So I am playing my game with the intention of putting it into an AAR form and in my past games, which I played on Hard/Normal settings the world generally imploded into a messy frenzy of independents everywhere. For this AAR I decided to play on Hard/Coward setting and, to my surprise, it is 1100 and Europe is still intact. France is still more or less whole (give or take a count or two) and Naples has formed, but there are some... oddities.
Germany:
Somehow King Heinrich kept his butt out of hot water. Matilda of Touscana/Spoletto (his real rival/beginning papal controller) never managed to excommunicate him and eventually died, leaving her duchy to her son. This lead to Germany being... unified!
I know. It's weird seeing that ugly green blob intact for more than two decades, but it is! However it gets weirder.
Sometime during his reign Heinrich instituted that law that splits your holdings amongst your sons so the 'Holy Roman Empire' became separate kingdoms of Italy, Burgundy, and Germany. His three sons took these titles (though Germany remained the largest, Burgundy a distant second) and they are doing quite well for themselves. Only major rebellion was when Provence broke off from Burgundy, but beyond that things have been smooth sailing.
Bohemia/Poland/Hungary:
A bit to the east are two freaking huge empires. For some reason Poland and Hungary just ATE THE PAGANS UP. I've never seen this before. I mean, I've seen small expansions made, but Hungary now has provinces IN GEORGIA and all along the northern black sea while Poland more or less dominates the southern Baltic coasts.
Italy:
Here's where it gets weirder. The strongest state in Italy is not the Kingdom of Naples (though it exists) but it is the Papal States-Republic of Pisa alliance. No joke, these guys are not to mess with. The Papal States have a smattering of provinces, (currently the pope is the uncle of the King of England) having a Duchess in England (I think it's York) as a vassal and taking the horn part of Tunisa. Pisa is a goddamn monster. All of the Kingdom of Hammid? That's Pisa's territory. All of it. They own that entire part of North Africa. :|
Iberia:
Not only have the Spanish kingdoms lasted, but they have PROSPERED. It's a bit odd. The Duchy of Barcelona is gone, but in its wake the kingdom of Navarra took over a lot of that north-eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. United Castile and Leon have actually expanded past that river (is it the Duro? I cannot remember) that more or less divides the peninsula between Christians and Muslims, but they've been beaten back -a little- by some random Emirate (it's blue.)
Everything not in Europe:
The Byzantines have kept together and the Seljuks have imploded in on themselves. It's like a role reversal this time. :wacko: I didn't even use the 'die' cheat to kill off Alp Arslan like I normally do to keep the Byzantines from exploding (though it never really helps) and there are only a few independent byzantine counts/princes (and one powerful one in that Bulgaria area, at least I think it's Bulgaria).
East of that the area's a freaking mess. The Kingdom of Egypt has provinces in southern Anatolia and a bunch or independent emirs rule. The Seljuks have more or less died off and no one reigns supreme. Crusaders have come in and trashed the place a bit, but once the crusade target is taken and peace declared the Muslims (particularly Egypt) just retake those provinces.
So, uh, my Europe's weird.
My question, now, is does this happen normally to you all when you reduce the aggression levels? It seems that it has allowed the Christian realms to prosper wildly while screw over the non-Christian ones. Would you recommend that I push the difficulty back to normal to get some action or keep it like this and wait and see?
Germany:
Somehow King Heinrich kept his butt out of hot water. Matilda of Touscana/Spoletto (his real rival/beginning papal controller) never managed to excommunicate him and eventually died, leaving her duchy to her son. This lead to Germany being... unified!
I know. It's weird seeing that ugly green blob intact for more than two decades, but it is! However it gets weirder.Sometime during his reign Heinrich instituted that law that splits your holdings amongst your sons so the 'Holy Roman Empire' became separate kingdoms of Italy, Burgundy, and Germany. His three sons took these titles (though Germany remained the largest, Burgundy a distant second) and they are doing quite well for themselves. Only major rebellion was when Provence broke off from Burgundy, but beyond that things have been smooth sailing.
Bohemia/Poland/Hungary:
A bit to the east are two freaking huge empires. For some reason Poland and Hungary just ATE THE PAGANS UP. I've never seen this before. I mean, I've seen small expansions made, but Hungary now has provinces IN GEORGIA and all along the northern black sea while Poland more or less dominates the southern Baltic coasts.
Italy:
Here's where it gets weirder. The strongest state in Italy is not the Kingdom of Naples (though it exists) but it is the Papal States-Republic of Pisa alliance. No joke, these guys are not to mess with. The Papal States have a smattering of provinces, (currently the pope is the uncle of the King of England) having a Duchess in England (I think it's York) as a vassal and taking the horn part of Tunisa. Pisa is a goddamn monster. All of the Kingdom of Hammid? That's Pisa's territory. All of it. They own that entire part of North Africa. :|
Iberia:
Not only have the Spanish kingdoms lasted, but they have PROSPERED. It's a bit odd. The Duchy of Barcelona is gone, but in its wake the kingdom of Navarra took over a lot of that north-eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. United Castile and Leon have actually expanded past that river (is it the Duro? I cannot remember) that more or less divides the peninsula between Christians and Muslims, but they've been beaten back -a little- by some random Emirate (it's blue.)
Everything not in Europe:
The Byzantines have kept together and the Seljuks have imploded in on themselves. It's like a role reversal this time. :wacko: I didn't even use the 'die' cheat to kill off Alp Arslan like I normally do to keep the Byzantines from exploding (though it never really helps) and there are only a few independent byzantine counts/princes (and one powerful one in that Bulgaria area, at least I think it's Bulgaria).
East of that the area's a freaking mess. The Kingdom of Egypt has provinces in southern Anatolia and a bunch or independent emirs rule. The Seljuks have more or less died off and no one reigns supreme. Crusaders have come in and trashed the place a bit, but once the crusade target is taken and peace declared the Muslims (particularly Egypt) just retake those provinces.
So, uh, my Europe's weird.
My question, now, is does this happen normally to you all when you reduce the aggression levels? It seems that it has allowed the Christian realms to prosper wildly while screw over the non-Christian ones. Would you recommend that I push the difficulty back to normal to get some action or keep it like this and wait and see?
