• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Caspoi

General
65 Badges
Dec 13, 2015
1.884
1.339
  • Crusader Kings II: Charlemagne
  • Stellaris: Synthetic Dawn
  • Stellaris - Path to Destruction bundle
  • Europa Universalis IV: Mare Nostrum
  • Cities: Skylines - Snowfall
  • Cities: Skylines - After Dark
  • Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness
  • Victoria 2: A House Divided
  • Victoria: Revolutions
  • Europa Universalis IV: Res Publica
  • Europa Universalis IV: Call to arms event
  • Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations
  • Europa Universalis IV: Art of War
  • Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise
  • Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam
  • Crusader Kings II: Sunset Invasion
  • Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods
  • Crusader Kings II: The Republic
  • Crusader Kings II: Rajas of India
  • Crusader Kings II: Legacy of Rome
  • Stellaris: Digital Anniversary Edition
  • Stellaris: Apocalypse
  • Stellaris: Leviathans Story Pack
  • Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Together for Victory
  • Crusader Kings II: Monks and Mystics
  • Cities: Skylines - Mass Transit
  • Europa Universalis IV: Mandate of Heaven
  • Stellaris: Distant Stars
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Death or Dishonor
  • Europa Universalis IV: Rule Britannia
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Expansion Pass
  • Stellaris: Humanoids Species Pack
  • Tyranny: Archon Edition
  • Europa Universalis IV: Rights of Man
  • Crusader Kings II: Reapers Due
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Cadet
  • Stellaris Sign-up
  • Cities: Skylines - Parklife
  • Crusader Kings II: Conclave
  • Stellaris: Necroids
  • Crusader Kings II: Horse Lords
  • Europa Universalis IV: Common Sense
  • Pillars of Eternity
  • Crusader Kings II: Way of Life
  • Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado
  • Cities: Skylines
  • Victoria 2
Rurik is a semi-mythological king who was made the ruler of Novgorod by the local Finnic and Slavic peoples and his descendants would go on to rule over much of what was then Russia for a very long time. This AAR Begins with the man himself and countinues, well it countinues for as long as I intend to let it do so, decided by how long it hold people's interest.
42CB44C1051F04495CDDB92B49E41D8D2E1CD356


For those of you who read my previous AAR (called Zoroastrian Sakas in case you are interested) it faced a problem pretty early on that only got greater as time passed: I just got more and more powerful until eventually (about the time when I beat back the Mongol Invasions) I had no real threats or rivals any longer. To stop this from happening here, and represent the principalities of the Kievan Rus in real life, I have given myself the personal rule that until at least the 12th Century, possibly longer, I will not switch to any succession other than Gravelkind. As such while individual rulers may expand their realm greatly it will hopefully avoid maintaining an accumulative expansion that never ends, as the realm falls back to smaller pieces after he dies.

Now without further ado let's got to it then.
 
Part 1 - The Polotskan War
King Rurik of Homgardr. That is what he was, king of one Rus city and its surrounding lands. It is certainly not a bad start but hardly something that will satisfy an ambitious adventurer such as himself. More importantly he was also the commander of a great host of warriors and a lord with a treasure-room to be used. And finally he had a fleet of ships that he had arrived to this eastern land with. But no coast…
48F25FEB1DC1AF3F847C4018E74D1AF418810D23

And so the target of his first war of expansion was decided for him. The Ingrians were a Finnic people who would make a great first addition to the kingdom that Rurik intended to forge in this vast land, with them under Novgorodian control the way to the Gulf of Finland and beyond was open to him, and as if in answer to this many more Norse warriors came from across the sea to join in his war, being promised land and wealth if they would fight for their new king. And with that Ingria was quickly conquered. However, while vanquishing weaker enemies on the battlefield is easy maintaining this realm that he had made might prove more difficult. Holmgardr, or Novgorod, is a kingdom of three peoples, the Norse, the Slavs, and the Finns, and while the Norse had given themselves a preeminent position the others can hardly be ignored if Rurik is to stay king for longer than a fortnight and some land and favours would have to be handed out to the locals to keep them on his side. Especially when the next target of expansion would prove far more difficult to overcome.
5A2A09904F655ABAE07FBA163B3E4BEE9AF7968B

The Principality of Smolensk was quite different from the small chiefdom of Ingria, here was a ruler equal to Rurik himself, and a people ready to fight for their freedom. At first the war would go relatively well, for Smolensk was greatly divided by different tribes and organized itself after two armies, each one smaller than the men of Holmgardr. Catching them individually gave Rurik the advantage but they soon regrouped and drove him back from their lands, Calling upon the distant Poles to help them in this war. Returning to Holmgardr Rurik had to use the multiculturality of his realm to his advantage, Calling upon the local Rus tribes to fight for him and hiring a few Finnish mercenaries to bolster his forces he made yet another attack on Smolensk, driving their soldiers back and so subjugating their peoples. And while this war had not always gone in his favour it had given him a lot of useful experience, testing himself against an equal enemy and proving his worth on the battlefield.
767FEE298D8CBEAFB78BBC5D3553AEA5F9A528EF

But while this victory had given him the renown that he desired it had also made many of the other Slavs wake up to the danger that he posed, resulting in an Alliance meant to contain him. For now this war would have to do and so Rurik returned to his city a truly famous leader. And what a city it was, with the wealth that he had brought with him he had now built the fortress of Holmgardr and seen to expansion of the nearby city of Novgorod. Even if all else fails this city will surely outlast its king for a very long time.
1E1768EAD5028677A2F9DC11691B04F458595D04
 
Will be interesting to see how Gavelkind works in practice
 
Will be interesting to see how Gavelkind works in practice

It should be noted that I use one of the new rules that make it difficult to control exclaves, so the bordergore shouldn't be as bad as it used to be.
 
It should be noted that I use one of the new rules that make it difficult to control exclaves, so the bordergore shouldn't be as bad as it used to be.
Yes, that is an addition to the game I have been very avidly looking forward to.
 
Will see how you go with this. My Rurik is now 22 years into his reign. But as a novice CK2 player, I’ll be looking to your adventure for some useful tips. :)

PS: though I see you must be playing with the latest Holy Fury DLC, which has significantly changed the map and Rurik’s starting position. I won’t be installing HF until my AAR is done, I think.
 
Will see how you go with this. My Rurik is now 22 years into his reign. But as a novice CK2 player, I’ll be looking to your adventure for some useful tips. :)

PS: though I see you must be playing with the latest Holy Fury DLC, which has significantly changed the map and Rurik’s starting position. I won’t be installing HF until my AAR is done, I think.

Indeed, one of the ideas when I ended my last AAR was that I would wait until Holy Fury came out before I started a new one, which it now has.
 
Subbed.
 
Part 2 - The Kievan Rus
Peace never suited Rurik well however, and soon enough an opportunity presented itself in the form of a small Slavic state that had broken away from Pskov. It was quickly incorporated into his growing kingdom and provided some additional training for him and his men. However those tiny and insignificant states were nothing really, barely worth the bother. No, the real prize lies to the South, in Kiev, where a rival Rus state had set itself up, under King Dyre. They had already expanded north into the Novgorodian sphere of influence but what is more they had also just conducted a disasterous campaign against the Khazars to the east. The time to strike was now, and end the primary threat to the Rurik dynasty and secure another of the great cities of the region for Holmgardr.
9D0A93CF06716997E9B744060B2737A6F7D43AE6

The Campaign was as swift as it was brutal the pitiful remnants of the Könugardr forces were swept away like the wind, Kiev was seized and the kingdom was put under Rurikid rule. Dyre lost all of his lands except a small region in the west, making sure that the city of Kiev itself would remain in Rurik's hands. Furious at this decision he decided to challenge Rurik to a duel but as neither one of them managed to kill the other settled down to rule his now much smaller tribe as a vassal of the ascendant Rurik. But that was not all, for to the South the Hungarians who had taken over the Carpathians as well as the Norse kingdom of Sudreyjar had both converted to the Catholic faith, heralding the ever growing size of the Christian sphere. Not that this had begun to overly concern Rurik, who was well away from both of them, but it did seem to signal the eventual fate of Europe: conversion, one way or another. For the time being however he decided to attack the Volhynian kingdom to the west, who had foolishly foregone an alliance with the other enemies of Novogorod and so would be put under its hegemony. In Turov the two armies met in battle and Rurik's forces prevailed as he killed the Volhynian ruler and routed his armies.
9F7CE276D5DC7CE8A5BE3AEF3F9B578DE0F52DD3

Although this show of force did make the pitiful Volhynians agree to pay tribute to their vanquisher it also left some severe mental scars on the man himself, as he had now found himself repeatedly the only man alive in a field of the dead, an experience that had begun to take its toll, and he had become increasingly indifferent to the loss of human life, the hatred the families of the fallen held for him, the people who wished to see him dead. He had made a monument over himself before he even died, a runestone depicting his life and deeds such as they were at the time. But melancholy can't stop his vision for a united east and so war must go on, this time against the Turov realm in Pinsk. They too would have to become subjects of the Kingdom of Holmgardr. And so the two armies met in battle at Minsk and the Turovians were brought low, bringing yet another part of this land into the fold.
B24D41E67B00679DE0C8DD86D1B1CAAB1338EF4E

But in the south Galich had also converted to Christianity, but they to the Eastern Church in Constantinople rather than the one in Rome. Now it was no longer distant lands that drew to the Cross but Slavic ones and missionaries began to cross into Rurik's realm as well. While the current ones were imprisoned more would surely come soon, and risk upset the delicate balance of the three peoples that he had built up, a solution would have to be brought about. It is the way he had kept the people appeased after all, and he risked civil war if he upset the balance. Meanwhile The people of Pskov and Veps had harassed his lands for too long, and they would be the last to be brought into the fold as they were the last of the people surrounding Novgorod who still resisted his rule. And so the final war was declared, in more sense than one. Veps was quickly driven back as their raiders had already been defeated by Rurik's men but in Ingria the battle against the allied Sakal went poorly as Rurik nearly got himself killed by one of the Livonians, and while they drove the enemy back and defeated the last of the enemy armies in subsequent battles Rurik himself, now advancing in age could not truly recover from his wounds, which quickly got infected.
49D77BCB71AB74A116EDC255C2FFA55C25D22820

In other news the Emperor of Miklagard had announced the formation of the Varangian Guard, in the hope of strengthening his own forces against the heathens without and heretics within. But Rurik himself was far too old and sick to join them, not to mention that he had an empire of his own to rule. And he was tired, so tired, and when he fell asleep he died to a soldier who he never knew the name of, and who himself had already died on that fateful battle and would never now that it was he who killed the Lion Rurik himself. He died long after the wound was made and his realm was divided up between his sons, the capital of Novgorod itself going to his eldest son Helgi, who himself had already started to take on the Slavic ways more than his father ever did. Furthermore many of the lords who had been forced to kneel to his father now saw this as an opportunity to free themselves from Rurikid rule. Whatever else may come the delicate balance of the three peoples that his father had created looks like it might be about to end, and who knows what will come after it?
3A1122ABBFBC706DA9DAFA3E13C764E3AABD40D5
 
One has a feeling the splitting and reforming of the Russian lands will be a feature given the house-rules you have chosen to adopt.
 
One has a feeling the splitting and reforming of the Russian lands will be a feature given the house-rules you have chosen to adopt.

Certainly, although I may eventually choose to establish client states rather than tributaries or conquering lands directly just so that not everything collapses into war every time a character dies. It will mean more indirect rule but it will help stabilize the region.
 
Are you able to form a kingdom so most of the inheritors are at least your vassals?
 
Interesting AAR, seems as Holy Fury brings attention of players back to CK2 with so much flavour events and reworked gameplay mechanics. Rurikids have trouble in future because Gavelkind
 
Are you able to form a kingdom so most of the inheritors are at least your vassals?

Yeah, eventually I want to become the proper king of Ruthenia, which I believe is what is considered in game-terms the Kievan Rus title. But that is for the future, if nothing else because I have expended my treasure doing a bunch of other stuff, like war.
 
subbed
 
Part 3 - Beautiful Novgorod
While Helgi was building up the strength of his part of Rurik's kingdom it quickly transpired that most of his brothers were not so lucky, the neighboring realm of Veps was being attacked by the Karelians to the north and further south the other new kingdoms seemed to be fairing ill as well. It was like a sign from Perun himself, revealing just how unworthy his Brothers were, mere children who could not handle the responsibility of men, he was the true heir to Rurik, his firstborn son and ruler of Holmgardr. If they can not defend themselves then he would have to do it for them, and recreate his father's conquests while at it.
EC96F98C718B8F4F847A4FB1FD6EDCEC6E464C45

Veps was the first challenge, for while Sumarlidi was a weak and unworthy ruler he had managed to gather up a lot of followers from the vassals granted to him by his father, and had even managed to outnumber his much more competent brother. But he did not have the true gods or their followers on his side, he was a small child while Helgi was a great warrior. His forces were crushed and his lands taken, and Helgi's attention turned to Roslav, one of the petty realms that thought that they could use the dissolution of the old kingdom to their advantage. They too would fall very quickly but there were other more pertinent threats to Rurikid dominance of the region...
2C464B1478022031977713149ADF407393DB2750

Könugardr fell swiftly to the Khazars, rampaging Turkic hordes from the east. Its king now has to swear fealty to their leader, placing one of the most integral part of the Rurikid hegemony under the occupation of the barbarians who threaten all the peoples of the land, with their foreign god and bloodthirsty ways. Furthermore the kingdom of Chernigov had also been subjugated, it by one of the petty lords of Turov. Now the Khazars were too much of a threat to be dealt with immediately but this Budimir, one of the Dregovich clansmen so influential in the area, he had to pay for messing with the wrong family. The time of the Dregoviches is past, the time of the Rurikids is at hand. He was issued a singular challenge: to face Helgi like a man one to one or hide behind his armies like a coward. He chose the former option and paid for it with his Life. Chernigov now also belongs to Helgi.
9706B553B9ABC343564E96D4BF5919175177BD98

The rest of the Dregoviches fared Little better, but not by Helgi's hand, another of the splinter realms from Rurik's Death, Volhynia had launched an invasion, supported by the Khazars naturally, against Turov. Against Volhynia alone it might have stood a chance but as it was it quickly fell and was incorporated into its kingdom. A challenge had been posed against Helgi for who would emerge dominant in this chaos, and he had to answer it. No rival could stand against the might of the city of Novgorod, greatest of all the Rus cities. The Severskys were another of the great clans but for their arrogance they too had to be brought down, so that Helgi may retrace the steps of his father and once more unite the people under his banner.
AFBDA0FC34A4CC0DFF508D488784E188A66D5075

Volhynia might have been able to take on a divided Turov, but against Holmgardr it did not stand a chance. Dyre the Stranger, the old rival of Rurik who had gone into exile in Zaslav also made his bid at the time, Dividing Volhynia's armies at a crucial time and opening up the way for Helgi's conquest of that chiefdom as well. His realms now reached Galich and Mazovia, as well as Pruthenia. That particular realm had also started to flex its muscles, spreading further into Rus lands. This did however present an excelelnt opportunity, for at last there was a foreign enemy to unite Helgi's people against. Many of his Slavic followers had been hesitant about fighting against their own brothers but liberating their people from this Baltic menace was a cause they could all rally under. The Pruthenians were very strong, stronger than any enemy that Helgi had faced before, but now he was strong as well, the largest army that Holmgardr had ever mustered marched with him to destroy the enemy once and for all, in the great battle of Pinsk.
33E685DB4FC84B2DA4D60A1CC70F53B3734F0AB2

The Pruthenians were shattered, their might broken and their lands ripe for the taking. This was the cause that Helgi had been waiting for, this was the cause that showed that he was more than just some mere warlord, he was the leader of a people, and while many of his defeated enemies were still sore about their losses and how they now had to serve their greatest rival he showed that they were all one people, a Rus people. The Slavs had been granted a great deal of influence under the Rurikids, who had done no attempts to impose their own culture on them, and here Helgi, or Oleg, showed that more than that he was one of them. He was their leader and unifier, even more than his father, who never left the ways of his homeland, was. They were not Norse, Slavs and Finns, they were Rus. And now the Rus would prepare for the liberation of their brethren in the South as well as those in the west, Zaslav and Minsk too fell fell to Oleg, forcing Dyre to flee all the way back to the Norselands and with their defeat Oleg cemented his status of the high king of Novgorod, leader of the Rurikids and the Rus people. He was not just some small king like some of his enemies, he was a great ruler who would bring down the Khazars and bring back Kiev and Pskov to the fold. Novogorod the blossoming, Novogorod the triumphant, Novgorod the great and beautiful.
6ED52421744348CBB2D3A7B84B8647BF6D3A108F
 
Well done - the new kingdom will help with some of that succession fragmentation as well, of course.
 
An excellent step - I wouldn't be surprised if the focus of things turns to keeping the Kingdom together in due course, until you can reform the succession anyway.