"Pro Fide"- The Crusade of the Knights Hospitaller

[Zeedo]

Prologue
History had not been grateful to the Knights Hospitaller or the Knights of Rhodes as they were now called. Gone were the glorious days of the crusades and the great castles of the Holy Land. Only the small island of Rhodes remained under control of the Knights and even that was threatened by adversaries. After successfully repelling the Mamluks in 1444 the sovereignty of the Knights was endangered again. As the west mourned the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman warmongering may yet endanger the Knights.​

About this AAR

For starters it's my first AAR so I will kindly welcome all feedback and criticism of my work. Secondly I will aim for this to be true to how events could have developed so don't expect and a world conquest AAR. Thirdly I am not the best of players so I doubt I would be even capable of a world conquest. I believe that's all for now so I hope you enjoy this.

For this AAR I will be running EU3 NA 2.0 with no mods.

 

[comagoosie]

Welcome to the forums!

Anyways, to have a good AAR doesn't mean to do a World conquer.

Good Luck!

 

[aHuman(oid)]

This looks good. Nice first post. Could you tell us which version of the game you are playing, and when you are starting?
Don't worry, people tend not to expect you to conquer the world in your AAR, especially when you pick such a difficult country for it.

Darn! Beaten to first reply. [Grumble]Stupid lagging forums.[/Grumble]

 

[Zeedo]

1- The Fall of Constantinople
On the 29th May 1453, after months of assault, Constantinople fell. On the 31st May a small amount of refugees arrived at Rhodes and sought refuge. After they were admitted to the proud halls of the Knights, stories of the fall started to circulate. A meeting was called by Grand Master Jean Bonpar De Lastic to asses the situation and contrary to common procedure, some of the prominent refugees such as Aloysius de Verdala, a knowledgeable scientist, were invited to participate.
During the meeting all present agreed that the Ottomans posed a threat to the Order and the Christian world. To meet with any possible aggression it was decided that the Knights first must strengthen their position in the Aegean Sea by assuming control of the Duchy of Naxos. Secondly the Knights should seek alliances with large catholic nations in Europe to help balance the advantage the Ottomans had in numerical superiority. Until the balance of powers is even the Knights should avoid conflict with the Ottomans if possible. Before the meeting concluded it was decided that the policy of naval superiority that was once used to fight Barbary pirates should be changed to a policy where both the navy and land troops were equally effective as the wars that may ensue will most probably require mastery of both fields.

With this decided the Grand Master knew that the takeover of the Duchy should be as soon as possible while the Ottomans still waged war in Serbia. He immediately begun preparations and sent orders to ready the boats and assemble the men. Jean Bonpar de Lastic himself would travel with his fellow knights to Naxos. Briefly before the departure he gratefully accepted the services that Aloysius de Verdala offered to the Knights. His prowess in the obscure sciences played the key role in improving manufacturing and production of goods for years to follow.

With the affairs settled the Grand Master and his loyal Knights set sail to the Duchy of Naxos.

The "Garnier de Naplous", the ship used for transport to the Duchy of Naxos.
​

Also, thanks for the comments. I added the game version into the first post and hope that from the above you can discern the start date.

 

[aHuman(oid)]

It looks like the knights are doing well, but I have two questions, one story related and one related to the game version.

1) Why did you mention 1480 in the prologue, when it hadn't, and hopefully won't, happen in your game?
2) Why haven't you updated? Or did you play the game before further updates came out?

Other than that the AAR is going great, it's a shame roleplay-wise you have to attack a crusader state.

 

[unmerged(61606)]

yay knightly order AARs, good luck!

 

[Zeedo]

It looks like the knights are doing well, but I have two questions, one story related and one related to the game version.

1) Why did you mention 1480 in the prologue, when it hadn't, and hopefully won't, happen in your game?
2) Why haven't you updated? Or did you play the game before further updates came out?

Other than that the AAR is going great, it's a shame roleplay-wise you have to attack a crusader state.

1) Thanks for telling me that. T'was a terrible mistake. I feel the shame.
2) I haven't bothered to update yet but I promise I will if I ever make another AAR.

Also about the attacking Naxos, I know it may look bad role-play wise but it is reasonable. I'll explain in the next update.

 

[aHuman(oid)]

1) Thanks for telling me that. T'was a terrible mistake. I feel the shame.

Everyone makes mistakes like that occasionally, I almost made one just now when writing an update for my AAR. I almost called the leader of Tibet a Lama, over 150 years before they became a theocracy in the history files. (And before that I almost called him an archbishop. o )

2) I haven't bothered to update yet but I promise I will if I ever make another AAR.

It's not that it's bad, it's just that your game would probably go better, and be more enjoyable if you had updated.

Also about the attacking Naxos, I know it may look bad role-play wise but it is reasonable. I'll explain in the next update.

I am interested to see what made the crusader state of naxos such a valid target for the Knights. *eagerly awaits the next update*

 

[comagoosie]

Hah, good opening move. You always need a second province or else you can be annexed, which is not good.

Nice update!

 

[Berrrie]

That's a difficult country to play. Good luck, I suppose you will need it!

 

[coz1]

Welcome and already you have an interesting premise. Looking forward to where this goes. Good luck.