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A_Dane

Eternal pessimist
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Mar 30, 2008
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The Dream of Dumbarton
A Clydesdale AAR

Hello all, and welcome to my first AAR!

I recently realised, that despiste having been a registered user on these forums for more than 4 and a half years (and having lurked for 2 years before that), I had never really paid any attention to the AAR sections. Sure, I read an AAR or two here and there, even commented a few times, hell I even promised myself I would write one for EU3, but never got around to it.
But, a couple of weeks ago after I got some weeks off before exams, I decided I should stop by here and look for any interesting AARs, to read when I got fed up with my exam preparations, and I was pretty impressed, by the dedication and effort several of the writers put into their work, and decided to start commenting as well. At this point I hadn't really thought much about doing an AAR my self, but after having thought more and more about it, remembering how much I enjoyed writing when I was younger, I decided to try and give it a go. (This was also in part inspired by several talks I had with my Psychologist earlier this year, who encouraged me to try and "connect" with some of the things that used to make me happy).

So, some pointers (not essential to read these, except perhaps D):

A) the first proper update to the AAR, will probably not come today, as I'm still feeling a little under the weather, however I have written a small prologue on the history of the british isles (which is probably flawed), so anyone unfamiliar with it can read up a bit, and hopefully be inspired to look into matters themselves. I hope to have the first proper update up and running on thursday or friday at the latest. (I'm making this thread now to get my self going)
B) I have not yet settled on a specific style yet. I had initially just planned to do a gameplay AAR, as I figured it had been too long since I had tried writing anything remotely narrative in nature, to take on such an undertaking. I do however also fear, that I'd become too bored with the AAR under those circumstances, and as I'm constantly making up small stories doing the game, I think it'll be better if try do something in-between, atleast for starters, and see where it takes me :)
C) as my name suggest, I'm not a native english speaker, and my writing will probably reflect this, so please bear with my, hopefully minor, grammatical errors, and other quirks associated with me being danish.
D) I play my own modded version of the game, where I have amongst other things, added a de jure kingdom of Strathclyde (which, in hindsight should probably have been titular, but what's done is done), and a de jure kingdom of the Isels (which just uses the Isles of Man's flag, because I like that, quite happy with how that turned out). I've also renamed Wales to Cymru (and welsh to Cymry, though I'm not entirely certain that's correct), because I disliked them calling themselves foreigners. I've also renamed Scotland into Alba, as I like that name more :)
Lastly, two cultures have been added to the game, "Norsegaels", thanks to Duinnin and "Cumbrians", thanks to Bloodmerchant. Both of those cultures can be found in the "new cultures" thread in the modding section, but decided I'd better just mention them here.
Also, used Bloodmerchants expanded Breton/cornish names from the same thread.

So here we go, hopefully this will be turn out well :)


EDIT: I will tidy up this post at some point. For now, I shall create a table of content, even though there's only 3 pages, I happen to like table of contents :)

Chapter 1 - The Earl and His council
Chapter 2 - Dark Clouds on the Horizon
Chapter 3 - Warfare and Betrayal
Chapter 4 - Life, ever changing
Chapter 5 - The love of books and an angry wife
Chapter 6 - In the Shadow of Death
Chapter 7 - Paranoia
Chapter 8 - In the name of the Lord
Chapter 9 - part 1, End of Peace
Chapter 9 - part 2, End of Peace, Freedom
Chapter 10 - Threats from the west
Chapter 11 - The battle of the River Forth
Chapter 12
Chapter 13 - In times of Peace
Chapter 14 - Unexpected guests
Chapter 15 - The last days of Peace
Chapter 16 - Misfortunes never come singly
Chapter 17 - Forever War
 
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From the Romans left, until 1066
The Romans left Britain in the early 5th century, and subsequently the local inhabitants were left to fend for themselves against raids from both the north and the west, this led to the formation of various “successor” states in the area.
With the roman withdrawal of troops from Britain, different tactics had to be employed. Tradition holds that in response to this Vortigern invited Saxons to settle in Britain, probably in the same manner as the Romans had done with their foederati. But it wasn’t all he did; it has also been argued that he moved some of the local celtic tribes around, mainly the Votadini, led by Cunedda who would go on to form the “kingdom” of Gwynedd. However, inviting the Angles and Saxons in turn proved to be a very unwise decision, as the initially invited were soon followed by more Saxons, Angles, Jutes and tribes from Frisia. They revolted, and established their own states in south-eastern Britain, and would eventually come to overtake what we today know as England (which derives from “The land of the angles”). The local Brythonic rulers were too caught up in their own power struggles, although it appears that they managed to drive back the Saxons and related tribes in the early 6th century. It didn’t last however, and slowly the Brythonic realms were overtaken by the invaders, until only a few remained. In “Wales” a variety of successor states emerged, amongst them Gwynedd, Powys, Gwent and many more. South of these, Cornwall remained somewhat independent into the 9th or possibly 10th century. In the North, known as the Yr Hen Ogledd, or The Old North, some sovereign states also emerged, amongst them the Gododdin, Rheged and the kingdom of Alt Clut, the latter centered on Dumbarton Rock, from where the kingdom took its name, Ystrad Clut being the Brythonic name for Dumbarton rock. By the 10th century, only Alt Clut remained, now known under the name of “The Kingdom of Strathclyde”, Rheged had been absorbed into England, and Gododdin had after some fighting been incorporated into the Kingdom of Alba, which is also known as Scotland. The Kingdom of Strathclyde were involved in frequent wars with said kingdom of Alba, who claimed over lordship of the kingdom, and sometime between 1018 and 1054 the kingdom was indeed conquered by their northern neighbours. In 1054 however, Edward the Confessor, king of England, dispatched “Earl Siward” to fight the Scots, ruled by the now infamous “Macbeth”, along with Siward was a certain “Malcolm, son of the king of the Cumbrians”. The ultimate fate of this Malcolm is not known, but nevertheless, it’s with him this story truly begins, as a mere “earl” of Clydesdale, a vassal of the Saxon Gospatrick of Dunbar, who in turn is a vassal of the king of Alba.
 
Sounds interesting...and no worries about your English, its pretty good I think really can't tell that your not a native English Speaker.

I will be following though :)
 
Good to see you writing one of your own - you can't squat in our forever :)

It seems an interesting concept to be sure - and it's definitely good to see 'Cymru' and 'Cymry'

Colour me both intrigued and subscribed.
 
Alt Clud FTW! It's only a pity that it doesn't exist any more at game start. According to the vague sources, it possibly still could and, for the record, the rulers of Lothian under the Scottish crown were referred to as 'Princes of the Cumbrians' (not even Cumbria or any other territorial designation but one made after a people), with William Wallace supposedly being one of the offspring of such "Welsh" survivors. There was also a brief episode of holding quite a lot of land in the north around the time-frame, until the Normans "sorted it out" their own way. Very interesting stuff, I read about it a while ago from Norman Davies in his Vanished Kingdoms. Wish you the best with that. And I'm kinda shamed that I didn't manage to pick up on Malcolm there as the son of the royal line. I did try, actually. Anyway, seems to be my favourite type of AAR with pictures and small stories (short enough to keep you interested, long enough to avoid it being a slideshow). Good, good.

I kinda wonder what you're going to do, take over d_Lothian from the inside via claim fabrication and/or a plot (which I'd normally find kinda meh), or marry your way into a more direct vassalage to the Scottish king (which I'd be inclined to do), or, say, pull off some ballsy coup with the Crovans (where there is some sort of tendency to merge with Galloway) or warm up to Wales (for the record, especially when Scotland still doesn't have HCA, you should go independent when you inherit an independent duchy as a count).
 
Sounds interesting...and no worries about your English, its pretty good I think really can't tell that your not a native English Speaker.

I will be following though :)

Thanks :) Well you never know, I'd like to think my english is damn good, but since I've lived in Denmark all my life, it'll show ;)

Hope you won't be disappointed :)

sounds good, do like the sound of a Kingdom of Strathclyde ... just remember to wail on Edinburgh with some frequency

Hehe thank you, can't promiss that I'll wail on Edinburgh too much, it was afterall the capital of the old Gododdin kingdom, so they shall have to be saved!

But since my Saxon liege resides in Stirling (looks to be slightly misplaced though), they'll get some heat ;)

Good to see you writing one of your own - you can't squat in our forever :)

It seems an interesting concept to be sure - and it's definitely good to see 'Cymru' and 'Cymry'

Colour me both intrigued and subscribed.

I figured It'd be about time to try it for my self, thanks ;)

And yeah, wasn't sure whether its actually "Cymry" or "Cymric", but decided to go with Cymry :)

I've thought about writing a Clydesdale AAR if/when I get CK2. Good luck!

It's an interesting start to be sure.. nothing ever plays out the same way twice. (Hell, I started 4 different games and played 10 years quickly to see how it turned out.. none of the games looked remotely like each other)

Alt Clud FTW! It's only a pity that it doesn't exist any more at game start. According to the vague sources, it possibly still could and, for the record, the rulers of Lothian under the Scottish crown were referred to as 'Princes of the Cumbrians' (not even Cumbria or any other territorial designation but one made after a people), with William Wallace supposedly being one of the offspring of such "Welsh" survivors. There was also a brief episode of holding quite a lot of land in the north around the time-frame, until the Normans "sorted it out" their own way. Very interesting stuff, I read about it a while ago from Norman Davies in his Vanished Kingdoms. Wish you the best with that. And I'm kinda shamed that I didn't manage to pick up on Malcolm there as the son of the royal line. I did try, actually. Anyway, seems to be my favourite type of AAR with pictures and small stories (short enough to keep you interested, long enough to avoid it being a slideshow). Good, good.

I kinda wonder what you're going to do, take over d_Lothian from the inside via claim fabrication and/or a plot (which I'd normally find kinda meh), or marry your way into a more direct vassalage to the Scottish king (which I'd be inclined to do), or, say, pull off some ballsy coup with the Crovans (where there is some sort of tendency to merge with Galloway) or warm up to Wales (for the record, especially when Scotland still doesn't have HCA, you should go independent when you inherit an independent duchy as a count).

Hehe, always liked sub-roman british history, so thought I'd write one using a successor state, but you already took Cornwall, and playing in Wales turns into a game of conquest. (Not that there won't be conquests in this game, I do need to form the kingdom after all).

And yeah, the exact status of the kingdom of Strathclyde at game start, seems to be shrouded in mystery, mostly because there's alot of confusion regarding the mentioned "Malcolm" (who'll be named Maelcun in game), he's been thought to be Malcolm Canmore for ages it seems, but that seems quite unlikely, as he's reffered to as the son of the king of the cumbrians.
The title "prince of the cumbrians" seems to have been used within the scottish Royal family as well actually :) To this effect, I actually took a province from d_Northumbria, and one from d_Lothian (teviotdale), and created the duchy of Cumbria, which along with Galloway makes up the kingdom of Strathclyde in my game (not entirely correct geographically, but it'd look weird any other way). Kinda regret I made it de jure, but I'll get to that eventually.
The kingdom of the isles is made up of the duchy of the isles and the duchy of Orkney - the latter was never actually a part of the isles as far as I can tell, but it makes for some nice dynamics with Norway, as I've made north-germanics capable of creating and usurping the isles.

I'll play both the marriage game, and the fabrication game, but hopefully I can justify the latter ;)

__________________________________________________________________________________
On the AAR itself: I sat up writing some more last night, and a "shape" of it is beginning to turn up in my head, hope it turns out well :) Still, the first chapter probably won't be out today, as I have plans in a couple of hours, and got no idea when I'll be back.

EDIT: Also, I'm not entirely sure this will carry all the way until 1453, depends on how the game plays out. I plan to stay a couple of decades ahead, so when I feel I've achieved what I want, I can plan ahead for the end ;)
 
I'd suggest playing it to 1453 before 1.09 comes out if you think you can finish it within the time but without rushing it too much. If you take it slowly in the narration, wanting to be no more than a couple of decades ahead of the AAR in the game can result in finally getting your patch death.
 
I'd suggest playing it to 1453 before 1.09 comes out if you think you can finish it within the time but without rushing it too much. If you take it slowly in the narration, wanting to be no more than a couple of decades ahead of the AAR in the game can result in finally getting your patch death.

Yeah patch death is no good. Happened to me twice.
 
I'm still playing with 1.06 in order to keep an AAR on the go ...

Yeah I tried that...Steam nails me every time I attempt to keep it from updating. Hopefully this time Steam will be nice and not magically decide to change my settings...I doubt 1.09 or whatever number we're coming up on will be game breaking though.
 
I'd suggest playing it to 1453 before 1.09 comes out if you think you can finish it within the time but without rushing it too much. If you take it slowly in the narration, wanting to be no more than a couple of decades ahead of the AAR in the game can result in finally getting your patch death.

No worries, I'm a gamersgate user, so no automatic updating and I think I got like different 4 copies of the game running atm :p (one plain 1.08, one modded/using other mods, one which havn't been patched at all, and a 1.06 if i remember correctly)

So don't worry, the patch won't be an issue :)
 
Yeah I tried that...Steam nails me every time I attempt to keep it from updating. Hopefully this time Steam will be nice and not magically decide to change my settings...I doubt 1.09 or whatever number we're coming up on will be game breaking though.

don't want to derail the thread but you know you can turn Steam's auto-update off if you want to.
 
The Earl and his Council

In the year of the lord, 1066, it was dark days for the Cumbrians. It had been twelve years since an army of Anglo-Saxons, led by Earl Siward, had crossed the borders and waged war upon the Scots. It did not change much, but Siward did succeed in one thing; he put Maelcun in power in Clydesdale, which he now rules from the Castle of Lanark, dreaming of long lost glory.

Maelcun strode through the castle, his boots hitting the floor hard. He was forty eight, and unmarried. Truth be told, the allure of the opposite sex, had never been amongst the things that enticed him the most, and as he had always felt uneasy in the company of others, he had never found a wife. Recently however, he had come to realize that without a wife, he would have no heir. And without an heir all the work, and all the blood spilt twelve years past, indeed all the work of his forefathers back to Dumnagel Hen, would have been for naught. As a consequence, he had ordered his chancellors to find a fitting bride. And now, he was told, they had finally succeeded. So Maelcun strode to the council chambers to hear their proposal.


Maelcun, earl of Strathclyde

The low murmuring of the room abated as he entered, he looked at the faces of his councilors for a while, before breaking the awkward silence
“So, who is it will you have me marry?”
“One of the Cymry, sire” his Chancellor, a Scotsman by the name of Cinbran, Mayor of Glasgow quickly answered before adding “She’s the daughter of the king of Gwynedd my lord, and a proper Christian!”
Maelcun looked at the rest of the councilors, but none moved to speak, so he turned back his gaze towards Cinbran.
“The current ruler of Gwynedd is called Bleddyn is he not? Of the Mathrafals?” he asked hesitatingly.
Cinbran, sensing his lord’s reluctance, went on: “Well, yes my lord, he is indeed one of the Mathrafals, and they are in turn an offshoot of the house of Vortigern, but you must not hold that against him and his family, you must surely be able to see the wisdom in strengthening your ties with the Cymry, and right now Bleddyn is the most powerful.”


Maelcun's unreliable council

Maelcun considered his Chancellor's words for a few moments, then nodded to signal his approval

“If that’s all, then I suppose you should get on with your duties” he added, and turned to leave, but was stopped by a loud cough.

His marshal, another Scotsman by the name David, slowly rose from his seat, before speaking in his usual brusque manner: “We would sire, but you have yet to let us know what exactly you want us to do”.

Maelcun stared at his marshal for a long while, plainly embarrassed, but just as he was about to open his mouth, Crinan spoke:
“Our noble liege gave me instructions earlier, but it would seem I forgot to inform the rest of you, my apologies. In either case, David, you are to go train the local militia, our esteemed court chaplain, bishop Anaraut, is to travel the countryside and find begin the assembly of a library, our dear steward will also travel the county, but he will be taxing the peasants. Lastly I shall travel to our neighbours in Teviotdale, and look into whether we have any recognized claim to those lands, that will be all”. As he finished talking, he sent his liege a dry smile.

Maelcun quickly confirmed the orders, before hastily leaving the room, but as he left, he damned his chancellor in his mind.
He envied the chancellors easy-going nature, the ease with which he took control of the council room, and after the display at the end of the meeting, he had to wonder: why exactly would Cinbran wait with giving the orders, until after he had embarrassed himself? What was his angle?
All of this flew through Maelcuns mind as he left, but soon had to pave the way for other concerns: Maelcun had a wedding to prepare for.


[OOC]: All right, first chapter is finally up. Turned out quite differently than what I had imagined at first, but decided to just go with the flow I was having. Not sure how well it was written, as I've had quite the hangover today, but I figure I have to start somewhere, and hopefully it's still enjoyable :)

Tips, tricks & constructive criticism is very welcome
 
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Very good opening indeed. As for any tips, I would probably suggest adding chapter titles of some sort, but, apart from that, that was very good :)
 
[OOC]: All right, first chapter is finally up. Turned out quite differently than what I had imagined at first, but decided to just go with the flow I was having. Not sure how well it was written, as I've had quite the hangover today, but I figure I have to start somewhere, and hopefully it's still enjoyable :)

I liked the opening Chapter. Sometimes just going with the flow when you write is the best way, makes it easier for me just let the story flow and hope my fingers can keep up with the thoughts and images that are firing off in my head as I'm going.

So I definitely think your off to a great start!

On a side note your Chaplain is the only one who kind of sort of likes you.
 
Congrats on taking the plunge A_Dane, best of luck with your first (and hopefully, subsequent) AARs :)