On the Path to the Streets of Gold: A Suebi AAR

Growing up in the household of a Suebi head chieftain can be intimidating. Even from a very young age, any showing of weakness is seen in a negative light. As you can probably tell, I didn’t have many friends growing up in the capital, Lupfurdum. Being a friend to the chieftain’s only son was a risky endeavor. My father’s bodyguards followed me around everywhere I went, and for adventurous young Northern children, it doesn’t make you very fun to be around. So I would listen to my minder and her stories of lands abroad, and I would train with my bodyguards in the arts of war.

My name is Chlodochar, and I am the head chieftain, and have been for twenty-two winters. I am the victor of over thirty battles against my enemies, no defeats. I have brought most of the North under Suebi control. I have had rival leaders sent to death in battle for threatening me. I have stood before tribal chiefs, sword in hand as they made threats against my rule. I have been injured by assassins twice, but never in battle. Wōdanaz blesses me and my army, The Dread Berserkers, with good fortune, and we have always emerged victorious.



My father died when I was nineteen winters old, leaving me an unruly tribe to tend to, which, as you can imagine, was not an easy task, especially for someone who had not even lived through twenty winters. Dealing with countless tribal leaders and problems that arise is no small undertaking. If it wasn’t for my advisors I do not think I would have survived past my first winter.

Something which has always been at the back of my mind was the stories my minder told me about the city of Rome. I heard stories of roads paved with gold and the walls made of silver, and where everyone is adorned in enough treasure to fund a hundred armies! Ever since I heard these stories I have had this unquenchable thirst to sack Rome. If not me, I will give my heir this dream. Someday, Suebi warriors will march through Rome as conquerors!

But before we can sack Rome, we must unite the tribes around us. The Gutones, the Rugii, the Cimbri, the Frisii, and the Lugii must unite under one flag. After years of attempting to form a confederation, the other tribes, being the selfish, finally refused, saying that they would bring war to our doorstep if we did not abandon this silly dream. So we brought the war to them. It didn’t take long until all those tribes called themselves Suebi.



We considered taking down the tribe of Aestii, but for the time being we are at peace and we decided to not bother them. Although we did send an army under my adopted brother Ricfried to be a deterrent for any invaders.




We then turned our attention to our southern Celtic neighbors, the Boii.
Our Targets were the towns of Budorgis, Istros, and Belz. Budorgis fell quickly, but the Boii pleaded with us to end the war, offering us 1,000 gold pieces to end it before we did any more damage. So we accepted, and used the time to reinforce our armies before we would launch the next attack.
We sent an army under Leuthard, The Sacred Spears, to take over Istros, and I headed with my army to Belz. But to our dismay, the information on Belz was old, and a tribe from the East, the Budini, already took over.



With the Boii out of the way and our borders secure for now, we look to the South, and towards our grand prize.
And in the way of our prize lies many towns and villages, the first of which being the town of Uburzis, controlled by the Raeti tribe. I'm not concerned about them, because my spies report that they are short on food and their tiny army is famished.



But my biggest rival, a chief named Raimund, wants to lead the attack and get the glory for himself.



I responded that I would get back to him, but I have a better idea. The last chief to challenge me, a man by the name of Karl, asked for the same thing when we attacked the town of Flevum, at the time controlled by the Frisii. So I obliged his request, and sent him in with the vanguard. I did not tell him that the enemy was twice our number. So he fell in battle, and nobody questioned his death. Perhaps I need to do the same thing with Raimund…