Lords of the Mountains - A Basque/Navarran AAR

[Flinteroon]

This is a great restoration of glory.

It would be nice if the Iberian holdings were also reclaimed.

Was the political seduction something that occurred in game? It would make sense, but it just sounds convenient...

The seduction did occur. Diego was a true gallant. Not only did he seduce Ealhflaed but also the Queen herself just to piss off the King. Had the run continued I would have likely tried to reconquer the lands in Iberia, but more than likely such conquests would take a backseat in favor of defeating the Franks. It's just more logistically sound to try to conquer Flanders and Normandy, which are just across the channel, than the far-flung lands of Navarra and Castille.

1066 is a very apt endpoint for an 'English' realm. Mod stability in n a growing game is an oxymoron. Thank you for bringing this wonderful AAR to us. We even got bonus footage after Gontzal's exile.

I thought the year was fitting as well. If it had to end abruptly I'm at least glad it ended where it did. Now let's just imagine these Basque are our Normans and history just went on as normal .

That is a fantastic position for England to be in the early 11th century. I suspect they'll consolidate the islands and then reinforce their French holdings through Brittany.

What an interesting progression for the family, and quite true to life. The burgundians began as minor nobles between France and the HRE, and ended ruling the largest empire in history up to that point, via Spain.

From the looks of things, I'd say Francia is going to be strong, and the 100 years war is going to be a big thing. The English unifying the islands and having an unshakable peninsula to fight from makes them very difficult to ever actually defeat to the point they could 'lose', at the same time France is so large and would be so chaotic comr a huge war like that, the English might not get very far and succeed only in securing their claims on the north coast, and bankrupting and perhaps splitting up the rest of the empire.

Fascinating stuff though, esepcially if the English then try and get their lands back in Spain too...

Consolidating the islands might actually be more difficult than it appears at first glance, as all those small principalities in Scotland have powerful allies in Scandinavia, including the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden. That's without including the already quarrelsome Scots. At the very least Wales and Northumbria would be fully pacified within the next generation at the latest, just in time to fully devote all of England's strength across the channel.

Francia was terribly powerful. West Francia faced so much troubles throughout the AAR and yet within the lifetime of a single King it stabilized and fully absorbed all of Lotharingia, Burgundy, Aquitaine, and Frisia. Their holdings extended far beyond the De Jure lands of the Empire of Francia, so yeah, they'd likely prove to be a much fiercer foe than our timeline's France. There are however vassal kings under the Emperor, meaning one weak Emperor is all that would take for the Empire to come crashing down. We can only imagine though .

 

[Idhrendur]

Turns out to be a good ending point for the narrative. Thanks for the AAR!

 

[Koweth]

A shame this save was corrupted. It was truly an interesting story that I was itching to read every post! Hopefully your next AAR does just as well.