848 May 9: Today's amusing observation: Sultan of Andalusia is doing OK. He has no revolts going on at the moment, and his levies are up to about 3/4 of max, plus he has a mercenary band hired. Umayyad Sultan, OTOH, is not doing so hot. He lost all of his African territory to one of my dukes, Navarra Duchy broke away, a sheikh (backed by an emir) is revolting against his emir, and the Asturias Emir (backed by the Muhallabid Sultan) is revolting against the sultan. Meanwhile 2 of my dukes have declared separate holy wars for Asturias, and an adventurer who took 2 counties under West Francia is trying to conquer the county of Asturias (still has 6354 event troops). And the only war the Andalusian Sultan is in is defending the Asturias revolt against the French guy! With any luck, Andalusia's & Armagnac's troops will obliterate each other, and one of my dukes will take Asturias (likely Powys, who's bringing 21 allies). Also, the Umayyad Sultanate is actually the Kingdom of Asturias, so getting all that land would let me usurp his kingdom, yielding 6 independent emirs, which my dukes might then snap up.
In my raiding, Venice currently has 1668 levies standing in Venice. This makes me hesitant to try to raid. I'm switching over to raid the Umayyad capital in Urgell, for the chance to capture & concubine women with heritable claims on Andalusia & Muhallabid. And Rosello, to try to capture a similar claim on Umayyad. All those would simplify my conquests. Also some raiding in Francia, to capture & kill people in line for that throne. I have some weak claims there, so I need to promote a regency.
Same treatment for Lombardy & Bavaria (especially since a woman with claim to Bavaria is currently in one-province Apulia!). If all works well, there could be some major gains in the next couple of decades.
848 Oct 5: Finally got my Viking trait! Captured the 2nd & 3rd heirs to West Francia while doing so, and now plotting to kill the 1st heir. No plot power against the King, but he's 40 & I'm patient. Looted Rosello a few weeks earlier, getting a concubine with claim. No plot power with the Umayyads either, so that one looks even more long-term.
Asturias looks ugly. About 13k of my vassals are sieging the 2 counties, and that conqueror is standing next door with his 6680 troops. When it looks like some of my vassals will move, he starts to move (breaking the siege of my vassal he's standing on), but then my vassal cancels so he cancels. Rinse & repeat.
One of the Asturian holy wars is at 65% winning, so if they don't do anything stupid, we'll win.
848 Oct 16: Well, the Duke of Powys won. Unfortunately, the Duke of Aquitaine had occupied Oviedo, the capital of one of the 2 counties. So Powys now holds everything in the 2 counties except that capital barony. Aquitaine has 100 warscore, but isn't taking the win yet.
848 Oct 31: He finally took the win. I could now usurp the Umayyad Sultanate (as soon as he is at peace), but that would break it up into a bunch of independent emirs. On the one hand, I could wait and push a claim on all of it, on the other, me & my vassals could pick up all the emirs fairly easily. Of course, if *I* don't usurp it, the Duke of Powys may get enough money together to do it. I'll definitely have to watch it. Meanwhile, that conqueror's war invalidated.
849 Apr 30: Sieged Urgell, capturing several people, including a woman with heritable claim on Andalusian Kingdom. Concubined her. About a month before, I dropped a raiding army on Pavia (Lombard capital). Lombardy had 4800 troops sieging in Barcelona (plus another 600 on their way there), and turned to attack my 4500 stack in Urgell. With the mountain & good commanders, I reduced him to about 600. The survivors ran off… straight into a slightly larger stack of viking raiders (on of my sub-vassals). That stack is getting wiped, but another Lombard stack of 2300 just arrived in Barcelona. Those 2 are most of Lombardy's remaining troops. I'd love to get that claim on Lombardy now!
I had a stack of about 4900 headed down France to join the fun, but held back when it looked like I'd collide with the 6600 going home to Armagnac. Well, he hit a couple other stacks first, then I hit him while he was weak. I'm chasing him down to obliterate him, because this is his event stack, and it regenerates 330/month. I'm using an Organized leader, so I get in front of his retreat and get the defensive position.
849 Jun 23: finished of Lombardy's armies & captured his 3rd heir in siege. The King was leading an army, but I didn't get lucky. His 1st and 2nd heirs are out of reach right now, being tutored away from home.
I now have potential claimants among my kids for the kingdoms of Andalusia, Bavaria, Umayyad, Mali, Middle Francia, Lombardy, and West Francia, plus duchies of Lesser Poland, Kiev, Smolensk, Vitebsk, and Yatvingia. Also, a prisoner who could give me a claim to Kingdom of Muhallabid, but I don't have room for her as a concubine right now. One of my cousin dukes also has claims on duchies of Mordva (pressable right now), Murom, Chernigov, and Pereyaslavl. I wouldn't doubt that there are other family claims, but I haven't looked for them all (181 dynasty members…). I might script up something to highlight dynasty members with claims outside the realm, or with parents with such claims. The trick is, with the parents I only want pressed claims, and there doesn't appear to be a script command to check for those.
