Pics & History of your Empire

[miho]

Wow. Thats a lot of ships. The Italians have had a few full stacks in my games but this is unbelievable. Is it all they've got or they have more in other seas?

[miho]

What in god's name is happening in this picture !?

I had a massive rebellion and a civil war in the same time. Lost about 70% of my provinces in a turn.

[Patron]

How long did the danes spend building ships?

It has been 10 years since any major conflict and things are beginning to heat up again. Many have attempted to take advantage of Germany's thinly spread forces including an austrian royal family, but have all been put to justice, most considerred the war to be over until the invasion of Italy. Otto has confirmed rumours he first heard from mercenary horsemen from the east of a huge empire spanning steppes no christian has ever reached.



The war in Italy is proving difficult, but Charlemagne's territories have been restored and German is finally putting more weight on it's borders. There are currently 5 sorties underway which need assisstance, in Britain, the Pyrenees, Northern Italy, Denmark and Pomerania. These are complicated times indeed.

The Germans considerred the Aragonese to be a tough well developped mountain nation which still existed due to it's impenetratable defenses, however the King of Aragon thought the opposite of Germany and paid for it with his life when he stupidly invaded a Aquitaine and it's battle hardenned garrison of elite knights and swiss halberdiers, he charged uphill into a forest only to be greeted with falling blades. One of his princes escaped, but no one knows what happenned to him as it appears Aragon is now leaderless. The Garrison of Toulouse and Aquitaine are now organizing an invasion to capitalise one the situation, restore order and justice to Aragon and retaliate.

The Pomeranians unexpectedly invaded Poland, Germany has been unable to deal with these troublesome pagans for decades and Otto has expressed his will to secure Germany's long eastern borders within his lifetime. He has not been criticsed for neglect due to his obvious desire to secure Germany's borders as a whole.

The war of intrigue in England is over, Germany managed to polarise the fragmented Britons to her favour, short of reaching for her sword. The German navy rules supreme over the North sea and the pope seems to have forgotten the existence of the English, possibly due to more pressing worries. The opposing Welsh nobility were overwhelmed by the German defectors and slaughterred and their peasants have fled and now hide somewhere to the north. Robin of Locksley was unable to defeat the shire referee of Nottingham, but luckily fled to Wales and swore fealty to it's prince before the prince joined the empire.

The Danes have shown their dark side as pirates and attempted to sent find German sailors to a watery grave in the freezing North Sea. They failed, as has their relations with the empire and Germany now sees reason to keep a large garrison in Saxony.

The war in Italy has seen some terrible losses on both sides: 600 or so italian infantry, 240 crossbowmen and a prince were killed in an attempt to lift the siege at Milan; 600 Bohemian feudal seargants, 200 spearmen and 120 urban milita were killed or routed in an attempt to drive the Italians into Venice. The Italians are desperate to prove they can hold their own as they have always done, but their reputed infantry cannot compete with Germany's elite men at arms and it's heavy cavalry. Italian rebels have musterred in Tuscany and forced a "retreat", into Venice, along with more reinforcements from the heartlands. It is only a matter of time until Venice is under siege. However the Tuscan rebels and Italian navy will still have to be dealt with. The war with Italy has been predicted to last more than a decade, or more if the pope has the nerve to threaten excommunication during the siege of Venice.



The German military is now a large unified loyal force, bound to their leader by the fact the military and social elite voted him into power in the first place. The recently raised nobility care not for honour, but the nobility's ties to Otto and his father have ensured the law of Germany, regardless of hte law of the pope or other nations. No longer are wars fought to "rightfully" put an 8 year old puppet into some obscure position of Marquis, the Otto now excuses wars by claiming that the means justify the ends, that securing borders through apparent injustice will prevent years of war and are in fact just. It could also be said that Otto respects the tradition of election and is a more just governor than other Kings, but he uses martial law to tax his subjects to the hilt and tortures and executes without whim as any other King.

[NodachiSam]

Nice empire so far Patron. Good luck with the Italians

[Patron]

I consider the elimination of the Italians as a turning point, with their navy gone Germany is finally in a position to dominate the mediteranean and free from the plague of piracy. There are also many rational figures making their appearance within Germany's strong borders, Albertus Magnus has been ordained Bishop in Aquitaine and is currently converting the Pomeranian and Prussian pagans to Catholicism and Roger Bacon is publishing his works in Wessex. Though Albertus has yet to make his contribution to philosophical history. Churches are springing up across France, Germany and Northern Italy, Otto is turning into a fine king, carefully negotiating with his conquerred populations in order to extract tax, but not force them into poverty and only promoting pious and intelligent governors into their position.
His military skills have only improved, the huge Spanish, Danish and Hungarian armies dare not tread on German land. From Burgundy and with talks with the pope (and 3500 florins) he has organized a crusade to venture east, through Hungary and to the pagan city of Kiev, which has thus far inspired 1500 followers of mainly medium infantry and a number of pavise arbalesters, a unit of strategic value that the German armies lack.

The War in Italy was less bloody on the part of the Germans than was expected. The Tuscan rebels and Venetian garrison, despite their up to date arms were slaughterred by the professional, competent and hardenned German army, in both cases using the heavy skirmishing strategy to confuse and seperate Italian forces enabling the infantry to hold them in position and face being surrounded. There was no siege of Venice or threat of excommunication, the pope used the threat to avert war against the Danes. Relations improved quickly after this threat and a cease fire was signed. Venice was abandonned by the Germans so the army could eliminate the Tuscans, but Prince Konrad had other ideas, he remained on the border in secret with his retinue of elite knights and 20 veteran mounted crossbowmen, when his spies reported the few remaining venetians had ventured out from their citadel, he rode to intercept and managed to pick them off one by one before finally surrounding and killing the Italian king. He picked up the Italian flag, shut his visor, marched straight into Venice and had a personal talk with the mayor of the broken city.

Though somehow the Italian line remained unbroken and they reverted to a war of piracy from Sardinia. Their navy's power seemed to stretch all the way to the North sea preventing any trade and threatenning the southern coast of France. Though Germany had several ships on the coast of Genoa and Otto orderred the Venetian ship builders guild to accept god's will and construct German ships. There were a few years of peace, whereby Germany fought a war of attrition against the Italian pirates and trained troops to invade those annoying Pomeranians and many of the other feats already mentionned. In 1237 A small force of 60 elite chivalric men at arms from Genoa disappointingly drove 300 Italian peasants from Corsica and much to their suprise, scouts reported they could not find the Italian Monarch anywhere in Sardinia. When this was reported to Otto, he feared wasting any more time dealing with the immense Italian navy and some island in the mediteranean where the Pirate King they protected dwelled and orderred his finest emmisary to find the Italian Pirate King and offer a ceasefire, after a famous discussion between 2 very experienced diplomats, Eschenbach succeeded in revealing that the Pirate King was in Greece. A few years later fine Venetian Caravels filled the Adriatic and Prince Conrad and a band of very impetuous swiss halberdiers left for Greece to rid Germany of this plague and usher in what may well be a rennaissance.

Eschenbach was later instrumental in convincing the Pomeranian warlord to convert to "catholicism", thus speeding up the process of getting the small numbers of fresh German troops into Lithuania without those violent pagan peasants being a thorn in their side.

[Patron]

The Rennaissance is underway, German empire has found a new life blood, a powerful state funded navy, that circumvents the less advanced Barques and Galleys of lower nations. Otto V is now as famous and influential as his father in his final years and has reserved himself a place in the history books. Venice and several provinces on the coast of the North sea and English channel are now producing military caravels to patrol the seas from the Baltic to the Aegean. From Venice to Prussia. For now Prussia is part of the christian world. The German army is not at a stalemate, the borders with the mighty Hungarian and Spanish kingdoms are secure, but Germany has excess military resources which it has donated to the furtherance of Catholicism. Though not officially sanctionned by the Pope, this doesn't really matter, seeing as it is a war against pagans and considerring Germany's reputation quite frankly no one cares. The pagans were wedged between the Mongol and German empires, the Prussians fled to Volhynia knowing that the German army would have to leave the warlord of Pomerania to quell the populace whilst the German army under prince Ludwig would have to invade alone. The German empire however has been training troops from all over it's lands and sending them east to aid in the war and several knights and some infantry bolsterred the small group of elites. The German infantry engaged in a savage melee with the hoardes of Slavic warriors, who fought bravely to do what they can against the better equipped, armoured and trained men at arms, until their rear ranks were lanced by 240 feudal knights. Otto V hasn't mentionned it, but he now realises that the Mongols did not destroy the pagans, but scare them to the borders with Germany, which explains their invasion of Poland all those years before (by the warlord of Pomerania who oddly conerted to catholicism).

The speed at which Germany subjugated the pagans was phenomenal, taking 1 province each year and send forces to conquer the next the year after, often leaving troops behind to besiege them and the pace continued as a year after the invasion of Volhynia Prince Ludwig and his knights and elite men at arms met up with the crusaders and prepared to attack the mongol garrison there.



organize themselves, march in front of the shield wall and begin returning fire inflicting heavy casualties apon the unarmoured horse archers. The shield wall led quite a distance from a slope curving down to the lake bed on it's right, preventing the mongol force from flanking on that side without splitting their smaller army in 2, thus allowing Ludwig and his knights to double the strength on the left flank. Fearing that the knights would charge into the horse archers and continue charging until they could no longer be supported by the infantry, Ludwig orderred the polish mounted seargants to attempt to scare some of the horse archers, who had distanced themselves from the mongol heavy cavalry, further away from the heavy cavalry. The sergeants did their duty, and charged into a numerically superior mass of horse archers, they managed to split some of the horse archers from the main body of horsemen and began chasing them away from the mongol heavy cavalry who did not respond still waiting for their horse archers to win a ranged contest against the thick ranks of pavise arbalesters. Ludwig then sent 80 knights to kill off the seperated and fleeing group of horse archers, unfortunately this episode cost the lives of over half of the sergeants. Their sacrifice was not in vain however. Seeing his horse archers being slaughterred on all fronts and fearing the effectiveness of the german army at close combat, the Mongol General began a withdrawal. Ludwig rode amongst his knights urging them not to give chase. Instead the infantry were organised into an advancing line and the knights kept snuggly on the flanks where they proceeded to march to Kiev. The Germans had won the calculated face off, but could have inflicted more casualties and whether this will be indicative of the rest of the war is uncertain. With Kiev however the Germans are in a strong strategic position to raid many of the Mongol strongholds scatterred across the steppes and keep them at bay whilst they achieve further conquests and glory.

[NodachiSam]

Pff, no coments?
I like your empire so far. Its good to see the Italians submit to their rightful emporer :) I suggest and hope that you show the hungarians the brunt of your power and also Take Constantinople. I would crusade to Constantinople and suck up some of the Hungarian forces beforehand though.

At that point you'll have a very respectable kingdom, in fact, you already do but I mean more so :)

[miho]

He already has a crusade marching towards the Horde. You could try bribing the army in Cons.

[Patron]

I have another crusade started, heading for Volga Bulgaria. At the moment I'm pushing my troops too far and they are spread thin, but I should have my trade routes up and running after a while. The Mongol armies are large, but I recently slaughterred a Mongol army in Khazar using some proffessional troops. However they invaded Prussia and slaughterred the warlord of pomerania's 1000 or so slav javelinmen and warrios with the loss of 150 heavy cavalry.

The attack on Khazar however was text book, with my protected arbalesters doing a lot of damage. They fled again, abandonning their foot soldiers, thus allowing my knights to have some fun.. I now have 2 major strategic clinch points in the far eastern europe theatre. I had hoped to raid a few weakly defend points along Mongolia's stretched borders, but there are a lot of them and it looks like I will have to fight a few pitched battles before I can say they are helpless. I will also have to lift the siege at Prussia..

I currently have a total GDP of 17500 florins, but a lot of this goes to the troops at my borders who are going to be staionary for some time as I use my excess to conquer the east, the Spanish have quite an advanced well led army, and the Hungarians will be swallowed up as part of my campaign in the east. I am spending nearly everything on trading posts and harbours, once all this is in place, the pace will pick up again. My chivalric knight buildings are almost complete in Paris and Munich.

[The Darkhorn]

I am currently playing an English campaign with my boss at work. We do it on Monday nights and play through one king each night (we've only done one so far). We got the idea from someone here at the org (though they were talking of PBEM with a zip file). When one of us is king (we alternate), he makes all the decisions and only fights battles he is leading. The other fights battles lead by other generals and royals. It's a lot of fun. Anyway, I've saved all the battles and tried to keep up with notable events. I will write a history of each reign (The first will be of William [II] the Heretic 1087-1114). It will be fun to see if my "son" is chip off the old block who furthers his father's ambitions or an "idiot boy" who screws up what I've built ("His mother was a French hussy...he couldn't have come from my loins...oh why oh why did I not send him on a crusade to Egypt...by himself?"). How do I do screen shots and post them?

[Ludens]

How do I do screen shots and post them?

You can take screenshots by pressing F2. The game will store them in the "tga" folder in the .tga-format. Unfortunatly, .tga is not compatible with standard windows progams so you need to convert them to .jpg with another program. (If you don't have an image program that is .tga compatible, you can download Irfanview from here: link. I never tried it, though.) I don't know if resizing still is required, but it used to be 70% height and width.

The rest is easy, however. All you need to do is send them to an upload site and then use the image-tags to put the picture in your post. The image tags work like this: [*IMG]https://img413.imageshack.us/img413/661/135ck.jpg[*/IMG]. If you remove the stars, you get:



(I don't have any M:TW screenshots available here, or else I would have posted them .)

For hosting, I recommend ImageShack (www.imageshack.us). The Org also has its own uploading servive (click here), but I must confess that Imageshack is faster and easier. They provide you with the correct image tags and upload immediatly, whereas I only check every day for new submissions to upload.

[Martok]

(I don't have any M:TW screenshots available here, or else I would have posted them .)

Burn the heretic! [rioting mobs follow]

[Patron]

After the conquest of Khazar it was found out the Khan Kubilai was long dead and had been replaced by the less impressive Ogadai, though he had complete control over the hoardes he had little experence in the field and experienced a humiliating defeat as he was kicked out of Chernigov, once again withdrawing to preserve his precious heavy cavalry, however behind them Mongols from Volga Bulgaria and Georgia drove out the Khazarian garrison. It was clear then that the Khan was fighting a war of attrition as the lands taken were of little use to him, he was also protecting key points and sending his swift forces out from them to attack the thinly spread troops and withdrawing just before my slower troops went in for the kill. Georgia, Muscovy and Lithuania were all heavily guarded, the possession of Lithuania being of most strategic value as it allowed incursions into Prussia and Volhnyia and then on to Christian lands and also allowed the Mongols to retaliate should I take their neighbouring territories, which had to be the next target if Germany's forces were to gain any objectives in this war.

The malleable and opportunistic military tradition of Germany's conquerors in the past inverted and they now saw the pitched battle for it's virtues, abandonning Khazar and Chernigov (aswell as Pereyaslavl to rebels). Around 320 knights, 240 crusader pavise arbalesters the 20 year old heir to the throne Prince Herrman with his retinue of 19 elite Parisian knights aswell as an anti-cavalry infantry regiment of seasonned swiss halberdiers, english chivalric seargants, Robin of Locksley's milita seargants and Bohemian feudal seargants with fine steel armour and weapons marched into Lithuania. Apon sight of the mongols Herrmann immediately orderred the infantry and archers to form up inside a nearby forest and for the knights to hide behind them, knowing that the mongols will send their archers forward in an attempt to harrass and seperate the line.

After the army was protected from archer fire, Herrmann organised his crusader arbalesters in front of the tree line with a unit of anti-cavalry infantry behind, but in the forest, to counter any charge. The usual exchange of fire began, leaving several hundred horse archers dead on the field. However this time, as predicted, the mongols decided to stay and fight instead of giving up such an important strategic point. Around 500 mongol heavy cavalrymen moved around the forest and formed up seemingly blocking the army's escape route. Herrmann orderred his arbalesters to begin firing apon the mongol heavy cavalry which only encouraged them to charge. Despite the infantry's advantage in the forest, there wasn't enough Infantry to cover all points of entry into the forest and Prince Herrmann himself was charged as the cavalry made their way around the flanks. The impetuous and impatient knights responded in kind by charging out of the forest, before wheeling around and charging into the rear of the heavy cavalry engaged with the infantry. This glorious counter charge became the stuff of legend as nearly all of the mongol heavy cavalry were slaughterred including Khan Ogadai. These heavy cavalry were reputed to be the equals of western knights, they were even referred to as Mongolian knights in the annals. It was also the first battle fought by the soon to be King of Germany. Of course this was no chivalrous contest, the cavalry were handicapped by unsuitable terrain and trying to fend off the swiss halberdiers, but that wasn't the point, it was the consequences of the bravery and skill of knights in this situation that attracted troubadours and storytellers.

[Martok]

Nice battle, Patron! What was the final tally at the end, by the way?

[Patron]

I duno lol, i didn't save it. I remember there were 2000 mongols and most of the 2nd wave fled, a lot of horse archers were killed and a portion of the mongol heavy cavalry were captured instead of killed. I must have killed around 500-600 and captured 300 or so. I lost quite a few of the famous pavise arbalesters so I think 200 of my troops died.

[NodachiSam]

Nice job Patron. I hate taking the mongols on and I usually only do it with very superior numbers.

[NodachiSam]

I started a Serbian campaign in XL high. Only medium difficulty.

The Tzars first move was to send out his diplomat. The greeks and rulers of constantinople quickly agreed to bow to Serbian rule after enough fiscal pursuasion. It was expensive but the two rich provinces payed themselves off quickly. At this point Tzar steffen has allied himself with the Romans and the Sicilians, as well as Aragon. Hungary's approaches have been rebuffed as were the Bulgarians. Stefen in his ambition wished to invade them and put their lands under better rule, -for the benefits of the common plebeans of course.

The invasion of Bulgaria went fairly smoothly. It was a hard fought but acceptable victory. The bulgarians began in a bit of a valley with the Serbs on the other side of the hill. Steffen rushed his men to the hill and was unprepared when the bulgarians advanced instead of finding a solid defensive position, of which there some options. The Bulgarian king was killed in combat, collapsing their royal line. The hungary remnants holed up in the castle two years later were happy or at least willing to join the Serbian army to fight the pagans and catholics.


Circa 1215. The Cumens invade bulgaria with nearly twice as many men as the defending force. Luckily they were forced to cross a river by excellent Serbian manouvering. The bridge was held and the Cumens routed. The death ratio of foe to friend was 8 to 1 or more in Serbias favour. The miserable attack weakens the Cumans understandably but the Serbians are in no position to counter attack.

This condition however was no shared by the Hungarians. Who as far as the priest intelligence network could tell had not recently engaged in any conflict. They attacked the weakened wallachian rulers and routed their remnants to the castle.


Tzar Steffen composed an army strong enough to dispatch the hungarian guard. The hungarians fled but the Cumans reinforced their sallying troops.


The battle took place over a river and was hard fought and fairly long (because my computer ran at what seemed like two frames a second or something for a lot of it)
Steffen set up his archers on a hill where he would cross and then sent accross his spears and swords. He went accross the bridge with them to encourage them. "I is right behind yous!"

At the same time sent a battled hardened and battle diminished unit of fuedal knights accross the other bridge which was guarded only by a half unit of Cuman warriors. The most basic combat protocal was ignored and the knights charged straight uphill at the archers instead of flanking or charging from behind. "Wot, they is only archers" was the rational. Inexplicably the horse men were eventually completely defeated. (Strangly the archers were apparently losing badly the whole time)

Finally, with good archer backup, the lump of soldiers at the bridge head was broken and Steffen could finally get all his men accross.

The Cuman general had graciously refrained from any fighting the whole battle. He was approached, flanked and finally wedge charged from behind with the less perfect horse archers who had no more arrows. The circumstances were less than ideal but with foot archer support the horse archers and the rest of the army broke the Cuman general's unit.


By this time almost all the Cuman army was dead, captured or fleeing. In a scene that would later be repainted and glorified Stefen captured the fleeing Khan. The poor sap's ransom was refused though. 35 Cumans fled to their castle.



A costly but ~successful~ battle to be remembered fondly for as long as the Serbian Clerical intelligence network stood.


The capture of Wallachia was glorious and grand but unfortunately the Sicilian allies took this opportunity to invade the much more valuable Constantinople.


The Serbians knew this would be a difficult battle, and they were soundly defeated.

Will constantine's city be recaptured and the Sicilian prince be brought to justice? Are the Greek's going to have to learn Sicilian? Will Stefen's third son ever get a royal bride? Find out next time!

[Patron]

Nice campaign so far, I would fight an opportunistic war against the Hungars and a proper offensive into Turkey and also build that navy up and dominate the eastern mediteranean. After you consider the Hungars pacified you should then start to raid lands around the black sea until you have pacified the Turks and Byzantines, so you can go for Khazar and seal Turkey from invaders from the north. Then you can concentrate on a nice middle east campaign, for thousands of years that area has swapped sides enmass, the Persians, Macedonians (nudge nudge), Romans, Jihads, Caliphates, but not Timur and the Mongols in this time line. The Serbians!

A year after the great victory at Lithuania the Mongols attemped to take Lithuania, but Mongols were no longer the devastating offensive force they once were, most of their gigantic war horses and valorous riders were killed, their horse archers were outclassed especially on the offensive where christian crossbowmen and arbalests had time to prepare and their domestic ponies and herdsmen could not possible mount a proper offensive. Though a few core troops existed still in Muscovy and Georgia, they were unwilling to be wasted. Despite the death of the Khan his son still lurked somewhere in the depths of the steppes, the crusade to Volga Bulgaria was reaching Kiev though and would soon drive them into less hospitable lands hopefully never to return. New troops arrived in Khazar including Herrmann's younger brother Lothair (Lot hair or lof air?) who was expected to take over command of the forces of the east if Otto V died and Herrmann has to return as King. The famous emissary Eschenbach nearing his 70s capped off his tremendous career by reconverting the ex-crusaders who honourably decided to replace the Byzantines as protector of Constantinople, ahem, who had converted to the orthodox church in name. There was a crusade to Constantinople originating in Spain in which the Spanish had hoped to use the German navy to transport their army, however there was a clerical error and the coast of Greece was left unguarded and instantly filled with legions of pirates and their ships which could sink transport vessels with their rams without ever engaging in combat, so they had to take a detour through Finland. The crusade was then cancelled next year as the ex-crusaders of Constantinople had converted back to catholicism. The King of Spain will be pleased to hear that Constantinople is under catholic, German hands, he has conquerred Finland and has 1500 hungry troops there to keep it safe.

However the year 1251 saw both the glories and horrors of war. A battle between 2 young men in Khazar, the son of Otto V and the son of Ogadai, Lothair was 17 when he fought the battle and Ogadai's son was 19. Lothair ambushed the Mongols and in a downhill charge, 80 feudal knights and an assortment of mercenary cavalrymen decimated an entire unit of Mongol knights and chased a few mongol horse archers off the field with minimal casualties whilst the rest of the army held the elevation. The knights returned to the rest of the army to fend off the horse archers slowly surrounding them, the young mongol King seemed to have had enough and attempted to engage the German body of troops. The knights charged into his unit of mongol knights, trapping him allowing Lothair and his foot knights to begin mowing his retinue down. The weaker horse archers dared not help their leader until it was too late and most of them were fended off by peasant spearmen. Lothair himself killed the Mongol King and the horse archers began to flee. However they returned and reinforcements enterred the field, the mongol army was immense and the exhausted smaller and slower German army succumbed to the traditional overhwleming tactics of the mongols. The army was slowly mowed down and fled leaving Lothair and the famous feudal knights fighting against numerically superior steppe heavy cavalry hand to hand. Lothair and his knights fought to the last. His sacrifice was not in vain however, for this was the last in line of the great Ghengis Khan, at least in Eurasia. According to heresay the remaining Mongol thugs hanged Lothair's mutilated corpse on the gates of Rostov, a city who's populous they had long controlled, but the teenager's remains were met with shock rather than the jeers of hate they wanted.

Herrmann waged a small campaign in Khazar driving the unchained mongol hoarde into the Crimea, he then set sail to attend 2 funerals in 1252, one with glee and one with despair. He was crowned Emperor Herrmann II in the Hagia Sophia for the same reason his father was crowned in the Notre Dame all those years ago and was met with cheers from the ex-crusaders of Constantinople and it's people due to the vast riches now permitted by the German navy.



The death of the Mongol leader and his son, the conversion of Constantinople, the famous victory at Lithuania and the corwning of the victorious general in Hagia Sophia, the heart of the Orthodox church had a revolutionary effect on eastern europe, at least for those who are informed. Eastern europe had long seen Constantinople as the faher of the orthodox church, but with it's governorship at the hands of catholic crusaders, the demise of the Byzantines and the terrible invasion by the Mongols they had lost hope. However now that the Germans have put Constantiinople under the true church, the heart of the Orthodox church being used to ceremonially crown a catholic emperor, are in the process of driving out the Mongols and hold both Kiev and Lithuania, it is obvious what lies in the future. The dream of unifying everything from Georgia to Finland and combining it with the eastern borders of the German Empire is looking more and more.. divine.

He asked his famous valorous uncle Konrad to take up patriarchship of the eastern Roman empire and guide the crusaders and German army of the east to victory where he and his brother had left off. Konrad was a catholic, so he ordained himself as more of a Imperial Catholic Patriarch rather than a Byzantine Orthodox Patriarch and thus refused to have anything to do with the Orthodox church and kept one pace away from Catholicism in order to show his loyalty to the Byzantine people. Though Hagia Sophia was declared a Catholic cathedral, their annoyance was mosly dulled by the flood of trade enterring the city. The German clergy intends to convert them all before they realise what's going on.

[NodachiSam]

Nice Campaign Patron, did you start in 1205? If so you're pretty quick with the empire building. That is a very stretched empire you have. I've never seen one like that before. Usually mine have as little border to defend as possible. I'm really surprised that Hungary is still around though. Are they allied with you for you to spare them or are you perhaps trying to avoid excommunication for now? When I play HRE, Hungary and Poland rarely last too too long. When Polish I also take Hungary out asap. They can be such a thorn in the side.

Right now I am waiting to take out Hungary. It will be a glorious day when they are put under my control. So far I've been fighting wars of defense and opportunity. I don't yet have enough provinces to make enough troops for defense, boats, and agents. That will change int he coming game decade though, especially after the siege in Nicea ends. In the East the Mongols have just showed up and I'll let them stretch out play defensive against them now. The Turks, as you'll read, have been weakened and won't last too long against the mongols. The same with my old enemies the Cumans.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


It was time to retake the great and holy city. Faced with an underabundance of troops but a large surpluss of revenue the path of action seemed obvious to the Tzar. A large mercenary army was raised quickly and marched north out of Greece. It met the Sicilian prince in a valley which was then surrounded and rained down upon with clouds arrows. The battle was won but it was clear that spear wilders were severly lacking. Many unneeded casualties were sustained when sicilian calvary ran down on the archers. The Prince was dispatched with a volley of arrows and not burried.



In the same year a sicilian prince renowned as a tactician (8 star) invaded the motherland, Serbia. They were repulsed and the prince slain. As well the Sicilian King was also present and met the same end. It was truely a glorious victory. The end of this year was celebrated.


The following year another prince came into Serbia and was burried but his brother managed to escape.



The Roman (Byzantine) province of Nicea was then taken over by Seljuk Turks. The Romans were fairly long term allies of the Tzar and he felt strongly the need to assist them. Most of his advisors felt that the turks should be fought off immediately while a few felt that it was too risky and that they should be allowed to ware each other out first. The siege was thought to last at least 2 more years. Perhaps after that the Turks would be weaker and the province could be taken for Serbia. The king was uncertain and waited to invade the following year when his ships would protect Constantinople from sea invasion. At the end of that year however the Tzar recieved news that the castle had been taken and he decided to invade. He did not plan on giving the province back.


The odds were a bit against the Serbs but the Tzar would not allow them to establish themselves too much. He remembered how they destroyed the greatness of so much of the Roman empire. That did not prevent his own hypocrisy in planning to keep what he took instead of returning it to the Romans however. He did not want to expand east and have a hole in his territory regardless of how long they had been allied.


The serbian forces marched towards the bridgehead. Curiously enemy forces reacted little and withstood arrow bombardment for along period loosing many of their men, especially their men at arms and spearmen. Their bridgehead thus was only defended with token effort. Serbian forces amassed accross the river and then marched up to the Turkish prince and his remaining soldiers.


The victory was clear and involved the death of another enemy family member. A counter attack was sure to follow however.



It came the following year. The Seljuk king reportably invaded with over 5000 troops but this is undoubtably a massive exageration. The real number is believed to be closer to 1500 men.


Lord Sgouros positioned his men on a massive hill and waited for the Turks to approach. Reportably, he was quite confident. His archers rained down arrows, incoming infantry and horses were pinned by infantry and flanked and surrounded by calvary.
Eventually the Seljuk king met his end.

Re-enforcements like these horsearchers were delt with.


This battle was a great success.

Lord Sgouros was now a national hero. He was celebrated in all good and loyal Serbian cities. The Turkish threat has been reduced while the Tzar and his sons look west. The Hungarians are nothing but trouble and the general concensus amongst insiders in the Serbian aristocracy is that they should somehow be subdued. Perhaps, as the Navy is growing the Sicilians can finally be punished. All this while a new threat is reported coming from the east. A massive horde of horsemen apparently.

[elbasto]

There should be an After Action Report section with some of this stories...

[Ciaran]

Why, there already is one, in the Mead Hall.

[elbasto]

Why, there already is one, in the Mead Hall.

Nice info, I'll be checking it soon.

EDIT: Not a single M:TW AAR... :(

[Ludens]

There should be an After Action Report section with some of this stories...

We do not have a dedicated AAR forum, but, like Ciaran said, there is a story forum where there are many AAR's. Have a look in the library (link in my signature) and scroll down the story section.

There are several M:TW AAR's but they are not listed in the AAR section because I arbitrarily defined anything inside the Mead Hall as story and anything outside as AAR. They tend to be more story than AAR anyway. For example, have a look at "Adras the Immortal" by Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe and "The Four Crowns and Four Rings" by Monk. Monk has written many other AAR's in story form and all are well worth a read. I would also recommend "Leo the Syrian" by kataphraktoi, but it is hardly an AAR as it focuses more on the characters.

[elbasto]

Thanks for the advice, I will be paying that section a visit shortly.

[NodachiSam]

I guess I'll check it out too.

[Ciaran]

Ah,sorry that was my mistake, the Mead Hall is the story forum, what you´re looking for is the Throne Room, at least that´s the intended purpose, though I don´t know how many AARs there actually are. Again, mea culpa.

[Ludens]

Ah,sorry that was my mistake, the Mead Hall is the story forum, what you´re looking for is the Throne Room, at least that´s the intended purpose, though I don´t know how many AARs there actually are. Again, mea culpa.

Actually, you are quite right. Throne room contains only one or two AAR's, and the rest is Play-by-Mail campaigns (that usually are accompagnied by one-reign AARs). Still, if you don't mind wading through a lot of organisatorial posts there are some quite good write-ups, especially in the earlier PBM's.

[dgfred]

Good stuff Nodachi and Patron .

[Dutch_guy]

Some good stories here, enjoyed reading them alot !

NodachiSam,Patron and all the other contributors to this thread might want to start a PBeM ( a MTW one ), more or less the same thing as what your doing now only with different players playing the same game ( check the Throne room ! )

The last MTW ( VI ) PBM was a very long time ago...

[Martok]

I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but we should really ask one of the moderators to sticky this thread. Even when there hasn't been any recent entries, it's still nice to go back and read some of the older stories now and then.