What is your best soap opera moment in CK2?
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The first King of Croatia had a son, a bastard middle daughter, and a younger legitimate daughter.
He died at age 26 from war wounds suffered during the annexation of Bosnia.
His five year old son inherited the throne.
His youngest daughter died the year after from the bloody flux.
His lover/the mother of the bastard daughter, murders the boy king at age eight.
The bastard daughter inherits the throne at age four.
Somehow, the regency of the bastard daughter manages to survive, and she comes of age at 16 over a fractured, financially destitute realm.
She rules for six years on her own, spending most of the time fighting rebellions, before getting pregnant with her Marshal's baby (Who is obviously not her husband).
She then dies during childbirth, leaving the throne to her Uncle, the Duke of Bosnia, and a bastard son who would be murdered before his second birthday.
The Marshal became the Count of Lika.
And so ended the reign of Bastina I, known as 'the Bastard' Queen.
He died at age 26 from war wounds suffered during the annexation of Bosnia.
His five year old son inherited the throne.
His youngest daughter died the year after from the bloody flux.
His lover/the mother of the bastard daughter, murders the boy king at age eight.
The bastard daughter inherits the throne at age four.
Somehow, the regency of the bastard daughter manages to survive, and she comes of age at 16 over a fractured, financially destitute realm.
She rules for six years on her own, spending most of the time fighting rebellions, before getting pregnant with her Marshal's baby (Who is obviously not her husband).
She then dies during childbirth, leaving the throne to her Uncle, the Duke of Bosnia, and a bastard son who would be murdered before his second birthday.
The Marshal became the Count of Lika.
And so ended the reign of Bastina I, known as 'the Bastard' Queen.
Compared to your stories of incest, mayhem and madness mine is rather tame.
It started out with my king of Ireland going off to Spain to help out a distant cousin fighting the infidels. Of course he dies as soon as he gets there and his brother takes the crown but before he even gets to celebrate the succession he also dies and leaves Ireland to his infant son. And here it starts to really derail. Gramps on my mother's side of the family decides to start a civil war and crowns himself king of Ireland. This followed by a second succession war started by my uncle who dies on the battle field before he can get his greedy hands on the crown. Gramps the Usurper is then ousted by my aunt (Daughter like father)! Before the now grown up ex-king gets the chance to start the next succession crisis, I get a message that I have fulfilled my ambition to become king again. (I suspect some faction at work here). This royal mess happened in just over ten years.
After all of this we have one king, who has lost and regain the crown once; one ex king (Gramps the Usurper); one ex reining queen (Aunty the usurper) and three queens (my mother, my uncles wife and Gramp's wife) alive at the same time!!
Christmas and other family holidays must have been fun at the court...
It started out with my king of Ireland going off to Spain to help out a distant cousin fighting the infidels. Of course he dies as soon as he gets there and his brother takes the crown but before he even gets to celebrate the succession he also dies and leaves Ireland to his infant son. And here it starts to really derail. Gramps on my mother's side of the family decides to start a civil war and crowns himself king of Ireland. This followed by a second succession war started by my uncle who dies on the battle field before he can get his greedy hands on the crown. Gramps the Usurper is then ousted by my aunt (Daughter like father)! Before the now grown up ex-king gets the chance to start the next succession crisis, I get a message that I have fulfilled my ambition to become king again. (I suspect some faction at work here). This royal mess happened in just over ten years.
After all of this we have one king, who has lost and regain the crown once; one ex king (Gramps the Usurper); one ex reining queen (Aunty the usurper) and three queens (my mother, my uncles wife and Gramp's wife) alive at the same time!!
Christmas and other family holidays must have been fun at the court...
Oh, what a story I have. Basically, I started at the 1066 start date as King Harold, attempting to salvage Anglo-Saxon England from the hands of the wretched foreign invaders. After a long and drawn-out guerilla war (which was almost lost at multiple times during its duration) King Harold finally won in 1081. After this, he was proclaimed "the Great." Unfortunately for him, his life ended shortly after in July of 1082. Things ran smoothly for a while, and I ended up conquering parts of southern Scotland and all of Wales and Ireland. This is where the story gets interesting. I had wanted to eliminate the elective succession of my realm for a while, to make sure some charismatic bastard duke couldn't find his way onto my rightful throne that I won fair and square in the double invasion. By roughly 1140, I noticed that the duke of Ulster was wielding considerable power, stretching from Munster all the way to Lothian, nearly half my realm. I tried to put a stop to this, but to no avail. He ended up getting a claim on Northumberland, using his extremely talented chancellor, and took it over. I consolidated my realm, and tried to win the favor of the other dukes and earls. When the duke of Ulster died, I immediately noticed a horrifying reality. A member of the House of Wessex, with a strong claim on all of my realm had just inherited, and he was a character with superb stats! The dukes decided that he was more worthy to be king than me, and elected him King after my King's death in 1153.
I was now the Duke of Wessex (ironic, I know) and set about to take back what was mine. Then began the ages long vendetta between the Houses of Wessex and Godwin. For many years, our houses traded the title back and forth, with us becoming perfectly matched dukes, and the only two feudal vassals of the King title, each of us holding half the realm. Then, it all changed when a young man named Cytelbearn took the Duchy of Wessex. In a move much like the Iberian Wedding, Cytelbearn married off to the heirless Duchess of Ulster, and upon his death, reunited Englaland under House Godwin. There were still land-owning House of Wessex nobles holding land in the Isles, but once I became Emperor of Britannia, the Elective finally ended, securing my house as leaders of Britannia. By the time this happened, it was roughly 1290, and a Crusade had been called for Andalusia, which was united and owned pretty much all of Iberia, besides an independent Catholic here and there. I decided not to take part, but many of my vassals did, and after 4 years of war, the House of Wessex was up to its old routine again. The King of Andalusia had netted alliances with powers all across Europe, and after ensuring he had a sizable levy, he warred me to re-institute Elective succession. As hard as I tried, there was no way to circumnavigate his numerous allies, and I had to surrender. As you could probably guess, he elected his way onto Britannia's throne, and now I was but again a Duke.
After years of further decline, strange deaths, and peculiar inheritances, I found myself as an unmarried, heirless, 67 year old count under Holy Roman rule, leaving myself only to think "Where did I go wrong?" However, in a stroke of luck, I had an heir literally 3 weeks before my death, and his little branch bravely carried on Harold Godwinson's torch to carve out an orthodox Russian Empire based in Lithuania, never returning to the throne of Britannia, which found itself a heap of rubble towards end game, completely shattered into constituent dukes. Despite never returning to Englaland, I'm sure that Harold would be proud. The House of Wessex actually carved its own massive realm in Iberia and North Africa, always keen to have a balance between our two rival houses. And if I remember correctly, my last Tsar was named Aleksandr VI Aleksandrovich of Godwin, proud (now Russian) descendant of the Anglo-Saxon heroes of old.
I was now the Duke of Wessex (ironic, I know) and set about to take back what was mine. Then began the ages long vendetta between the Houses of Wessex and Godwin. For many years, our houses traded the title back and forth, with us becoming perfectly matched dukes, and the only two feudal vassals of the King title, each of us holding half the realm. Then, it all changed when a young man named Cytelbearn took the Duchy of Wessex. In a move much like the Iberian Wedding, Cytelbearn married off to the heirless Duchess of Ulster, and upon his death, reunited Englaland under House Godwin. There were still land-owning House of Wessex nobles holding land in the Isles, but once I became Emperor of Britannia, the Elective finally ended, securing my house as leaders of Britannia. By the time this happened, it was roughly 1290, and a Crusade had been called for Andalusia, which was united and owned pretty much all of Iberia, besides an independent Catholic here and there. I decided not to take part, but many of my vassals did, and after 4 years of war, the House of Wessex was up to its old routine again. The King of Andalusia had netted alliances with powers all across Europe, and after ensuring he had a sizable levy, he warred me to re-institute Elective succession. As hard as I tried, there was no way to circumnavigate his numerous allies, and I had to surrender. As you could probably guess, he elected his way onto Britannia's throne, and now I was but again a Duke.
After years of further decline, strange deaths, and peculiar inheritances, I found myself as an unmarried, heirless, 67 year old count under Holy Roman rule, leaving myself only to think "Where did I go wrong?" However, in a stroke of luck, I had an heir literally 3 weeks before my death, and his little branch bravely carried on Harold Godwinson's torch to carve out an orthodox Russian Empire based in Lithuania, never returning to the throne of Britannia, which found itself a heap of rubble towards end game, completely shattered into constituent dukes. Despite never returning to Englaland, I'm sure that Harold would be proud. The House of Wessex actually carved its own massive realm in Iberia and North Africa, always keen to have a balance between our two rival houses. And if I remember correctly, my last Tsar was named Aleksandr VI Aleksandrovich of Godwin, proud (now Russian) descendant of the Anglo-Saxon heroes of old.
My character was a real man of virtue, a formidable fighter, a successful crusader, a true Christian knight (literally, as in he got the modifier). His nephew was also a man of virtue, a formidable fighter, a successful crusader and a quick mind.
The two were also gay lovers.
To add to that, my character's only son, another man of virtue, a zealot, a quick mind and formidable fighter, however neither gay or a crusader (he didn't come along as a leader), rivaled my character's nephew, which I interpreted as him fighting to regain his father's affection, which was split between his nephew, the republic, and God.
The whole thing culminated in the nephew leaving the realm in order to join up with the Knights, who had won Jerusalem in the aforementioned crusade, which probably would have made for a really great end-of-season climax with a big tearful farewell. And the story didn't involve a single rebellion, murder or even injury! Just two men torn between their forbidden love and God and a son trying to win back his father. Maybe it'd make a good Lifetime movie.
The two were also gay lovers.
To add to that, my character's only son, another man of virtue, a zealot, a quick mind and formidable fighter, however neither gay or a crusader (he didn't come along as a leader), rivaled my character's nephew, which I interpreted as him fighting to regain his father's affection, which was split between his nephew, the republic, and God.
The whole thing culminated in the nephew leaving the realm in order to join up with the Knights, who had won Jerusalem in the aforementioned crusade, which probably would have made for a really great end-of-season climax with a big tearful farewell. And the story didn't involve a single rebellion, murder or even injury! Just two men torn between their forbidden love and God and a son trying to win back his father. Maybe it'd make a good Lifetime movie.
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Playing as the norse ruler of the duchy of Albany, I had just won the invasion and given out some titles to characters. One of my best generals, a lowborn named Hæsteinn had been given two provinces. A few years later he has gotten two children, and then I learn he has a relationship with my wife. This man that I pulled up from nothing, who was one of my most loyal vassals, had betrayed my trust. I quickly imprisoned him and let him rot. Next on my list are his children. I shall wipe his family from existance for this betrayal.
When I was relatively new to the game and didn't understand how succession worked, I gave my heir two duchies in Ireland and gave a duchy each to both of his brothers. I thought, hey, they'll all get along since they're family!
Needless to say, there was a pretty good civil war afterwards, that ended with both of the younger brothers locked away in a dungeon cell.
Needless to say, there was a pretty good civil war afterwards, that ended with both of the younger brothers locked away in a dungeon cell.
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Playing the GoT mod from the Dance of Dragons as Cregan Stark.
I helped Rheanyra win the dance and take the throne, then I married and fell in love with Jeyne Arryn, Lady of the Vale. My eldest son by a previous marriage was set to inherit the North and my second son, my first by Jeyne, was to inherit the Vale. There were a few revolts and an invasion of Dorne, but the combined armies of the Wolf and Falcon made sure the queen always pulled through.
That's when things got out of hand. The Stormlands, Riverlands, and Westerlands rose up to depose the queen in favor of her son Jacerys Velaryon. I rose my banners for the queen as always. That's when I realized that Jeyne had already called her banners against the crown! (I should have considered how my many marriage alliances would effect Jeyne's behavior). I moved into crisis mode to protect my wife, spreading my armies out and desperately chasing her throughout Westeros hoping to capture her so that the queen would not. I finally got her... and she demanded trial by combat... choosing our son as her champion! I was forced to fight him myself, and almost slew him before he yielded. Worse, when the war was over, the queen took her, and she was only saved by my intervention. After all of this, Jeyne, Joined the crown loyalists! Did a raven get lost or something? Was she punishing her for cheating on her? I almost had a heart attack.
This was soon followed by a succession crisis, which involved the twin Targaryean sisters I married to my to oldest sons fighting each other. My family is dysfunctional. We haven't even gotten to the murder plots and sending my brother and two cousins to the wall.
I helped Rheanyra win the dance and take the throne, then I married and fell in love with Jeyne Arryn, Lady of the Vale. My eldest son by a previous marriage was set to inherit the North and my second son, my first by Jeyne, was to inherit the Vale. There were a few revolts and an invasion of Dorne, but the combined armies of the Wolf and Falcon made sure the queen always pulled through.
That's when things got out of hand. The Stormlands, Riverlands, and Westerlands rose up to depose the queen in favor of her son Jacerys Velaryon. I rose my banners for the queen as always. That's when I realized that Jeyne had already called her banners against the crown! (I should have considered how my many marriage alliances would effect Jeyne's behavior). I moved into crisis mode to protect my wife, spreading my armies out and desperately chasing her throughout Westeros hoping to capture her so that the queen would not. I finally got her... and she demanded trial by combat... choosing our son as her champion! I was forced to fight him myself, and almost slew him before he yielded. Worse, when the war was over, the queen took her, and she was only saved by my intervention. After all of this, Jeyne, Joined the crown loyalists! Did a raven get lost or something? Was she punishing her for cheating on her? I almost had a heart attack.
This was soon followed by a succession crisis, which involved the twin Targaryean sisters I married to my to oldest sons fighting each other. My family is dysfunctional. We haven't even gotten to the murder plots and sending my brother and two cousins to the wall.
I decided to let her live...But it she does that again, well. Then she'll die.
I can't believe how good this mod is at simulating the world of ASoIaF.
I remember a game as duke of Bourbon (being a Bourbon myself). Being the most powerful family, the great duke had half France under his influence. The Capet King didn't dare to take a decision without the approval of the duke. The king was a mere puppet He even gave the duke his sister as a bride to the powerful De Bourbon, while his only male child was being educated to be the next Capet King.
From the Duke and the king's sister the new heir to the Duchy was born. His mother died several months after given birth to him, and his son, was well groomed to became a great administrator. And when the time was right, he became a well liked young heir... excesively well liked.
The other dukes resented the king's son, now in the throne. Exhausted from the Capets, he saw hope and a just reign in the heir to the duchy of Bourbon. They planned and plotted, and decided to press his claim. Little de Bourbon was, after all, descendant from kings. War ravaged. The powerful duke betrayed the king and the Capets abdicated to the french throne. The young heir, grateful, granted his father an honorary title, The duke was proud and his family was ruling France....
And he returned to his castle. Being already old... he was sure his last day will arrive soon. He threw a banquet to celebrate his son accomplishment... he drank from his wine. And then all was clear. This day was the day... his son knew his father was too powerful... and he needed all his power. the servants were paid, the other dukes agreed quietly... and when the cup fell, the old De Bourbon was choking, poisoned by his kin, the very son he put on the throne.
And so, the young king, from the De Bourbon family, received the duchies and the power from his dead father. No De Bourbon king would be a puppet as the Capets. After killing his father, he was the first of one of the most prestigious and powerful families in all Europe.
From the Duke and the king's sister the new heir to the Duchy was born. His mother died several months after given birth to him, and his son, was well groomed to became a great administrator. And when the time was right, he became a well liked young heir... excesively well liked.
The other dukes resented the king's son, now in the throne. Exhausted from the Capets, he saw hope and a just reign in the heir to the duchy of Bourbon. They planned and plotted, and decided to press his claim. Little de Bourbon was, after all, descendant from kings. War ravaged. The powerful duke betrayed the king and the Capets abdicated to the french throne. The young heir, grateful, granted his father an honorary title, The duke was proud and his family was ruling France....
And he returned to his castle. Being already old... he was sure his last day will arrive soon. He threw a banquet to celebrate his son accomplishment... he drank from his wine. And then all was clear. This day was the day... his son knew his father was too powerful... and he needed all his power. the servants were paid, the other dukes agreed quietly... and when the cup fell, the old De Bourbon was choking, poisoned by his kin, the very son he put on the throne.
And so, the young king, from the De Bourbon family, received the duchies and the power from his dead father. No De Bourbon king would be a puppet as the Capets. After killing his father, he was the first of one of the most prestigious and powerful families in all Europe.
King Solomon The Great Dies at age 74 after 46 years of Reign, leaving an heir of age 8.
Regent Spended more than 10 ( no kidding, litteraly more than 10) attempts to kill my heir trhough a series of events.
In the End the regent gets caught.
Heir finally becomes adult.
Gains Traits of Possessed and lunatic. Thus a Dark Reign begins.
Decades later this Mad King Gets a son.. not just any son. Lucifer himself, Demon Spawn of Satan!
Long series of internal and external Fear were spread. as we moved into the Dark Ages of Europe.
Fun enough, the former regent has a son who later Assasinated the spawn of satan.
could be a decent Movie
Regent Spended more than 10 ( no kidding, litteraly more than 10) attempts to kill my heir trhough a series of events.
In the End the regent gets caught.
Heir finally becomes adult.
Gains Traits of Possessed and lunatic. Thus a Dark Reign begins.
Decades later this Mad King Gets a son.. not just any son. Lucifer himself, Demon Spawn of Satan!
Long series of internal and external Fear were spread. as we moved into the Dark Ages of Europe.
Fun enough, the former regent has a son who later Assasinated the spawn of satan.
could be a decent Movie
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"A tale untold about a man, considered by many to be a villain, who in reality loved his country and tried to save it from his evil king and his devil-spawned son!"Ak1995 said:Fun enough, the former regent has a son who later Assasinated the spawn of satan.
could be a decent Movie
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There was the one WC Rome game I did where I was making every possible King title and handing them out to members of my dynasty as vassals. So since I'm at the point of the game where there's really no other worthwhile people to marry to, I betrothe my daughter (also heir) to one of my vassal kings. I inherit, and it turns out they're childhood rivals and have -100 opinion with each other. So... kinky distant cousin hatesex, I guess, because they had a lot of kids.
Then there was this other time when I was playing a game as Sicily. I'd had my wife murdered for whatever political reason, and then the "Daddy, where has Mommy gone?" event fires for my young daughter. That was the moment when I realized that this game can make you evil.
Then there was this other time when I was playing a game as Sicily. I'd had my wife murdered for whatever political reason, and then the "Daddy, where has Mommy gone?" event fires for my young daughter. That was the moment when I realized that this game can make you evil.
Just had an epic PHEW! session. Almost two decades into new TOG Byzzie game and ol' Basil I kicks the bucket on Malta, putting down some nameless rebel's uprising. Luckily Leo VI was already in his majority. Building up the army and the economy, there wasn't very much going on in the Empire at the time, so I took a province each from the Hungarians and Serbians. Decided my next target would be the Marwanids, who were reduced to a single county after being ganked by two of my Anatolian vassals and the Armenians. Since it was a relative cakewalk I just raised my own levies, plus county vassals and set everyone to assemble in Constantinople for the long march east...
And then: the drumbeat from a DoW.
Maybe it's the AI being stupid? I thought. Who would have the audacity to pick a fight with me at this time? I've already managed to build a 2000-man Cataphract retinue already, my vassals are at full strength, and the treasury is abundant enough hire plenty of mercenaries. Who then? The Abbasids? No problem, I'll just raise my vassal levies and slap them into place after I deal with the Marwanids.
No, it was...the Hungarians.
Huh? What? I literally lolled and chalked it up to AI stupidity; in over 800 hours of playing games as the Byzantine Empire, I have never seen the Hungarians give me any guff. Sure, they nabbed the Bulgarian territories north of the Danube, and they took a couple of duchies from the Khazars, but they couldn't possibly raise as many troops as I, could they? Hmmm, better check how many troops I can raise in total....12,000+? Cool. Let's see what's got the Hungarians feeling all big and ha- 35,000+ troops, you say?....what? I mean.....WHAT?!?!
Raise all vassal levies NOW! Organize the Varangian Guard NOW! Hire all affordable mercs NOW! Everyone to Constantinople NOW!
Looking good so far; 8000 men in Constantinople and more provincial levies are turning up everyday. Just hang in there, guys; help is on the way.
2 days later, an attrition-free stack of 19,760 troops appears in Thrake. I'd hired every merc I could afford at that point, and there were still provincial stragglers heading for Constantinople. All told I only had about 11,000 men in Constantinople. It was going to be a tough one, but that core of Cataphract retinue plus horse archer mercs would see me through.
Countdown to apocalypse, waiting for the Hungarians to arrive at Constantinople. Assigned the best generals to my own stack and had to hope for the best, praying reinforcements would make it on time.
...
All for naught; the Imperial army was completely and utterly slaughtered, putting barely a dent in the Hungarians' numbers.
Only about 3000 Romans managed to break through the Hungarian lines and escape, but the Hungarian army was not in a forgiving mood and chased them through two different provinces, and through intense skirmishing, reduced the once proud Roman army to a mere 300 cataphracts. Humiliatingly, post-battle analysis revealed there was a not even a single horse archer in the Hungarians' stack.
Doomed, at that point, I thought. I couldn't raise any more levies; the army was shattered, the treasury was empty. The Hungarians had attrition-free troops, either from an adventurer claim or because I was mistaken in the belief that their gamestart doomstack is automatically disbanded when they settle in Hungary. Their CB was for the Kingdom of Anatolia, so I was set to lose literally everything I had east of Constantinople, and I suspected they'd simply do it again for Greece when the peace expired, which would be long before I was in a position to take back what I lost.
I was on the verge of a ragequit when, feeling rather masochistic, I thought I'd stick around to see how pathetically the war ended. Predictably, the Hungarian stack moved from province to province, assaulting at the first opportunity. Not enough to diminish the horde in any way, mind. The WS quickly dropped to -82% and I was getting ready to start a new game with the mental note 'exterminate the Hungarians' when something odd happened: the doomstack left Imperial territory.
Checked the ledger to see that there was a peasant revolt in Hungary proper. I wondered why the AI sent the doomstack back to Europe; they were clearly just playing with event troops in Anatolia and could have just raised levies to deal with the revolt. The Hungarians had, however, left behind a smaller, 2500 man stack to continue besieging provinces into submission. As a lark, I sent my now-regenerated 4000 man stack to fight them. I didn't think it would go anywhere, I was measuring the lifespan of this game session in minutes.
It was a close run thing, but the Hungarian rearguard was wiped out. Curiously, I thought this might have prompted the Hungarian doomstack to return to Anatolia, but no one showed up, so cautiously, I moved my army to the first occupied county.
That's when they returned.
Seeing the doomstack cross the border I scarpered for the coast to board a ship and noticed this prompted the doomstack to again return to Hungary. Weird.
A strange hope began to fill me; after defeating the rearguard and liberating two baronies I noticed the WS was slowly ticking back to 0. Maybe, just maybe I could get a white peace out of it?
The army thus became a guerrilla force over the years of the war - never strong enough to engage the enemy army head-on, and fleeing at the first sign of pursuit, but whenever the Hungarians departed, in the Romans would swoop to assault and liberate taken holdings! The dastardly Hungarian army returned to Anatolia time and again to quickly assault my holdings, but when the Roman army melted away, the Hungarians simply returned to Europe, only to find their occupied territories under siege by the Romans.
Lead by the Emperor in person - who managed to get himself bumped up to tier 4 military education and to pick up 3 tactical specialities, not to mention scarred and brave - the war took years.
Did I mention I had done nothing to further my own original DoW on the Marwanids? XD
Rationalizing losing an offensive war to the Marwanids was preferable to losing the war for the whole of Anatolia to the Hungarians, I naturally prioritized the latter. Luckily, due to wars with other powers in the region, the Marwanids were unable to capitalize on my Hungarian...distraction...and took no further action. Unluckily, they had now managed to raise an army just large enough to besiege one of my counties. An army that just so happened to be considerably smaller than my own ragtag band of freedom fighters. Sensing an opportunity to impress his vassals and score some good press, the Emperor ambushed the Marwanid army, scattering them to the hills, before moving to Lykandos and taking it....some 10 years after initially declaring war to do so!
And then the Abbasids declared holy war for Antioch....
But that's a story for another day :laugh:
...
All told, the war with the Hungarians took a whopping 15 years. I don't know what was dragging their doomstack back to Europe: I frequently checked the ledger and they only had 2 peasant revolts and a religious revolt and these were all snuffed out within weeks. Parking my army in any occupied counties would summon the Hungarians to Anatolia, but the length of time it took them to cross meant I could take back one or two baronies before they inevitably took them back via assault. I thought it was a slim hope I could whittle their stack down to something approaching parity with my own army before trying another knockout blow. Their constant assaults weren't really denting their numbers, so I was more playing for time, as the WS was ticking in my favour.
The war probably lasted 5 years longer than it should have as the Abbasids tried to retake Antioch, and wiped out what was left of my forces. In the end I managed to force a white peace out of the Hungarians and an unconditional surrender from the Abbasids. Not a bad result.
That brief period of 20 years was probably the most intense I've ever played in any one session of CKII. I watched my character go from a young, untested boy Emperor to a celebrated freedom fighter and guerrilla leader, to a war hero :happy:
An educational experience, I guess: as it highlighted two things a lot of people are still unhappy about - attrition-free doomstacks and Muslim decadence. I don't know where the Hungarians got their Legion of Doom from; IIRC their King was an Arpad and surely it was too soon into the game for an adventurer claim. I thought their initial stack dissolves when they settle in Hungary? During a lull in the fighting with the Hungarians, I sent a couple of expeditions to battle the Abbasids. My armies outnumbered theirs by, on average 1.5, and they were well led, with leaders selected by myself. Both of my armies were easily wiped out. Sure enough, Abbasid decadence level: 0%.
Now I just have to make sure the Hungarians don't try any of that again; I can still see their doomstack patrolling their border, and I can hear the Jaws themetune....
And then: the drumbeat from a DoW.
Maybe it's the AI being stupid? I thought. Who would have the audacity to pick a fight with me at this time? I've already managed to build a 2000-man Cataphract retinue already, my vassals are at full strength, and the treasury is abundant enough hire plenty of mercenaries. Who then? The Abbasids? No problem, I'll just raise my vassal levies and slap them into place after I deal with the Marwanids.
No, it was...the Hungarians.
Huh? What? I literally lolled and chalked it up to AI stupidity; in over 800 hours of playing games as the Byzantine Empire, I have never seen the Hungarians give me any guff. Sure, they nabbed the Bulgarian territories north of the Danube, and they took a couple of duchies from the Khazars, but they couldn't possibly raise as many troops as I, could they? Hmmm, better check how many troops I can raise in total....12,000+? Cool. Let's see what's got the Hungarians feeling all big and ha- 35,000+ troops, you say?....what? I mean.....WHAT?!?!
Raise all vassal levies NOW! Organize the Varangian Guard NOW! Hire all affordable mercs NOW! Everyone to Constantinople NOW!
Looking good so far; 8000 men in Constantinople and more provincial levies are turning up everyday. Just hang in there, guys; help is on the way.
2 days later, an attrition-free stack of 19,760 troops appears in Thrake. I'd hired every merc I could afford at that point, and there were still provincial stragglers heading for Constantinople. All told I only had about 11,000 men in Constantinople. It was going to be a tough one, but that core of Cataphract retinue plus horse archer mercs would see me through.
Countdown to apocalypse, waiting for the Hungarians to arrive at Constantinople. Assigned the best generals to my own stack and had to hope for the best, praying reinforcements would make it on time.
...
All for naught; the Imperial army was completely and utterly slaughtered, putting barely a dent in the Hungarians' numbers.
Only about 3000 Romans managed to break through the Hungarian lines and escape, but the Hungarian army was not in a forgiving mood and chased them through two different provinces, and through intense skirmishing, reduced the once proud Roman army to a mere 300 cataphracts. Humiliatingly, post-battle analysis revealed there was a not even a single horse archer in the Hungarians' stack.
Doomed, at that point, I thought. I couldn't raise any more levies; the army was shattered, the treasury was empty. The Hungarians had attrition-free troops, either from an adventurer claim or because I was mistaken in the belief that their gamestart doomstack is automatically disbanded when they settle in Hungary. Their CB was for the Kingdom of Anatolia, so I was set to lose literally everything I had east of Constantinople, and I suspected they'd simply do it again for Greece when the peace expired, which would be long before I was in a position to take back what I lost.
I was on the verge of a ragequit when, feeling rather masochistic, I thought I'd stick around to see how pathetically the war ended. Predictably, the Hungarian stack moved from province to province, assaulting at the first opportunity. Not enough to diminish the horde in any way, mind. The WS quickly dropped to -82% and I was getting ready to start a new game with the mental note 'exterminate the Hungarians' when something odd happened: the doomstack left Imperial territory.
Checked the ledger to see that there was a peasant revolt in Hungary proper. I wondered why the AI sent the doomstack back to Europe; they were clearly just playing with event troops in Anatolia and could have just raised levies to deal with the revolt. The Hungarians had, however, left behind a smaller, 2500 man stack to continue besieging provinces into submission. As a lark, I sent my now-regenerated 4000 man stack to fight them. I didn't think it would go anywhere, I was measuring the lifespan of this game session in minutes.
It was a close run thing, but the Hungarian rearguard was wiped out. Curiously, I thought this might have prompted the Hungarian doomstack to return to Anatolia, but no one showed up, so cautiously, I moved my army to the first occupied county.
That's when they returned.
Seeing the doomstack cross the border I scarpered for the coast to board a ship and noticed this prompted the doomstack to again return to Hungary. Weird.
A strange hope began to fill me; after defeating the rearguard and liberating two baronies I noticed the WS was slowly ticking back to 0. Maybe, just maybe I could get a white peace out of it?
The army thus became a guerrilla force over the years of the war - never strong enough to engage the enemy army head-on, and fleeing at the first sign of pursuit, but whenever the Hungarians departed, in the Romans would swoop to assault and liberate taken holdings! The dastardly Hungarian army returned to Anatolia time and again to quickly assault my holdings, but when the Roman army melted away, the Hungarians simply returned to Europe, only to find their occupied territories under siege by the Romans.
Lead by the Emperor in person - who managed to get himself bumped up to tier 4 military education and to pick up 3 tactical specialities, not to mention scarred and brave - the war took years.
Did I mention I had done nothing to further my own original DoW on the Marwanids? XD
Rationalizing losing an offensive war to the Marwanids was preferable to losing the war for the whole of Anatolia to the Hungarians, I naturally prioritized the latter. Luckily, due to wars with other powers in the region, the Marwanids were unable to capitalize on my Hungarian...distraction...and took no further action. Unluckily, they had now managed to raise an army just large enough to besiege one of my counties. An army that just so happened to be considerably smaller than my own ragtag band of freedom fighters. Sensing an opportunity to impress his vassals and score some good press, the Emperor ambushed the Marwanid army, scattering them to the hills, before moving to Lykandos and taking it....some 10 years after initially declaring war to do so!
And then the Abbasids declared holy war for Antioch....
But that's a story for another day :laugh:
...
All told, the war with the Hungarians took a whopping 15 years. I don't know what was dragging their doomstack back to Europe: I frequently checked the ledger and they only had 2 peasant revolts and a religious revolt and these were all snuffed out within weeks. Parking my army in any occupied counties would summon the Hungarians to Anatolia, but the length of time it took them to cross meant I could take back one or two baronies before they inevitably took them back via assault. I thought it was a slim hope I could whittle their stack down to something approaching parity with my own army before trying another knockout blow. Their constant assaults weren't really denting their numbers, so I was more playing for time, as the WS was ticking in my favour.
The war probably lasted 5 years longer than it should have as the Abbasids tried to retake Antioch, and wiped out what was left of my forces. In the end I managed to force a white peace out of the Hungarians and an unconditional surrender from the Abbasids. Not a bad result.
That brief period of 20 years was probably the most intense I've ever played in any one session of CKII. I watched my character go from a young, untested boy Emperor to a celebrated freedom fighter and guerrilla leader, to a war hero :happy:
An educational experience, I guess: as it highlighted two things a lot of people are still unhappy about - attrition-free doomstacks and Muslim decadence. I don't know where the Hungarians got their Legion of Doom from; IIRC their King was an Arpad and surely it was too soon into the game for an adventurer claim. I thought their initial stack dissolves when they settle in Hungary? During a lull in the fighting with the Hungarians, I sent a couple of expeditions to battle the Abbasids. My armies outnumbered theirs by, on average 1.5, and they were well led, with leaders selected by myself. Both of my armies were easily wiped out. Sure enough, Abbasid decadence level: 0%.
Now I just have to make sure the Hungarians don't try any of that again; I can still see their doomstack patrolling their border, and I can hear the Jaws themetune....
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Sometimes things happen like, say, the girl who is my king's ward becomes his friend and eventually goes on to marry his son and unite the kingdoms. Or my ruler is saved by his liege's army commanded by his dead father's friend. Or my ruler's son, who had spurned his childhood love of a wife — arranged for him by the dad — eventually gets the lovers event with her.
Plus, I suppose waiting out truces counts for soap opera, especially if you do it my way, i.e. basically end up being a Catholic power recovering everybody's land from the Mongols and Caliphs and handing it back to them while establishing dynastic marriages, converting them to Catholicism and so on, which becomes pretty repetitive, following the same patterns over and over and involving a lot of boring details.
Playing small, on the other hand, inherently contains a soap opera factor because you're forced to pay attention to larger events that you don't influence directly or openly, and building a stone wall in a keep is a major event, you keep track of all your relatives and so on. People keep dying on you just as you plan their marriages and future successions and unions and title creations, but then a couple of series of various assorted disease come and name it a a folly. More so if you engage in plots.
Plus, I suppose waiting out truces counts for soap opera, especially if you do it my way, i.e. basically end up being a Catholic power recovering everybody's land from the Mongols and Caliphs and handing it back to them while establishing dynastic marriages, converting them to Catholicism and so on, which becomes pretty repetitive, following the same patterns over and over and involving a lot of boring details.
Playing small, on the other hand, inherently contains a soap opera factor because you're forced to pay attention to larger events that you don't influence directly or openly, and building a stone wall in a keep is a major event, you keep track of all your relatives and so on. People keep dying on you just as you plan their marriages and future successions and unions and title creations, but then a couple of series of various assorted disease come and name it a a folly. More so if you engage in plots.
One time playing as the fatamid caliph I married off my daughter to an emir who pledged fealty to me. Several years later my character died and his heir took over. The emir killed the daughter which was my new character twin sister and declared independence and got half my realm to rebel. It took a couple of years and thousands of mercs to subdue to the rebellion but i won. One of the last battles during the war I was personally leading an army and we were caught in a skirmish with the enemy which was being led by the emir. I got the pop up saying I kill the emir in the midst of battle. After the war imprionsed the emir entire dynasty and kill all his male members while all female members were married of to male members of my dynasty in fact I personally took all 4 of the emir daughter as my wives. Primarily for the quick trait. But the story does not end here I did not know the late emir fathered bastards whom came to my court several years later both had great stewardship and intrigue stats so I made them my steward and spymaster. But they started a plot to kill and got my quick wives to support it I did not know of this plot so they managed to kill me but my new characters killed the bastards and all was well again
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Dear God I wish I had games like that, usually I have to give myself a specific long-term goal to have fun, like reclaiming the title of Khalifa as the Umayyads. Usually I become a multi king, my rulers aren't always perfect but they usually have enough diplomacy to hold together a realm for the short reign, and that's about it, elective usually amounts to "pick which of your kids is best" instead of a high stakes gamble. Also I've never lost my original realm and set up someplace else