Description of my campaign, and solicitation of advice

[jursamaj]

Well, I was right: gavelkind wrecked Francia. Inheritance gave it to 3 brothers, West Francia (the lion's share), Middle Francia, and Saxony. Oh, and there was already a little Karling girl playing Queen of Bavaria. There was some serious weirdness, where West Francia had 8482/3301 from vassal levies, but that has since dropped to 1925/3557. http://imgur.com/gallery/Y378U

They are dealing with some revolts & revocation wars, but they haven't started fighting amongst themselves.

On the home front, my vassal MR is an idiot. Even tho he had a moderate numeric advantage, he got his posterior handed to him on a platter by that adventurer. He's sulking around waiting for their wars for Powys to be over. I'm waiting for that too, because the moment the adventurer wins, I'm declaring war on him before my MR can. I've been holding off on other wars for several months while he does it.

I'm starting to regret making that MR. Instead of working on trade stuff, he keeps grabbing for land, which of course the game won't let me revoke. And somehow I ended up with another grand mayor, whose only holding is a castle and its county. Not sure what's going on there.

I took Wiltshire, obliterating Hwicce. Down to 5 counties to fill in the empire. Starting to plot what to do to Francia, altho I worry about their troop & ally counts. Plus I'll need to do it with holy war, so it many even involve *other* Catholics. They're all broke, so mercenaries shouldn't be a problem. Of course, so am I (filling out new retinues…). I could start with Asturias 1st, since it's more isolated from other Catholics, but then I'd be next door to a Muslim king with more troops than me.

Northumberland took Insee Ork. Not bad for an 8-year-old.

Time to play…

 

[jursamaj]

So, I declared 3 simultaneous small wars (a province in Norway, the last county of Powys, and holy war on the duchy of Mercia). Won all 3 without problem, plus a Catholic revolt that popped up in Sussex. That broke Mercia down to 1 province outside it, and set his other count loose. When I usurped Mercia, it dragged him in as a vassal count. Immediately started plotting to get rid of him. Now I only need to grab Oxford to complete the set.

Meanwhile Holstein had broken away from Saxony in a reduce crown authority war. Since he is effectively independent, I holy warred his duchy. 4 of my 5 allies joined in, plus my own retinues and vassal levies (left my own levies at home, just in case). Surprisingly, no other Catholics joined him. No battles, but lots of sieging. Good thing I'm a Siege Leader. I take that back: I had to battle Saxony once, to drive them off of Hamburg, so *I* could siege it instead of them.

Time to reorganize again: 14/8 demesne & 36/34 vassals. And only enough gold to make 1 duchy at the moment (I really need to make about 5…). I guess I'll raid up some money while I wait for another anti-Karling revolt.

 

[jursamaj]

Last night's fun: Much of that excess demesne was the Holstein stuff I had just captured. I handed all that to my son who's holding Sjælland for me. In 7 months, he created the duchy himself, so I didn't have to pay for *that*. He made it his capital, of course, and fobbed off Sjælland to a vassal. Eventually, I'm going to give him all of Saxony to deal with. Indeed, the duke of Saxony revolted, so I peeled another county off for him.

I also took Oxford, completing my domination of the British Isles. Other than those 2 minor wars, I spent almost 3 years raiding the coast of West Francia and building up my retinue. There *is* a lot of revolting going on in Karling-land, just most of it not giving me good openings to peel off stuff. But Karling manpower is so low, I'm thinking about just holy warring Flanders anyway. I've got 7071 vassal levies, 3842 personal levies, and 2364 retinue (it will take 2.5 more years for the newest retinues to fill up ). The Karlings kings & queen are down to 2241 + 1419 + 747 + 1593 = 6000 total levies, with little money to hire mercs. Plus, they're all fighting revolts & a war with Lombardy (which should keep *him* out of the holy war). Once I've done that, I'll probably set up a long-term goal for a successor to move the empire capital to Brugge, just because it's such a sweet county, plus that will let me export Welsh culture to the continent. Speaking of conversion, still haven't converted any county culture, but 24 counties in Prydain are now Germanic religion, plus 1 in Brittany and most of Sweden, Norway, & Danmark. Swedes & Danes are moving on Norway. I may let them sort all that out while I concentrate on Francia. Altho, if I have down-time due to truces, maybe I won't.

My son, the King of Sweden ("the Just", hah!) revoked 3 counties & a duchy, moving his capital. And raised his crown authority. That's OK, not my problem if he wants -70 with all his vassals…

 

[jursamaj]

<Whoops! I never hit Post on this yesterday morning. >

That was a very successful war. Even tho I had all available forces in the field, my vassals took all the damage. My retinue grew in spite of major losses in 1 battle, and my demesne levy is down by 4, but my vassal levy is down 2650. Meanwhile, the 4 Karlings are down to 218 + 156 + 277 + 673 total levies. I expect this major loss of power to provoke a lot of factionalism, which is fine by me. More targets means more wars.

The Karlings are still fighting Lombardy, who now has 3 revolt wars on his own hands. Catholicism seems to be imploding. Yay! It looks like easy pickings down there, but so far I plan on staying north of the Alps.

There's an adventurer (Ragnarr Loðbrok, actually) trying to take the 2 Brittany counties I don't have yet from Francia. I hope he does, that will just let me take them from *him* without worrying about Francia's truce. His 2630 troops are in Mecklenberg, all the way across Francia from his target. Weird.

Danmark declared a holy war for Brunswick against Saxony. I think I'll pre-empt it with my own holy war. While I'm at it, I'll probably holy war Luxembourg from Middle Francia.

At home, the Duke of Lancaster has declared war on the Duke of Northumberland for his de jure claim on Chester. Sweden is backing Northumberland, so that may get ugly.

 

[jursamaj]

What a ride!

I declared those 2 holy wars I mentioned. They took just over 2 years, and dragged in all 4 Karlings plus Bohemia. I stomped every major army I could get my boots onto. Lombardy had their hands full, so they stayed home. Danmark already had Celle occupied, so I didn't get that county. They're still working on taking it. Also Sorbia is working on taking Plauen from Saxony. Both of those are things me or my vassals will have to straighten out later.

Meanwhile, the Catholic world did indeed implode! Lombardy has 4 distinct revolts running, plus being attacked by the count of Catanzaro. He's losing with warscores of -50, -47, -23, 0 & +6. The duke of Burgundy is foolishly 'helping' him with all 4 revolts, while losing 2 revolts of his own (-9 & -5) and 'helping' against a West Francian revolt. West Francia themselves are winning one revolt at 25 and losing one at -45, plus helping Saxony against a revolt & Danmark & Sorbia wars mentioned above. Middle Francia is also pitching in against the Saxony revolt. Between all the revolts and the usual border gore within Francia, the map is a real patchwork right now.

To top it off, just before my 2nd war ended, The emperor got wounded (possibly in battle, but I can't remember exactly what it said). Days later, he died. So, except for that last war, all truces are gone, and all levy raised penalties are wiped out. I do have the annoying short reign penalty, but it doesn't look to be a bad succession. It may be worth it to go ahead and move my capital to Brugge. I've got enough tech points that I don't think I'll fall behind, and I made a lot of money from the wars. And it has the advantage of getting the "Bring some boys from home" event, so Welsh can get to the mainland.

I'm also debating which wars to start next. There are 6 targets in Francia. I want to take advantage of the broken state of Francia while I can, but I don't want to overextend in one go.

 

[jursamaj]

Started 3 wars this time: holy war for 3 counties of Normandy, holy war for 1 county of Anjou, and conquest of Dax (the last 2 were in revolt). Unfortunately, the revolt leader involved in Anjou died, so that war ending inconclusively. Which is too bad, because she could easily have broken West Francia in two. Oh well, I'm sure another major revolt is not far away, since I stomped a bunch of West Francian troops before giving them peace. He has many dukes, and almost all of them have more troops each. Took Dax easily.

The wars made me a good bit of money, and so did income, now that my demesne is mostly Flanders.

I missed 2 chances at the Great Blot because I was at war. 7 months until the next chance. War option are pretty slim. Maybe I'll just wait it out. I could use the vassal opinion boost, and cool down the levy raised malus.

I need to do something about the Umayyid in Hispania. He's swallowing up Asturias, and my Dax is on his border. Unfortunately, he has a lot of troops, and his decadence is under 8%.

 

[jursamaj]

Yesterday's session:

I waited out the peace for 7 months so I could have the Blot. Fortunately, raiding is "peace", so I got relieved the Francians of a bunch of money.

While I was doing that, West Francia had a major revolt. I declared on the revolter for Holland, and on a Burgundian revolter for the county of Béarn. Sadly, Béarn's revolt ended before I quite had the warscore, so that was inconclusive. Oh well, I don't have a truce with Burgundy, so no problem. Also, I didn't notice that West Francia had occupied Zeeland, so I didn't get that county, but I got the rest of Holland. I'll pick up Zeeland some other time.

For this war, I only used non-British Isles levies, plus my demesne baron levies. That leaves me with 6500 vassal levies I can pull from the Isles who will have no levy-raised penalty, while the mainland vassals cool off. My truces with Saxony & Middle Francia expired, so I'll probably dig in there next. Or maybe I should sort out Scandinavia. There's still a few loose small states, while Sweden & Danmark are both holy warring an independent Jylland over the Nidaros lands. Danmark has a big headstart. I'd like push one of *my* guys onto the Danish throne, and maybe give him most of Norway.

All this time also let my dynasty grow some more. I have 2 marriageable women, 2 more at 14 &15, and 17 more young ones. I also have 1 man who has no property and is only 2nd in line to inherit, 3 teen boys who aren't set to inherit (altho 1 might inherit a claim on Danmark), and 10 younger boys (altho 6 of those are primary heirs). Ever since I started making sure each duchy goes to my dynasty, these issues have gotten important.

More to come tonight.

 

[jursamaj]

Haven't played much since the last update. I did investigate my weird mayor who only owns a castle. Digging thru some old save files, I found out that the 1st guy I granted the county to had been a mayor before, but presumably got his title revoked before I landed him. Even tho he had no title when I landed him, and his character sheet marked him as being feudal (because he was a courtier under a feudal Chieftain), the game still remembered that he was previously republican. So when I landed him, he resumed being republican, even tho he only owned a castle.

The *only* hint that it would be a problem is that he had a claim on his old city.

Anyway, this weekend I only played 7 months. Cleaned up after the last war, finished up some looting, and sent the troops home. Revoked the last Christian duchy, since I was having no luck converting the kid. Didn't start any wars. It looks like I may be switching heirs from a half-brother to a nephew who is a genius. Since he came of age, the votes have been swinging over. I don't think I mind, altho I better get him married to somebody good now. Might advance him to king of Saxony as well.

Oh, the Umayyid decadence is 16.7, going up .2 per month. Slow, but I can hope…

 

[jursamaj]

Last night's session:

I revoked the last Catholic in Britain. He refused conversion after coming of age, so no more fooling around.

The Umayyid had a revolt in Navarra that I didn't notice right away. It was already most of the way lost, but I figured it couldn't hurt, so I declared war on the revolter. At the same time, I declared on the Catholic who still held Insee Cait (I want to gather up all the islands northeast to Iceland). Well, I didn't get troops down to Navarra quick enough, so that invalidated, and I piled troops on Insee Cait to take it quick.

After that war was over, I started 3 more wars: The Umayyid had another revolt in progress (Barcelona), so I declared against that one too. Also declared against Middle Francia for 2 counties in Champagne, and against Saxony for Kleve. Again, the Umayyid dealt with the revolt before I could, but I took the others (in about 2.5 years).

I saw the Umayyid decadence get up to 25, then something happened that knock it down to 18 (altho growing by .6 per month). He's back up to 20 and growing .1 per month, but that doesn't look very helpful. Meanwhile, he has eaten up half of Asturias. It might be time to start pissing off the Umayyid. He's been taking a lot of damage from raiders, since I've taken so much of the Francian coast. He's down under 13k troops, while I have over 20k, and neither of us can bring in significant allies (as long as I don't make it a holy war). Even as a holy war, the nearest Muslims have only ~4k, and I doubt anybody is going to join from Egypt or further.

During this time, my genius nephew Duke of Holstein came of age, and the tanistry electors switched to him for the next emperor of Prydain. He's also set to inherit the Fylkirate, my duchy, and all my demesne (in Essex & Flanders). I don't mind, because he has some lovely stats. But the old tanist, my half-brother king of Sweden is still selected to get the kingdom of Lloegyr. Oy! Electors! I'm hoping that giving Holstein the kingdom of Saxony will make him more popular, but I can't usurp it yet due to the perpetual state of war in the whole Karling area. I could probably put down the Saxon revolt for the king of Saxony, but he's also "helping" the queen of Bavaria against a revolt, and I see no way to touch it. Or I could just wait it out, as both revolts are currently winning (altho that Bavarian one is only at 38%), and hope Saxony doesn't get into another war.

Incidentally, I've gotten kind of sick of the Karlings. So, I've been taking a lot of opportunities lately to kill off their kids when I capture them, instead of ransoming them back.

Speaking of revolts, West Francia has a major Fraticelli uprising (their 3rd). Somehow the war is 3% in the King's favor, even tho he has way less troops, and the revolt is occupying 13 holdings. My truce with him ended 4 months into the last wars, so maybe I should take another stripe off his hide before tangling with the Umayyid.

I started building a university in London. This will be very helpful once I move my capital across the Channel to Brugge (which will also get a university). I've got a lot of techpoints saved up, so I could get that fixed up quickly.

 

[jursamaj]

Oh, almost forgot: My Duke of Llydaw (Britanny) managed to make himself the King of Arymôr!

I also formed the Kingdom of Ireland and gave it to the ex-Pomeranian, now-Irish Duke who is matrilineally married to my half-sister. That took care of my vassal limit problem for a while.

And I've been working on the scholarship 'studying the stars' chain for 3.5 years. Should be done in 1 more year (being your own religious head skips 1 6-month delay).

 

[jursamaj]

Short play today, there's housework to do.

4 more months until I finish studying the stars. Moved capital to Brugge & bought my tech back up. Hardly lost any of my levy, and it grew back quickly.

Attacked the Saxon revolt in Sens. Once I took that from him, Saxony got 100% warscore, ending the revolt. It also somehow released Anhalt as independent, so I'll snatch that up in the next war. As soon as the Bavarian revolt ends (now up to 43% in favor of revolt), I'll usurp Saxony. Maybe then his 2 counts will revolt, and I can snag them later. Also watching a Bohemian revolt that Middle Francia is supporting, so I can usurp some title from Mid. Fr.

Umayyid just started a holy war against a minor Ibadi in Marrakech. That and the constant raids are keeping his levies down, while mine grow.

 

[jursamaj]

So last night, I once again declared 3 simultaneous wars: Conquest of the lone county of Anhalt, and holy wars for Duchy of Burgundy (independent) and Poitou (West Francia). Anhalt went quickly. Burgundy was a little risky, as he had a revolt that was already at 46% success. But I was able to wipe out the revolt army and take over the places he'd already sieged, so I got 5 counties instead of the 4 I expected. Poitou was a tedious slog, but I finished the whole thing up in 18 months. Unfortunately, I can't usurp the Duchy of Burgundy, because the Duke swore fealty to Middle Francia, who promptly stripped him of the Duchy and gave it to a different guy. Now *I* can't usurp it for 5 years. This seems to be a bug. So instead, I gave most of the counties to the son of an existing duke, and transferred all vassals to him. I expect gavelkind to sort out the details. Gave Anhalt to my future Saxon King, and set up another guy as duke of Poitou. All those dukes are of my dynasty. The war was very profitable: I was at about 875 gold before, and reach 1650+ after. Lots of ransom, including some more once their lords have the money. Ooh, and peace came just in time to hold a Great Blot! That will help, since my worst Raised Levy penalty is 55% (altho *he* still has 100 opinion of me).

I don't have much in the way of good war target right now, so I may be at peace for a couple years. That would be good for those Raised Levy penalties. I suppose I could go raiding…

Two of my Dukes declared holy war on Saxony for the County of Weimar. Brunswick got there 1st and won a major battle against the Weimar army, getting something like 26% warscore. Then somehow Holstein got the sieges of all 3 baronies, getting 99%. Without a major battle, he was kind of stuck. I didn't pay much attention after that, but Brunswick got 11 Kings, Dukes, Chiefs, and Princes to join the war, while Holstein only got 1 King, 1 Duke, and 1 Godi. Normandy and Kent have sieged almost all the other territory Saxony has, so the scores are now 62% Brunswick, 73% Holstein, and it looks like Normandy will get the siege of the last barony. I don't know what will happen after that. The dukes aren't hostile, as they have troops standing together in the siege, so they won't be able to siege what each other has already sieged.

My 'studying the stars' finished. That was nice.

Umayyid won their war for Marrakech. His decadence is up to 27.7%, but stable. His troops are up to 15K (he's at max), while mine are down to 17.6k of 23.4 (mostly because my Flanders demesne is under New Administration for 11 more years.). I guess I'll be leaving him alone for a while.

Incidentally, I was looking for guys of my dynasty to set up as dukes. I found this nephew… stats are 18, 17, 30(!), 9, and 18. Midas, genius, strong, just, temperate, and a few more. He'd be wonderful, if he wasn't ambitious. The next highest stewardship in the world is 26. He *is* the current heir to the county of Luxemboug, if his 9-year-old cousin doesn't produce any kids.

It's 26 Feb 829, by the way.

Crazy. Counties of Loon, Lüneburg, & Holstein have only been held by Welshmen for 12, 16, & 19 years (only 10 years for Holstein with good stewardship), and they've already gotten the culture flip event. For me, York & Middlesex never flipped, and Brugge hasn't yet. Indeed, none of my demesne has flipped culture or religion at all this game.

 

[jursamaj]

Yesterday's session:
Asturias was down to 4 counties. While I was holding my Great Blot, a Umayyad duke and a Umayyad count declared separate wars on Asturias (for 1 and 2 counties, respectively). I decided that I would "defend" those counties from the Muslims by declaring war for them myself.Of course, I could only declare for 1 duchy at a time, so I went for the one that held 2 of those counties. Before I had my retinues nearby (didn't want to declare unless I was sure I'd get there in time), Middle Francia (which was down to 8 counties) had a revolt. I decided to take those 2 counties while I could, so I declared that war too. Yes, I know I'm supposed to be letting my Raised Levies modifier cool down. I did that by only raising levies from vassals who had fairly low modifiers.

Anywa, I had some eastern continental vassals' levies go wipe out the revolters & siege Metz, while I sent some western continental levies & some demesne troops down to Spain. By the time I could see the Muslim troops, I decided I needed more, so eventually about 2/3 of my demesne troops were called up. One of the stacks of Muslims was small enough to I just stomped it and started sieging Asturias' capital & another county. The other stack was too close in size to the troops on hand at the moment, so I left him alone. Eventually, he finished sieging that county, and started moving his troops to attack another county. I had brought in reinforcements by then, and he made the mistake of splitting his troops in half, sending some north of me and some south. The let me destroy him in detail, as well as picking off some smaller unrelated stacks.

Oh, in order to make the Muslims hostile, I momentarily sieged a Umayyad county every now and then.

I won the Francian war easily, and in fact those troops were part of my Spain reinforcements. Now that I've won the Asturian war, I'm in an interesting position. Unfortunately, the Muslim had occupied Palencia before I got to him, so I got the 3 vassal baronies, but not the capital or Burgos county. Being hostile didn't let me siege *that*. I did get Asturias de Santilla entirely. I've completely wiped out his army, and his allies aren't helpful, so he can't get any warscore that way. The *other* Muslim went to 100% warscore after I took stuff from Asturias (taking Viscaya), so I suspect he's the one who broke her army. That means the current guy probably isn't going to be able to reach 100%. But neither Asturias nor her husband will ever have the troops to take back Palencia and win. I don't want to lose half my prestige to go to war again, but neither do I want to spend almost 5 years "defending" this land so *I* can take it.

I *could* take this opportunity to start on the Umayyad. I have 21.5k troops available, while he only has 14.5k (he has 1 trivial ally he could call, and the only non-vassal Muslims who could join a holy war are fairly distant.). Trick is, we each have 10k levied in and around Burgos right now. I'd have to bring more levies, defeat his armies, then send the levies home so I can declare war, then bring them back. It would certainly be an expensive war, in more than one way, but it might well be worth it to break the Umayyad. Then I can start nibbling them to death as I am the Karlings.

Meanwhile, my "ally" Danmark is getting annoying. They reconquered the wayward Jylland, and are now in a holy war for Gelre Duchy, right between my Holland & Brunswick Duchies. Also, he's super-pissed at me since I got caught killing a couple of his secondary heirs. Fortunately, his Spymistress and some people I've planted in his court are *very* helpful in sorting him out.

 

[jursamaj]

So I spent this morning harassing the Umayyad. That took just over 2 years. I was right about it being expensive: my available levies dropped from 21.5k to 16.7k. But it was much worse for the Sultan: 14.5k to 650. Oh, and it turned out I *could* lift the siege on Palencia, I just had to do it in raid mode instead of regular. So that killed the Muslim Count's warscore, altho he hasn't given up the war yet. I'm debating whether I want to make the 1st Umayyad war for Castille Duchy, which he's in. Ironically, that's also where Palencia is, but fighting the Muslims for Castille won't take that from Asturias. I bet it would have if I hadn't relieved that siege, and sieged it for my war… But I'm thinking a simple conquest war for Granada might be better. Then I'd be right next door to the Sultan's capital (Cordoba). Taking *that* Duchy would open up several other duchies for easy wars/raids.

My Duke of Normandy picked up Vexin County when the holder revolted. Danmark's attempt to take Gelre Duchy has been a flop. Among other Danes, I killed the King, so gavelkind hit: Nidaros split off, taking 2 Jylland counties & 4 Norwegian counties. Now I don't want to kill either of those rulers, because they're each other's primary heirs, with a kid from my dynasty in 2nd place for Danmark. He was also in 2nd place for Nidaros, but I think him being captured by a revolt changed that. I may have to go get involved there.

I've basically got no truces in Francia, but I think I need to hit the Umayyad while they're down. And I really need to let some of my Raised Levy mods cool off, at least for the guys that it's pushing them below 100 opinion.

I found that seduction is a useful way to pull women in other courts into my plots to kill folks their!

 

[jursamaj]

Date is now 836 Nov 24. Apparently I didn't update this after the last session.

I declared a conquest of Granada. 3 major battles, some sieges, and almost 3 years later, and I now own that county. Installed a nephew. In some sort of bug, my half-brother, then-heir, King of Sweden died in battle, supposedly against me. The new king, his son, is ambitious, so he might be a problem. But his wife loves me for legitimizing our bastard (that was before I married her off to him) so I have some good plot power in his court. He's also my heir, both empire & kingdom.

Meanwhile, the Sultan declared holy war for Rosello, the French province that's part of Barcelona. He's winning, and I don't think I'll get involved there. If he takes it, it just let's me take all of Barcelona in 1 war.

What with one thing and another (some of it my murder plots) the heir to Danmark is now my ex-courtier, who is matri-married to my niece. Their son is the chief of Jylland & Slesvig, and has a bunch of weak claims within Danmark (he's also the 1st pretender for Danmark). I think I'll leave that situation alone to simmer for a while.

While I wait out the truce with the Sultan, Francia is wide open for wars, as is Iceland (fabricated claims). I also want to pick up 2 more counties in Norway, so I can create *that* kingdom, before Sweden gets funny ideas. Asturias is down to 2 counties, and had a Fraticelli revolt. Now *that* guy is fighting off a peasant revolt. He's losing the current battle, but in the long run, the peasants seem likely to lose (no reinforcements?). I'll want to snap that one up too.

There's also a guy that used to be my courtier, and is matri-married to my half-sister (his heir is my dynastic nephew). He now has a host, pushing his claim for Vitebsk. He's my ally, but I seen no option to offer to join his war. Maybe because I still have troops levied? I'll watch that.

 

[jursamaj]

Got my levies home, and I still couldn't ask to join the Polish war. Looks like it's just the CB that won't allow it.

I decided on 4 simultaneous wars: Aquitaine, Iceland, Oppland, & Heidmark. All but Aquitaine are trivial.

When I started these wars, my Emperor was ill. Not a big deal, I had lots of health bonuses. Then it turned into pneumonia. It eventually killed me, after conquering Iceland, Oppland, & Heidmark. Yay! All the Levy Raised, murder, and seduction penalties are wiped, as well as the truce with Umayyad. Then too, there goes all that seduction work, and the observatory bonus, for that matter. I did end up with Gwerthern, that guy I mentioned a while back as having 30 stewardship. He's now up to 34 (for some reason, he thought he needed the Rulership focus…). Inherited a useless council: stats only from 7 to 15 (and the two highest don't even like me much). Annoyingly, my only Siege Leader commander died on the same day, no death reason saved in the autosave. Those guys are hard to find…

Sorted out the council & commanders. Restarted the Observatory chain.

The peasant revolt in Asturias succeeded. Now the county that didn't revolt is under attack by an Emir *and* a Sheikh. They'll probably lose before I can get down there to interfere. I'm going to save for now, and go catch up on things outside the game.

Date: 837 Oct 1

 

[jursamaj]

838 Mar 1

Had a major battle with West Francia, knocking his army back down to about 300. Sieged Vermandois, capturing his heir (and another relative). Extra 55% warscore ended the war quickly. A few other captives will be ransomed for a total of almost 100 gold. Aquitaine added to empire. Can't usurp the Duchy to his other wars end, tho.

While I was fighting those wars, Léon fell to the Muslims. Burgos is also now under attack. The Sultan is still at 5.1k army, so I know where I'm going next.

Hmm. One of my countrymen got up a host, and is now taking Gascogne. That could get annoying later, altho I imagine I'll be able to vassalize him, if nothing else, or marry him into the family.

While the AI was running my current character, he never added any concubines. So I took Princess Genovefa of West Francia, who had also been my previous character's concubine, as well as 2 prisoners. All 3 are aged 37 to 39, and have heritable claims on duchies or better. Going to see if I can have some fun that way.

Oh, the war ended *exactly* on Mar 1. So I have to wait to hold a Great Blot, 8 months at least. More likely a coiuple of years, after the next war.

 

[jursamaj]

839 Aug 29

I should have posted this on Nov 8, but forgot to. Also should have mentioned, I got the nick "Sword of Thor" after the war for Aquitaine.

Anyway, I declared war on Umayyad (Duchy of Seville), Qutid Emirate (Duchy of Tangiers, all he's got), and Burgos county (which, as I mentioned, was under attack). Burgos invalidated. The Muhallabid Sultan joined for the Umayyad Sultan, but didn't cause problems. I won that one, and am now sieging Tangiers, who stands alone. Major battles have me at almost 70%, so this should go quickly (hopefully before March, so I can Blot).

The King of Sweden ended up kicking my Merchant Republic out, so he became a feudal duke. He never did much for me anyway. I may set another one up in Valencia, when I get around to conquering it.

 

[jursamaj]

840 Feb 14, Won the Tangiers war. I decided to go ahead and make it an MR, with a distant kinsman as 1st Grand Mayor. Held the Blot. Created the kingdom of Norway and offered vassalization to a couple of loose counties.

While I was finishing that war, the idiot Count of Penthievre declared a revolt against the King of Brittany. Sure, he has 1194 troops to his liege's 819, and his liege was already fighting a war in Britain, but he only got 1 ally to help, compared to his liege's 12… Ambition kills. The King of Brittany's other war is to replace the Chieftess of Glamorgan with her sister. Much of the Empire is involved in 1 or both of those wars.

West Francia is currently losing to 2 hosts & the Umayyad, plus there are major revolts going on within Duchies of Toulouse & Provence. Saxony is down to 2 counties, 1 in revolt. Middle Francia isn't doing much beyond helping West Francia repel the Umayyad.

I recently started taking prisoners as concubines, to breed children with claims on Kingdoms. 2 of them have weak heritable claims on the Kingdoms of West Francia & Lombardy. The West Francia one could save me a lot of time & wars. The Lombardy one I would likely set up and then let go independent. I don't really *want* to spread the Empire that far, but spreading the dynasty would be nice. I'm now keeping an active eye out for prisoners with kingdom claims.

End of the Blot, 840 April 16.

 

[jursamaj]

Didn't have much time to play this weekend.

Did a little housekeeping, and a month after the Blot ended, I declared conquest of the independent County of Dymin, holy war for Duchy of Upper Lorraine against Middle Francia, and holy war for Upper Burgundy against Saxony.

My retinue was still down in Tangiers, so they raided Marrakech trying to capture a girl who has a heritable claim on the Umayyad. I figure it's worth the attempt to breed a dynast with the claim, and possibly take all of Iberia in one war. Didn't catch her tho. Got some other people I could ransom, so it wasn't a complete waste. On the claims, I already have a son whose mother has a weak pressed claim on West Francia, one whose mother has a weak pressed claim on Duchy of Galicia, a concubine with a weak pressed claim on Lombardy, a female prisoner with weak pressed claims on *5* Slavic duchies, and 2 female prisoners with weak pressed claims on Middle Francia (altho there's not much left of it I don't have anyway). Oh, also courtier women with weak pressed claims on Kingdom of Mali & Duchies of Mali & Ghana. What the heck, Welsh Germanic Mali would be funny.

I got 100 military tech points from my spy, and bumped Military Organization up to 3. Even the Byzantines don't have over 2. That added 37.5% to my retinue cap, and I bought it up. Recruiting for that and paying for my levies (see below) has me losing money, but not so much I can't afford it for a few years.

Dymin went quick, of course. But just as it fell, the King of Lombardy joined up with the King of Saxony, and sent 8k troops. They arrived while I was at 82% warscore (50% from captured heir), and undid my occupation of both Saxon counties. I levied almost everything I could (virtually all vassals, plus 2/3 of my own levies), and sent them in (after putting down a peasant revolt in Somerset). I now have a stack of 10.5k conquering Lyon (which is Middle Francian) to get supply support to move back into Genève (Saxon). My retinue (5.5k and rising) is moving to support my 3.8k army occupying Nordgau (Middle Francian), in case the Duke brings his stack over there (I've lost visibility on him). This is the 1st really risky war I've had in this game. I briefly considered sending my retinue to the Lombard capital, but decided they were more important north of the Alps.

I loaded up the game for reference as I wrote this, and noticed something *amazing*. The Umayyad are in trouble. I had received a message on 841 March 25 (2 days before I saved) that somebody usurped the Sultanate of Andalusia from the Umayyad Sultan, but since it was just another Umayyad, I figured it for an internal change of ruler and didn't look into any further. But no, the original Sultan held 2 Sultanates, Andalusia & Mauretania. So now there are 2 Sultanates. The original Umayyad only has 1782 levies, while the new Andalusia has 3049. Umayyad has more land, split between northern Iberia and Mauretania, but Andalusia is also fighting a revolt that has 1801 levies. So much for taking all of Iberia in 1 war, but things just got interesting.

Meanwhile, 16 rulers under me have joined together to take 1 county from Sorbia for Holstein.

841 March 27