The Count of Tyrconnell - A newbie's first game

[Dustdevil]

It was the stories that got me interested in Crusader Kings II, so I figure that I should document my on personal journeys with the game. Prior to firing up the game for the first time a couple of days ago I had only watched some tutorial videos, and read a bit on the wiki.... well, that and read some pretty crazy AARs about the game.

So without further preamble, here is an account of my first two sessions.... more to come in future posts (and I'll start taking screen shots!)

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After a false start in which I selected an Irish count with the "Chaste trait" who then steadfastly refused to procreate with the wife that I gave him (who had some trait with +10% fertility) despite spending a boatload of gold on a prize horse for her (which put their opinions of each other to 100), I restarted as Earl Ruaidri of Tyrconnell (northwest Ireland, in Ulster).

Things went a little bit better in my new game, although I had some fairly crappy councilors to start, and could not seem to get a claim fabricated on a neighboring county. I started the game with a young son and no wife, so remarried quickly and switched over to an elective system of government so that I had some control over my successor should any kids with my new wife be better than the existing child. Soon enough I had a new daughter, then twins (a boy and a girl), and then another daughter. In around when the twins arrived the eldest son, Aed mac Ruaidri - my heir - reached adulthood and acquired the "Flamboyant Schemer" trait. This, coupled with his abysmal stats and other crappy traits, convinced me to appoint my infant son, Ailill, as the heir to my budding kingdom. Of course, Aed was enraged - but whatever - deal with it, you dolt.

A few years later my spymaster uncovered a plot in which my son Aed was planning to kill me... he had no backers, and so I had a decision to make: tell him to stop (he would have said yes), or lock him up (no one was going to object). I chose the later because it seemed like a fool-proof way to deal with my idiot son once and for all, but my martial bungled the job and my eldest fled to southern Ireland and became the vassal of the Petty King of Munster. Ugly business, but now there was no way I'd ever change my mind and let him be my successor.

A year later my court chaplain died under mysterious circumstances. There weren't any good replacements, so I made do with who I could find. Not long after my spymaster took ill, and died. Same problem - it's early yet, and I don't have a strong stable of courtiers to fill vacant positions. And then, just to top things off, before I finished for the night my chancellor was murdered.

Now - I think it's obvious what's going on here, but as a minor count I'm apparently powerless to stop the assassins that my son seems to be sending to take out my best & brightest. At the rate things are going, I'm going to wake up to find a dagger in my back soon..... we'll see how this goes.

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I finally acquired a second county today in the ~45 minutes that I had to kill. Here's how it went down:

My immediate neighbour in Tyrone died, and was replaced by a child-ruler, which allowed my incompetent chancellor to finally fabricate a claim (15%/year is way better than 4%/year). I immediately jumped all over the opportunity, and pressed the claim and was able to call in my Welsh allies (through marriage) to help win what would otherwise have been an even battle. (They came primary because I'd answered their call earlier, and helped them win a county.) I then moved my chancellor to Ulster, where he can hopefully pull off the same trick with the underage dutchess that's on the throne there.

Not longer after gaining my second province, my father-in-law came asking for more help... but this time to defend from England invading - I pretended not to be home, and sent his messenger packing.... there are some fights that I can't afford to involve myself in. I sent him a gift of gold to offset the prestige hit - hopefully he won't be TOO pissed for long, because he seems to have beat the English back.

Regarding all of my female relatives.... so far they're not turning out too hot. My eldest daughter - Fine - has the wonderful "imbecile" trait.... I married her off to some foreigner as fast as I could. A niece just became of age as well, and she has the same "Flamboyant Schemer" trait that her cousin does, so I'm going to marry her into obscurity to be rid of any potential problems that she could pose.

 

[Dustdevil]

When last I wrote, Earl Ruaidri of Tyrconnell had conquered Tyrone, and was working hard to fabricate a claim on neighbouring Ulster. His estranged son, Aed mac Ruaidri, had fled to the relative safety of Munster, and was scheming a way to get back at his father who had the gall to try to imprison him. Ultimately that was not to be.... but I'm get ahead of myself.

While waiting - agonizingly - for a claim to be fabricated, the Earl Ruaidri decided to see about upgrading his decimated council chambers. Since his young unmarried niece, Sabd, had recently mourned not having a husband he decided to kill two birds with one stone, and Sabd soon found herself married off (matrilineally!) to a brilliant steward-in-training (19 stewardship!). As soon as her new husband arrived in court, he was quickly shown the council chambers.

Soon thereafter Aillil, the heir to the Ruaidri line, finally came of age - although not a sturdy ruler-in-waiting by any stretch of the imagination, he was still better than the scheming Aed. Feeling like mixing the court dynamics up a little bit, and standing out from the crowd, Earl Ruaidri looked as far from home as possible for a bride for his heir, and found a perfect match in the exotic Tavqavich Zagwe, tattooed Princess of Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

Unfortunately, the stress of the foreign wedding must have taken its toll on the Earl, because he developed a vicious case of the Great Pox, which caused him no end of discomfort, and caused his vassals great distress..... no one likes to be forced to pay a visit to a man so obviously ill, oath of fealty or not!

Finally, on the 27th of October 1089, the long-awaited claim on Ulster was finally fabricated. Sick or not, Ruaidri was not about to miss the battle, and he rode off with 2,100 of his finest troops to crush the Duchess of Ulster, and further-secure his claim on northern Ireland. The initial battle went well, and although the Earl sustained a maiming wound, the enemy troops were routed in the field. The duchess foolishly declined to surrender, and summoned her allies from Ossory to help, which forced Ruaidri to respond by calling in his Welsh allies. A grueling siege commenced, but the outcome was sure to be the defeat of Ulster.

And then everything went to hell.

8,000 soldiers from Scotland landed on the shores of Ulster and crashed into Tyrconnell's siege forces, decimating them in the initial charge and forcing the Earl to negotiate a hasty truce with Ulster in order to withdraw before the onslaught. Demoralized and beaten, Earl Ruaidri limped back home on August 17th, 1090. The old man was never the same, and four months later - on Christmas Day 1090 - the first Earl of Tyrconnell died in his bed, leaving his tiny empire to his chosen heir, Aillil.

Inheriting a kingdom right then was not what young Aillil had bargained for - he had his hands full just trying to understand his foreign wife and keep her from killing him in his sleep. He tried plying her with expensive baubles, which seemed to take the edge off the anger of being torn away from her native kingdom, but the princess was still a major handful - which made extending the family line somewhat of a challenge.

Thankfully, hard work, understanding, and some TLC paid off and the two finally found themselves falling in love. How sweet. And not long after - an baby boy came calling - and although the young tyke looked far more like his mother than his father, which might prove an issue with the distrustful citizens of his counties - Aillil finally had a reason to think that things were turning around.

 

[Dustdevil]

On April 15, 1096 Earl Ailill and his wife the Princess Tavavich welcomed their second and third children, a son and a daughter, into the world. Little did they know that the birth of little Imag and Ruaidri heralded the start of a new era for the Ua Canannain family, one full of intrigue and diplomacy instead of the rough blunt force utilized by the previous generation.

Although his methods may have varied from his father's, Ailill nevertheless still coveted the duchy of Ulster, and the first necessary step along the way to controlling all of northern Ireland was to establish a claim on Oriel. The old Earl had substantially improved the quality of his council before his death by bringing in foreigners who had fallen out of favor with their lords, and it didn't take long for the eccentric Polish Chancellor to fabricate a claim out of whole cloth, and by August 1099 the banners of Tyrone and Tyrconnell were flying proudly above columns of armed men as they marched on Oriel.

The initial battle went splendidly and as Ailill's forces smashed into the surprised Orielians from the front, his brother Flaithberatch's cavalry struck their flank, scattering them to the wind. A siege was set and the castle quickly fell, but the stubborn Orielian count refused to admit his inevitable defeat, and so a grueling battle began for the city of Dundalk.

History has a funny way of repeating itself, and just as things looked like they would be going perfectly for the young Earl of Tyrconnell, four thousand infantry from the County of Leinster appeared, forcing a hasty retreat. Leinster was no ally of Oriel, but they knew an opportunity when they saw it, and as Ailill's army fled, they laid down a siege of their own.

Frustrated at his failure to capture Oriel but unwilling to concede defeat, the Earl looked to his court - and specifically to his unmarried sister, Lann - for help. A young Scottish Prince - Duncan - was unmarried, and since he was not heir to the throne it appeared likely that he would even accept a matrilineal arrangement. Couriers were dispatched, and just like that Lann and Duncan were married, and the might of all of Scotland was suddenly at Ailill's disposal.

The King of Scotland was more than happy to deliver Oriel as a wedding gift to the happy couple's family, and the massive Scottish army was quickly mobilized to wipe out the troops from Leinster, and help finish what Earl Ailill had started. By late September 1101 Oriel was in Ua Canannain hands.

With three of the four counties of Ulster now in his hands, Ailill could now create the title for the entire Dutchy of Ulster and establish a claim on the one remaining county: Ulster itself. There was only one problem though - his father's own attempts to wrest control of Ulster had been thwarted by a Scottish invasion, and a Scottish count - Gilbride, the brother of the King of Scotland - still ruled.

The initial plan was to sow dissent between the King and his brother prior to adopting the title of Duke of Ulster and seizing the county by force, however the brakes were put on that plan when Lann , so recently married into the Scottish royal family, passed away suddenly. Grief-stricken, her husband-Prince left for his homeland, severing all formal alliances between the two families. A new bride was sent - and accepted - but the relationship was changed for good.... for the meantime Scotland and the soon-to-be Duke of Ulster would pursue their agendas separately.

Frustrated by this turn of events, Ailill set out to remove the road block to Ulster in a different manner: subterfuge. He dispatched his spymaster to Ulster to start unearthing some enemies of the earl, and at the same time he opened up his treasury to anyone willing to say a bad word about Count Gilbride. Whether this plot will bear fruit is anyone's call....

 

[Dustdevil]

It took five long years, but Earl Gilbride finally died, although not through the machinations of the Duke and his co-conspirators; instead the old man succumbed to an old battle injury. In either case, his passing left the inexperienced Gilbride the younger in control of the County of Ulster, bereft of allies and woefully unprepared to face the might of the burgeoning Tyrconnell kingdom. Ailill, eager to finally unite the entire de jure duchy of Ulster set about drafting a formal declaration of war, however when he handed the sealed document to this chancellor to deliver to the court in Ulster, the wise old man scoffed - if the Irish county was to be seized then the declaration of war had to be delivered to the King of Scotland, and not one of his petty vassals.

Frustrated by this unexpected diplomatic twist, Ailill flew into a rage, hurling the papers back into the chancellor's face threatening to summarily dismiss the man for not advising him of this legal loophole prior to spending so much time and gold trying to off the old Earl. His lord's temper seemed to catch the chancellor off guard, and clutching at his chest he keeled over, dead.

Replacing the incompetent old fool turned out to be no easy task. Casting around his own court, the Duke couldn't find a single courtier capable of negotiating his way out of a paper bag, and so he resigned himself to searching on the mainland for a suitable replacement. Perhaps sensing that the court of Tyrconnell was not a stable place, skilled diplomats of all stripes scoffed at Ailill's offers to fill the vacancy - not even generous gifts were sufficient to woo them.

Finally, while visiting a backwater province to try to entice a local minor noble to take the job, a greasy geezer of 46 years approached the Duke with a proposition - "Arrange me a betrothal to that lovely young lass sitting on your wife's lap, and I'll ensure that your influence spreads far and wide through the Kingdom of Ireland." Ailill was taken aback - "that lovely young lass" was his three year old daughter - what sort of deviant was this man? He was desperate though - it had been months since his old chancellor had died and the position was important. Reluctantly he agreed to the deal even as Tavavich's glare pierced him like a dagger. The marriage bed was sure to be chilly for a while.

Pervert or no, the geezer delivered. Less than a year after assuming the official responsibilities of chancellor Ailill was presented with an official claim for the county of Connacht. Two years of hard fighting later and the province was under Tyrconnell control.

Soon after the war ended a juicy bit of intelligence filtered its way through Ailill's court. The heir to the Earl of Ulster had just come of age, and desired the role of an adviser in a court. A few gold pieces and some sugared words was all it took to lure the young man from his father's court, and with a plum job dangling in front of his nose he readily agreed to change his allegiance. With the heir to Ulster now firmly under his control, Ailill commanded him to wed his daughter, and to make the nuptials matrilineal - he had no grounds for which to reject the marriage, even though it was in direct defiance of his father, not to mention the sordid rumours of his wife-to-be's dalliances with the ladies of the court.

Time was now of the essence - Richard Gilbride of Ulster had to die before he realized that his heir was compromised - daggers needed to be sharpened, and fast.

 

[JKrugger]

I wasn't quite sure how much I would like this when you first started out, but I must say, your writing evolved into fairly good storytelling and I'm enjoying it. I'll be subscribing and eagerly waiting more!

 

[volksmarschall]

First off, welcome to the forums Dustdevil! Second, welcome to the world of AAR-writing!

Good luck with this, perhaps I will spend more times in CK2 now that I'll be reading along.

Cheers!

 

[Dustdevil]

Thanks, guys! I'm trying to play once a week, so I won't have daily updates or anything like that, but hopefully the pace won't slip too much.

 

[Divilly]

How about pics, hã?

 

[volksmarschall]

Thanks, guys! I'm trying to play once a week, so I won't have daily updates or anything like that, but hopefully the pace won't slip too much.

I personally find the weekly or twice weekly updating policy to work best, it's a nice steady pace, rather than at times an overwhelming pace of daily posts!

So we'll be patiently waiting!

 

[Dustdevil]

Wealth is a wonderful thing. It allows your kingdom to flourish in all of the ways that matter: plentiful food for the peasants, adequate equipment for the army, strong ships for the navy, and last but not least, daggers for the backs of anyone who threatens the security of the state. On March 3rd, 1114 Richard Gilbride - the Scottish Earl of Ulster - retired to his chambers after a night of feasting with his courtiers only to be awoken at 2:00am by a sharp pain across his neck. He tried to call for help, but all that came out was a pathetic gurgling. He was dead twenty-six minutes later.

When news of Earl Gilbride's untimely demise filtered into Duke Ailill's court in Tyrconnell a few days later, the scheming Irish lord put on a shocked face, and comforted his son-in-law, Malise Gilbride, before patting him on the back, and sending him packing for Ulster with his young bride, Imag. The terms of the bereaved couple's marriage were clear: any children produced would be of Ailill's Ua Cannannain lineage - and surly now that Imag was in the arms of a strong man, she'd grow out of her childish and misguided preference for the ladies.

With Ulster a mere generation from being returned to full Irish control, Aillil set about firming up offshore alliances that could be leveraged to help wrest control over the southern counties. A Portugese Countess was more than willing to marry his second-born son, while his two remaining unwed daughters were married off to the heir apparent of Scotland and the Prince of England respectively. These powerful rulers already had ties to many of Tyrconnell's southern neighbors, but few were so strong as those forged by these new marriages and hopefully Scotland and England would turn a blind eye to Irish politics in the immediate future.

On September 9th, 1119 Duke Aillil was presented with some convincing-looking paperwork by his chancellor that could be used to initiate a war against the county of Breifne; the man was a legal genius and master of finding loopholes where none existed. Before invading there was some important business to take care of. Ailill's favored son and heir, Gilla-Brigte, had been clamoring to be put in charge of a county for some years now but he had not seemed ready - now with his kingdom set to expand again, it finally seemed like the proper time to allow the young man a chance to govern (and to allow the people to get used to being ruled over by a man with darker skin than any pure Irishman). With Gilla was installed as Earl of Oriel, Aillil set to ensuring that there would be no outside interference from any of Breifne's allies - large sums of gold were ferried across St George's Channel and distributed to the Welsh nobles that ruled there. His affairs now in order, Duke Aillil mustered the combined might of free Northern Ireland, and thoroughly annihilated the helpless Earl of Breifne in a bloody two year war.

The autumn of his 50th year brought a spectacular sight to Duke Ailill's aging eyes - it had been a drier summer than normal, and as a result the trees across the Petty Kingdom of Tyrconnell had burst forth in vibrant shades of red. While the peasants were awed by the natural wonder, the old ruler could barely suppress a shiver - to him it seemed as if the trees were bleeding, and surely that was nothing if not an ill portent. Thus, when an English courier burst into his throne room on October 1st 1123, it came as no surprise to Ailill to hear that England was in full revolt, and his assistance was urgently required.

By the time the Irish armies arrived at the mustering point in Derby, York was already under siege. The King's armies had been routed in the south by the rebels from Essex, and the front had collapsed into disorganized chaos. Badly outnumbered, the English King was holed up in his castle like a trapped rat. With ten thousand men laying siege, there was no hope that Ailill's four thousand troops, exhausted from a rough crossing, could hope to break through and bolster the defender's ranks. Discretion is often the better part of valor, and a hasty retreat was ordered.

As he sailed for Ireland, word came that Scotland had mobilized. Within months King Duncan crushed the Essex rebels, but instead of liberating York, had laid a siege of their own. Things were looking dark for England, and Ailill could only hope that his own alliances with Scotland would hold up despite siding with the English in what was originally an internal dispute.

 

[Dustdevil]

How about pics, hã?

I'll try to get this done for the next post. I reconstruct these write-ups from screengrabs (I had 36 screenies for this past post), so I can probably crop the pertinent shots and host them somewhere.