March against the nomads!- A Georgian AAR

[PdoxNewbie]

I have started a Steppe Wolf game as Georgia, starting in 1096, the year of the start of the First Crusade. "Whoop-de-do', you may think, "Just another short AAR from PdoxNewbie". Well, that might be true, but right now, I'm in the AARing spirit, so maybe I could get a few updates in today. The first update should come soon.

[PdoxNewbie]

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

[PdoxNewbie]

I open the game, and, as usual in Steppe Wolf games, I can't see anything.


However, this changes when I unpause the game. I immediately discover my own territory, and, by event, I discover Europe.


My ruler is an absolute moron. The only reason he has one star in military is probably because he survived some riots of people angry because of his failures as a king.


I go Centralized, and I get a "large" revolt, of 4,000 people. Again, this king has probably survived more.


I named this after nomads because I start in two wars against hordes. However, I am not the only ones. The Cumans are also at war with Kievan Rus (which is freaking huge, as you will see), as well as Byzantium, because they border them, not just us. As for the Seljuks, it is even worse. They at war with many countries, including the Abbassid Caliphate, Byzantium and the Ghaznavids, as well as the other countries in the East.


Here is the known world, after another event and a wave of Spreads of Discoveries:


I commission a painting and get a (crappy) Master of the Mint, like I do in most of my games (only i try and get a decent one- at the start of this game, I had no cultural tradition, and just one magistrate)


I then proceed to sit through several crappy alliance offers. These are the ones I remember:
Raska- too far away, and is likely to get into a fight with Hungary or Byzantium
Ethiopia- too far away, and is likely to get into a fight with the Abbassid Caliphate
Sinnar- too far away
Milan- too far away, and is likely to get into a fight with Austria

I couldn't have gotten an alliance with Byzantium (the only decent alliance that I had a chance of getting, along with, maybe, Kievan Rus), because I didn't know about anything, including my own lands. Sometimes, Steppe Wolf just doesn't make sense to me.

When I'm done with killing the rebels (it really isn't that hard), I march my troops to the valuable lands of Fanagoria. I then proceed to assault and seize it as a colony (this is new in Steppe Wolf- I think if the owner of a province is tribal, you can seize their lands when occupied- I'll have to check that, though).



While I was going there, I got a good event giving Free Subjects, and got more Spreads of Discoveries.



Unfortunately, taking Fanagoria had me border yet another horde.


Why not take another province, while we're at it?


What about another one?


The Seljuks took my capital in the middle of this. This is what happened while I was sending my army back:


That'll be it for today.
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What do you guys think of the new JPEG images. Rather than using the snipping tool with my .bmp images, I now take the screenshots directly to Paint, and save them as a JPEG image, as I was told they were smaller than PNG files, if I recall correctly. But with that being said, it seems everytime I make another one of them, it gets bigger than the one before it. Does anyone have a solution?

[trekfan]

Ah, Steppe Wolf. So buggy, but so awesome. I will be following this.

[PdoxNewbie]

I thought I'd make another update, to catch up with what's going on real time. Enjoy!
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I get a decent new heir. I would've liked a strong claim, but I guess this will do.


I am able to defend against the Pecheneg army. Perfect! Unfortunately though, I got the place they were retreating to wrong, so their army is still there.



Might as well take the city back as well.


Meanwhile, the Seljuks besiege my capital (they would go on to win it before I got there).


Everyone in red (except for the Seljuks) are part of the First Crusade. If the Abbasids manage to connect their lands, either by conquering the Holy Land (they are doing that pretty well right now), or colonizing the south (which I've seen them do before), they might have a fighting chance, but now, the inevitably constant naval invasions of Egypt seem to be too much for their military stationed there.


People never learn...


Meanwhile...


Despite a -5 terrain malice, I am able to hand the horde their behinds.


News of a civilization named "Swahili" (btw, yes class, Swahili was one unified civilization) is received.


This ought a teach 'em a lesson...


This also...


Derp! I totally forgot about merchants... Well, with the price of these COTs, sending merchants seems very, very risky.


My Orthodox buddies, doing their jobs:


Apparently, the message is starting to sink in with the Seljuks...


...However, it's too late. I still crush them (again, despite the -5 penalty)


We take back our capital from the horde.


Basically, we defeat that army again, but, yet again, fail to recognize their retreating site. Sigh.

I am now caught up. I leave you with this empire screenshot (which includes the progress of many different invasions going on. The ones we are most interested in are the ones involving the Seljuks. We want that land, darn it!)

[PrawnStar]

Interesting. I like the idea of most Steppe Wolf scenarios I've seen but the bugginess seems to be a gamekiller before too long - is that true?

[PdoxNewbie]

Interesting. I like the idea of most Steppe Wolf scenarios I've seen but the bugginess seems to be a gamekiller before too long - is that true?

The corrupted saves should have been fixed with the update I'm playing with. Let's cross our fingers and hope that's true.

[Sincleric]

I am fairly certain that hordes act like giant colonies in DW 5.2 (?), so maybe claiming their lands like that is normal in the vanilla game. Not sure tho, as I abhor fighting hordes and tend not to pick anybody that starts out anywhere close to the timmies or golden.

Can't the Abbasids just march their men through the uncolonized land? Unless the Suez canal is around, there's no way the crusaders can send a fleet to block that.

Anywho, I'll be following your AAR now. Good luck with the Steppe Wolfe. I've never finished a game without it breaking down on me a few years in.

[PdoxNewbie]

I am fairly certain that hordes act like giant colonies in DW 5.2 (?), so maybe claiming their lands like that is normal in the vanilla game. Not sure tho, as I abhor fighting hordes and tend not to pick anybody that starts out anywhere close to the timmies or golden.

I am using the 5.1 version, so it is an addition to the mod.

Can't the Abbasids just march their men through the uncolonized land? Unless the Suez canal is around, there's no way the crusaders can send a fleet to block that.

The attrition would kill off a lot of the troops before getting there.

Anywho, I'll be following your AAR now. Good luck with the Steppe Wolfe. I've never finished a game without it breaking down on me a few years in.

Thanks!

[Tycat]

The corrupted saves should have been fixed with the update I'm playing with. Let's cross our fingers and hope that's true.

Which version of steppe wolf fixed the corrupt saves? Nice aar btw.

[PdoxNewbie]

Which version of steppe wolf fixed the corrupt saves? Nice aar btw.

Version 2 of Vsemirna Vlast (for 5.1), or the newest version of the Coin, the Sabre and the Pigeon (for 5.2b) should have.

[thegreatpl]

interesting. Also, I have never really had a problem with corrupted saves with any version of SW I have played. And I have played some rather long games. Of course, there were a few I had to stop because of CTD events.

[Sincleric]

interesting. Also, I have never really had a problem with corrupted saves with any version of SW I have played. And I have played some rather long games. Of course, there were a few I had to stop because of CTD events.

I thought that was what a corrupted save was; when you can no longer continue because the game keeps crashing. If that isn't it, then I have never had a corrupted save.

[PdoxNewbie]

I make two new decisions. Here are the decisions and their impacts.


Finally! A decent alliance!


4 merchants in Lübeck! Awesome!


The amount of Kievan Rus' military in this picture alone is around 6 times the size of my entire army.


The Second Crusade commences.


Byzantium was previously going through land that is now mine to get to the Seljuks, but now they are besieging a province that I want. I try and give them military access, but they refuse.


Really, Kievan Rus!? I thought you were my ally!


I have 6 less regiments than my support limit allows. I get to work. This screenshot also shows the progress of horde invasions (it isn't looking good for them).


Some stuff going on in India (as well as the HRE). The black line shows the approximate full front line of the Sindhi front of the Seljuk wars.


I get the Cities Demand Old Rights event. The other option is Decentralization, and there is no way I'm going in that direction.


Austria annexes Venice, giving Austria their Center of Trade.


The Seljuks put together a doomstack.


Seeing as this is more than twice the size of my enitre army, this needs to be stopped. At first I try triggering a patriot rebel, but it is quickly defeated. The only option at this point is to peace out.


Then, another doomstack appears...


This time, however, I put my army together and engage it. I win.


...But then, while persuing, I lose.


Looking back, attempting to spawn another rebel army might not have been the worst idea, but I offer them peace instead.


This is a risky move, however, as this opens up the possibility that other people might get to provinces first, and every bit of land is crucial at this point.

But on the good news...


Poor Khitan...


A map of most of the known world thus far (only 3 years from the start). In case you are wondering, the countries in Estonia are, in clockwise order from the bright yellow and excluding Riga, Barcelona, Schleswig, Hainaut, and Pommerania (in the islands). To view the full image, right click and click "open image in new tab" (or just "open image").

[videonfan]

I wonder what will happen with the normans :rubhands:
subscribed
Is there a new version of steppe wolf? i didn't know

[PrawnStar]

Do you fel you are making progress?

And do you want to go north or south?

[PdoxNewbie]

Do you fel you are making progress?

And do you want to go north or south?

Basically, I want to beat people to as much land as possible (so both north and south), so that later I can stand a chance with them in combat (but then again, if this doomstack stuff continues, that will be impossible). I don't feel I am making too much progress... when the truces end, however...

[PdoxNewbie]

Just an announcement: my game (not as of the update) has come to a point of hopelessness. I have no other choice than to reload a previous save (it is after the most recent update though, so it won't effect the update). There was no chance of continuing (the task was insurmountable), no way I was going to start over, and no way I was going to abandon this AAR (it would be my sixth consecutive abandoned AAR, and the fourth one abandoned because of my choice).

[Sincleric]

Just an announcement: my game (not as of the update) has come to a point of hopelessness. I have no other choice than to reload a previous save (it is after the most recent update though, so it won't effect the update). There was no chance of continuing (the task was insurmountable), no way I was going to start over, and no way I was going to abandon this AAR (it would be my sixth consecutive abandoned AAR, and the fourth one abandoned because of my choice).

Well we wouldn't want to ruin your ratio would we. :P

I don't see the need for an announcement if it doesn't bother the previous update.

[gav1230]

I'll be following this.