had been destroyed anyway.

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Glad to be free of snowcold feet I fought fiercely against those two jarls.

Wercheg had been saved - again - but I hadn't come any closer to realising my goals. To do so, I needed to go to the kingdom of Rhodoks and visit both Veluca and Jelkala. That seemed like a smart move, since selling salt in Nord cities seemed a little problematic now. So I rode from Wercheg south. On my way I passed Curaw, and saw the city of Reyvadin on my route. I looked at my men, and decided to make a bald move. The castle was heavily defended, but we were strong: we were Hollandic. Artimenner prepared the ladders, and pretty soon I found myself in another siege.

I had learned from my previous Nord encounters: those huscarls were deadly on walls. So I ordered my men to hold their position, and let my sharpshooters fire their bolts away. I myself had prepared for this, and stocked myself with 91 bolts. Quite some archers fell down from the walls by my hands. When I noticed that my men started to ran out of bolts, I ordered them to finally storm the ladders. I picked up some bolts from fallen comrades, but the fighting continued long after I had ran out of all the bolts on the field. In the end we won, but once again against a very high price. Even though 440 defenders had been killed, and 12 wounded, 682 of my men had been disabled: 222 dead and 460 wounded. Almost no-one was standing anymore.

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My men were holding position and fired upon the defenders.

The only good news was that I managed to capture jarl Surdun. I needed to lock him away pretty soon. But the moment I left this freshly captured city, my entire army dissolved. No noble wanted to stay along. They all dragged their wounded to all corners of my kingdom. My army! King Ragnar, give me back my legions! I had now conquered two Nord cities, but had no support anymore to push any further. My own men were bleeding too, so I was forced to return home anyway, where I dropped Surdun in my cell.

Back in Reyvadin I met Baheshtur once again in a tavern. He immediately greeted me like an old friend, like nothing had happened in the past. Apparently my fame had even grown outside Calradia, where he had heard of my progress in his homeland. Still not accepted by his old tribesmen, he decided to try his luck once again at my side. And today was indeed his lucky day. Not only did I accept his warm greetings, I also lifted him up to nobility and gave him the newly conquered Reyvadin as a fief.

When I returned to Khudan, more state business awaited me. Rochabarth had decided to abandon the Sarranids and try his luck in Holland. He couldn't arrive at a better time: I had fiefs to spare. I immediately gave him Alburq castle. Also I asked my wife for advice on assigning the city of Wercheg. When she told me Delinard had already the support of six other nobles, I followed her advice and gave him that fief. but that wasn't all. With pain in my heart I analysed the fighting so far: I conquered quite some Nord land, but lost my entire standing army. I needed time, which I didn't have during this war. So I called Lezalit, and sent him away on a peace mission.

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Lezalit returned with good news.

Right after Lezalit I rode out too, to hunt down some Nords. I defeated Harish and Gearth, but captured neither. Now, just before I confronted Despin, he returned with good news. King Ragnar hadn't been able to gather all his nobles. He was rather panicked by my bold moves. Hadn't I conquered quite large portions of Nord lands in less than two weeks? He wanted this to end, before I would usurp everything he owned and hold dear. Good to hear that the news of my diminished army hadn't reached his ears. Here, in the soaring cold of the snowy fields between Reyvadin and Curaw, my men rejoice this 20-day truce. After this small break I will strike again. But for now, I'll need to prepare all over again.

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*****
Gameplay notes
I decided to first write this chapter and then upgrade my game and mods to the latest patch. So this chapter has still be made with the goo' ol' 1.125 patch: the next one will be in 1.127.
Here is a picture of Floris' current stats:
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As you can see, I conquered Reyvadin. That's all that's changed before this phase of the war ended.
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I'm rather surprised that your small enclaves weren't captured.
 
Now that was an example of propper use of force, you may have lost your army, but the nords too and also some land. Its a strategic Victory if nothing else, i doubt the nords will be very eager for going to war after just 20 days, they bleeded also quite bad.

Very nice written again and good pics, thank you for the chapter, was a good read. I hope everything goes well with updating your game to the new patch, i am allways afraid to update a game when i play it.

Thanks for asking, my savegames and all my data is save, infact i didnt even had to do a reinstall of windows. It was either the Power supply, the Processor or the Mainboard that failed on my old PC, i replaced those components and installed new drivers for the board and now everything runs good again as it was before. :)

But i also bought me the parts for a new quadcore system and will build me a second pc now, its about time, my old one worked for more than 4 jears, so its ancient ;)