Part 8.3 - Idrisid Emirate (Sana'a & Medina)
@mike the knight: Indeed. Or at least that he unites Arabia...
Things are looking promising for Abdullah, he has rid himself of a troublesome brother and things are falling into a holding pattern while we contemplate the next move. We still need around 4 territories before we can form the Sultanate of Arabia, however, so that's still probably another ten or 15 years away depending on claims and such.
The rest of the year 1194, goes by rather fast, when we get an event that lowers our decadence by 2 points due to the humbling knowledge of the greatness of our ancestors.
As December begins we learn that a man named Khalil is gathering an army to lay claim to our lands. This cannot be allowed. I don't want to use money from the Idrisid bank to fight some random camel rider with magical doomstacks so Abdullah begins plotting the man's death.
As a fair warning there shall be many such plots in the near future. Abdullah will fall in love with the idea of stabbing people in the back while the sleep.
In February of 1195, the assassination is set and goes off without a hitch. Well sort of anyway. The snake decides one victim is not enough and wanders throughout Khalil's household biting and killing quite a few people before slithering off into the sunset.
You got to love a snake that kills more than just the one target.
Things remain boring and I check out some of the world, like I always do during the dull periods. Remember how Norway became the last and final bastion of the Norse faith?
Well Sweden wanted to conquer Norway due to them being pagans and such. So King Egil Hede "the Monk" converts to Catholicism to save his realm. A smart move, but now he faces open rebellion from the followers of the Old Gods. Whether he survives or dies is yet to be seen. But I'm guessing the Norse religion is now done for.
Abdullah falls ill that summer, I begin to fret about what may happen if he dies. But he quickly recovers a few weeks later.
In November, we have two children born, our first son Is'mail and another daughter Nyawela.
This is when I decide its time to go to war once more against the Husamids. I use the conquest CB against the Sheikdom of Hail. In March of 1196 the first battle takes place, which we win pretty easily.
This gives us a nice +30 boost to warscore, so its obviously going to be a very quick and painless war.
We then settle in for a siege and occupy As Salif (+49). We then win the battles of Jizan and Foda (+56).
In December I'm informed that our Sheikh Fadil of Al Jawf is seeking to fabricate a claim on the Emirate of Medina. Abdullah considers throwing him in prison for a brief moment but realizes said Sheikh is a very rich man, obviously a member of OPEC and an oil tycoon in his own right. So we hold off on throwing him in prison momentarily. Plus, said traitorous rich Sheikh is trying to expand our lands for us, so we will wait until he wins his own little war.
1197 begins with two more sieges concluding between January and March.
This makes the young Emir Jamil of the Husamids surrender in May.
Another war complete for the son of the Poet. And now we need to once again ponder what we should do next.
While thinking, I notice that a Bulgarian is now Emperor of the ERE, Emperor Kocelj Bulgarsko I can't imagine the Greeks and Serbs in the Empire being all that pleased by this turn of events. In fact I imagine his tenure wearing the Purple will quickly come to an end.
That's when I decide I love the assassinating little kids. Its so much fun! And so easy to do. I start a plot to kill our former enemy little Emir Jamil of the Husamids. Why? Because he's a boy and everyone hates little boys anyway. They're so annoying and loud and obnoxious.
The plot fires quickly, and while we await word of its success we are informed that the Ice Queen has finally died. Sadly displacing the af Bornholm dynasty with the af Bucu dynasty in Prussia. It seems our turn in icy Denmark was far from successful as the Bornholms did not last very long at all.
A few weeks later we're informed that Jamils maid smothered him with a pillow.
Unfortunately the maid informed the world about Abdullah's involvement in the plot. So I make a mental note to have the desert searched until we find the snake that rampaged through Khalil's household as the snake was a much more discreet assassin.
With the death of Jamil our truce with the Husamids is now over and Abdullah can once more march off to war against our archenemy this time for the Conquest of Rafha.
As Abdullah's troops are off marching to attack and conquer things again. The Caliph decides its time for the Sunnis to go on a Jihad for Mauretania. And why not? Its held by the Rahhalids of Andalusia now, instead of the once invisible Shaiban Sultanate. So victory should be assured right?
By October of 1198, we had a minor and I mean super minor battle, in which we slaughter all 98 of little Emir Ashraf's camel riders. Followed by a successful siege and occupation of Rafha (+30).
Which is when Pope Eugene III comes up with a brilliant strategy.
The Adhid Caliph is busy marching across North Africa to attack Mauretania. Which means all of the Caliphal troops are far far away. Eugene sees this as a perfect time to grab the Holy Land and calls a counter-Crusade.
This has one of two outcomes. The Jihad could lose as the Caliph races his troops back to Jerusalem in an attempt to defeat the Pope. Or the Caliph could say screw it and stay in Mauretania, and intentionally lose the Holy Lands. Or the Caliph in all his infinite wisdom, could divide his forces and lose both. I think if I were the Caliph I'd say screw Jerusalem and burn Mauretania to the ground as quickly as possible and then race back to the Holy land or conduct a Special Ops mission to the Vatican.
Unfortunately the AI being the AI will decide to divide its troops, and as I'm betting lose both the Jihad and the Crusade.
Silly all powerful Caliphs not knowing how to game the system.
Meanwhile Abdullah is sitting upon his camel awaiting Ashraf's imminent surrender. Which comes a week after the Pope calls the Crusade.
After winning, Abdullah frets about what to do. In a way he really wants to return the family to Mauretania. He toys with becoming a Jihadi. In fact goes so far as to join the Jihad, and raises his troops and begins marching. When Idrisid men reach Cairo, still a long way from Mauretania, we see things not going all that well, and massive Christian armies beginning to land in Jerusalem.
This gives Abdullah pause. He parks his camels while thinking. If I go to Mauretania, we risk losing all our levies. A price way too steep and that could end our chances of gaining the Sultanate of Arabia.
With this in mind Abdullah turns his camels around and returns to Sana'a.
Sorry Caliph, you'll just have to squirm under the brunt force of the Christian knights.
Upon returning in March of 1199, another son named Alim is born to Abdullah.
Some time passes and the news I'd been waiting for comes in October. Sheikh Fadil has usurped the Sheikdom of Shaka, using his massive wealth to hire mercenaries to carry the day. A trick he learned from the rise of the Poet.
To reward his services to the Emirate and the Idrisid Dynasty we arrest him and throw him in our dungeons. Because well we can't have oil wealthy Sheikhs running about thinking their the next Poet.
The Husamids are now down to one Sheikhdom. Which means one war and bam! We win. But yet we are bound by a stupid truce yet again.
Its truly a sad day for Emir Ashraf. Everyone knows what is going to happen to him. He is of course an obnoxious child much like his elder and late brother Jamil. We fire up the assassination plot to rid the world of obnoxious children once again.
And once again the nobility of the Husamid Emirate agrees that children are far to annoying to yield such power and eagerly join in.
They take the brat out hunting one day, not that he was old enough to even go hunting, but hey whatever works right? Little Ashraf would never return from the hunting trip.
Although we seriously have to find Khalil's damn snake.
@mike the knight: Indeed. Or at least that he unites Arabia...
~~~~~
Part 8.3 - Idrisid Emirate (Sana'a & Medina)
Part 8.3 - Idrisid Emirate (Sana'a & Medina)
Things are looking promising for Abdullah, he has rid himself of a troublesome brother and things are falling into a holding pattern while we contemplate the next move. We still need around 4 territories before we can form the Sultanate of Arabia, however, so that's still probably another ten or 15 years away depending on claims and such.
The rest of the year 1194, goes by rather fast, when we get an event that lowers our decadence by 2 points due to the humbling knowledge of the greatness of our ancestors.
As December begins we learn that a man named Khalil is gathering an army to lay claim to our lands. This cannot be allowed. I don't want to use money from the Idrisid bank to fight some random camel rider with magical doomstacks so Abdullah begins plotting the man's death.
As a fair warning there shall be many such plots in the near future. Abdullah will fall in love with the idea of stabbing people in the back while the sleep.
In February of 1195, the assassination is set and goes off without a hitch. Well sort of anyway. The snake decides one victim is not enough and wanders throughout Khalil's household biting and killing quite a few people before slithering off into the sunset.
You got to love a snake that kills more than just the one target.
Things remain boring and I check out some of the world, like I always do during the dull periods. Remember how Norway became the last and final bastion of the Norse faith?
Well Sweden wanted to conquer Norway due to them being pagans and such. So King Egil Hede "the Monk" converts to Catholicism to save his realm. A smart move, but now he faces open rebellion from the followers of the Old Gods. Whether he survives or dies is yet to be seen. But I'm guessing the Norse religion is now done for.
Abdullah falls ill that summer, I begin to fret about what may happen if he dies. But he quickly recovers a few weeks later.
In November, we have two children born, our first son Is'mail and another daughter Nyawela.
This is when I decide its time to go to war once more against the Husamids. I use the conquest CB against the Sheikdom of Hail. In March of 1196 the first battle takes place, which we win pretty easily.
This gives us a nice +30 boost to warscore, so its obviously going to be a very quick and painless war.
We then settle in for a siege and occupy As Salif (+49). We then win the battles of Jizan and Foda (+56).
In December I'm informed that our Sheikh Fadil of Al Jawf is seeking to fabricate a claim on the Emirate of Medina. Abdullah considers throwing him in prison for a brief moment but realizes said Sheikh is a very rich man, obviously a member of OPEC and an oil tycoon in his own right. So we hold off on throwing him in prison momentarily. Plus, said traitorous rich Sheikh is trying to expand our lands for us, so we will wait until he wins his own little war.
1197 begins with two more sieges concluding between January and March.
This makes the young Emir Jamil of the Husamids surrender in May.
Another war complete for the son of the Poet. And now we need to once again ponder what we should do next.
While thinking, I notice that a Bulgarian is now Emperor of the ERE, Emperor Kocelj Bulgarsko I can't imagine the Greeks and Serbs in the Empire being all that pleased by this turn of events. In fact I imagine his tenure wearing the Purple will quickly come to an end.
That's when I decide I love the assassinating little kids. Its so much fun! And so easy to do. I start a plot to kill our former enemy little Emir Jamil of the Husamids. Why? Because he's a boy and everyone hates little boys anyway. They're so annoying and loud and obnoxious.
The plot fires quickly, and while we await word of its success we are informed that the Ice Queen has finally died. Sadly displacing the af Bornholm dynasty with the af Bucu dynasty in Prussia. It seems our turn in icy Denmark was far from successful as the Bornholms did not last very long at all.
A few weeks later we're informed that Jamils maid smothered him with a pillow.
Unfortunately the maid informed the world about Abdullah's involvement in the plot. So I make a mental note to have the desert searched until we find the snake that rampaged through Khalil's household as the snake was a much more discreet assassin.
With the death of Jamil our truce with the Husamids is now over and Abdullah can once more march off to war against our archenemy this time for the Conquest of Rafha.
As Abdullah's troops are off marching to attack and conquer things again. The Caliph decides its time for the Sunnis to go on a Jihad for Mauretania. And why not? Its held by the Rahhalids of Andalusia now, instead of the once invisible Shaiban Sultanate. So victory should be assured right?
By October of 1198, we had a minor and I mean super minor battle, in which we slaughter all 98 of little Emir Ashraf's camel riders. Followed by a successful siege and occupation of Rafha (+30).
Which is when Pope Eugene III comes up with a brilliant strategy.
The Adhid Caliph is busy marching across North Africa to attack Mauretania. Which means all of the Caliphal troops are far far away. Eugene sees this as a perfect time to grab the Holy Land and calls a counter-Crusade.
This has one of two outcomes. The Jihad could lose as the Caliph races his troops back to Jerusalem in an attempt to defeat the Pope. Or the Caliph could say screw it and stay in Mauretania, and intentionally lose the Holy Lands. Or the Caliph in all his infinite wisdom, could divide his forces and lose both. I think if I were the Caliph I'd say screw Jerusalem and burn Mauretania to the ground as quickly as possible and then race back to the Holy land or conduct a Special Ops mission to the Vatican.
Unfortunately the AI being the AI will decide to divide its troops, and as I'm betting lose both the Jihad and the Crusade.
Silly all powerful Caliphs not knowing how to game the system.
Meanwhile Abdullah is sitting upon his camel awaiting Ashraf's imminent surrender. Which comes a week after the Pope calls the Crusade.
After winning, Abdullah frets about what to do. In a way he really wants to return the family to Mauretania. He toys with becoming a Jihadi. In fact goes so far as to join the Jihad, and raises his troops and begins marching. When Idrisid men reach Cairo, still a long way from Mauretania, we see things not going all that well, and massive Christian armies beginning to land in Jerusalem.
This gives Abdullah pause. He parks his camels while thinking. If I go to Mauretania, we risk losing all our levies. A price way too steep and that could end our chances of gaining the Sultanate of Arabia.
With this in mind Abdullah turns his camels around and returns to Sana'a.
Sorry Caliph, you'll just have to squirm under the brunt force of the Christian knights.
Upon returning in March of 1199, another son named Alim is born to Abdullah.
Some time passes and the news I'd been waiting for comes in October. Sheikh Fadil has usurped the Sheikdom of Shaka, using his massive wealth to hire mercenaries to carry the day. A trick he learned from the rise of the Poet.
To reward his services to the Emirate and the Idrisid Dynasty we arrest him and throw him in our dungeons. Because well we can't have oil wealthy Sheikhs running about thinking their the next Poet.
The Husamids are now down to one Sheikhdom. Which means one war and bam! We win. But yet we are bound by a stupid truce yet again.
Its truly a sad day for Emir Ashraf. Everyone knows what is going to happen to him. He is of course an obnoxious child much like his elder and late brother Jamil. We fire up the assassination plot to rid the world of obnoxious children once again.
And once again the nobility of the Husamid Emirate agrees that children are far to annoying to yield such power and eagerly join in.
They take the brat out hunting one day, not that he was old enough to even go hunting, but hey whatever works right? Little Ashraf would never return from the hunting trip.
Although we seriously have to find Khalil's damn snake.
