Horsemen of the Light
An Uyghur Khaganate AAR
An Uyghur Khaganate AAR
Hello forumites! This past week, I completed my rather absurdly long-running CKII - EUIV megacampaign, The Long-Lasting Lombards and The Long(er) Lasting Lombards, covering just over 1,000 years of Lombard history in Italy. Now that it's come to an end, it's time to start thinking about my next project.
I was initially attracted to a playthrough as an Irish Tribal Catholic or a Baltic Tribal Pagan. However, before I go down that route, I want to wait for the release of Conclave and all of the fun council-related antics that will bring. So I decided to go with another group that appealed to me -- the Steppe Nomads. Horse Lords came out while I was still in the middle of my EUIV AAR, so I actually haven't played CKII since it came out. I also really wanted to try out CKII+, as I really like the depth it adds into the game. With that in mind, I've settled on a group for my newest playthrough: the Uyghur Khaganate.
The Uyghur are as far east as the CKII map goes. They're a fairly large (relative to their neighbors, at least) Khaganate of Manicheans, who start the game with sizable territory and a couple of tributaries. As is my usual style with AARs, I will be starting off at the lowest rank possible, playing one of the lesser clans rather than playing the Khagan himself -- I enjoy the process of working up from nothing. After all, the mighty Italian Empire of my last AAR began with a single-county nobody in eastern Italy!
The Basics
Game: CKII v. 2.4.5
DLC: All expansions except Sunset Invasion, all visual DLCs, all Coat of Arms DLCs
Mods: CKII+ v. 4.01.6
Difficulty: Normal
Start Date: 769 AD
Dynasty: Reyhangul (Custom character)
The AAR
Style: I've developed a particular style of history book mixed with a touch of narrative that I've stuck with fairly consistently throughout my previous two AARs. This will likely be more of the same; however, I may decide, at some points, to dip more into narrative if I find something particularly interesting. With so many events and decisions in CKII I inevitably don't document everything, but I'll leave myself freedom to write what intrigues me -- and hopefully it intrigues you, too!
House Rules: I'm primarily concerned with storytelling. I will not savescum or cheat to give myself an advantage... However, I will at times use console hacks and reload saves to avoid buggy/wonky things that would ruin continuity, and I may do some custom event / decision modding in the later game depending on what seems to make sense.
Goals: Live! I'm expecting this to be a challenging AAR, not only because of whatever inherent weaknesses nomads might have against more civilized enemies, but also the fact that I haven't had time to get familiarized with gameplay in the post-Horse Lords game. I may even just end up dying! But we'll have fun along the way. I will keep an open mind about long-term goals and just see where the flow of the AAR takes us.
And, considering that the historical Uyghur Khaganate dissolved around 840 AD, staying alive will already be an improvement!
With that said, I'm in the process of doing my research for history and flavor, as well as testing out the gameplay a little to try and get a feel for the nomad system (and the slightly confusing manpower mechanic). Look for some preliminary updates soon
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