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I wouldn't expect much in the way of a revolt: look at the kid's prestige level as a newborn. And I think Born in the Purple gives a relationship bonus. I could easily be wrong about that though as I rarely play as the Byzantines.
 
I wouldn't expect much in the way of a revolt: look at the kid's prestige level as a newborn. And I think Born in the Purple gives a relationship bonus. I could easily be wrong about that though as I rarely play as the Byzantines.
I know, but I've waiting for about 10 pages for a meaningful challenge which at this point can only come in the form of a mass revolt.
 
Now you can legitimately say that the Hauteville emperors are the greatest – well done on finally completing Germania.

Good also to see that the Taurica problem has been solved. Having the Black Sea as a personal pond must be nice ;)

I'll be interested to see what will happen once Sayer dies. If the heir is too young, we may see something we haven't seen in centuries – a revolt.
 
End of the Golden Horde

Far South


In August 1333, three Norman armies had finally completed their long walk to southern parts of the land, where last lands Zurayid Emirate were. They were also fighting, province of Harer fighting some war against their Emir. Normans did not care much and declared war on them both. It was to become one of these long wars...

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Three Norman armies fighting a single puny Emirate...

Harer, the single county, fell in September 1334, with Normans taking horrible losses when assaulting. Rest of the Emirate still held firm, probably hoping that the sun and the lions will kill Normans, for they themselves just stayed behind their castle walls.

Golden Horde gets kicked

Also in August 1333, Sayer finally declared war on Khagan Alchi of the Golden Horde. Target- Duchy of Novgorod. Sayer already owned the capital, now he wanted the rest of them as well. For this war, Sayer decided to use his hosts armies, so armies from Sweden, England, Scotland, France and Germany sailed to the Baltic Sea, to the province of Ingria that was the chokepoint.

In October, first army had reached Pskov- and had met an unfortunate accident. Uffe, a leader of host claiming Poland from Sayer, had diverted his host north and marched to meet Normans in battle there. 15 000 Normans versus 30 000 usurpers. Of course, as is the case with Normans, help is never far. Soon, the numbers were more even and the host was defeated in the battle of Ostrow in December. From there, Uffe retreated to Velikiye Luki, where another Norman army was already waiting for them.

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Unexpected surprise from one of the hosts

Meanwhile, Pskov was taken and already in January, Khagan came begging for peace. While bringing his army to Novgorod and attacking Normans there... Sayer decided to wait and ordered rest of his troops to march to Novgorod. Soon, army of Golden Horde was yet again fighting more then they could chew. In a battle of Novgorod, most of the Mongols were killed. In March 1334, Sayer finally accepted the peace, gaining Duchy of Novgorod.

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Defeat of the Army of the Golden Horde and Norman gains

Far North

In November 1334, peace with King Arne of Trondelag just ended and now, Sayer decided to take what is his. Normans crossed the sea from England and Scotland and Frisia and landed in almost defenceless lands of Arne. By February, it was over.

When Sayer now owned Finmark, he started calling him Emperor of the Four Corners of the World, for now the Norman lands reached from southern end to northern end, from eastern end to western end of the known world. Norman-Roman Empire had dwarfed all the other Empires known to mankind. Not Romans, not Alexander, not any other ruler had called that much land their own.

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With Trondelag taken, Norway is safely under Norman command

What was left of Norway was now splintered into few independent counties, with Arne himself ruling in Orkney.

Oh Shit! Oh Shit! Oh Shit!

It was when Nahku was ruling in the Ilkhanate- seeing that they were losing lands fast, he must have thought he needed more. So, he declared war on Golden Horde, claiming the Kingdom of Russia. Golden Horde was actually winning and winning good. Then, something unexpected happened.

It was in December 1334, when forces of Ilkhanate and Golden Horde crashed somewhere in the Russian-Khazarian border. For Normans had already destroyed the main forces of the Golden Horde, the battle was swift, brutal and ended in victory of the Ilkhanate. Ended so badly that Alchi, Khagan of the Golden Horde, was taken prisoner.

Few days later, Alchi and Ajinai signed a peace, with Ilkhanate taking over what all Russian holdings and vassals of the Golden Horde. Alchi had still one province in Khazaria and parts of Poland left. Meaning that Golden Horde had no lands or power left, while Ilkhanate grew nearly twice his size.

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You have got to be kidding me...

The job of Normans just got a bit harder....
 
You know, when i saw that happen, i was really oh shit, oh shit, oh shit... nooooooo! One of the few times in my all gamer history when i just wanted to smash the mouse and keyboard. I didn't though, no worries! :) Still, it is even bigger bummer then HRE taking French as their vassals... and look how long it took me to dismantle that one. Though, now, with assassinations, it can be quicker.

Still, it bugs me that it was basically my fault. I should not have destroyed the army of the Golden Horde and instead should have accepted the peace when i had a change. Still, what can you do? When life gives you Mongols, you play whack-a-mongol

SirkTheMonkey - unfortunately, there is even no de jure area for Taurica for me. All is Khazaria. Same for Russia- i have two huge Kingdoms in the east, not the pleasant more splintered way we do have now. Isaakios got Taurica for owning two duchies and being independent. As for stacks- some civil war again. I think it was Duchy of Latinum requiring new ruler again- it happens every few years. I kill most of the plots, but sometimes fail to see. Or some other war- for when one Hauteville goes to war against other, the rest of the family joins in and then the fun begins. :p

cyrileom, Last_Revanant - i have not named him a heir yet. Though, as Last_Revanant said, i don't expect much. Some disgruntled rulers there might be, but Augustus, Born to Purple, Genius and other good traits, plus prestige and good diplomacy should make the ascension to me quite tolerable. As for challenges- yes, i know, i'm playing whack-a-mole. Ilkhanate will no doubt be a bit harder to bring down now, but... There are no-one left who can stop the norman invasion. But i really-really don't want to make the few hundred years of history, blood, conquests and other to go down to drain, so i'm choosing my heirs pretty well and try to dissolve any factions.

DensleyBlair - Thanks, Germany and the Black Sea in one episode is nice. And i love how the conquest text there hinted at the HRE :) As for Sayer though- i hope he will live to 60. Of course, young Josclein will not be named heir until he reaches 10 or so, but i hope he'll live long enough to grow up before Sayer dies.
 
Really ? Well, you can take solace in the fact that the Timurids are coming to trash the persian area, so the southern Khan will not be without issues ( if you discount the flying daggers and manure explosions of *uncertain* origin :p ). But you know, this that kind of things that happen in CK II when you ( or the AI ) insist on using the ruler as a general ...

Anyway, on the Taurica grab, I always planned the thing based on covering the bases for the worst case scenario, that was the not-idiot daughter of Isaakios getting the throne before she could marry Sayer, son of Sayer ( that way she would be the ruler of a independent Taurica, thus forcing you to solve the thing in the next generation ) . With her in your court with Isaakios alive, things got far easier since you could push her claim as a familiar. Anyway, that seems quite settled, since the now Queen titular of Taurica has some pretty powerful borthers in law to call in case her father gets any ideas.

Well, and back to the current events, this only means that we will see a lot more mongol Khagans in the next instalements ... and with some luck, the catholic mongol dukes will pop in rebelion fast as soon as you wipe out the Il Khanate armies in the next war ( like France/Leon did against the HRE ) ...
 
That was certainly an unexpected development. I wonder if this isn't a set up for greater glory though. Consider all the independent dukes you could go after if there was a mass revolt and if the Ilkhanate's armies mysteriously happen to have been destroyed so that the lead revolter had a chance to win.

Regarding Taurica, I swear I've seen it with de jure borders. It might've been a game I started in one of the more recent patches.
 
Taurica starts with de jure lands AFAIK ( atleast since 1.06, that is when I started playing ) ... what might have happened is that the Taurica lands were too much time under another kingdom ( Khazaria, maybe ? ) and got booted out *dunno*

And yeah, the mass revolt scenario IMHO is quite likely if somehow the Il Khanate main host get deleted soon :p
 
End of the Badai Dynasty

Badai Rule Ends in a Tragic Accident


Poor Ajinai, conqueror of Russia, Khagan of the mighty Ilkhanate, did not live much longer to celebrate his victory. In February 1335, he was discovered in his bed and let me tell you, poor Khagan looked like a pig butchered by very inept farmer. Still, he was very dead and his nephew, Eljigedei Badai, took over. Just a toddler of two years old, no-one was expecting much from him.

Sayer declared war on March, demanding Duchy of Bolghar, one of the provinces of Khazaria. This time, the Mongols even tried to put up resistance, but all the battles fought just depleted Mongols of their soldiers. Normans came out victorious and Bolghar was Norman. Peace was signed in September 1335. Before the war, he managed somehow to insult his Catholic Mongol rulers who were quick to revolt then. Most likely he decided to force conversions. Some Mongols were quick to convert, as for others- well, they decided to stick to being a good Christian (well, in once case, a good Lollard) and took up arms, claiming independence from his Mongol Shia overlord.

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Not as much as was expected

In October 1335, Eljigedei ate a poisoned cupcake. Poor kid bloated to almost twice his size and died in pain. With him, last of the Badai Dynasty died. Everyone knew it was Sayer who ordered the killing but no-one dared to do anything about it.

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End of the Badai Dynasty

It was in 1312, when Badai decided to start a rebellion against the decadent Khagan Khadagh of Ilkhanate. He won, took over the Khaganate and stripped Aral family of their power. Badai himself ruled until 1326, when he died at the age of 52. 7 more rulers from the Badai dynasty ruled, losing one land after another to Normans. And then they took Russia.

Bala of Aral, grand-grandson of the last of Aral Khaganas, Khadagh, was quick to react. He managed to convince other rulers that Badais were a dark stain in great Mongol history and that with Arals, Mongols will be lead to prosperity again. Since he was the most powerful ruler in now rulerless Khanate, he pulled it off. Unfortunately, without a civil war.

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A New Khagan, an Old Family

Welcoming the New Khagan

Also in October, Sayer started series of wars. Of course, against the new Khagan, demanding Perm. Also, the rebels had it coming: Duchies of Smolensk and Chernigov; Counties of Chud, Vitebsk, Galich and Minsk. Two Norman armies were tasked with taking of Perm while vassals from all over Europe marched to hunt down the rebels.

Again, there is nothing much to write about the war. Bala yielded in July 1336 and once, the Normans and Mongols met in battle, with Normans defeating the Mongol army and killing off about 10 000 Mongols. Smolensk, the last of the Duchies, fell in August 1336. Though a bit smaller then it originally was, Ilkhanate was still strong.

Perm was also given to King Henri of Khazaria, who was pretty much no-one a few years ago. Now, he is the most powerful vassal in Roman Empire. Most loyal too!

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Now, there is a happy King!

Conquest of Harare

It was slow, it was bloody, it was costly. One of the Norman armies was down to less then 5000 soldiers of the original 15 000. But it was over. In March 1335, Sayer took the last province of Abyssinia and extended Norman power as far south as the map allows. There was one last independent Muslim country left (well, besides the Mongols, obviously)- the Emirate of Oman. And incidentally, that is where the three Norman armies marched off to.


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Conquest of the South
 
Again, I apologise for missing one. I mustn't leave commenting so late!

In any case, it would seem there have been some dramatic advances in the plotline. The new Khan's CoA amuses me – almost looks like he's giving someone the middle finger ;)

I'm prepared now for a massive Mongol civil war, and watching you eat up the remains. Then you can have an all out boxing match with whoever happens to be sat on the Khagan's throne once you've finished.
 
Well, this is it again. Nothing much. Seeing as the wars are actually becoming more and more whack a mongol game, so from next episode, i'm going to concentrate things a lot. Don't want to bore you with every little detail...

Ricardo Rolo- yes, it can happen, but it had never happened to me in such a grand scale. Brrrr! As for Taurica, only one thing- his father can call Hautevilles too. But the two of them seem to be getting along just fine. I guess daddy is too idiot to realize he can actually rebel!
And you were right about the rebels. In much smaller scale then i expected though...

SirkTheMonkey- I wish. Mongols were surprisingly conservative. But more on that on the next episode...

SirkTheMonkey, Ricardo Rolo - i think it was 1.05 or 1.06 when Paradox introduced more Kingdoms to the East. Since i've started playing when it was 1.01 or so, the changes didn't work for me. I still have two large Kingdoms in the East- huge Russia and even huger Khazaria. Now, the picture looks much better and less threatening to the Emperor.
 
DensleyBlair, no worries! :) Then you get two episodes for the comment of one! Not the new Khagan though, the good old Aral family, who lead the first Horde that crossed the lands. As for civil war- thus far, no luck..
 
Look at of Aral's decadence. Do decadence revolts end if the leader dies or do they continue until the dynasty is removed? If it's the later then I expect they'll be rolled faster than a wheel of cheese down an British hill. Who was that at war with the rump of the Golden Horde in the first screenshot?
 
How to Kill Khagan(s) - a Picture Book

In November 1336, tragic accident befall on Bala, first of the new Aral Khagans and he fell down the balcony. His sons took over, one by one. It seems though like they were a cursed family.

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His successor and firstborn, Borgjigidai, ruled from November 1336 to February 1338 and lost Duchy of Ugra to Normans. Also, King Henri of Khazaria, the most powerful of the Norman rulers, took Cheremissa from him. He died in unfortunate accident as highwaymen took his life, gold and other valuables.

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Khagan Belugetei ruled from February 1338- July 1338 and lost Duchy of Vladimir to the Normans. Then, the poor lad got separated from his hunting party and was never seen again. Oh, the tragedy. History had twisted the legend a bit and now, people know him as Snow White, dropped by evil hunter.

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Khagan Khabici ruled from July 1338- June 1339 and lost Duchy of Belo Ozero to Normans. Then, he went to walk on the castle parapets, tripped and fell. Well, accidents do happen, though they blamed a poor soldier on tripping the Khagan and he, under torture, whispered Sayer’s name.

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Khagan Husun ruled from June 1339-December 1339 and lost Duchy of Ryazan to Sayer. Husun also got separated from his hunting party and was most likely eaten by the bear. Again, history had twisted the story a bit and Husun became the prototype of Goldilocks.

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Yeke was next, ruling from December 1339-October 1340. He moved his capital to Duchy of Nefoud, in Arabian peninsula. Sayer followed him there and took the Duchy. Poor kid slept restlessly and accidentally smothered himself.

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Khagan Chormakhan of Aral, distant relative of Bala, was imprisoned by one of his vassals. He ruled from October 1340-April 1341. Sayer took Yaroslav from him. Also, Bala Badai begun his revolt against the decadence of Arals during his rule. Chormakhan tried to escape the prison, but unfortunately, the guards found him and soon, he was filled with arrows.

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Khagan Ghunan, brother of Chormakhan, was also in prison. He ruled from October 1340- February 1342. Sayer took Duchy of Rostov from him. Poor fellow tried to follow his brother and escape and was also killed. Fingers were pointed at Sayer this time.

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Khagan Buri was also a brother of previous Khagans but he was not in prison at the time. He ruled from February 1342-October 1342. Sayer took Tver. Then Buri accidentally stepped on a poisonous snake and died.

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Khagan Bilge, also a brother, ruled from October 1342- March 1343. Normans took Moskva from him. It seemed like the crime was rising in the Khaganate, for poor Bilge was also intercepted by highwayman and killed during a robbery.

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Mungling, the next of the brothers took the throne. He did something special- instead of following the route of new Khagan taking the throne, then Normans coming and then Khagan perishing in tragic accident. On no, Mungling decided to make his place in history! He managed to piss off almost every ruler in Ilkhanate and incite a civil war like the Mongols have yet to see. Now, Sayer was preparing for the biggest war he had fought yet...

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The Ilkhanate after Mungling came to throne

About Other Nations

Well, the question is- what other nations? During the wars with the Golden Horde, Sayer took remnants of Denmark. King Odo and Sayer took the remnants of Norway. Unfortunately, Odo got carried away and also destroyed Kingdom of Ireland and took the island of Shetland to be his own. Sayer was a bit annoyed, for he thought to keep the Irish as a dessert.

Oman, last of the independent Muslim countries, was also taken by Sayer. As for the Golden Horde- they were down to three provinces. Two in Poland, one in Khazaria.

To put it simply- by the time Mungling came to power, there were only three independent nations in the world. Ilkhanate, Golden Horde and of course, the Roman Empire. Rest of the world was under Norman control.

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Everything is mine!
 
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Well, it looks like Normans managed to sponsor quite a Kill a Khagan club in Ilkhanate. Quite a popular pasttime activity, it seems. :)
Anyways, hope the pictures of dead Khagans are not too boring. Next time, Normans descend upon Ilkhanate like vultures...

SirkTheMonkey - Decadence revolts live through various rulers. I've seen this one- but the revolt failed to win before the Khanate burst. As for Golden Horde, meet the claimant, gatherer of the host and conquer of the Golden Horde:
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Check out his grantparents! ;)
 
It's so beautiful! That really is some very impressive work you've done on the Mongols. I can see world conquest occuring before the century is out, for sure. Maybe even the decade...

In any case, I am very much looking forward to watching you do it.

And that Norwegian Khagan is quite something...
 
Hum, another flood is coming, I assume ... :D And not a moment too soon, I must add ... TBH I never understood why the hordes in the game tend to be so stable even when they lose their mega-stacks, get repeatedly beaten and their rulers try to force religions almost nobody follows down the throat of their nobility. Just compare with what normally happens in France or in Bizantium for far less reasons :/ Oh, and, even in this game, that cursed Yngling family refuses to stay dead :p

Well, I must say that all in all, it should somewhat of chore to engineer such a stream of assasinations, besides the piety and rep hits that it should bring ( not that Sayer has problems with that, since taking a Duchy in holy war and then assasinating the former holder to break the truce for another picking is normally a net positive in terms of piety even if you can't get cooperation from the locals ) ... not that it rivals with the bizantine levels you normally need to get the Byzantine purple ( you lucked out with the election ... normally you need to kill full branches of the ruler family to be even capable of pushing a claim :p ), but the sheer number of dead Khagans in this update means a good bunch of failures that you chose to not show ...

BTW didn't you had assasinated all the Badai? From where did that rebelious Bala Badai came from ? A case of the game getting on the list of family names and picking a random one of the not used at the moment for the rebel, most likely, but if you want to be romantic, you can always weave a story about a survivor Badai prince that tried to claim his throne back ... or of a nobody that claimed to be it :D
 
Nooooo, poor sweet little "Ireland"! Damn you Odo of Norway, damn you to Cathar hell.
Right, that's out of my system. I can imagine that sequence of deaths as a montage of unfortunate events happening, possibly sped up slightly and played to Yakety Sax. That is one spectacular revolt they've got going there. I wonder what happens if you capture all the loyal land left. Does he make peace with the revolters or do they keep going hoping that you stop soon?
(EDIT) Also, that's crazy that the Ynglings have not only managed to lurk this long but have managed to get an Empire-level title right at the end of the game. Is that him being occupied in that screenshot with the fractured Ilkhanate or is he the occupier?
 
Since this is last post of this page and i'd rather see update in the next, it is time for Estonain jokes!

You know, Estonians are slow. Estonians are actually that slow that that scene in Matrix, where Neo dodged the bullets. If you pick up the bullet and watch what is written behind it, you see that all the bullets bear a mark of "Made in Estonia"

Hope you enjoyed it, proper update coming in a minute!