By the Grace of God, A Knights AAR

[GoldenKahn]

Hello there everyone! While I have been playing EU3 for a few months now, getting the general gist, as well as the details down, I haven't been really comfortable making an AAR. However, after making some goals for myself during my Vijayanagar campaign (Forming Hindustan, Allying England, Westernizing) and being successful, I think I'm ready for a tentative foray into storytelling. So I chose a nation during the grand campaign that provided a challenge, and would be hilarious even if my nation was consumed. So I chose the Knights. However, I've given them one major benefit before I played with them, and that was Crete.

Goals

• Gain and keep an alliance with the Papal States.
• Gain a foothold on the Anatolian peninsula and convert the populus to the one true faith.
• Retake the Jerusalem and the whole of the Levant in Christ's Name.
• And most importantly, survive!

The tale shall begin shortly!

 

[gela1212]

Subscribed! Always love a good Knights tale.

 

[GoldenKahn]

Thank you very much Gela, I though that trying to survive as the Knights would be fun.

Prologue: Penance

The Doge of Venice sat defeated in the pews of a church. For three months, Rome had been investigating disappearing funds of churches within the city of masks. Now, it was coming out that he himself was tied to this whole debacle. Now, the guilt he had kept bottled up for so long was now creeping out. As he wept silently from the knowledge of his impending damnation, a priest walked up and sat beside him.

“You have a lot on your mind, my son,” he said, putting a hand of condolence on the Doge’s shoulder “Perhaps I can help you.”

“Perhaps,” the Doge replied, “Or perhaps only our Lord can.”

For hours, the Doge sat in the pew, quietly praying for forgiveness, as well as guidance. Finally, after twelve hours of nonstop praying, the Doge stood up. He found the same priest who had talked to him earlier and made him write a letter to the Pope. While the actual document has been lost to the ages, or locked in the Vatican’s vast depository of official documents, the gist of it had been laid clear. As of October 15th, 1399, the Knightly Order of Saint John would control the Isle of Crete in the name of God.

 

[GoldenKahn]

Chapter One, Rebellions and Conquests

The news that the Knights were given Crete came as a rather unneeded shock to the Grandmaster of the order, Philibert de Nailac. He had been Grandmaster of the Knights for merely four years, attempting to keep the Order from falling apart. In gratitude for his new lands, he sent word to neighboring nations, as well as Rome, for alliances. In what only could be described as divine grace, Cyprus, Rome, Sicily and Venice all agreed. But this was just the beginning. After a few years of wars that the Knights could not reach, and various rebellions in Crete put down, there came the first few wars in which knights fully participated in.

First, Epirius, which had taken over the parts of southern Greece that were controlled by Venice, was reclaimed. Secondly, Sicily, along with quite a few other nations, called the Knights into war with Algiers. This crusade boosted the morale of the Knights, to which tales reached the other nations that the Knights themselves, led by their esteemed leader Philibert de Nailac, had conquered the city of Tunis themselves. And the greatest victory of these was the conquest of Symyrna. Philibert, along with his two thousand footman army, marched on the ottoman grounds of Smyrna and conquered the land, forcing the ottomans to give the lands to them. In little under fifteen years, the Knights had gone from a tiny nation on Rhodes to a small power in their own right. Only the Lord knew if this was to last or not.

Note: I don't own Naxos, they just have a similar color. Hopefully I'll get them if Venice starts hating on them.

 

[Ashantai]

Excellent start! Good luck!

 

[damienreave]

What a strange map. Who's that tan color in the Balkans? Mamluks? Golden Horde?

 

[vasziljevics]

What a strange map. Who's that tan color in the Balkans? Mamluks? Golden Horde?

oh no... they are our old friends, the kind Golden Horde...

otherwise I'm looking forward about this one.

 

[Memento Mori]

You cheated a bit with this gift, but I like the narrative style