The Double Cross and the Golden Bull: A Kingdom of Hungary AAR

Prologue: Moltke's Tale

Prologue: Moltke's Tale

The ruins of Nuremburg mere moments before dawn.

Fading in from bleak darkness, the ruins of a blasted city. Thick smoke mingles with the darkness. It looks european. It is the hopeless grey just before sunrise. The ominous sound of the wind is the only thing heard.

We knew that one day it would happen. Despite
all the progress and advances we made,
we could not prevent our own destruction.

The sun slowly crests the horizon, shedding light on the ruined streets. There are no people around and most of the buildings are barely recognizable. There is a street sign barely still standing, swinging in the wind: it has two german street names.


Nuremburg is a mirror of most of the worlds
cities. Like a fragile house of cards, the
destruction of one city soon lead to the
destruction of another. Once the bombs began
falling no government was able to show
restraint, the conflict escalating as mankind
fell victim to the far too seductive drum beat
of war.


Baltimore an unspecified date in the future, one rainy evening.

The sound of rain is deafening. A constant reminder of how miserable the day was. Scurrying out of the way a rat steps aside as a man in a brown trenchcoat steps through a puddle quickly walking down the streets of Baltimore, nearing the docks. A ship comes into harbor. Its fog horn blowing once. As the ship docks, a blinding white light explodes outward. Expanding and expanding, ever outwards, to consume the streets. It is a nuclear explosion and for many that whiteness never fades.

We never found out who set off that first
bomb in Baltimore, but the brass in the
United States and the Pentagon demanded
action. Suspicion fell primarily on Syrian
regime.The American people roared for
vengence. In the end we all got more then we
bargained for.


Presidential Cabinet meeting, somewhere in the United States shortly after the attack on Baltimore.

The President's war cabinet continues argueing among themselves. Clearly displayed for them all is a map of the middle east on an easle. One man, clearly a general of some sort, perhaps the secretary of state pounds a pointer on the map. It points to Damascus.

United States Missle Silos, early evening.

White missiles marked USA and baring the symbol of an american flag, shoot out of the numerous silos, rocketing up into the air with detirmination and pride.

The streets of Damascus, mid-afternoon.

The busy streets of Damascus are full of the sounds of market haggling in mid-afternoon. The sun is out and things seem normal, pleasant even. Someone points up at the sky to the streaking of a missiles path, speaking hurriedly in arabic. A few nervous people cast fearful glances upwards , while some others attempt running. An explosion rocks the city and a mushroom cloud lifts upwards.


The spark had been lit. Tensions all around
the globe were high and it became a
common sight to see people fortelling the
coming of the end on street corners. The
sad thing is, they were all too right.

One of many similar streets in Manhattan, Rush Hour.

Cars honking is a constant backdrop (despite the law against it) and the city of New York is going about buisness as usual. People walk down the streets on cellphones, each one looking supremely important. Gathering some attention are men preaching about the end of the world. On another corner a greying black man is also preaching that we must lay down our weapons for the sake of our children and the world. He is generally ignored and a few hateful slurs are even thrown his way.


New "evidence" was discovered that indicated
Iran in the Baltimore bombing. The world was
in an uproar. Fingers were pointed in so
many directions at one point it was unclear
just who was being blamed for what.

The United Nations assembly

The leaders of the world continued to rise up out of thier seats and started screaming at each other, one after another like a row of dominos. The delegate of North Korea throws his paper to the floor, even as Poland's representitive points his finger at the Russian's in accusation. Shouting can be heard in all different languages, drowning each other out as no one bothers to truly listen. The assembly breaks down into chaos.


Less then two weeks after Damascus was
obliterated, rumors began to circulate that
Iran was going to launch Nuclear Missiles.
It will never be clarified if Iran actually
launched, but the government of Israel
Claimed it shot down a missile directed at
it and proceeded to level the cities of
Mashad and Tabriz, in retaliation.

The air-space above the Iranian city of Mashad, late night.

A missile speeds downwards towards the city. The sound of emergency sirens can be heard as they split the tranquility of the night. The missile strikes a large domed building. The explosion is deafening, as nuclear fire consumes the landscape.


Any form of diplomacy between countries
fell apart. A failed Indian nuclear strike
at Pakistan triggered the chain reaction
that toppled the precarious house of cards.

The sky above India, late afternoon.

As the missile roars up into the air, it oddly begins to shake and tumble through some clouds and then suddenly veers right, twisting off course, before descending rapidly.


The farmland outside the Chinese city of Kashi, late afternoon.

A chinese man is pulling a plow through the fields. To him this was a day just like any other day. A rumble is heard as he wipes his hand across his sweating brow. Dropping his plow he looks into the distance at the rising mushroom cloud, where the city was. He seems to scream though no sound reaches his ears and then begins to run away, along with many other chinese workers.

After the small city of Kashi was wiped
off the map, if it hadn't already, all
hell broke loose. I can not say for certain
at this point who fired what, but city
after city after city were destroyed..
Pandora had once again opened the box.

Missile Silo's, Everywhere.

Missile after missile shoots upwards from silos, filling the night air with the color of their streaking flames. The cities of Algiers, Istanbul, St. Petersburg, and Sydney vanish in the blink of an eye.

Istanbul, Sydney, Algiers.. No one was
safe. Soon after Vancover, Mexico city
and Boston were among the casualties. But
it did not stop there.. oh no.. it only
just began. Osaka and Hong Kong were the
next in line, followed by london and my
childhood home of Hamburg.


The ruins of Osaka

The ruins of the city of Osaka, is briefly illuminated by the jagged streaks of lightning. A heavy rain pours down on a burnt hello kitty doll. Thunder crashes in the distance.

The city that once was London, sunset.

Snow covers the desolation of London. A man manages to pull himself out from under the rubble covering a subway passage. He looks about and falls to his knees in the snow, crying into his hands. How could this have happened he thinks, alone in his misery.


Not even swiss Geneva was safe and it
too joined the fate of so many others.
Within a month most of the worlds major
cities were destroyed. Those that
survived now await the long winter. The
world is in ruins. To say the future is
bleak is too give us too much credit.
There is no future. As a scientist I
can saddly report that according to all
calculations, Mankind will be extinct
within the next fifty years.

Arabian Desert, Night

Radioactive snow falls in heavy sheets over the desert as some Bedouin nomads move across it. They look up into the sky in wonder. The harsh howling of the wind is almost overpowering. They know that the end times are near.


One of the few houses still standing in the city of Marseille, 9:12 Am

The house is in bad shape but standing, a mother with ragged and unkept bruenette hair hugs her young daughter closely to her chest, as she looks about fearfully, huddled in a corner. The door and windows are boarded up with tables and furniture. The sound of looters outside and the smashing of windows and banging on the door can be heard. They howl like wild dogs, seeming less like men and more like deranged beasts. They are coming for her, she knows it.

Many have lost hope, I have not. For
while mankind has no future, we do
have a past. And perhaps.. A second
chance. I am Dr. Moltke and perhaps
the instrument of mankinds last hope.

.....

okay, so I lied about not posting for awhile.

But really, the rest of the posting will probably be at least a week or more, I do want to finish my other AAR before I get involved in this one.

Well, I have some ideas. I actually borrowed this prologue Idea from something else that I was writing sometime ago and converted it to suit my needs for this AAR.

Hopefully I will be able to blend the introduction and the back story for the AAR with the actual game I will be playing. I have only played the first year so far, so I am unsure if Hungary will even make it to the end, after all the Ottomans are a danger and my main goal is to prevent Constantinople from falling to them. This is my first try playing EEP and Hungary both, so it should be interesting.

Anyway, I have some time still to work out how to make the story flow together and any suggestions and/or criticism is appreciated (along with praise as well).

Well, I love Quotations and Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite President, so I thought it was a natural choice to open the AAR with.

I shall take these warnings to heart. I have not had much time to play recently as my monitor has been on the fritz. When I get it fixed, I will probably play some and get this AAR moving along.

I did write up another post for this AAR to further set things up, but I am not all together happy with it, so I can't say if I will even use it or not.

Chapter I: EDGAR 4

"We are not condemned to repeat the lessons of forty years at the nuclear brink. We can do better than condone a world in which nuclear weapons are enshrined as the ultimate arbiter of conflict. The price already paid is too dear, the risks run too great. The nuclear beast must be chained, its soul expunged, its lair laid waste. The task is daunting but we cannot shrink from it. The opportunity may not come again." -- General Lee Butler

Earth, sometime in the not to distant future.
In the northern reaches of Finland, Dr. Moltke continued his intensive work. Not all technology had been destroyed in humanity's mad episode and the good doctor intended to put any use he could to mankind's ultimate executioner. Quartered away within his remote laboratory, he wheezed heavily, his white hair unkempt and the lines along his face growing longer with each passing day. He hadn't slept in nearly three days, for he knew that his time was growing short. Radiation and age were working together in concert to bring an end to his life. Dr. Moltke could not allow this, for he knew with some amount of pride that he was the last hope for human civilization. Him and his inventions, that is.

Under the flickering of the lights, he studied his creation: EDGAR 4. An android of remarkable human resemblance, though rather limited artificial intelligence. The android appeared as a small, middle aged man with thin wisps of hair on its head and a dark, unsmiling face that was overly long and gave the android a lugubrious look. His belly was large and round, so as to better house his internal systems. While a great feat in human ingenuity, EDGAR 4 was but a tool to be used in the potential salvation of mankind. The scientist's true mark of genius was his time machine.

Untested, though it was, the massive machine was Dr. Moltke's life work. A nuclear powered chamber capable of breaching the mesh of time/space and hurtling an object backwards through the ages. In theory at least. And according to another theory, if an object was hurtled backwards in time, it would alter the course of history. Like a pebble tossed into a stream, its impact would create ripples in the timeline. But if the pebble was too small and inactive, it would be swept away in the tide. Only by creating a big enough ripple, could the stream's course be changed. That was where EDGAR 4 came in.

The radiation and physical bombardment that would have to be undergone to travel backwards in time would liquefy a living organism, but the android should be able to withstand the journey. Or so Dr. Moltke hoped. Unfortunately the good doctor was confronted with a problem he found himself unable to answer: Where, when and for what should he send EDGAR 4 back.

Dr. Moltke was a brilliant scientist, but he was no historian. His first consideration was of course sending the android back to World War II, but decided that would be unwise. The science of the time was to advanced and it was possible he could do more damage in altering the timeline there, than he could in repairing it. A Nazi victory was too horrifying for the doctor to even fathom, despite his German heritage. Pacing within the confines of the laboratory, the answer made itself known in the form of a newspaper and an old song. The newspapers tragic headline spoke of the Nuclear explosion that destroyed Istanbul two months ago. Upon seeing that, the doctor remember a song he had heard ten years back, Constantinople is Istanbul now.. or something like that. Hadn't the Turks captured that city from the Roman Empire or something like that. If that event could be prevented, perhaps history would be altered in a fashion to prevent this holocaust..

Many sleepless hours later..

All the data had been programed into EDGAR 4's memory banks. His mission parameters, his extensive language and historical archives. Along with several fail safes and contingency programs installed by the doctor. With everything at last completed, EDGAR 4 was activated.

Blinking his dark, rather unexpressive eyes five times, Edgar studied his creator. In silence, he glanced around the laboratory and then down at himself and the simple brown frock he was attired in. "quis an tu?" the android said, experimenting with its language banks. "Ki vannak te?" the android said again, cycling through the various languages programed into it. Finally it spoke in a more modernized German. "Who are you?"

"I am your creator. You should already know this. Regardless, we have no time to waste. Tell me, Edgar 4, what is your primary mission?" Dr. Moltke said even as he began adjusting the settings for the time-chamber, causing the lights to flicker as the power of the laboratory was rerouted.

"To prevent the city of Constantinople from being captured by the Ottoman Turks through indirect guidance of the natives of the local time. Furthermore, my secondary and tertiary parameters state .. "

"No, no.. that is quite enough, my creation. I know what they are and we have not the time to waste, into the chamber with you now.. hurry, hurry.. " The doctor urged the android forward, even as two of the light fuses blew out, sending shards of glass raining downwards. EDGAR 4 more or less waddled up the platform and entered the time-chamber. With the turning of several dials, the gates pressure locked and full power was routed to the time machine.

The experiment had worked, but the mysteries of reality and the breaching of time would have unseen influences.
--------------------------------------------------------------
A mile north of Trakoscan Castle, Croatia - March, 1419

Everything went white and distantly Edgar believed he had heard an explosion. All of a sudden he was falling. A crash, a splash.. and everything went brown. All his visual receptors could pick up was brown, but he heard voices.. screaming and the stomping hooves of many horses. Something brushed against him, its wet tongue bathing his face. Some of the mud fell away from his eyes and the android EDGAR 4 saw a donkey looking quizzically down at him. Where was he? Who's donkey was this? and most importantly, why was he sitting in a puddle of mud?

The answers to those questions would be delayed for the confused Edgar however, as more pressing problems became increasingly known. Apparently he was sitting in the middle of a small road that would soon be a battle ground between three converging armies. The nearest of such flew a deep red banner with a golden lion upon it. They would soon be upon him and Edgar could not help but note that they did not seem very friendly.

[ Initially I was going to post in a slower, more story oriented fashion. Unfortunately, lately demands on my time have increased and I have not been able to find time to work on the AAR in the fashion I intially wanted. However, rather than abandon the AAR, I shall merely attempt to approach it in a simpler, history book format. I hope this doesn't disappoint too much, but its all I can manage for now. -- The Management. ]

"Acts of benevolence could coexist with atrocities, and the perpetrators were not aware of any contradiction. Here is revealed the phenomenon in which morality is subtly blended with power." -- Masao Maruyama


The battle of Trakoscan Castle that occured in the march of 1419 proved to be more significant to the future development of the world than any of the local commanders believed. One of such reason was the discovery of an adled monk discovered with a donkey by the Venetian Commander, Ioso del Rio Visconte. Ioso was known for his cruelty and a whispered reputation of dabbling in necromancy and dark arts. However, his noble status kept such rumors at bay. Putting Edgar 4 in chains for questioning later, Ioso del Rio Visconte sent his cavalry of nearly five thousand north to screen the bulk of his army as he initiated a seige against the Croatian defenders of the castle.

Unfortunately for the Armies of Venice, despite Ioso's considerable military skill, the Hungarian army under General Bathyanyi was aware of the plight of the Croatians, a land to which the Emperor Zsigmond considered his own. Sending a sizable army, the Cavalry of the Venitians was easily destroyed. On march 25th, General Bathyanyi ordered a formation of pikes to charge the mass of the siege force, warning that failure to aid the desperate Croatian's was inexcussable. This seemed enough to motivate the Hungarian forces on that rainy march day, for the gold lion standard of Venice fell in the hasty retreat of Visconte's army.

That evening, as the commanders of the Hungarian force recouped, they were entertained by the gracious Croatian defenders of Trakoscan Castle. It is here that captain Balaz Mihalyi brought Edgar to the attention of the Hungarian general. Many in the army camp had already begun to whisper about the stocky monk, who had an unnatural resemblance to Peter the Hermit. Further fire was heaped to this rumor when local croatians said he had fallen from the sky, a gift from god. Upon questioning Edgar, the General was surprised to hear the words of the odd monk instruct 'Take me to your King' in nearly six different, fluently spoken languages.

On the morning of March 27th, captain Balaz traveled North towards the capital with a small guard and the unusual man calling himself Edgar Foor, even as General Bathyanyi and the Croatians set out to pursue the Army of Venice to Dalmatia.



[More to come when time permits it. Including the conclusion of the war with Venice and a new war the Croatians drag the Emperors alliance into. ]

"A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past." - Eric Hoffer

"This only is denied to God: the power to undo the past." - Agathon (448 BC - 400 BC), from Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.

Even as Edgar of Foor arrived at the splendid Friss Palace of Emperor Zsigmond, battle was engaged to the south of the Dalmatian city of Zadar. Having hoped to reach the city, Ioso del Rio Visconte found himself cut off by the swift moving Hungarian knights of Saint Stephen. With a small, but dangerously quick river to his flank and a tired and hungry army the Venitian noble decided to surrender, rather than enter battle with the knights and the approaching ranks of croatian, serbian, and hungarian infantry. Though this was seen as a great victory in the war, much of Dalmatia was still under the control of Venice and its many coastal islands would prove difficult to capture.

General Bathyanyi reportedly set Ioso free after recieving a generous bribe from one of the nobles retainers the following week. Ioso's brief time in captivity was said to influence the young aristocrat and fuel a great hatred towards his eastern neighbors.


The Hussite regency and the Death of Vaclav IV

Edgar's arrival in the grand court of Emperor Zsigmond was greeted with suspicion and wonderment. The tales spoken to the Emperor of this unusual stranger were far fetched in the eyes of the King of Hungary, but were not dismissed out of hand. As far as the android was concerned, something had happened during the travel through time and left the android oblivious to his unnatural status, yet he knew that he had a mission to complete. Seeing the mighty Emperor as his perhaps his best chance, the android fully accepted his role as prophet.

He reached the Emperor through his wife, Maria of Luxembourgh. Convincing the queen of the urgency of his heaven sent mission, Edgar Foor managed to talk Maria into speaking with Zsigmond. At his wife's insistance, the Emperor gave Edgar the chance to prove himself. Rather than cite a omen such as a storm or celestrial event, Edgar shook the court with his warning. 'The armies of Islam would sweep out of Anatolia to conquer the city of Constantinople and from there they would conquer to the walls of Vienna.'

The Ottoman threat was a growing cause of alarm amongst some nobles, who used this oppurtunity to bring note to their demands of more funds. Whispers spread through the court, but Zsigmond seemed unimpressed. He was not convinced of the truth of Edgar's words. The next evening, August 5th, he had the strange monk brought before him and instructed him to somehow prove the authenticity of his prophecy.

Not clearly knowing where his knowledge of the future was coming from the android, Edgar 4, believing the knowledge sent from the almighty creator, spoke to the Emperor of the defenestration of Prague and the rise of the Hussites. He told the Hungarian King of the future death of his brother as well. Hearing this news, Zsigmond sent letter to his brother in warning but it came too late.


"By the help of God I have preached, still am preaching, and if his grace will allow, shall continue to preach; if perchance I may be able to lead some poor, tired, or halting soul into the house of Christ to the King's supper." - attributed to John Hus, sometime before his death.


His brother had died and the Hussite regency had begun in Bohemia. Furthermore, the Hussites denied Zsigmond his rightful rule of Bohemia. Yet rather than marching off to war against the Hussites, Zsigmond believed this the will of god, for why else had he sent this vision to the prophet Edgar of Foor. Rather, Zsigmond allowed Austria to take up the banner against Bohemia while he focused on strengthening relations with the Byzantine court. He also eyed Bosnia as a potential future objective, with the intention of freeing it from its status as an turkish puppet.

Edgar of Foor was taken into the court of Emperor Zsigmond as a personal advisor to the Queen. Before the end of the year, the war with Venice ended. Having not been a Hungarian war, the nobles of Croatia accepted the peace proposed by Venice in which the trade republic offered 112 in indemnities. While unhappy with this peace, the Emperor did not complain as he had a famine to deal with.


Marriage and Ragusan treachery.

On the 1st of the year of our lord 1420, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II agreed to wed a cousin of the Luxembourgh queen. The union served as the first stepping stone to bring the Orthodox Byzantine Empire and the Catholic Kingdom of Hungary closer together.

Later that year, Szigmond went on a tour of the other lands over which he claimed dominion. Traveling first to Serbia and then Croatia, where he prayed before the skull of St. Stephen (one of two artifacts of the great Hungarian king) he made intention to go next to Ragusa. Unknown to him, a Ragusan baron, Armando Cabrera, plotted to capture the emperor and declare the independance of Ragusa.

Fate however intervened as the Emperor became ill the day he was to depart and sent some of his servants ahead of him. The ambitious baron mistook the arriving carriages for the Emperor and seized them, declaring the independance of Ragusa.

Angered by the actions of Ragusa, Szigmond returned to the Hungarian capital to consult with his generals. He was ultimately convinced however to let Ragusa have its independance, as the logistics of a war against them were terrible. Conceding, Szigmond could not help but think Ragusa would be a thorn in Hungary's side in the future. That this would prove true is a testiment to the foresight of the Hungarian Emperor.

Yet soon the Emperor was distracted with bigger concerns. On August 7th, 1422, the nobles of Croatia, declared war against Styria after reports of Styrian atrocities against croatian nobility abroad. Styria's ally, the proud Tyrolian's came to Styria's defense, even going so far as to insult the strength of the Hungarian army. A mistake they would soon regret. Hungary, Serbia and Luxembourgh all honored their alliance with Croatia, though the war would quickly become one dominated by the Kingdom of Hungary.