Year 1009
======================
We sit to toil again for the wellbeing of our people in Permo-Siberia during those taxing times. Turns out one of our vassals took dealing with peasants into his own hands, and using his 1.000 strong army defeated 4.000 lightly armored rebels before we decided to intervene, thus saving us the effort. That's +1% MA, which currently makes 1/3 of our religion MA :]".
Acquring new investors never truly ends. While I still managed to catch some interesting characters, it took way more time that usually and I think the "after plague lag" finally hit that "market"
After sending invitation, we also start family for our heir. He can take his time before taking over Emperorship in procuring suitable heirs. It almost goes without hiccup, but one of concubines turns to be daughter of local ruler and thus even with bribe refuses our invitation. Well 3/4 is still not bad and that includes Greek Genius relative of Count (so no huge prestige penalty).
Once those start, these hunting events fire quite frequently. Let's hope for something beneficial.
February starts quite eventful. First we have our Great Hunt proceeding. We drink some potion and even with hopeful description I notice no permament difference (was thinking maybe it will give us strong/greedy/lustful). Then in few days our Grand Cathedral in Tynea county finishes upgrading to Stage 2. There is not much of visual difference but maybe upon comparing both pictures there is more than I remember. But more importantly we finished previous stage in year 981, which means, that in year 1031 we will become eligible for "New Town is born" event here. We still need more features there (as it is currently completely feature-less).
As the name of that most holy place suggest, we prevailed and persisted. From now on this will remind us the hardship Komi people had to deal with so far.
But waait! There is more. Our Marshal returned to us with yet another rumour. This time is marked as more significant. So I start breathing heavily and my excitement is drived by thoughts of acquiring quality 4 or 5 religious artifact. We obviosly thank marshall but send our previous artifact hunter - jewish spymaster Achunai of Plyos for this task. He has great pox, developed Lunatic behaviour but still this cruel, greedy Genious is man for this kind of job. All of sudden living few extra years as current emperor became really important
.
Not exactly the best to hear such rumours once your ruler is close to 60 years old, but hey we will try anyway. Maybe we just manage to find it before Varaka Permyakid croaks.
I raise our levies (around 15.000 men), as I found some use for them in the near future but it still will make some time for them to march all the way to our capital. Retinues that were protecting the borders are moved onto few selected 'scheming to kill some courtiers' vassals, as I want to replace them with probably better candidates to speed up culture change. There is also our ungrateful clergymen, who after getting tribe started scheme focus (from our experiments in previous part). For him though I start my own assasination plot (seems we can get up to 400% plot power), as we are still his heir.
With coming of march our 75 years old Keeper of tomes dies, and our treasury refills instantly after recent investments. I quickly exchange our master of hunt position and invite some spare courtier I wisely booked in reserve, giving our investor pool another 343 gold. Our Spymaster at the same time informs us about his progress in artifact search. He demands 50% plot power defence and power. That's a lot just as we get informed our ungrateful vassal will have an accident. But decision is made to make that significant artifact search progress. Soon our scoundrel vassal dies in manure explosion, without trace of our complicity. He is replaced with commander (19 martial and 'Leading the center' commander trait) to boost up levies that tribe provides.
Spring start with another Chancellor (no luck so far with anyone deciding on "Become the Paragon of Virtue ambition) and capable one at that. I send him to Tortosa county in middle-east to fabricate claim. Why? Because if we are to live for a moment, maybe we will want to generate some claims to costly pass them to Kezhay. But maybe it won't be costly even? I was thinking about intervetion in vicinity of Jerusalem for some time now, after Abbasids collapsed. It might be a nice task during our next ruler reign. So for now let's start working on it just in case. We also try to imprison Chieftess Litava of Osha tribe for her involvement in some assasination plot. Just to replace her as her county needs more administration oriented ruler to help with assimilating locals. She evades our guards and rises in rebelion, but our 3.900 strong retinues are already there so her 300 strong force is demolished instantly. The siege begins. Our western retinue had to give up, as one of vassals reconsidered his schemes on his own and now they are moving up all the way to Kargopol in Nenetsia to deal with last target.
To my suprise before May, our target chieftess called to war 3 other chiefs to her defence. First of them is considered stupid but later one of our better commanders joins. It won't help much as probably they will surrender after we extract her from her tribe walls but is annoying.
During summer we instigate the same manouver in Kargopol but sadly catch local chief with just 38% chance. Can't imprison him again, as he isn't excommunicated. The war is prolonged as even after taking all the holdings of main target, we are at just 97% warscore and opposing side refuses to surrender. So we move out and hunt one of Chieftess Litava allies in the field, which finally forces them to peace talks. I only revoke her tribe and leave 3 other traitors free (one has quick heir, second has already converted his county and third is fellow Crusader commander).
I keep revoked tribe, because it is strategically located in the middle of our eastern realm. Also has temple holding, which will help technology spread . With that we can evenly feed technology into previous nomadic lands, as they count as being adjecent to rest of our personal demense
That leaves me at 11/12 holding limit. As newly acquired Osha tribe was partially build I continue that by upgrading Practise range I into II (-200 prestige). Time for our other scheme. Remember that raised levies? They gathered. Now I sent them west towards rising Russian Tengri kingdom on our borders. Why? Because they have plethora of Temples to loot. Gotta help clergy spreading good word
.
So as Autumn approaches and our raiders move out, we get issued another mission from our comrades in Community of Saint Basil (Orthodox Monastic society). This time they don't want money (weird as we were asked donations like 3 times in a row?) but want us to do some seclusion and penance. Happy to oblige!
With over 600 devotion and yearly income of +288 we surely want to speed up gathering 2.000 devotion for last rank in this society. Also I still don't have Erudite trait and this is occasssion to earn extra +2 Learning.
We start besieging 4 counties of 4 different realms. Doesn't help, because in meantime our MA reached 0%! Our emperor sure will have to ponder on that while meditating, thus leaving realm managment in the hands of his son and heir - designated regent Kezhay Permyakid. Pilva and Kolva tribes finish Training Grounds III and Irtysh completes Practise Range III. I will wait till new year to start another round of buildings as Burtasy tribe will finish it's construction by then. At the end of month we lose our hunting dog. Not great for longevity - expected him to survive few years more.
Our Chinese ward comes out of age frail and cynical with diligent being only redeeming trait. She is ambitious but soon stops thanks to our succesful Monastic intervention >.>. We at least arrange for lustful husband for daughter of our Scholar-Bureaucrat to keep Taoist characters alive in our court. Meanwhile our 5.600 strong cavalry retinues raiding Suomi (on the border) will have to fend for themself in local forest against slightly numerically superior Finns (6.150) Troops are arrenged into center and left flank under capable commanders. Our Varaka finally fires event for interpreting Bible and we have 75% of success on our own compared to 65% on option to ask our Ecclesiarch. Yet we instantly fail. Damn!
We repel locals after sacking their temple. Due to how many things kept happening I didn't realised mistake during taking screenshot "
Battle doesn't go well. Yes we are slowly winning with 2 Volley Tactics and Shieldwall against their Inspired Defence and Harass, but for once it's they who have Heavy Infantry to use in what seems to be a battle reaching Melee phase.
Year 1010
======================
Battle prolong itself till the end of January. Mostly thanks to our goofy Suomenusko warrior lodge commander on the flank that kept firing defensive tactics. It ends with us losing close to 1.000 men for 2.200 locals. Ouch! It wouldn't be an end of world if we lost it, as I don't intend to keep raiding Finland but would prefer our force to be more intact before moving them for use in Vladimir. Well we will move them anyway. Additionally on 16th of January we get informed that Spymaster is making steady progress on search of artifact. That's great. Back to tribe infrastructure - we spend 2x400 prestige on final Training Grounds in Pilva and Kolva, 100 prestige on Training Grounds I in Burtasy and 400 prestige on Practise Range IV in Irtysh. Which leaves us with just 365 prestige. Amount that won't hurt in case of unexpected sudden death. Our Raiders also manage to open up 2 out of 3 holdings behind border on the Silk Road. Decided to try it as Tibet Empire (current owner) is in the middle of civil war.
Many temples nearby might help us recover some morality for Orthodoxy. If needed we are close to replenish our numbers too. And we are hitting Tengri MA, which is also beneficial.
Our Levies after looting temple in Yegoryevsk move onto Moskva. In February interesting fatherless girl is born to one of our Vassals. She is Genius. I will gladly take over as her teacher to mold her into suitable partner for our Heir later. Also my Genius spymaster fires event that let us choose between +10% arrest and plot power. We take arrest as it might be usable but only for a year. It also increases prosperity in Kolva capital by most likely +6. Our raiding forces in Aylik (Tarbagatai duchy) are also done so we move them northwards towards rest of feudal type counties in the vicinity. We keep getting around 40 gold per holding looted on border so it ain't bad. We also extracted several prisoners (first time in ages) from Nomadic descendants holding Tengri holy site in the south. One of our Vassals embraces some heresy but we persuade her to convert back. Still we suffer 3.8% Moral Authority.
Took us little less than 12 years after epidemic to recover from depopulation and reach 1st prosperity level as arctic tribal capital x]
As we celebrate economic progress, Vladimir'ians move onto our raiding retinues located in north. 5.300 of them versus 4.800 of us in Forest. Not bad. I replace defensive oriented wing commander though. Just as I prepare for that battle, huge 10.000 strong Zikri uprising occurs in Irghiz tribe. I evacuate instantly my steward from there (to not let the mob kill him) and call for help from vassals, as retinues nearby are only 3.150 men strong. That one thing I really did not really needed right now.
Facing Off most of Vladimir's event troops in their on Forest
The battle against Russians is long and bloody thanks again to goofy tactics of army wing. We win but lose 1.100 men for their 2.300. If it keep going that way sooner or later we will be forced out. So now marshalling troops to deal with Zikri's begins. During all that my Emperor kept being secluded slowly recovering from initial failure by small amount of progression. This will take waay longer than usually. At least future Emperor now can earn some firsthand experience at running realm.
On 27th of May our ward Wang Mai comes out of ages. He is Midas Touched Taoist Han steward candidate with 17 Stewardship and ambitious. Currently rival but we will not intervene and hope he retains ambitious for use under future emperor. We keep looting and after dealing with Moskva and moving province away, supplies are finally good enough to split our 14.000 strong levies to start siegeing 2 counties simultaneously.
During summer we find a key to old, dusty locked chest from God knows how long ago. Of course turns out the coffers war completely empty x]. Good to know this event pops up even without warrior lodge.
I Wonder if not being eligible for other Norse specific sacking events and having already found "+2 Axe" we are more likely to found those Strange Chests. We went from previously best outcome to worse outcome this time.
Just as I manage our raiders, news from China arrives. Turns out previous Emperor died and there is new one - Li Xuanzong. He likes Iranian cultures but dislikes /Buddhist. Which reminds me that I probably should prepare some gifts to his liking. But not now as our character is in seclusion.
Bu Autumn as I move our 3 armies through Vladimir Kingdom in hunt of Temples, our MA recovered to arround 11%. Mostly thanks to 12% Lost Holy wars timing out. I've seen that Byzantines managed to loose against both rebels (losing some counties in Anatolia and Hellas in Greece) while having over 20.000 troops still =.=. Due to probably that we have -30% from 'Rebel victories'. Russians once again charge our retinues but this time it us who have numerical advantage on top of Forest defensive bonus.
In September we finally end seclusion and reach 1.150 devotion. Nice. Less than 5 years till last Monastic rank. My previously raiding south of Cumania retinues managed to circle back while avoiding Zikri rebels back to our lands. Now we start getting those vassal armies and soon we should be able to deal with non-believers. Both Tynea and Udmurts finish their last prestige based buildings, meaning now we are ready to start putting real gold into our tribes.
Russians once again bounce off our retinues (200 men for their 1.700 exchange) and now we have to pay attention mostly to rebels. It takes quite some time to convince our vassals to follow us, despite orders.
Year 1011
======================
I recall my retinues from Tibetan Empire. Why? Because I realised I was raiding my own religion temples =.=. They still belonged to those Orthodox Karluks, we accidentally spawned by past sheningans with Horde title claim wars. Which definetely wasn't helping. I also lock onto Zikri rebels but my reinforcements are behind. Thus we start battle badly outnumbered (3:1).
Costly initiation of battle against Sunni rebels. Our retinues took majority of casualties so our vassals could tackle those Pechenegs in melee.
Battle goes horribly for Emperor personal troops, as they are sacrificed so the rest of vassals finally decides to join the fray. We lose 1/3 of our retinue force and they route, before more allied armies feed into battle at melee phase. We win in the end and put down whole Rebelion (+1% MA) but daaamn... was it not needed to lose so many men. In the meantime we inherited Tarbagatai tribe again (and gave it away). Raiders are working in Novgorod, Vyazma and Toropets counties. Also on 28th of January we received another progress in artifact search. With that I finally have time to find perfect gift for new Chinese Emperor.
By March I procure Persian Sunni, Grey Eminence. He should give us some grace upon doubling for his culture. But I didn't check and thus he turned out being not eligible to being send. Then after several minutes of looking through I finally find candidate. Monophysite Persian with 20 Learning, Mastermind Theologian, Architect
Chinese emperor can enjoy Iranian architecture and we can enjoy Chinese Master Engineer
With extra 700 grace I can once again afford to replenish vacant office of Master Engineer. This time we get a women! How progressive of China
I can marry our newly arriveed Di Xinyue to Wang Mai (grandson of previous Master Engineer / son of Wang Hong that betrayed us during search for Roman architecture book). Thus keeping our Permian Han population growing. Also he is presented 3 concubines with at least some bonus fertility (as his wife is 30 years old already).
Di Xinyue ironically fires her first province modifier for Irghiz again. It is also something we already seen - Administrative outpost (+1 Economic/Cultural technology points income). We progress with sacking more Tengri temples in Vladimir, recovering up to 19% of "Faith" into Orthodox religion. Then I look onto my prestige situation and see many tribes not working. Pilva and Kolva are finishing their last prestige buildings, which leaves us with just outskirts. I decide to spend 300 prestige on Warcamp III in Burtasy (to make it tougher to siege) and 200 prestige on Warcamp II in Osha tribes. Also another 200 goes towards Irghiz tribe and second level of weaponsmith. Upon checking our Permian Mercenary band is still alive with 7.700 gold coins in their pockets.
As we keep improving our religious status, our Emperor once again goes on great hunt. Russians keep attacking fruitlessly. That said after repeling them in Smolensk I do notice, that my once 7.000 part of levies without winter specialist diminished to under 4.000 warriors. Well we will still continue, as locals can't dream about beating even that. We are also replenishing troops decently back home, so if we have we can "refill" our forces. Also there are so many temples here that by the time we probably end, we might be not too far away from looting initial temples again (1013 year is a timer for those east of Moskva). By August Irtysh finishes Practise Ranges. Sadly I have -6 prestige income, as we keep reinforcing 2 damaged retinue forces.
That's second sacrifice for the search. I'm really hoping it keeps happening to speed up the whole process.
We get unexpected update on whole hunt for artifact. That's second such event, each giving +5 progress and we had 2 regular updates. That means so far we secured 12 points of progress. I have no idea whether this artifact rumour is medium or major but we will learn in time. Medium requires 14 points of progress, while major 20. So if we get it within 2 years it was middle quality from possible outcomes. It is possible to get Bones of Saint Peter from Quality 5, which reduces both build time and cost by 10%. From Quality 4 Seamless Robe of Jesus is nice (+10% National Tax), but Crown of Thorns ain't bad (-3% National Revolt Risk). The whole hunting activity goes without much thrill. We get some event but fail at 20% Chaste chance.
It ain't the end as in December Megaloschemos ask us for another donation. Two hundred devotion for 100 gold isn't bad. It put's us even closer to being able to rank up (1.700/2000). Once we reach last rank we will get several great powers and modifiers. We soon also get one of the last missing virtues (Chaste) and now our devotion income rises to +312/year.
Year 1012
======================
Yet another Anno Domini starts on managing logistic. Was moving our raiders around. I keep ransoming prisoners that kept showing up. Sometimes for 130g sometimes for 340g. Note that we are not members of Warrior lodge and thus lack amazing passive power increasing our chance of procuring them. As I was waiting around I noticed that somehow Italy-Bavaria managed to snatch kingdom of England for itself. But it was passed to one of Cathar sons of previous king. So we start assasination plot (one of our female relatives that was married into their dynasty is still there), as we can easily reach 160%. Killing current king Lodovico II of Italy, would pass the crown to his father - Prince Lothar "the sword of the Lord" and fellow Crusader
. And then to his son Giuseppe von Kufstein. Both are Catholics, which is what we care for. Their Moral Authority is doing really well (62%) given that now they have partial control over holy site in England. Turns out Lodovico has claim on Permo-Siberian empire, because he is son of Varaka niece (daughter of emperor Viryay "the Accursed"). Also he is possessed (thus making whole plot possible % wise) but also celibate. Meaning this can sort itself out on it's own.
Catholics start making moves, after getting help from us in Crusade. Nice. If they somehow convert England to our cause, it will make for valuable ally against France.
Spymaster generates +50 economic tech points. No update on artifact search. Seems those ticks are irregular. Decided to move our previously battered retinues away from Irghiz. Local county has 24% revolt risk for 2 more months and it would suck to lose whole retinue army due to rebelion spawning on top of our troops. During April also our assasination plot fires. we hire some bandits and carry out hit run on the road. Everything goes smoothly and soon our fellow Crusader (which actually contributed to winning war) is once again on throne of 3 kingdoms. Let's hope he won't lose against rebelion forcing him to abdicate again.
With coming of spring I decide to sponsor Summer Fair. Why? Cause it also increases prosperity in Capital slightly. Get used for us to keep both it and Feast up, to speedrun that prosperity gain. At this point having any province at max prosperity is priority to not waste years without chance for extra holding slots. Also Warcamp II finishes in Osha tribe. We are out of prestige though (14 atm) due to reinforcing retinues. We proceed with unboxing Tengri temples in Vladimir, keeping our Orthodoxy at around 21% MA.
Alongside long summer heat, I confirm that Vladimir is big enough for us to keep constantly looting temples. That's neat. That makes for easily accessible raiding across border. Still I have to return one levy army that is halfway depleted to raise them again in full strenght. We have the men, who kept replenishing in the meantime. Additionally our upper limit of levies raised to over 17.000
. That's a force! We have to deal with some raiders too. In Southern Cumania 1.000 khazars tries to rob Or tribe (that still suffers from significant depopulation), but our almost fully replenished retinue force in the region beats them. Then our returning levies are moving onto 1.900 enemies besieging Mordva. Not raiders - enemies. Why? Because local chieftess decided to holy war Ryazan. I could not help her and then wouldn't have to extract those tribes. But that is another -3% MA for us. Ehh!
Once again we are eligible to pick it up. I forgot that it also gives +1 stewardship upon completion. Let's hope we manage to live long enough to find artifact and get that extra prosperity (+35 points for every county in realm)
It doesn't matter, as they take over her tribe before we can arrive, giving them 100% warscore. Thus she surrenders, as next vassal declares holy war on them >.>. How could I not love my morons? We still beat those event troops down, thus making our biggest Vassal in Vladimir war easier. We kind off achieved the worst possible outcome, without fault of our own :/.
In September we get the pop up that this world is dangerous place. It's a red flag! I check plots and turns out our daughter and rival Sanal'ka Permyakid, currently residing in Italy is hiring goons in our court to kill us! We send her our demands to stop that at once - plot power is at 89%, so it shouldn't be too late to talk it through! After that our subjects notice us about spotting of great beast, that Varaka was on trail of.
Levies were reraised and and slowly marching down to Burtasy tribe. Not everything is up to maximum but still 5.000 troops is way better than 3.000 troops out of 7.000. Then on 23th of October we get notification of Spymaster making steady progress with artifact search. That's 13th point in that event, so probably next year it will end with quality 4 artifact or not (meaning we are on hunt for quality 5!).
On the first day of October we can push towards final rank in monastic Society (Megaloschemos). I was thinking of it earlier whether it is wise to spend 2.000 devotion on rank up or wait to become new leader upon succession. After consulting member list it seems inheritance of that rank is no-go. We are losing in society score against way younger candidates, who are monks/nuns. There is another thing to consider though - missions. I'm not sure if being at final rank but not the leader, prevents us from getting further missions. They are a nice source of extra devotion every 2-3 years. So we could not rank up now and gamble on accumulating devotion to instantly use several powers upon ranking up at once. But then again we might be receiving missions or die in the process with unspent points. So I think ranking up is the choice, so in the worst case we will learn how it works.
Decision to rank up instantly instead of stockpiling more devotion.
We get rewarded for our choice with extra devotion income from reaching highest society rank. Which just works out to be worth more currency than missions anyway and comes without any requirements! I can't organise a feast cause we miss prestige (90 out of 100 needed) and our emperor is out in the wilds hunting. By the end of year we reach 21% Temple Looted in Orthodox MA description (from 4% base). Sadly we are still mared with -54% Holy Wars lost and -30% Heretic Rebel Victories =.=. We also get rid of negative "Out of Patience" character modifiers, which baloons our attributes to 25/28/26/5/28 (Diplomacy/Martial/Stewardship/Intrigue/Learning). Just few days before end of year we manage to return to court and start organising feast at last possible moment.
Year 1013
======================
As preparation for feast are ongoing, our winter-resistant levies are making their way back to starting point of our 'Vladimir campaign', as soon their looted cooldown will vanish. Then we get this notification:
Turns out I was right and as long as I'm not a leader, we still get the benefit of missions on top of getting extra society currency.
This is working better and better for us
. Then we slowly watch as our levies trod back (and cause casualties thanks to issue with supplies when passing through county with our retinues present).
With advent of spring we once again start summer fair, while our raiders re-start the whole Vladimir raiding route again
. Then in May our Spymaster steals 50 military technology points - I forgot to keep mentioning this success also generates +6 prosperity points in capital every time it happens, so now Kol'va is getting some extra prosperity out of blue
. Then as month changes we get notified that Kudymkar (county that we are targeting with both Crown Focus and Marshal mission) reaches 1st prosperity level.
Wow. Either we are extremely lucky or currently there is a tremendously high chance of this event happening for some reason. We bribe our courtier before sending her.
Summer greets us with 2nd opportunity at finding lost Roman book about architecture. This time wisely I examine, who will be sent. Sochava (1st option) likes us quite a lot and is diligent. We bribe her (before she becomes unavailable due to being in travel) and off she goes. Really nice that this event isn't limited to firing once per ruler. We will monitor her but in the meantime we get some work to do.
Thanks to huge discount from final rank of Community of Saint Basil (-50%) we can build several holdings for basically free.
One of the reasons for my advancement towards Megaloschemos rank was an opportunity to cheaply build many temples. Not only will they help our religion authority but also are not too bad of financial investment. By appointing skilled stewards (or spare sons) as Bishops there, we could easily double our income. If it was not for 'over the limit vassal penalty'. But even with that, they will retain those money, making it possible to extract it from them later. How profitable it is?
====================================
Base temple - 8 gold yearly income
Temple cost - between 50 and 80g (depends on how much Construction tech we had in county)
Time to pay for itself - between 7 and 10 years
Time to pay for itself if we were paid 60% Temple taxes - between 11 and 17 years
====================================
This isn't even counting holder stewardship (and we have few Bishops that increase it by around 30% or more) and technology. Both of those modifiers are multiplicative instead of additive too! And I didn't even mentioned that, temples have possibility of building Monastic School to speed up technology spread across realm
. So as you can see it is very profitable (as a tribal) to build, if you delay your feudalisation at least for around 100 years. Won't build more for now, as I still have not figured out optimal use of building slots outside personal demense. So filling counties with at least 3 holdings slots for now.
In the wider world, Byzantine Empire holy war'ed back one of lost duchies. At the same time Basilea vassals are reintegrating some counties that got away, improving cohesion of empire in process and taking back chunks of Greece. With that we are up to 26% MA. I really wish, for most of negative modifiers to time out.
As some of our eastern levies are still marching to Burtasy tribe, 1.250 strong Uyghur raiding host shows up on the border. Our retinues in Irtysh (3.900 light infantry/light cavalry) that didn't had anything to do for long time are thus moved out. By mid September we beat them, killing 750 of them but only losing 75 men ourself. I made the decision to switch Emperor Varaka focus from Hunting to Theology to fulfill monastic mission. While Hunting can still give us prestige from hunting great beast and Brawny from pulse event, the first (IRC) can kill us and second isn't highly likely to begin with. Theology still retains passive +1 health and might increase our piety gain. Also it enables us to go on Pilgrimage!
By end of September we get another notification about Spymaster making steady progress in search of artifact. That's 14th point. So unless in days to come the whole event wraps up, we are onto some really epic artifact. Our Councillor so far used Intrigue and Stewardship special events (and at least for a year he can't use Intrigue again and even longer for Stewardship). At this point the worst thing is for him to roll usage of his Learning (only attribute below 8) and failing. It is 1/3 chances (if the roll is before intrigue cd wears off), as he will be rolling from Diplomacy/Martial/Learning options. Eventually he can ask for gold I think (haven't that in a while).
In October Sochava returns with empty hands. Turns out event failed but at least we get paid back most of our expenses. Maybe it fires 3rd time, as I have feeling that due to exhausting most possible events, those artifact related ones are firing more often now. Later that month we get notified that our acquaintance King Lothar "the Sword of the Lord" got assasinated. Most likely his Cathar Anglo-Saxon nobles. His titles are all inherited by his other 3 years old son, that fought off "Sickly" trait. Ok I lied. Upon checking, someone else inherited Kingdom of England but he is king of it, while having no holdings inside it. Thus England fragments into Dukedoms.
Different type of failure is reached this time. At least we got back some funds back.
Then we get offered from our re-admitted Chancellor opportunity to get claim on County of Tripoli for cheap price of 33g and 150 prestige. We take it. To make it inheritable, we might need to press war and surrender. I'm just worried how much will it cost. Is it based on our treasury (bad outcome) or income (great outcome).
On 1st of December we start theology event chain (for now +20 piety for wanting to read scriptures) and another feast.
Year 1014
======================
Year starts with awful choice pressed upon us. From Theology either we lose Zealous or get 100 piety with 30% chance at depression. That negative health modifier is a killer at rip old age of 63. I will part with Zealous I guess. Maybe we get it again later. If not, well I'm not in huge need of many seclusion events. We continue our sieges in Vladimir and our other force is finally assembled. Force just numbers currently the same, as the army under our winter commander. Before end of first month our Jewish Spymaster thanks to his contacts generates further 50 military tech points. No prosperity though.
With February our prestige income is back. We move our western retinues to sack single county realm inside duchy of Vladimir. Also I spot that there is new emperor of Romans - Basileus Theodotos. And he is all business, as he instantly began his reign by retaking county of Constantinopole. Also his nemesis kingdom of Serbia-Epirus-Bulgharia under female ruler Khanum Sibel, now has 4 male heirs in line of succession. Byzantines have also close to 30.000 troops to use and reconquer, as currently their eastern border stabilised and nothing is happening.
In May we start yet another summer fair (getting extra 12 prosperity points/year from event's will slowly add up). We also get presented interesting event from Theology focus, which allows us to become Malnourished with chance of becoming Diligent (we already are) and maybe Zealous. No I won't take Malnourished as I'm afraid it might lead to some health complications. Instead I will lower my stats by taking "Hard Diet" for that +0.25 health.
Hard choice but better safe than sorry. We need to buy time for our little artifact hunt.
We work on sacking Vladimir temples and slowly accumulate up to 30% MA. Probably will have to help because contrary to my belief our Qazan-Vladimir vassal is losing his own holy war. It's concerning that "Heretic Rebelions" are not vanishing, which means they either occured in one big lump at the same time or have a really long duration. Another repercussion of our theology choice occurs and now we either risk 50% depression chance to keep Hard Diet or we remove hard diet. Well we said no to Emperor Varaka being depressed and we will say it again. While losing that small health modifier isn't great, at least we get rid of stats penalty. Hoping it exhausted that event chain avenue. If we get depression anyway... It won't feel great.
Turns out we have to babysit our vassal in Vladimir high chiefdom and eliminate his opponents to preserve our religion Moral Authority. Lose-Lose situation no matter what we do. Argh!
As we finally catch and trounce Ryazanians, our Spymaster informs us on 20th September about another progress in artifact search. That's it. We are on track to get one of rarest artifacts and it is our 15th out of 20 points required. Any special event occuring might basically finish the whole artifact hunt, as they provide +5 progression points. We finish enemies and kill 2/3 of their force. Maybe now our derpy vassal will manage to not lose another Holy War.
This way we finally reach November but I'm again a week late to host feast early enough, that we can host 2 such events during single season. Got distracted by 5 temples finishing constructing. We assign capable administrators there and then we get interupted by our raiders, who found another key to strange chest. This time it give us +200g. Nice! We sent our Marshal to hunt meat for feast (weird it didn't happen so far) and then upon game updating I check on how profitable those temples are. The only downside is that by removing empty holding slots I removed +50% to base levy value across demense, moving our Levies from 16.000 (After losing Zealous) to 15.000. It takes me 10 tries for 7.9 gold each to get satysfying Bishops. We also start Building Church Town I everywhere to accelerate investment. I also spot some visual bug - not all of my modifiers are visible as upon deciding to construct instead of I pressume his 138g price I pay 61g.
Initial not-recalculated by game return of investment on those Economic Bishoprics. Their
With all that (temple in Burtasy finishes as I write it and in 2 weeks temple in Irtysh will be completed too) Orthodoxy MA rises up to 38%. Now we are starting to get somewhere. With few more % we will regain ability to use Excommunications (I know you are missing it dearly xD). Also it seems that barons update less often than monthly, as those newly assigned didn't double their state stewardship (as the Bishop of Perm does). Maybe it is with new year? It will increase their income by a ton! Given that we accumulated some prestige (700) I push final level of Warcamps in Burtasy and Weaponsmith II in Osha tribe. Emperor Varaka also accumulated enough Devotion to instantly convert single province in realm to Orthodoxy. The power is spent on Buqtirma in eastern Cumania to get rid of Bogomilists spread in the vicinity. It does increase revolt risk from 8% to 15% for 2 years. But after that it will diminish to just 5%. Or even 0% because upon inspection county has will lose "Heretic Stronghold" modifier upon change of month.
Year 1015
======================
With year 1015 arriving, sadly our new bishops state stewardship doesn't update
. So it seems maybe year after they got landed? I will keep you updated and check from time to time. At least our Marshal increases prosperity in Kudymkar by +6 via success in his mission of training troops.
By February we get our ability to request Excommunications back. I use it at once on Chieftess of Turgay (province east to Irghiz). Why? Because that county has 3 holding slots, meaning if we hold it, we could build Temple there to speed up technology spread on the reaches of our empire even further. But we don't press the issue now (cause we are diligent and remember about our "See the Realm Prosper" ambition). As we move beyond 41% MA treshold our Patriarch conversion chances once again rise by around 4% to 13.33% yearly chance. Next such increase over 61%.
In April we get issued another monastic mission. Easy one this time - another attempt at Seclusion. As you remember last time we fumbled our chance at getting Erudite. Let's try it again. But before that let's wait for May to throw Summer Fair. Our Ruler can do penance during summer.
We help our Vladimirians with their Zikri uprising. Cool to see our altaic army model (loyalists) again altaic rebel model.
After intervening on behalf of our neighbouring victim, we get informed that Varaka's wife became pregnant. Well I don't believe it
". Not with Celibate character. So the investigation begins.
We return the longer raiding force back to replenish them, swapping commanders to the army that will remain and keep looting. Summer fair concludes and we start our meditation. By doing that, we get awarded Malnourished trait anyway
". Why do I even bother... x]? At least I keep up with moving our raiders from one target to another. I also moved our retinues onto southern nomadic land to loot 3 temples there.
We finally have success and obtain Erudite, which further increases our devotion gain, which now stands at +481/year. With some mission that's county converted every 2 years. Not bad!
After progress showed above our Spymaster rolls once again Intrigue special progress event, and we gladly will give him support and take that negative penalty for just few months most likely. According to my math this should be +5, putting whole event chain at 20 progression points - meaning next tick it should end.
Safe Intrigue based event progress. I'm more than happy to grant it! Seems the star are aligned for success.
Out of blue we inherit Tribe of Balkhash together with Chinese Ceremonial Robes (+0.5 prestige gain/month and +1 Diplomacy). Holding is located in Kazakh duchy (southern Cumania) and interestingely it is already culture converted but not religion converted. I spend two-three clicks to generate commander and assign him there with some cash. Will keep artifact for ourself thank you!
During October we beat down some old visitors from across border in south-western Cumania, then get audio spammed with sound affect of children dying. Due to some peasant uprising our granddaughters in Italian kingdom get killed. Three out of six children of Queen Sanal'ka of England (Varaka daughter) die. I check on our Economic Bishops and they finished Church towns so Church Walls I follow (pre-requisite for many buildings). Also they still haven't updated their state stewardship.
We keep making progress in seclusion twice (and I'm suprised it didn't end already) keep managing raiders and rebuild forts in high chiefdom of Perm. It might save us some prosperity in the future by delaying any rebels just few days more! We can't organise feast, as we are still secluded. We also manage to get ultra unlucky, while helping Vladimirians deal with their peasant revolt, angry mob gets reinforced from 9.000 troops up to 18.000 troops. And our northern levies that were recapturing got trashed big time. We lose 2.600 men for their 180. Well can't say I didn't deserve it as some of that revolt risk in those lands is probably thanks to us.
Year 1016
======================
On 25th of January "iffy" daughter is born to emperor Varaka. Well that ain't the worst but it probably isn't his kid. Also we end our seclusion, neting us +200 devotion (putting us at 800), which means by mid year we will be able to convert yet another province.
Our levies get routed close to Baltic coast, where I started opening up Latvian temples. It still means we are down to 2 sacking armies at the moment (one in Latvia and one on Pontic steppe). I watch as new young Basileos takes over Greeks. While he is dumb he might be just a man we need, as he started by Holy Waring single county Muslims in Anatolia with his 30.000 troops. Bizairre what it takes for AI to start doing stuff
". Similarly little more to the east Kingdom of Armenia took over Baghdad and is shielding Greeks from fracturing remnants of Abbasids fighting against rising Zikri realms. That reminds me of my Chancellor to re-sent him for claim fabrication in case he got bribed. I realise something. He was the same chief of Non-Komi cultured county I excommunicated half a year ago to replace him, thus diminishing his nice and high diplomacy by -5 to just 17 x]. Oops!
In April I did check my capital duchy temples and finally the state stewardship was recalculated. This doubles the bonus from attribute when generating income - just look at best example:
This is one way to play tall - by managing characters. The same can be done for levies or technology generation on Dukes+. This also makes use of extra sons on stewardship
Will keep utilizing this method to even greater extent with city vassals. Sadly temple vassals lack ability to marry for extra 1/2 of spouse attributes contributing to state stewardship. But that's in the future and currently we have Zikri revolt to deal with.
Our Vladimir chief makes his damnest to make our life difficult and annoying.
Will have to call-in vassals to deal with that, as I'm not moving my raiders back to just deal with little 3.500 unhappy locals. In the meantime surveyed my 91 vassals and found one scheming enthusiast to gift him most valuable excommunication notice. I trounce local khazars to unlock last county containing feudal holdings.
In June our marshal reports another success in Kudymkar and emperor has just enough devotion to convert another county. Upon some consideration I decide on Burtasy tribe. Not only would it be nice for locals to visit temple we just build there, but also that will give us county to culture convert passively and strenghten garrison on border. Also last genius concubine we had in mind at the start of this part, for our son&heir becomes eligible to be invited. We don't even have to use favor we still have on her.
Month later huge news arrives. Our spymaster returned with artifact. This time he fulfilled all expectations - quality 5 artifact in shape of... Bones of Saint Peter! The best possible outcome from artifact pool for that event (it also includes Staff of Moses and Harp of David). Wow just wow. That's perfect find to store in our Grand Cathedral - Hagia Epimoni. It removes a lot of work for me, as I not longer need to keep my Taoist breeding program going. I was planning to convert to Taoist, as one of religion specific schools offers -10% Building Time and Cost. The same as Bones of Saint Peter (which require being Catholic). That's really nice. Now we only need to collect remaining 2 books before feudalising (Lost book on Architecture from our Far North Scriptorium event and "On Komi Architecture" that was eluding us thus far). Also Pope Nicolaus III "The Wise" will be suprised, as he no longer is the sole owner of that artifact in world
.
Event chain outcome was far better that I was wishing for. The best artifact we could use in this specific playthrough in just 3 (!) attempts.
By August even our vassals manage to succeed at something and concentrate 2.900 troops against 3.600 rebels giving them shot at (with help of river crossing) winning. That's nice change of pace. We have to chase off some nomadic predation in eastern Siberia with our retinues though.
By September Burtasy reach 1st level of prosperity, temple in Turgay is finished (we assign there 15 stewardship Bishop) followed by construction of Church Town and temple in Izborsk falls. Our Patriarch manages after many years to convert the heretics in Bilyar tribe to mainstream Orthodoxy (lowering amount of heretic provinces in realm to just 4). Then he is moved to Mordvin Bogomilist in Kerzhenets (14.99% yearly chance). Things are coming together nicely.
By October our vassals deal with Zikri uprising. Which further boost Orthodoxy to 56% of our beloved statistic in this game. This is workable + will persist longer than Heretic Rebel victories. Church walls are also finished so I decide to built Monastic schools in each of recently build Bishoprics. Our reductions are crazy as real cost varies between 60 to 62 gold coins per school
. Those buildings will help turbo-spread technology to different parts of empire. Forgot to build anything in temple within Osha tribe so now I have to make up for it.
At least I finally remember to slow down before 1st November, to try getting 2 Feasts during season. And we succesfully click that decision on exactly beginning of November. Burtasy tribe max their warcamps so 300 prestige is splurged on Weaponsmith III, while Osha focuses on getting Practise Range III. That leaves our character with just 144 prestige and 8.522 piety.
Finally we experience positive results of our efforts into upholding our branch of Christianity
Between last months of year we have a "situation'. Our detoriated by time raiding levies in Luki tribe, are on route of 10.000 strong khazarian army. Spotted too late to escape. I consolidate all forces into center and prey for Narrow Flank. Turns out only fraction of them fight us (1.700 Cheremisians). Thus we easily trounce them but still we are left with less than 4.000 troops here. My retinue force raiding Pontic steppe is recalled as they finished their mission. Probably will tag them in to take over sacking duty. Two weeks later our Patriarch Shyrpuzh informs us, he converted Kerzhenets already. Well that was fast. So fast in fact, that he has to remain there for at least 3 more months, as we can't recall him due to cooldown. Well that leaves 3 Bogomilist counties to convert.
That leaves us to feast and celebrate. Thanks to beginning it so early, we end event chain by 29th of December and thus can throw feast again (doubling our prosperity gain from this event alone). But that's a story for another part, as during this week I probably already hit some personal peak
.
.png){kind=avatar}
