Poland - A crusade through the ages - part I

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Crusader Kings v1.05
Hastings (1066), normal/normal

This is my attempt of playing Poland through CK, EU II and Vicky, HoI II maybe if I will find proper save converter.

Sorry for the poor quality of pictures, hosting site doesn't allow linking full sized screenshots so if you know good and free hosting site, let me know.

This is Poland in 1066. Quite promising place to start. We've got loads of heathens to the north, north east and north west.

Well, the first thing to do was to set sliders to gain maximum loyality from our vassals. Pretty crucial thing. This means less gold for our treasury, but this is not an issue, since pretty soon we hope to gain a lot of land that will generate enough for the survival.
I found a spouse for a King and could go on a crusade against Prussian pagans.

First goal was to conquer northern parts of Germany. Those were easy catch for the German king so I had to be quick. 3000 men army or so rose quickly and pagans gave up almost without a fight.

With son on his way and my treasury with the amount of circa 150 gold pieces I was on my way to northern parts of my kingdom to deal with Prussians.

I gave away all lands in the Germany to Polish courtiers. One interesting thing though. From the history at the academy they thought me that if I recall correctly in England they had a system of granting lands far from each other, so a prince would have two provinces on opposite sides of kingdom to prevent partitioning and kept king's strength. The same system I enforced in my kingdom. (Not 100 percent sure on that though since history was my major in high school and it was ages ago).

Everything was more than OK for me. I settled for few years to build some roads and buildings in my provinces, gather some money and attack north-eastern pagans that had pretty big coutries there. Manpower wasn't na issue for me, but maintainig big army takes funds and I was forced already to call estates general two times.

The peace couldn't last for ever, pope called to arms to fight heathens in the holy land, but I was pretty much tied in conflict against Lithuanians. Some dork attacked them with forces few times weaker, so it was on!
My army crushed all opposition and my treasury. I gave into demands of nobles to change the law.

In 1080 King Boleslaw Piast died and his son took over.

After five years Ziemowit got stressed and killed himself. Sunrise - sunset.
His brother took over and finished the job with Lithuanians.

Brother - Jakub Piast

The job - Lithuania

Well, I am not a brilliant family planner (I just plainly don't plan one) so my actions were limited to finding nice looking, good traited and skilled spouse, and young too. Well first wife of Jakub died in labor with second child. So we found replacement, but not fertile enough it seems. Thankfully there is a hier to the crown from first marriage.

Germany, Hungary and Sweden were posing serious threat and in case of conflict with them I might have had troubles. My ally, Denmark wasn't a big consolation. They even dragged me in war against Norway and Sweden.
Thankfully the Pope ordered a peace in case of Norway and Sweden gave up after taking control of their two provinces.

During the expansion on Kurland something funny happened. Bohemians broke loose from Germany's leash and Hungary fell apart.

I didn't think long and vassalized few provinces

Now its 1104, Jakub is at power, his son Jakub is adult and will soon gain some land and a bride.

Stay tuned for more.

 

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Good luck with AAR fellow. About screenshots - try photobucket.com or imageshack.com

 

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Good luck with AAR fellow. About screenshots - try photobucket.com or imageshack.com

Photobucket is awesome! Thanks.

 

[Jestor]

It looks like the fight of shades of green

 

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It looks like the fight of shades of green

You are right
I haven't noticed that earlier. Not the best situation for Bohemia. Bohemia was my main target in the west. The dissolution of Hungarian kingdom bought more time for Bohemians, but they know what is coming.
I believe that Germany will want to regain control over this region, so not so bright future for them.

 

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Poland 1104 - 1121
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Year 1104 started off pretty well. I was just about to grab the King of Bohemia title, when I realized that my vassal – duke of Slovakia Kalaman Arpad has crushed the remains of Hungarian forces. After the dissolution of their Kingdom there was nothing else to do but to grab the title of the king of Hungary and start vassalize partitioned counties. There was one other thing though. Hungarian kingdom didn’t just dissolve itself, as a natural revolter Kalaman was behind the dissolution. Being duke of Slovakian provinces he had enough power to claim the king’s title. Jakub Piast reviked his title as a duke of Slovakia and left him a title of Niva’s count.

With high badboy that followed I had to postpone all my plans of getting my hands on king of Bohemia title. My goal now was to gather some money, conquer few pagan provinces in Finland and enjoy my new alliance with Germany.
This was supposed to be a dull period of Jakub Piast senior’s rule, but I was proven to be wrong! All those lonely counties quickly came to the only good conclusion offering me their vassalization. I didn’t think twice and soon 80% of what used to be Hungary, joined my kingdom.

Jakub Piast junior received Kurs and Zeminglas as a gift for his 16th birthday and a title of duke of Courland (yeah, beat that MTV’s Sweet sixteen!).

My expedition to Finland was a success, unfortunately I had enough money only to conquer 3 provinces by the sea.

That was the time when Germany ate more that they could handle and one by one counties became liberating. That didn’t change much, but I could feel comfortable knowing that it would take some time for them to settle their issues. A strategic move was to switch alliance to England.

I became a papal controller, nothing much, I called Christian world to arms to fight heathens in Alexandria. Well, I didn’t go. Losing 1 piety per month was the price I was willing to pay just to be able to gather more money since my crown duty slider is nearly maxed to the left, but 24 gold monthly income is sufficient for now. It still doesn’t stop some lunatics from revolting although respectable reputation.

I was astonished when the principality of Kiev accepted my vassalization offer and joined my kingdom! This was great news, but arose few other problems. I became too big! I can’t fight pagans in Finland, just because they are too far away. It costs great amounts of money to move royal forces to the north of Yrup and I am not a fan of sending my vassals, because when they get too powerful they begin to plot against their liege.

Poland in 1121

 

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After a period of absence I can continue my crusade through the ages!

By a year 1161 Poland took advantage of wise rulers and a downfall of German Kingdom thanks to which lands beyond Brandenburg were peacefully vassalized.

With years and rulers passing by we were stuck, afraid maybe. Poland rose to become one of the largest kingdoms in the known world. Poland consisted of 50 vassals Catholic and Orthodox ones, dukes and counts, Italians and Russians. Many rulers would sell their souls to see Polish Kingdom falling down and our King couldn't affort making a mistake. High prestige and piety was a must since there were few dissent minor counts declaring their independance just to ask vassalization month later.

A calm and cautious measures had to be taken to develop. Kingdom of Bohemia, fellow Czechs were to be out next target. Grabbing the title was like taking a candy from a baby. We didn't strike though. Two crusades and taking control over Malta, Gibraltar (temporarily) and Antiochea (temporarily) drove king's attention from counquest of Bohemia, but not for long.

Polish rulers didn't waste their time, and since the borders of Poland were pretty much stable, large sums of gold were pumped to the Bishop of Danzig since being the most uderdeveloped core land. Mass scale building on the King's properties were financed and some thoughts were thought.

Year 1200 was a sad year for the King of Bohemia, since he stopped being a king as a result of Polish invasion. This could not even be called a war. Three regiments from Sacz, Krakowskie and Cieszynskie entered Ostrava and took it over. Fighting bravely Bohemians (King and his vassals) had to give in to the two times more numerous Polish army.

At the year 1200 situation was as follows:
Eastern border

Many minor Russian Duchys and Contys that will have to be incorporated in a 100 years or so. Their quantity ant the fact that their rulers own multiply titles will be very time consuming to conquer them all. Since any significant drop of reputation or prestige can be the end of Polish Kingdom, we have to conquer them one by one.

Western and southern border:

For some time we were able to witness the slow downfall of the German Empire. Once a threat and serious competitor, now, a possible prey for our unsatiable hunger for land. Most of the newly independent counties fall under our western Duchies or directly to the king himself.

On the south Byzantine Empire is of no interest to us and likewise apparently. We just hope they can hold back muslim offensive on the south.

 

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That is a huge Poland.

 

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True. But he made the most of the break-up of Hungary.
Wonder where he'll go next?
As he's got north, west, east and south... and basically all the pagans in his area are kaput.

 

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I kept asking myself the same question: where to go? Well, since there is some interest in my pretty ascetic AAR I will give the answer in the next update, soon in other words.

 

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At the beginig of the XIII th century life was good for Poland. Stable and diplomatic rule secured the position of a superpower and the money was flooding our treasury.

No longer could we refrain ourselves from liberating neighbouring citizens from unefficient rules of their kings. Nevertheless we had to be cautious. War on all fronts might have resulted in our partition.

From all the neighbouring kingdoms Sweden was the weakest one, so actions were taken promptly:

In the meantime Ziemowit Piast was declared saint, what could mean only one thing... God wants us to rule the world.

As it is God's will, our noble and zealous ruler

On July 1233 declared war on Sweden:

Enough to say that by the October Andrzej become King of Sweden.

 

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Easy victory over Sweden didn't satisfy Polish hunger for conquest.
First a quick overview of situation on our two borders.

Byzantium is struggling for survival. The lost of Byzantion must have been devastating and the constant pressure from muslim world pushed back the Byzantine Empire to Europe. Small progress can be seen in the Egypt though where England's crusades came uot successful.

Situation in Germany seems stable. After many unexpected death of its rulers the Hungarian line seems to be doing pretty well. Since the fall of France (didn't even noticed when it happened) Germany moved to the West and took most of the Italy. England is holding pretty strong and made its way to the continent.

Well, life isn't all roses and whatever.

A quick campaign against Norway was the only thing that could make me feel better.

By the 1239 we not only made Baltic Sea our inner sea, but also got to the North Sea

 

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WHOAA! Nice going mate
Is there any equal power in Europe at this point? Good luck with keeping this Empire

 

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Nope, I am the greatest!! :rofl:
But the end is near. I am too big. When present king dies I will have to spend loads of gold to keep my minions from leaving me or declaring war. Other thing are mongol hordes that pop up here and there, I may not have what it takes to stop them when they grow in power.

 

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A vast Poland, but it won't last. Idiot vassals. Looking forward to the next chapter.

 

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Idiot vassals are extremely troublesome. I am right now in the middle of fighting them. 2/5ths of my vassal have rebeliousness written on their forehead and some of them are declaring independence just to ask fot vassalization few seconds later. ARGH! Well, at least I get claims on their lands, so I will get the lands back pretty soon.

 

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That's kind of weird, with the Byzantines losing Byzantium and large parts of Anatolia but spreading so far in the Balkans. And who knows, if Poland hadn't taken all of Hungary they might have taken that too! And France disintegrated as usual, though it doesn't seem to be by Muslim hands?

 

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with Poland already so big I can't help but wonder at the ability to take this AAR all the way to HOI. At this rate the world will be conquored in no time

 

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As this is Poland at it's peak and in it's glory, and those days may never be back, lets compare our realm to the others:

in 1244 Andrzej become the Papal Controller:

But Adelfo Capponi might not be the most suitable person to be pope, but what do I know...

Girls dig power, and this poor fellow here has been seduced by dark forces (and I don't mean Lucas Games Star Wars: Dark Forces). I personally suspect succubus...


1252 - I have a feeling that this great era of Polish domination just came to an end. King is dead.

Well, sunrise - sunset.

Skarbimir took power in Poland. Due to the poor management skills most of his father lands had to be given away just to keep efficiency at reasonable rate. I have a distant feeling that a major uprising is awaiting Skarbimir during his rule.

One thing keeps me awake at night though.
Rebellion is inevitable and most of my lands will uprise, and I will be able to crush them finally, but what then?

Should I come back to my old system of keeping hundreds of counts as vassals or should I trust few Dukes and deal with fewer but more powerful enemies?

 

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A Hungarian with an unpronounceable name holding the Kingdom of Germany is really something! And it looks like there are many other Christian kingdoms that can compare to the power of Poland yet! This and an incompetent king succeeding will certainly keep the game interesting for the next while!