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How I thought I was clever, but got played like a fiddle by the AI
Introduction
Hello, everyone. I was recently indulging in my favorite pastime in CK (messing around with Byzantium in the 1337 scenario) when a sequence of events occurred that I thought was noteworthy enough to write up.
This will be an AAR in the strictest sense of the word: an action occurred and I will report it. There won't be any narrative, nor are there any amazing feats of gameplay. On the bright side, it'll be short.
A note about the screenshots: I didn't take any while playing, so I had to reload savegames and take snaps after the fact. Some don't match actual dates perfectly, while others are outright mockups (I had to manually fire some events to get the event texts). All described events did actually happen, I promise.
So, without further ado, let's get started:
Chapter One
Here’s a brief story about events that transpired in Byzantium. You could say it started whenever Paradox set Byzantium’s inheritance law in the 1337 scenario to some variety of semisalic. But for convenience’s sake, let’s say it starts with this dude:
The late Emperor Michael Palaiologos. His daughter Eudokia will feature prominently later in this tale
As you can see, Michael’s dead at the start of this story. Being dead, he no longer has friends or rivals, but rest assured that he had a great deal of rivals while he was alive. In fact, Michael collected rivals the way Imelda Marcos collected shoes. Also note the ‘Realm Duress’ trait, which caused all sorts of fun with the vassals, rival or not.
Michael fathered a fair number of kids, but most of them died before he did (and please note, Michael was dead at age 29 – longevity does not appear to be a Palaiologos trait). Michael had an underage son, but Byzantium having semisalic somesuch inheritance law, the blasted Rubenids were waiting in the wing to take over the Empire, if anything untoward were to befall the little tyke.
Speaking of untoward: I had managed to estrange Michael from his wife, which meant no more kids were forthcoming. However, others made up for the lack of spousal visits to the Emperor’s bedroom.
“The door to your bedchamber suddenly opens”… Michael dodged the first attempt, but two times’ a charm and that left us with Michael dead at 29 and his son Leo on the throne at the tender age of 8.
Screenshot is from a few years later, but the general situation in the game was the same. Bless his heart, little Leo already has the ‘Suspicious’ trait. I suppose seeing your father killed in the comfort of his own bed might do that to you…
As you can see in the screenshot, there’s a Rubenid as my direct successor. And then it’s his brothers and then God knows what. Distinctly lacking is any kind of male Palaiologos.
If I can’t nurse little 8-year old Leo to adulthood and hitch him to a suitably fertile wife and get him to spawn some male offspring, this sour-looking fellow will take over the Empire and I’ll be looking at the ‘Game Over’ screen
How I thought I was clever, but got played like a fiddle by the AI
Introduction
Hello, everyone. I was recently indulging in my favorite pastime in CK (messing around with Byzantium in the 1337 scenario) when a sequence of events occurred that I thought was noteworthy enough to write up.
This will be an AAR in the strictest sense of the word: an action occurred and I will report it. There won't be any narrative, nor are there any amazing feats of gameplay. On the bright side, it'll be short.
A note about the screenshots: I didn't take any while playing, so I had to reload savegames and take snaps after the fact. Some don't match actual dates perfectly, while others are outright mockups (I had to manually fire some events to get the event texts). All described events did actually happen, I promise.
So, without further ado, let's get started:
Chapter One
Here’s a brief story about events that transpired in Byzantium. You could say it started whenever Paradox set Byzantium’s inheritance law in the 1337 scenario to some variety of semisalic. But for convenience’s sake, let’s say it starts with this dude:
The late Emperor Michael Palaiologos. His daughter Eudokia will feature prominently later in this tale
As you can see, Michael’s dead at the start of this story. Being dead, he no longer has friends or rivals, but rest assured that he had a great deal of rivals while he was alive. In fact, Michael collected rivals the way Imelda Marcos collected shoes. Also note the ‘Realm Duress’ trait, which caused all sorts of fun with the vassals, rival or not.
Michael fathered a fair number of kids, but most of them died before he did (and please note, Michael was dead at age 29 – longevity does not appear to be a Palaiologos trait). Michael had an underage son, but Byzantium having semisalic somesuch inheritance law, the blasted Rubenids were waiting in the wing to take over the Empire, if anything untoward were to befall the little tyke.
Speaking of untoward: I had managed to estrange Michael from his wife, which meant no more kids were forthcoming. However, others made up for the lack of spousal visits to the Emperor’s bedroom.
“The door to your bedchamber suddenly opens”… Michael dodged the first attempt, but two times’ a charm and that left us with Michael dead at 29 and his son Leo on the throne at the tender age of 8.
Screenshot is from a few years later, but the general situation in the game was the same. Bless his heart, little Leo already has the ‘Suspicious’ trait. I suppose seeing your father killed in the comfort of his own bed might do that to you…
As you can see in the screenshot, there’s a Rubenid as my direct successor. And then it’s his brothers and then God knows what. Distinctly lacking is any kind of male Palaiologos.
If I can’t nurse little 8-year old Leo to adulthood and hitch him to a suitably fertile wife and get him to spawn some male offspring, this sour-looking fellow will take over the Empire and I’ll be looking at the ‘Game Over’ screen
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