What's going on in your current game?

Playing as the Fatimids. Just finished my conquest of Italy/Sicily and Armenia. Rounding up my rebellious brothers after having just inherited the throne. Just one rebelled, but I had given him land in Mesopotamia, Greece, and Italy. Now I'm looking for an Empire Title, but everything is too fractured to take in a short period of time. Have most of Arabia but allies on my flanks in the Peninsula and Africa.

Castel said:

Emir of Jerusalem, 1085 or something like that.

The Sultan, the very own uncle of my character, just sent him in jail. And i have no idea why.

Good relation and all, same religion, no problems. No even a single plot going on or anything.

That's mighty cold.

Click to expand...

Decadence. In jail you generate no decadence, and thus you were jailed, even if you had done nothing wrong. It's also the reason you can imprison and execute your family members without any penalties.

In My Current Russia Game Im Simply Waiting for The Mongols as best as Russia Can. By Building up Holding nd Enhancing them as best as I can. its now 1220 and ive just got the event of the Romours of the Horde. So it should be any Day that this Showdown occurs.

Well I have just started my new Normandy game (Duke William) and it is 1067, so not much has happened yet. So far, I have conquered 60% of England, with several large battles against King Harold (compared to a usual one - with small battles afterwards). Denmark is almost completely conquered Lubeck which is reasonable mapwise as they border each other.

Sultan Alp Alsan of the Persian Sultanate with 24,000 is taking on a 18,000 Byzantine Empire. Would be really cool if they approached 50K armies, there would be some impressive, yet tiring battles there. One of the smaller Emirates is about to take the southern tip of Sardinia like usual, and Robert the Old is revolting against King Phillipe of France (neither have troops near mine so not bothering to get involved).

Started as duke of Munster in 1066. As I was trying to get the Irish crown, my heir inherited a french duchy and left court.
I died some day and ended in France with a Liege. Great...

I waited...I observed....I`ve made sons....

During that time, constant skirmishes with France and HRE vs some Mauritanian arabs wich eventually end up in having a crusade right at my doorstep. Easy piety/prestige buff with big friends :wub:

I kept forging CB in Ireland. Took them 1 by 1. But Duchy of Ulster fell to Scotland. I managed to got the rest. France messed a bit with Dublin though..

Around 2 generations later, France looked more like a swiss cheese than a kingdom. It spent nearly 25 years of civil war, and was exhausted. That`s when I moved. Because, you know, you just don`t mess with US. The Ua Briain family
I declared my independance at a crippled France. Bye-Bye boss and got the Kingdom of Ireland soon after in 1215.

Now my options are:
fix internal affairs because there is a lot to do here
rumors about an eastern army rushing in started to appear lately. I guess that`s the golden horde, so I must be ready
my other targets are either Scotland. Because, you know.. they owe US the Ua Briain family, some lands
or the kingdom of Denmark due to some moron king that first accepted a matrially bethrothal with my daughter to his son....then refused it over and over when time comes..DON`T MESS WITH US!!!

Started as the Count of Naissus, currently holding half of de jure Wallachia, all of de jure Serbia (Kingdoms) while still being a vassal of Byzantium. Nikea is independent and owns about six counties in Greece, with seven more in Anatolia. I expended so far by taking over these countries that went independent, but this bastard married the Queen of Russia, who is also allied with Byzantium on her own, a very strange situation since I've no idea what will happen if I use my claims on his lands.

Almost all of Byzantium and Iberia has been gobbled up by muslims, and the only reason I'm still alive is because I'm still a Byzantine vassal. Not sure how to proceed actually!

I have formed Prussia, from the Count in denmark i invaded the duchy of prussia with some mercs while the pagans were all off fighting poland. Took the duchies and most of the Baltic under denmark, Declared Independence and waited 100 (more like 150 to get rid of the denmark assimilation) years for the Kingdom to go Dejure.

Then i Usurped the Kingdom of denmark which i had been steadily expanding into. Then claimed Norway in a bloody war from the Scottish. and Formed the Empire of the Prussia so now I'm looking at
invading the HRE to Justify my new title, and then i will probably abandon the game since there wont be much to do at that point.

And for the rest of the world. William won the Norman Conquest, Then norway beat William, Denmark got involved so Normandy never stood a chance. The Normans and Saxons in England naturally revolted. This strange culture called the English formed, and then promptly was restricted to Kent as England with Hardrada as a liege probably broke the event.

France lost the throne to Burgundy whos family line actually married into Iberia. France served as protector throughout the Recontista though its motives weren't exactly pure. Castille in the turmoil of Iberia turned over somehow to France's dynasty. So France essentially got involved with every war in Iberia due to being Kinsmen with Castille. Most of Iberia was christian and then the Caliphs remembered that theres these weak pair of kingdoms out in Iberia, So they started calling Jihads, Though France would have none of it and usually the Whole Peninsula+France and Sometimes Britanny would defend against them.

On the Crusading front, and this was interesting. Somehow Upland never rebelled and ended up conquering the whole of Northern Sweden. To my surprise, they converted and became christian at some point because they not only fought in the first crusade but won it. They left Sweden in the dust and formed Jerusalem and then Held the title for over a hundred years as the Muslims of course slowly picked it apart. in terms of territory though they owned more of Scandinavia than of the middle east so it was Intresting to see them try and claim Sweden, Multiple times. Then the Second Crusade rolls around.. Sweden wins it this time. Which then Renders Jerusalem as vassal again hmy: That must have been awkward.

The HRE married into the Saxon nobility. In one of the revolts against Norway the HRE got involved and England and Norway soon obtained a new striped coat of gold and black, free of charge. The Salian Dynasty now rules Both England and the HRE both separate from each other, the English vassals themselves are starting to go german now, culture hasn't moved much. Sicily was formed, by Muslims, the HRE obliterated them within 50 years, not surprised really the ERE has the duchy of Salerno giving southern italy a purple band on it.

The ERE was seen better days, They have lost almost all of Turkey save the coastline. Greece is safe though and the ERE is using it to come back since the Muslims still cant figure out how to fix their decadence problems.

Speaking of Muslim Dynasties, The Hammadids own.. Everything.. Both Caliphates, A sultanate in Morocco they had Egypt for a time as well but Decadence just recently turned it over.

Russia did everything but form so far, The Golden horde hasn't shown its face yet so I'm hopeful. They have been playing Musical Kingdoms in Russia However, Russ, Kiev(Ruthenia) and Volga-Bulgaria have all formed at one time or another, Usually its two at a time. Though fate prevents them from just uniting and forming Russia proper its a tad annoying as none of the three kingdoms have switched out of Gavel-kind succession so Russia looks like a checkerboard of powerful dukes and Kingdoms.

In less important news, Ireland Formed. Which is surprising I think its because Ireland pretty much was forced to unite when the Kingdom of Dublin formed proper and took about 50% of Dejure Ireland. Whales formed as well, by Britanny, why they didn't form the Kingdom of Britanny is beyond me as it is indeed the De Rennes that Hold the kingdom. They aren't pressing Whales Dejure territory either, maybe the AI knows if it gets too big England and France might try to muscle in on it.

Hungary ate Croatia and much of the Tengri's in Bulgaria. If there potentially was an empire Croatia-Hungary-Bulgaria-Poland Could form Hungary would have done it by now. They aren't even close to being a world power but it certainly looks dangerous.

This is all just after the Ilkhanate showed up by the way.

I'm still rollin' with the Baduspanids of Persia... and recently succeeded in my biggest long term goal: I have usurped the Persian Empire... from Egypt, who won the title in a claim war and promptly lost every ounce of de jure land to independence wars. I've since pushed the greatness of the Zikri Faith to every corner of the de jure Persian Empire, finally accomplishing the dream of my grandfather Sultan Kambiz "The Great" Baduspanid. I lucked out with the Ilkhanate and managed to hit them up with a holy war for Khiva while they fought a mess of independence wars, while one of my vassals, the Emir of Merv, pressed his own holy war for Bukhara allowing us to take all of Khiva at the same time without sacrificing a chance to boost the moral authority of Zikri.

My current ruler has been the first in generations though to have to worry about decadence. His son has had a billion kids of his own, most of em' with crappy, decadence generating traits. His eldest son was a gluttonous, craven, slothful jerk who was contributing more than .20% decadence a month alone, pushing Shahanshah Jazeed I into drastic actions: plotting to kill his own grandson, before the fat, useless turd could become Shahanshah himself someday. On the fourth try, a conspirator succeeded in causing him to fly off a cliff... but unfortunately, my involvement was discovered. My son and heir got super pissed, and Shahanshah Jazeed will now forever be known as "The Dragon" due to his kinslaying ways.

With the last bastion of Sunni resistance crushed in Persia, our glorious empire (born from the ashes of old Persia) has turned its attention west. With the fall of the Taranto Empire in Egypt, the entire Levant remains in chaos as the former Egyptian vassals all battle for supremacy, with the weaker falling before the tide of their superiors. Already the Bogomolist Romans of Byzantium (crazy, I know!) have reclaimed their lost land of Anatolia, which once had been all but lost to the Muslims. They've gone from fighting to keep Constantinople to now pushing back as far east as Georgia and Syria, while the great Baduspanid Empire strikes west into Syria. The tiny Sunni and Shia rulers of Syria offered little resistance, and recently the crown of the Sultanate of Syria has been yanked from Sunni hands, and promptly placed on the head of my most loyal vassal in the region in hopes he can continue to claim the last non-Zikri counties in the region. The Shahanshah, though old and infirm, has larger plans than Syria: to our northwest, Armenia has all but fallen to the hands of the Bogomilists. The time has finally come to strike at Christianity, and deliver a crippling blow to the Romans before they can finish rebuilding their empire. We have the largest standing army in the world (it's amazing how many levies and gold you get just from holding de jure Mesopotamia, that region is just insane), but the mountains of Armenia are unforgiving to outsiders. Honestly, even with the huge numerical advantage I expect a long, painful war against the Byzantine infidels.

EDIT: Oh, and because I couldn't do this last time...

The Baduspanid Empire in all its glory, having finally set foot on the shores of the Mediterranean:



(Saxon Scotland won a Crusade for Finland... I miss the old Pagan Kingdom that was there, but this is still amusing)


EDIT #2: Well, we did it. They put up a very tenacious defense and multiple times threatened to break our lines and push us back into Mesopotamia, but in the end the Byzantine Empire fell before the united might of Persia. It probably helped that one of the ERE Emperor's vassals had him assassinated midway through the war... and that it sparked a war for the throne. Unfortunately, midway through that war half of Armenia declared for the rebel, so I had to murder him in order to stop the rebellion and claim the lands in Armenia. Disappointingly, unlike with Mongol Invasions I discovered the Muslim version won't grant you land outside the target if you occupy it. Means my next war against Byzantium will be for a single Syrian county, which is currently mocking me in the middle of my land.

Fun little activity in my current game.

I was Emperor Flann I "The Great" of Britannia, King of Scotland, England, & Castille. The kings of Italy, Wales, and Ireland are my vassals. The Queen of Croatia was my wife.

We had two sons and a daughter (Agnes). Both sons die in the minorities - the oldest son mysteriously and the second son was murdered by some mayor (I made sure he got his just desserts).

This left little Agnes in line to inherit, and I went on a splurge of holy wars and crusades in Iberia to give her a pleasant inheritance.

She has a couple of sons, so the future of the line looks good. My wife dies, and Agnes takes over Croatia according to plan. I support her in a couple of wars over her succession to keep the future inclusion of Croatia on target.

Flann remarries and also keeps living, and living, and living. He has 2 more daughters with the new wife.

Then Agnes passes away and her son Robert takes his spot as my heir. My vassals are happier not to have a woman in position to inherit and Robert seems to be popular, so it isn't all bad.

Then my new wife has a son when I'm around 70. A few family members, Robert in particular (he just lost the empire), are ticked.

My intrigue notifier starts popping up with plots to kill little James Harold. I managed to get everyone to give up their foolish plots until... Yep, Robert plots my son's death and gets 8-10 co-plotters, and her refuses to give up the plan. I manage to strip the backers, but a few months later the list is filled with another dozen or so. I guess Robert was very, very popular.

I have a decision - see my son dead so my popular grand-son can inherit, or protect my son as a faithful father should.

I strip the plotters again, and every month run out and clean them away to keep the plot weak. And I start my own plot to see Robert dead. He may have been popular with those in my realm, but within Croatia - not so much. I get 8 backers within his own lands. It becomes a race as I try to keep his plot weak and bolster my own.

My role is discovered, but Robert's carriage careens off a cliff. My son is saved and Croatia passes to my great-grandaughter, which the AI has seen fit to marry normally - so the croatian cadet branch of the family is closed.

Flann finally passed away at 79 (I think) and James II Harold a Gordon took the throne at 11.

So I kept the throne, but lost another kingdom for the empire.


Now if I can just get James' culture back to Scottish like it is supposed to be instead of Irish (for the last two generations)...

Good God...
Things kind of got out of hand rather quickly for House Salian. I mean, sure I've just reached my third straight Kaiser ruling the Holy Roman Empire for 40+ years, but jeez, things sort of escalated before I knew it. Let me try and bullet point it

1) All that inter-marriage with Franks paid off. Thanks to some remunerative appeals to the HRE's electorate, I got them to nominate my Frankish-born nephew who had recently been crowned King of France. He even identifies now as a German! Fantastic! Now the HRE stretches through a sizable chunk of the mainland (not to mention the Kingdoms of Italy and Sicily I control), plus the regions in and around Carthage.

2) Got into another Crusade. This one was in Iberia. Contributed the most, and got the duchies of Cordoba, Barcelona, and a smattering of neighboring counties. Also great! Rather tough to properly distribute my excessive demesne amongst family and trusted vassals, but these are good problems to have.

3) Kingdom of Germany tried to rebel. Well, it was more like a poorly executed usurping from a family member, really, but they tried. They failed quite miserably, and House Salian was re-established as the rightful ruler of Germany.

4) Convinced the Duke of Norrland -- who was married into my family and conveniently lacking power while beset by the various Scandinavian Kingdoms -- to swear fealty to me. Mercifully simple, after all that fighting...

5) Working on killing off the King of Sicily, so House Salian can take control. Can't have the Empire splitting into petty kingdoms, can we? First king is dead, but now I should be getting close to killing the final non-Salian ruler.

6) Just finished pressing a claim one of my Courtiers had for Ireland while following the time-honored strategy of "Just siege the whole damn island!" Good times.

Now that that's over with, I'm going to stop warring for a few months. My Kaiser is 70-odd years old and can't keep grasping onto life forever. Now is the time to determine the best successor. All these kings within my family name, and I really want to establish a foothold with some other kingdoms, like the newly-expanded Navarro.
Somewhere between this time, the Mongols came around and into Ruthenia, Rus, and the Byzantines. They converted to Sunni Islam, but were stopped from expanding further, as no other dynasty seemed willing to back them up. It kind of blurred by, and all I remember now is that they just converted to Orthodox Christianity. At least they're less likely to murder all of Christendom to death.
Still a ways of a way left to go, and the Salian line looks like it will stay strong for quite a while. These next 45-100 years should be pretty fun!

I started as Aragon and conqured the single Muslim states. Castille merged with Leon so we had the upperhand for a about 100 years until a English queen came to power in Castille and Leon revolted. One Muslim nation united all of Morroco, Algiers, Tunis, Sicily, Southern Italy, and southern Spain and has just recently crushed Leon and Castille like nothing (several 10K doonstacks). I have taken Barcellona through conquest and Navarra through peace, as well as the Baleric Islands. Currently triying to take the remaining Muslims without angering the Sultan, but have to deal with constant invasions from them that only all the Holy Orders and most mercenaries combined with my army can resists for a white peace.

Still on my first (Abyssinia) game, 1066 start, now 1181 - Anatolia was Seljuk, then Fatamid, then Papal, currently split between former-Fatamid-now-Ismailid and Byzzies who have made something of a comeback. Iberia is all Muslim and France has been eated by the Hammadids (Africa) with Normandy and Britttany hanging on, presumably supported by Saxon England and a still healthy HRE.

United de jure Abyssinia and launched my first holy war for the duchy of Aswan while everyone east of Italy was fighting each other, Ismailid (Egypt, but his capitol is way up in Anatolia) ruler was a child and several emirates including Aswan had declared independence. Ismailid ruler still seems REALLY pissed at me, I may have a problem here.

Playing Denmark, house Hvide... Just inherit the Kingdom of England and Aragon, a good marriage 3 generations ago, and a new one inside the same house. It was impossible to hold it, I gave the Kingdom of Aragon away, lower Crown laws and manage get a stable game. I get to marry my son with the Queen of Wales so it's quite probably that between the next years I can Create the Britain Empire. Meanwhile I'm still eating Norway and Sweden county by county...

Started as the Duke of Apulia, created the Kingdom of Sicily and consolidated all its de jure lands. Through vulturing (particularly Muslims right after they win holy wars), I took the duchies Genoa, Sardinia, Tunis, and most of the de jure kingdoms of Aragon and Andalusia, plus some holdings in Greece (Achaea and Athens). I married the Queen of Galicia, who owned most of the rest of Iberia, and now my son is the King (though he made his primary title Castille instead). With his help and the help of France (who is married to my daughter), I have just successfully invaded the HRE (the request for invasion coincidentally being sent to the Pope on my RL birthday).

I'm now trying to consolidate my control and ensure that my son the King is elected Emperor... frustratingly when I won the empire it was on autonomous vassals, I have since raised it to low so I can revoke titles from traitors and hand out those nice elector titles to my friends. I didn't get as much of the holdings in the HRE as I would have liked invading because my King was getting into his 50s so I wanted to end it with plenty of time to ensure succession. I couldn't wait a generation to invade with a younger ruler because once I inherited the Spanish kingdoms I would have had too many holdings, plus the Emperor was in civil war so it was as good a time as any.

Mod: Lux Invicta
Ruler: King of Sparta.

I swore allegiance to the Imperium Romanum for protection and to claim land via vassal x vassal wars while the crown authority is low. Under my wise rule the Empire has grown to 90 holdings strong, half of which fall under the Spartan crown. A recent inheritance of the duchy of Charsianon puts me in a good position to usurp the Galatian crown (which will be used as an excuse to grab yet more lands). Ineffective conversion efforts in my personal demesne worries me. I have 3 counties with "legendary" traditions but those are useless until I can shuck the wrong religion penalties. Currently Sparta alone provides half of my personal army.

I'm the Kaiser of the HRE.(I started as Dukes of Austria, 1066)It is 1266,I've lived a long life.My first born son died.My Middle son is a Fraticelli Heretic and in my grandson's jail. My third son and now heir to the Empire is Count of Parma,problem his wife,the landed Countess, is in the King of Lotharingia's jail.and the Tratorous swine in mine.(He assasinated two of my grandkids)I can't ransom or order either released so I can fix the Problems of Succession.

Just started my first game as a Catholic in 1.06... as Count Ratibor Gryfita of Slupsk in 1122. My older half-brother, Wratislaw, is Duke of Pommerania and my liege lord. We're two of three brothers who are the sons of the last Pagan High Chief of Pommerania, the third being Swantibor... who is mostly just a useless, landless lump that helps carry the family name and offers no redeeming skills.

All starts off well, I miraculously am allowed to marry the bastard daughter, Isabelle Capet, of the King of France (who is illegitimate but a Capet, so I guess she's a little inbred... but hot and awesome traits/stats, so who cares?). Looking to snag some easy land, I declare a holy war against the Romuvan Pagans in Mecklenburg to our west while they're busy dealing with the HRE and England. A total cheese move (and I hate taking advantage of the pagans, love to see them survive), I know, but it snags me some easy new land and puts my size on par with my big brother. It's around this time my wife, now my spymaster, brings back her first interesting report: my cruel, cynical, slothful, hunchbacked otherwise horrible human being of an older brother is apparently also homosexual and tried to have my wife murdered to cover it up. Sehr "uncool". I happily let her spread the rumors, because, well, he tried to kill my wife and Ratibor is the zealous and wroth type who'd do it.

Pope calls a Crusade for Aragon (which already exists, so just trying to get him his land) while I'm finishing off the Pagans. Seeing as its already well in hand, I go ahead and join up (again, Zealous!) and sail my small army down to Iberia and land at Mallorca, making me a Crusader and allowing us to pillage some loot from the heathen Sunni.

And then my brother tries to kill my wife again.

And then my wife informs me the bastard is plotting to revoke my one and only title. He refuses to end his heinous plot, so despite the fact he's my brother I'm left with little option but to plot against him myself. I search the realm, and find that most of my fellow vassals and courtiers feel the same: my older half-brother is a godless brute, and his tyranny must be put to an end. It's at this point Ratibor becomes "stressed", furthering the difficulties him and Isabelle have at conceiving a child. While I'm off fighting Muslims, at home in Pommerania a plot is formulated... and comes to a head when Wratislaw's own Marshall informs me he's hired a few men to "take care" of my evil sibling. One rainy day, while out riding through the verdant forests of the Baltic coast, Wratislaw Gryfita is ambushed by an apparent band of highwaymen. In the ensuing chaos, the Duke of Pommerania is dealt his deathblow, his carriage driver fleeing in terror as the highwaymen loot his liege's corpse.

Aragon is reclaimed in the name of Christ, and Ratibor Gryfita returns to Pommerania as its Duke. Under the crown laws, my younger half-brother Swantibor is granted the single county of Danzig. He promptly marries a hunchbacked, gluttous, craven girl of no importance who has gone infirm at the age of 17, thus continuing Swantibor's long history of uselessness. Meanwhile, Duke Ratibor Gryfita has other ambitions: to the east, the Pagans of Lithuania are already falling rapidly to the aggressive outsiders of Poland, Denmark, Sweden, and Polotsk. With the land drying up quickly, the armies of Pommerania are ordered to strike swiftly to the east so that we may claim our own slice of the pie. Again, outside of all rping and such, I absolutely hate to see this happen to the Pagans, but I'll be damned if I let Poland have even more land from em'.

Their armies already decimated by our fellow Catholics, the peoples of Prussia and Lettigallia offer little resistance as we march in. A few small armies band together, but not enough to resist the full force of Pommerania. One by own the small tribes submit, with one Pagan noble captured in battle soon finding the glory of Christ while awaiting his fate in my dungeon. He's rewarded handsomely for his wisdom, and granted a county inhabited by his native Prussian people, so that he may bring them the word of Christ as well.

Two years after their marriage, Swantibor's "amazing" choice in spouses dies bedridden and infirm... at nineteen. He marries again to some nothing Pommeranian noble, but at least she's fertile and they quickly start to sprout out some kids. Good, because Ratibor and Isabelle continue to fail at having any of their own, and should the worst happen at least my half-wit brother and his brood and continue the family legacy.

But then, a miracle happens... a kindly old man named Aleksandr, a courtier of Ratibor's, tell him it could be worse. "Your willy could ooze cheese like mine," he said, referencing the venereal disease the old man was well known for carrying. "Worse indeed..." Ratibor realized this truth, and the stresses of his life melted away long enough for him to get some soldiers to march. After nearly a decade of marriage, a young child named Sweitopelk (after his grandfather, the last Pommeranian High Chief) was born to Ratibor and Isabelle. Shortly thereafter, the stress of life would return following the fall of the last Pagan lords were bordered.

Stress, in the name of Swantibor. Apparently not content with the prestigious county of Danzing, the half-wit decided he should be the rightful Duke of Pommerania. Stubbornly refusing to give up his ambitions, the surviving brothers Gryfita are forced to war. No one sides with Swantibor. Outnumbered over five to one, his pitiful army (which he lead himself, despite having the military skills of a turnip) is quickly vanquished and the survivors scattered to the wind. His holdings surrounded and seiged, Swantibor sheepishly surrenders. He now rots in the dungeon of his older brother, awaiting his fate and that of his family. Will he be executed? Set free? Stripped of his lands? Or will he be left in prison, powerless to ever attempt more treachery while his innocent eldest son is allowed to one day take his father's seat?

The Pommeranian House of Griffins has had a mixed bag of luck in the last decade. The rest of Mecklenburg has bent the knee to the Dukes of Pommerania, either peacefully or through force, and slowly the Pagans of the Baltic have begun to accept Jesus Christ as their savor. However, age hardened Duke Ratibor and as he grew older so did he grow crueler, becoming known among his realm as a outright sadist and his dungeon a whispered place of horrors. His brother, Swantibor Gryfita, died of grievous wounds he suffered from the hands of his own brother's torture. But the sins of the father did lead to any punishment of his son, Ratibor's nephew Lech Gryfita, and he was allowed to inherit his rightful land. Which worked out beautifully, as he later "discovered" an old tribal claim the Gryfitas had on the county of Chelmno, currently held by Poland. The Polish busy fighting Byzantium, the united forces of Pommerania, along with Swiss mercenaries, struck at their West Slavic brothers whose armies returned ragged and demoralized from Hungary and ultimately unable to drive out the Pommeranian invaders. Chelmno was ceded.

Then came the Crusade: the Pope calling for all loyal Catholics to once again return to Iberia, this time to reclaim Andalucia from the heathen Muslim filth. A massive failure on the part of both a Scottish and Bohemian general resulted in an unprecedented upset in a critical battle, resulting in both Duke Ratibor "The Cruel" and his son and heir Swietepolk Gryfita being captured by the Sultan of Mali, who had answered Mauritania's call for aid. A man of renown, Ratibor was thankfully treated respectfully by his captors and given a nice tower suite in the Sahara. Despite his comfortable accommodations, age and a lifetime of stress finally caught up, and Duke Ratibor passed away peacefully in his sleep thousands of miles away from his homeland.

Enter Duke Swietepolk... later also called "The Cruel", though perhaps ironically as he's actually a Kind individual. The Mali were happy to accept his ransom, allowing him to retake his father's place in the Crusade for Andalucia. However, luck is a harsh mistress: once again, Swietepolk would fall into enemy hands, this time as the Sultan of Mauritania would have the Duke of Pommerania captured. Thankfully, my chancellor assured the Sultan that Swietpolk is a swell guy, and once again a ransom was accepted to allow him to return to the front lines of a never ending Crusade.

noobermenschen said:

Still on my first (Abyssinia) game, 1066 start, now 1181 - Anatolia was Seljuk, then Fatamid, then Papal, currently split between former-Fatamid-now-Ismailid and Byzzies who have made something of a comeback. Iberia is all Muslim and France has been eated by the Hammadids (Africa) with Normandy and Britttany hanging on, presumably supported by Saxon England and a still healthy HRE.

United de jure Abyssinia and launched my first holy war for the duchy of Aswan while everyone east of Italy was fighting each other, Ismailid (Egypt, but his capitol is way up in Anatolia) ruler was a child and several emirates including Aswan had declared independence. Ismailid ruler still seems REALLY pissed at me, I may have a problem here.

Click to expand...

UPDATE: The year of our Lord 1273 and my Ethiopian light infantry just whipped an Islamic mercenary army with heavy cav and horse archers - WOOT! Lured them into attacking from Taizz into Tadjoura, that is across a strait into mountains. They outnumbered me 11600 to 10200 with my last 2000 or so troops arriving just in time. Just wanted to throw that out here as my Bride seems less than impressed by my great victory.

I gained that fight taking the last province, and usurping the duchy title, of Sanaa away from the Saimid Sultan of Persia (two more are owned by the Emir of Medina), whose holdings now consist of one mosque in Taizz - Ironically, the Seljuks who his forefather overthrew are still kicking as Emirs of Oman, and are trying to take back their birthright from the Il-Kahns, who seem to be having some troubles. Golden Horde has yet to show up, guess we'll have to wait for the Timurids.

Byzzies are still holding on and have expanded northeast around the Black Sea. Egypt is HUGE, at one point the ledger had their army close to 200,000. Fortunately I have kept my army just big enough, on paper at least, so there has always been a smaller bone for the big dogs to chew on (the ledger has me now at 38,000 compared to 16,000 for the Il-Kahns for instance). My holdings consist of my original duchy of Gondar together with the provinces of Harer (duchy title destroyed). My former Islamic provinces are pretty much at tech 3 and my original tech 0 provinces are moving to tech 2 very quickly, with cathedral schools and small universities in all provinces. The rest of my kingdom (Duchy of Axum and Republic of Aswan) is a ways behind however.

Hammadids (Africa) lost southern France to the HRE but are taking it back as the Antione Sultanate - apparently French culture really is universal. Duhnnedins (sp?) have created the empire of Hispania so western Christendom is in trouble, even the HRE is showing cracks but that may just be the huge tyranny penalty the current Kaiser is carrying. Saxon England hasn't done much except blow apart and reform itself under child kings. Ireland is united under the Doge of Munster, who has also taken part of Scotland and Wales.

Started a Alexios Comnemus in 1066. My neice Duchess of Antioch matrilinearally married my younger brother.(Her Uncle) and rebelled against the New Basileus.

Let's just say I'm not helping........(I hate incest and also rebellion hasn't attracted any other supporters)