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I don't even actually know (despite using it)...some network thingie that gives people different IP in some local network and thus can connect if their regular internet connection dissallows it:wacko:
Hamachi players naturally are those poor bastard left for its mercy.
 
What is "Hamachi" and "Hamachi players" ?

Straight from wikipedia.

"Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual private network (VPN) shareware application capable of establishing direct links between computers that are behind NAT firewalls without requiring reconfiguration (in most cases)"
 
Straight from wikipedia.

"Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual private network (VPN) shareware application capable of establishing direct links between computers that are behind NAT firewalls without requiring reconfiguration (in most cases)"

So might this : "Since Hamachi relies on a central server to process log in requests, at high traffic times users may not be able to access their Hamachi accounts." be the cause of the instability?
 
So might this : "Since Hamachi relies on a central server to process log in requests, at high traffic times users may not be able to access their Hamachi accounts." be the cause of the instability?

I doubt it. The players on hamachi seem to crash as often as those who are not.
 
The main problem is that CK is from the grimdark and Stevensian past of computing, when the internets transmitted bits via floppydisks taped to trained rats navigating a vast series of tubes. The need for manually handcranking the savegames every 10 minutes has proven especially problematic and infuriating.
 
What shall it profit a man, if he shall win a kingdom, and lose his son?

By any public measure, the life of Arkadios must be considered a success. Under his rule the theme of Antioch had expanded north and south, forming a barrier between the infidel and the Mediterranean behind which the Roman Empire could fight its civil wars without interruption. His eldest son, beneficiary of the Antiochene Intrigue, ruled a Caucasian princedom; and due partly to the reputation for ruthlessness Arkadios had acquired during that affair, even the most Byzantine intriguer at the court of Constantinople feared to climb a ladder of daggers stuck in Komnenoi backs. And to crown his achievements, after making the Loyal Peace with the Emperor Dukas by cleaning his court and making him master in his own house, he had cemented the alliance by marrying the Emperor's daughter, Pulcheria.

And yet public achievement was balanced by private tragedy. At this distance in time it is hard to untangle cause and effect even for the great matters of the day, much less for the internal affairs of families; we cannot say why Ioannes, alone of Arkadios's sons, should have been the cause of so much grief. Did he feel neglected during his father's long campaigns? Jealous of his elder brother's inheritance? For much of his childhood he was attended mainly by servants; was there some darker secret, some unloyal corrupter of youth? We do not know. But where motivation is murky, the facts remain. We know that Ioannes pushed the undoubted privileges of upper-class Roman males well beyond the accepted limits. To the usual moneys paid to dower no-longer-chaste female servants, an expected expense, were added large sums in compensation for actual beatings. Men in Ioannes's position did not need to use force merely to fill their beds; although dowries were by convention listed in family accounts as "compensation for rape", this was understood by all to be a polite fiction, avoiding the charge of adultery against the women. Something other than the ordinary randiness of teenaged humans must have been involved.

Arkadios, juggling his many other commitments, nonetheless found time to respond to his son's crimes - as we may rightly call them at this distance, though at the time they were often referred to, even by enemies of the Komnenoi, as 'antics'. The recorded public rebukes followed, no doubt, private admonishments; and as Arkadios, like his father, was a conscious reviver of Roman traditions, including the custom of patria potestas, we need not believe that Ioannes's punishments were limited to hard words. Nor can Arkadios be accused of having used only the stick; as soon as he was of age, Ioannes was allowed to accompany his father on campaign, and given high rank in the army. Indeed this was the most successful of Arkadios's dealings with his son; on campaign they appear to have found a natural camaraderie, and we hear nothing of ill discipline on Ioannes's part (although it may be pointed out that rape of enemy women was not considered bad discipline at the time), and much of his military achievements.

But Antioch could not remain forever at war, and in peacetime Ioannes appears to have had all the vices of the combat soldier confined to a big-city garrison. Even if we discount a large part of the stories of drunken brawling as slanders by Komnenoi enemies, we are left with the fact that, in 1119, the city apparently became too hot for him and he left for an extended tour of the provinces. Why Arkadios chose not to simply suppress the mobs baying for his son's life we cannot know. It is possible that he feared such an order would not be obeyed; but as his soldiers were recruited largely from estates outside the city, rather than from the citymen they would be suppressing, it does not seem likely. Did he feel there was justice in the complaints? Or did he hope that his son could be shocked into reform? Or perhaps he was, for once in his life, battered by events into an uncharacteristic vacillation? We do not know; but it is certain that Ioannes's bachelor villa, separate from the palace, was put to the torch, that he himself only barely escaped with his life, and that he then left the city for a year, until things had cooled down.

Even so, Ioannes remained sufficiently unpopular in Antioch that Arkadios thought it wise to get him out of the way for a further period; to this end, he made his son military governor of distant Monreal, with the task of converting the heathens there. At this point, it appears that Arkadios had given up on reforming his scapegrace son, and limited himself to damage control; let Ioannes work out his urges, if he must, on poverty-stricken infidel women rather than the daughters of wealthy merchants with connections at court.

Alas, the likes of Ioannes are not so easily disposed of; whatever else one may say of him, he had the Komnenoi genius and strength of will in full measure, and applied it unceasingly to getting into trouble. Arkadios had exiled him to rule the shepherders of dusty Monreal in order to save him from the Antiochene mob; Ioannes took it as a personal insult. Knowing that he could not hope to win an insurrection with the surly militia of his Moslem province, he instead turned - the apple does not fall far from the tree - to thoughts of assassination; but he lacked his father's subtle hand, or perhaps the money to buy the best. His brother Zenobios survived the ambush he had arranged, and the surviving assassins confessed under torture who had hired them.

This was, perhaps, the one thing that could have roused Arkadios to his full measure of ruthlessness. Any other crime he could have condoned; against any outside foe, he would have fought to protect his son, even the black sheep of the family. But for Komnenoi to plot against Komnenoi was unforgivable; and in a letter to Zenobios, Arkadios took upon himself the full responsibility of a paterfamilias, of keeping order within the family. Nor was this an empty phrase; Arkadios raised no armies and sent no agents. Instead he himself travelled to Monreal, and was welcomed by his son; and as they sat at meat, Arkadios drew his dagger, and with his own hands killed Ioannes. Thus he maintained the unity of the Komnenoi, and their reputation for utter ruthlessness when roused to anger; but it is reported, and we may well believe, that he wept as he struck.

Such is the tragedy of Ioannes; and the judgement of Arkadios has stood the test of time. "My son Ioannes", he says in his Memoirs, "was not a good man. But a father cannot cease to love his child, merely because the child is in the wrong. And it is not right that parents should bury their children."

DeathOfIoannes.jpg


O my son Ioannes, o Ioannes, my son, my son!
 
Alright this is -despite us having technical problems- not dead yet as you can see by looking at KoM´s AAR.
The following AAR is as KoM´s about the session on July 31rd which was a technical nightmare and only covered four years of ingame time.
But just enough happened in these four years to fill an update.
The AAR comes now after two weeks because it was not clear whether we continue from the 1126 or from the 1122 save game.
 
The Knautschlings - part 6

The British Isles




Asbjörn was never content with what he had, he always wanted more power. For that reason
he orders his aging Marshal Pimen of Ragusa to plot an invasion for England.
The reason he does this is that the King of England is excommunicated and most other
christian rulers will not mind if Asbjörn takes his lands away for he is one of the most
pious persons around.
Marshal Pimen´s plans are executed before the ink with which they are written is dry.

k0501.jpg


Just one month after Asbjörn leaves with his army to conquer England his son is born.

k0502.jpg


This is noteworthy for two reasons. One being that the child´s mother and Asbjörn´s wife
Sigrid is already in her forties and the other being that said Sigrid regularly ridicules Asbjörn´s
inability to do "the deed".
That said it is not much of a secret she does have "fun" with a lot young men at court,
which leads some people to suspect that Faste might not actually be Asbjörn´s son.

k0503.jpg


Asbjörn finds that notion ridiculous.
But he has more urgent concerns at hand anyways. When his armies arrive in England the
situation is not as he expected it, the excommunicated King of England is about to
get his realm partitioned by the King of France and the Duke of Gwynedd.
Asbjörn orders his men to stay on the ships for the moment until the situation finally
clears up.
Feeding his men on the ships miraculously works, a logistical task no one thought possible.
But after some months the French and Gwyneddian armies still have not properly defeated
the King of England and Asbjörn´s patience is wearing thin.
He orders his men to attack two counties which are not part of this whole mess.
Conveniently he discovers some ancient claims on their titles the very same day.

k0504.jpg


Even before those Duchies are defeated however the man formerly known as Duke of Gwynedd
crowns himself the new King of England and unlawfully attacks Asbjörn´s armies in a vile attack.
Surprised by the attack the Danish armies are forced into retreat at first even when outnumbering
the enemy by a fair margin. Diocese Bishop Valdemar is reported to have fled with almost
seven thousand danish soldiers from just over a thousand barbarians.

k0505.jpg


But of course with Asbjörn´s and Pimen´s tactical genius and the superior Danish numbers the
tide turns fast.

k0506.jpg


All the war efforts force Asbjörn to crave a large contribution from the Estates General
if he wants to continue his campaign.

k0507.jpg


But at the end of the day when he returns home to his newborn child
after all the fighting miraculously stopped all of a sudden he is quite happy with his
newfound influence in England.

k0508.jpg
 
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The Toulousian Codex:

1122-1126:

Analysis of the Roman situation:

The true Roman Empire didn't have a good 4 years, my only major gain being Tunisia, which is going to be given away to Frosty anyhow. Diplomacy goes decently well, with good relations being established with almost all my neighbours. Even Toledo seems to be friendly, though I'm sure some of this is due to my being so much larger than him... Will be interesting to see how that relationship evolves.

Analysis of the Dynastic Glory:

dg1126.png


Despite the power of my Empire, I've only managed a (respectable) third place, the top spot is a competition between the Abbasids and the Knautschlings (Persia and Denmark). The ibn Ziri are doing stunningly well for a dynasty owning only duke titles... Like the other AI powers in this game, I suspect the ibn Ziri will fall in due time, however.

dg1126people.png


As you can see here, von R's current king is already the most prestigious man in history. At a tender 37, von R is likely to recover his Dynastic Glory with this king, meaning he will soon be rejoining the top 8.

Behind the scenes:

We've been very quiet on the AAR forum, as we've been doing alot of testing of the game, trying to find the source of the excessive instability we're having, which has had even CK veterans like me getting impatient. The main culprets seem to be a lack of defragging, a botched install of the mod by our host, and hamachi. We're hoping we can still play with the hamachi guys now we've fixed the other two things, but it may be we have to kick out two of our players in order to give the rest of us a game worth playing...

Also, due to a busy real life, KoM stepped down, and I was elected GM.

To anyone who wants to join as an Immortal, we've got a whole bunch of Immortal slots open.

fasquardon
 
Breaking news!


Egypt takes Jerusalem!

Egypt takes Meccah!

Egypt takes Sicily!

Egypt thrashes Antioch and takes Baalbek, Outrejourdain, Aleppo and Edessa!
(Antioch started it!)

Frosty recieves his tax returns and is able to afford both internet and basic foodstuffs this month!

Our crashing troubles are narrowed down to Foelsgaard being unstable. Hopefully he will be able to fix his troubles with some reinstalling and defragging.

Stay tuned!
 
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Breaking news!


Egypt takes Jerusalem!

Egypt takes Meccah!

Egypt takes Sicily!

Egypt thrashes Antioch and takes Baalbek, Outrejourdain, Aleppo and Edessa!
(Antioch started it!)

Frosty recieves his tax returns and is able to afford both internet and basic foodstuffs this month!

Our crashing troubles are narrowed down to Foelsgaard being unstable. Hopefully he will be able to fix his troubles with some reinstalling and defragging.

Stay tuned!

Wich ones of those "takes" are supposed to be "Retakes"?
 
The Knautschlings - part 7

Change




Following Asbjörn´s England adventure not all of his vassals are all that loyal.
Some of them feel that with the Danish armies still being scattered throughout the North Sea
now is their time to strike and break free from Asbjörn´s rule.
A pitiful notion considering Asbjörn is the main character of this tale and they are not
even mentioned by name till now. Or in the future for that matter.
Most active are the Dukes in the area of the former kingdoms Sweden and Norway.

k0601.jpg


However they do not manage to forge a unified military front and with every Duke just fighting
in his own little miserable area of land they will soon be forced in line by Asbjörn one at a time.
Asbjörn is not shocked by such things, he believes his rule to have divine support.
And because he does think in this way he has no second thoughts about craving a large financial contribution
from the vassals still loyal to him - even while the civil war still lasts.
According to a rumor that will spread through the court soon Chancellor Jorunn calls Asbjörn
the most ignorant fool she has ever met in her entire life right to his face when he announces that decision.

k0602.jpg


The fact that she is not punished will lead most of the courtiers to thinking that the rumor is untrue,
but as the narrator I can tell you that it will describe the event exactly as it happens right now.
As to why Asbjörn does not punish her I do not have much explanation, except that not all things
in life do in fact make sense.
Shortly afterwards Asbjörn catches a disease and dies.
I tell it swiftly as it happens swiftly, life is hard in medieval times.

k0603.jpg


So it happens that five year old Faste, unlikely son of a woman in her forties is now the
ruler of a Kingdom.

k0604.jpg


A difficult task for someone who has not even learned how to sleep alone yet.

k0605.jpg


You can imagine how many people offer "advice" to a child King
like Faste, and he eagerly accepts most of it.
Faste obviously does not care for Power or for Denmark for all that matters, he is still a child.
Not one of the unusual mature kind I might add.
And frankly I believe that at this point you do agree with me when I tell you that were this a tale
about the real world and not one about a video game we would now probably see Asbjörn´s Empire
magnificently collapsing like a house of cards.
In this tale Faste living the peaceful life of a child and at the same time steering
Denmark through the end of it´s civil war does not have to surprise you, though.
In late summer 1231 the civil war has almost come to an end.

k0606.jpg


And Faste is admired by many for achieving this already at his age which accounts to eight years
at the end of this chapter.

k0607.jpg
 
Wich ones of those "takes" are supposed to be "Retakes"?

The provinces of Baalbek and Palermo, many of the rest belonged to the Fatimid title at game start but we all started as dukes. The Calipha of course does not recognize that his line was ever anything less than the rightful rulers of all Moslemdom. :D


Now for the surprisingly stable session 8, in which we made it to late 1131.
session8.jpg


Of note:

The Fatimid Caliphate accomplishes all its major goals with the capture of Jerusalem, Mecca and Sicily and proclaiming myself King of Egypt and Jerusalem! The depleted Caliphate is then jumped by one of KoM's backstabbing vassals (apple not far from tree?) I offer KoM a white peace but he refuses and is punished for his warmongering ways, this is the second time he goes after me without prior warning and we where supposedly allied in our concern over Baghdads overreach in anatolia... Tunis is negotiated for with the Roman Empire and will be transfered by edit.


We lose our Naples player to RL and its outliers are swiftly divided between me and Fasq. (I note that AI Naples attacked me, so the conquest was solely in self defense!)(Ignore the fact that I conveniently had claims on the entire island)


We have a new Toledo player and we wish him the very best! He is currently the vassal of Galicia (N.Spain/SW.France) but is moslem. Should he instead wish to submit to the Caliphate (and conver to Shi'ite by event) we promise him low taxes and economic, military and diplomatic support in all his ventures. No true believer should have to bow to unbelievers!


Antioch is still the vassal of Byz, but has a heir in line for the Greek throne. Will the toddler survive? As we know Antioch lost some provs to the Caliphate and rebellion. Perhaps relations can return to normal if the Greeks turn to their own problems, apparently the "Bastion of Christendom" didn't notice when Persians and Rus nabbed half the kingdom behind their backs! :eek:


Baghdad has stability troubles and is unable to threaten me, allowing for my military adventures! A deal of some for was struck to restore the old Caucasian borders with the Rus. Everybody who placed their bets on "wuss diplomatic compromise" on page 12 may collect their winnings from the poor fools who gambled the house on "steppe hoedown". Baghdad still haves some eyesores in my realm, hopefully they can be persuaded to hand them over in the name of neighborly understanding and pretty maps. As for the Anatolian infiltrations I am unsure if Baghdad can be persuaded to relinquish them freely after the massive concessions to Russia.


Russia notably has regained massive tracts of land as well as moved in on the Balkans, will he try for AI Hungary? will such behemoth even hold together? or will he eat us all?


Lothringa, Normandie and Poland sit around. Normandie needs to get a move on with the consolidation of his realm quicklike, possibly by buying back Russian Bretagne and the string of land Denmark inherited in the middle, and Poland desperately needs to take the Hungarian title. But not much seems to happen from where I sit?


Wales and Denmark, now heres action and audacious opperations! Wales holds the England title and demands the Danes leave his kingdom, but the Danes have secured a superior position and has Scandinavian reserves. The end will likely be decided by their ability to secure allies for their cause, watch for Lothringa or some other local power putting their stubby fingers on the scales of this conflict.


Theres still room for a Hungaro/Croatian/Naples player, grab it while theres still time! :D
 
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And since there has been questions on viable positions for new players, I give you The AI Realms:

aisess8.jpg

Including Toledo as a vassal of Galicia and Antioch of Byzantium

How long will they survive in this unforgiving sea of warmongers? Place yer bets now!
 
There is No Wales


There is only King of England!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, As Hamachi is not couse of anything evil I will be able to continue participating in this campaing.
 
Well, the Galicia area is already sorta claimed by the Toledo player, so Hungary still is the main power vacuum that needs to be filled. I think that would be where I would go. I know it contradicts what I said before on Ederon, but Hungary has more opportunities for expansion than someone in Spain.
 
There is only King of England!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come back when you own it! :p

In EU3 there are goldmines in spain. Are they there in CK? and Where?

There are no goldmines as such, but spain is fairly wealthy. Especially the south, there are only 6 provs richer than Cordoba in the game.
 
Good it is still going, it'll be interesting to see how KoM will manage to expand once the AIs are gone. On a side note: I have purchased a new computer along with a new connection so I might even be able to participate in EU3 :)