To Build In Chaos: a Multiplayer Megacampaign AAR

[vaniver]

This is the AAR thread for part 1 of a megacampaign set in a procedurally generated world. [The code to do about 80% of the work is here, but not currently in a state where I think anyone else could get it to work. I'll let you know when it's fully released.] The game is 0900-1300 Pacific time on Sundays if you're interested in joining; send me a PM and I'll invite you to our discord.

The player map at the end of the first session:

Each continent is composed of kingdoms, whose basic structure is the same (four duchies, of 5-4-4-3 counties each). All of the titles and provinces have their names lifted from some region in vanilla--so we have France and Italy and Egypt and so on--but many other regions aren't in the game, so there's no Spain or Britain or so on.

The western Catholic continent is four players, which you can imagine as arranged into two triangles of three; Mike, Yami, and Mark all border the duchy of Latium (currently held by the independent Pope), and Mark, Yami, and Ranger all border the duchy of Prussia (currently held by Mark).

The eastern continent of "Tibet" is a bit of a random grab bag, with King of Men playing Norway, Hellioning playing Burma, and Sid Meier playing Xia (i.e. the westernmost bit of historical China, and the one whose province names are present in CK3); the grey bit in the middle is the AI duke of Kiev.

The southern continent of Arabia only has two players, one of which didn't show up to the first session; I'm playing Egypt in the north, Lax is playing Yemen in the west, and Syria in the east is open. (Join us!)

 

[vaniver]

AD 1000. The world is shattered, the old kingdoms and empires fallen, the very land twisted beneath them. But the dark ages are coming to a close, with vigorous warlords cerating new kingdoms in the model of the old. By 1056, much of the world is ruled by a king, and Christendom has been reunited under an emperor.

Mehtar al-Vaniv inherits the duchy of Cairo from his father at the beginning of the year, one of many symmetric warlords across the world. He immediately sets on a path of consolidation and conquest, his dutiful imam bribing local officials elsewhere in Egypt to support his claims to the kingdom, which he then backs up with his armies. His eldest son Mukhtar is Herculean, a worthy successor-and then when he comes down with consumption, the doctor somehow thinks castration will solve this problem. It doesn't, and Mehtar, forgiving, simply warns the doctor to not make a mistake like that again. Mukhtar dies two years later, and Mehtar slips into melancholy.

At this point, he holds the emirates of Cairo and Alexandria, and is large enough to become the sultan of Egypt, but it takes another seven years to accumulate the necessary funds, hampered by his generous nature, and in 1025 Egypt is the fourth kingdom to be formed (after East Franconia in 1020, Pagan in 1022, and Norway in 1024).

With two sons and eight daughters, and one of those sons dead early (and a eunuch besides), Mehtar has a secure succession and a wide range of alliances; with two intelligent and two genius daughters, it's easy enough to marry other player's characters. Mehtar dies of heart failure in 1031, and his son Hanri takes over; he has two sons and five daughters, and dies seven years later in a siege (that also kills one of his two sons, again keeping the dynastic lands together).

Milad al-Vaniv is now the third sultan of Egypt, and has ruled longer than either of the previous two. A scarred pilgrim and brilliant strategist, he has nearly unlocked Overseer; only 34 and with six sons and six daughters, he both seems to have brought some gender balance to the dynasty and the specter of civil war and decentralization, as those sons will all want domains of their own.

 

[Hellioning]

One day I will remember to take screenshots for these. One day.

Anyway, hi, I'm Hellioning, playing Theravada Burmese Pagan (as the Pagan dynasty), which I picked primarily because I like their map color (though the domain limit increase is nice.) None of the players on my continent attacked each other this session and I was allied to both of the larger dukes in the region, so I basically just ate small counties until I was big enough to form the kingdom of Pagan and diplo-vassalize my de jure vassal. My first ruler lasted for quite a while and had 13 kids, with only 4 sons. I married off my heir, who luckily got genius, to one of Vaniver's daughters who also had genius, but my second son murdered her before they could have kids, so I ended up castrating him as punishment. My first ruler lasted until he was 70, but my Genius heir was infirm since, like, 10? So he only lasted until he was 48, which meant he only ruled for 4 years. He never had any kids with his first wife, but after I took over as him, I married three more wives and managed to get a genius daughter out of him. Then he died, leaving me as a 3 year old genius girl.



So, naturally, I have a giant succession war to deal with next session.



I'm not entirely worried, since I have armored footmen and they don't, but still. That's not a great situation to be in.

Anyway, domestically I've just been building up my capitol, including building 2 more castles in my capitol county. And, for the record, I did not intend to have part of my country disconnected from the other, I just lost that land to Kiev due to inheritance issues.

 

[vaniver]

Player map at the end of the second session (1116):

No screenshots from me this session; Milad rules for 48 years, and I fail to disown someone I really should have disowned, leading to an awkward inheritance and swapping characters around a bit. (The Emir of Mecca is dynasty head, while a different character is Emperor of Arabia.)

The other Arabian player briefly shows, swears fealty so that we can make an empire to rival the Christian one, and then has weird Paradox multiplayer issues and drops.

The Christian emperor declares war for bits of Yemen, winning the first war in 1076 and spreading eastward. A war for Damascus is turned back with Egyptian assistance, and then a war for Mahra (then part of Egypt) succeeds in 1094. A settlement is reached, and then only partly executed due to the vagaries of game mechanics and Karling inheritance; there will maybe someday be an independent Catholic Yemen.

The center of Tibet falls to King of Men, with Hellioning later declaring war for the desirable county of Kiev; with Sid Meier and Vaniver as defensive allies, KoM manages to hold and force a peace (as Hellioning declined to call in his ally Mark).