Pics & History of your Empire

As for me, I've discovered something about myself: I suck at playing the Bohemians. :dunce:

While I successfully fended off the Polish's first attack, I didn't fair nearly as well the second time they invaded. This time, they launched a two-pronged offensive: From Brandenburg to Franconia, and from Lesser Poland to Bohemia (again). My garrison in Franconia inflicted heavy casualties on the Polish; but it was too small to hold out for long, and was eventually forced to retreat to the castle. King Vratislav III faced a similar fate in Bohemia. My army there (not more than 300 men) had barely had time to begin replenishing itself when the Polish invaded with approximately 1400 troops, led by their King himself. Once again, my men fought valiantly, but this time they were simply no match for the overwhelming numbers of the enemy.

My son Boleslav was still busy overseeing Venice's formal annexation into my kingdom when he received word of the Poles' invasion. Commanding his brother to protect our new acquisition, Boleslav rode to Prague with as many men as could be spared, determined to lift the siege of the city and save his older brother. Alas, he would never make it that far--and not because of the Polish. I had not paid sufficient attention to events elsewhere, and that blunder was about to cost me dearly.

While I was busy carving out a kingdom in central Europe and dealing with petty feuds between squabbling nobles, a dangerous threat had risen in the East. From the vast steppes, a savage barbarian people called the Cumans had amassed enormous wealth and power. They had destroyed the Kievans and Volga-Bulgarians, humbled the once-proud Lithiuanians, and had even forced the mighty Byzantine Empire to withdraw from Georgia and pay them tribute.

Yet all this was not enough; the Khan's greedy eyes looked west. While I was occupied with fighting both the Venetians and then the Polish, the Cumans invaded Hungary with an army that made the Poles' 2nd invasion of Bohemia look like nothing more than boys playing with wooden swords. The Hungarians begged me for help, but I had no troops to spare them. Thus then were my old friends destroyed.

[Note: At this point, I activated the .matteosartori. code, so I could see exactly how big the Cumans had become. It was insane. The Khanate stretched from Khazar in the east to (at the time) Hungary in the west; and from the Black Sea in the south almost all the way to Novgorod in the north. ~:eek: Sensing which way the wind was blowing, Novgorod had wisely made alliance with them.]

Three years after the conquest of Hungary (and unbeknownst to me), the Khan invaded Austria just as my brother Boleslav was briefly resting in Vienna on his way to relieve the siege in Prague. Upon hearing of this new threat, however, he realized he had no choice but to meet this new threat. Therefore he reluctantly (and against the advice of many of his officers) turned his army east to defend his brother's kingdom against the pagan savages.

It was a terrible battle. Boleslav had less than 800 men at his command, while the Cumans fielded an army numbering over 2000. The heavily-wooded hills of Austria helped to even the odds somewhat in my favor, but in the end the Bohemians simply couldn't hold back the enemy's huge numbers of cavalry. Even my beloved Bowmen were outmatched, as they were overwhelmed by the barbarians' infantry, who wielded both bow and sword with equal--and deadly--proficiency. Little more than 150 troops made it back to Vienna to prepare for the siege. Brave Prince Boleslav fought to the bitter end, personally slaying nearly 100 of the savages before being run through by the Khan's own sword.

With three of my provinces now under siege by superior forces, the final blow was delivered--perhaps fittingly--by the Venetians. Sensing their time for revenge was at hand, they raised a second army to liberate their capital from my hands. This new army wasn't as large, but this time it contained good numbers of FS and FMAA (and relatively few UM). In addition, the Doge had brought with him two companies of mounted X-bows.

It probably wouldn't have mattered much in any case. In riding back to relieve the Poles' siege of Prague, Boleslav had stripped so many men from the garrison in Venice that my youngest brother (a decent 4-star general) couldn't do anything more than mount a token defense. As he retreated to the city, he received word that the kingship of Bohemia (such as it was) had now passed to him. In Prague, King Vratislav and the surviving garrison had succumbed to hunger and disease; and in Vienna the Cumans had taken the city by storm. The final days of the kingdom of Bohemia were near.

Desperate to save his people and hating the thought of dying of slow starvation during a protracted siege, he led one last mad charge against the Venetians. As courageous as his actions were, it was still folly. Before he could even reach the enemy lines, the last King of Bohemia was shot through the eye with a crossbow bolt; he was dead long before his body fell to the ground. Leaderless, most of the remaining nobles of Bohemia fled to Switzerland, where old Emperor Wilhelm welcomed them as allies against his myriad foes.

You know, while I've never claimed to be a great battle commander, I have long considered myself to be pretty good at the empire management part. My experiences with the Bohemians, however, may force me to revise my opinion of myself. :rolleyes:

I love Cuman warriors, almost more than any other unit. Its a strange relationship--the one Cuman campaign I've tried ended in utter disaster. But those warriors are near and dear to my heart.

Alas martok, while your story is a tear-jerker, it makes me very wary of ever playing as the Bohemians. :laugh4: You weren't the largest faction, obviously, so I am curious to know waht you did to make the computer gang up on you thusly. Were your armies just spread out that thinnly?

I should update my Serbian campaign...

Serbs, High, Hard

https://i109.photobucket.com/albums/...nfda/serb1.jpg
I mentioned this campaign earlier in the thread, at about 1300ad. The Serbs had control of the Balkans, Sicily, Malta, Naples, Nicaea and Crimea, and were wishy-washy allies of the Crusaders. The Crusaders were the world's elite, ruling from the western parts of Iberia through N. Africa to the Middle East and having deposed of the Fatmids (or is it Abbuyids? [sic]) the Turks, an the Armenians.

I was at tenuous peace with the pale yellow Christians, as the mighty Serb forces were dealing with the backstabbing Hungarians and Aragonese, who had decided that a Crusade to Constantinople was a good idea. After the defeat of the Crusade, the Aragonese crumbled into civil war. Ever the opportunist, the Tsar of Serbia sent numerous emissaries to eastern Iberia. A hundred or so thousand florins later, the Serb empire found itself in control of Aragon, Valencia, Toulouse, Cordoba, and Murcia. To the utter surprise of the new Serbian overlords, the mighty Crusaders had expanded into all of the previous French and English territories. :dizzy2:

The Byz, stranded in Georgia and Khazar (not the lesser variety) then did something unexpected and began to regain their lost territory. First it was Rum; then, Armenia, Lesser Armenia, Anatolia... The Serbian navies just watched in awe at the crumbling of the world's greatest superpower. Why it happened, they didn't know--but the Tsar was not a stupid man, and he knew that to win in the game of global domination, he must crush the Crusaders. To this end, the Serbian forces began a campaign in Iberia, opening up a two-front war with the Crusaders and aiding her new (and once former) Orthodox allies.

Fast forward to the current time (as shown above). Serbia has never reigned so supreme, and the mighty tirumvirate she and her allies the Scots (surprisingly strong in Northern Europe) and the Byzantines form makes the globe tremble in fear. The Crusaders are a mear shell, the Mongol threat eradicated, the Poles and Germans making the occasional half-hearted raid into Serbian land, the pesky Genosese nothing more than a naval headache, and the Pope sitting idly by in his Italian empire. Serbia has all but won in the global game of conquest, and all she has left to do is stabilize the newly acquired lands and show why her empire is the greatest the world has ever known. :balloon2:

(Sorry if this is long-winded...I had left a lot out and this really is the first of this kind of thing I've written. I will include more detail next time, I promise.)

EDIT: Picture fixed. ;)

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Originally Posted by danfda

Alas martok, while your story is a tear-jerker, it makes me very wary of ever playing as the Bohemians. :laugh4: You weren't the largest faction, obviously, so I am curious to know waht you did to make the computer gang up on you thusly. Were your armies just spread out that thinnly?

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I think my armies being too spread out was a big part of it, yes. Bohemia has the double disadvantage of starting with just a single province and not having immediate access to the sea. Therefore you have to try and build a powerful army to expand quickly, yet also avoid having an army so large that you bankrupt yourself early on. (Bohemia's situation is made even more difficult by being completely surrounded by 3-4 factions, with no independent provinces nearby--to expand, the Bohemians *must* go to war with at least one of their neighbors.)

I was trying to expand at a reasonable pace with the smallest possible army I could get away with, without tanking my economy. In essence, I was trying to "shoestring" my way along until I was rich enough that I could build a bigger army and just sit there and defend myself. Venice was the key to my strategy--if I had been successful in holding the city and keeping the Venetians at bay, I could have gone on and eventually won the game.

As it is, I probably could've pulled it off, if it hadn't been for the Cumans unexpectedly showing up on my doorstep with that huge force in Hungary. Fighting off both the Venetians and the Polish would have been difficult, but definitely not impossible. Fighting off all three factions....there was just no way. Hell, just defeating the Cumans alone would've required divine intervention! :laugh4:

I still can't believe how big they were; they were well on their way to becoming a superpower already. The Cumans had nearly 20 provinces, with 1 to 2 full stacks in all of their border territories. ~:eek: It's honestly the only time I've ever seen them become anywhere near that huge.

But yeah, I think the main reason I was ganged up on like that was that I was spread so thinly, and the AI couldn't resist taking targets of opportunity--as it should, really. ~D

When I started Bulgaria, I initially was at heavy war with the Cumans. It looked for a moment like I'd be surrounded and attacked by the Hungarians, the Sicilians, AND the Cumans suicidally overstretched by attacking Hungary. From there, I was able to affect the course of that war (to a degree) simply by stacking up in Bulgaria.

Then Sicily imploded. :laugh4:


Anyway, I'm going to see what I can do with this Bohemia place...

Wow, danfda, that's one crazy game! I too am surprised at how well the Scots are doing. It's not uncommon for me to see them take over most of Britain, but I don't think I've ever seen them occupy Ireland or conquer lands on the Continent before.

And I don't think I've ever seen the Byz make a comeback like that--ever. To go from just a couple provinces to being a superpower again? And while doing so in the Late period? That's simply amazing! I wonder how they pulled it off. :inquisitive: (By the by, how did the Genoese end up with Denmark, Saxony, and Sweden? The only guess I have is that they must've bribed the garrisons there, since I know the AI has trouble extending fleets that far for an invasion.)

Which type of campaign are you playing, btw? Domination mode or GA?

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Originally Posted by danfda

Sorry if this is long-winded...I had left a lot out and this really is the first of this kind of thing I've written. I will include more detail next time, I promise.

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Trust me, you're not long-winded. That particular adjective would be used to describe me. I appear to be terminally verbose. ~:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Maloncanth

When I started Bulgaria, I initially was at heavy war with the Cumans. It looked for a moment like I'd be surrounded and attacked by the Hungarians, the Sicilians, AND the Cumans suicidally overstretched by attacking Hungary. From there, I was able to affect the course of that war (to a degree) simply by stacking up in Bulgaria.

Then Sicily imploded. :laugh4:

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Nice. One of the things this game has taught me is that simply biding your time can be the smartest thing to do. ~;)

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Originally Posted by Maloncanth

Anyway, I'm going to see what I can do with this Bohemia place...

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Good luck! (Though I hope you won't need it!) ~:cheers:

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Originally Posted by Maloncanth

Anyway, I'm going to see what I can do with this Bohemia place...

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Bohemia, a land of warriors. :2thumbsup:

It's 1105 and this is what things look like now.

https://img59.imageshack.us/img59/37...mia1105lr0.jpg

The Bohemian position really is very hard. Not only are your unique units six turns away (tower (1) -> bowyer's (4) -> 1 turn to build) but you don't start with anything particularly impressive either, so it's exceedingly difficult to rush any of your three neighbours. You also don't start with an emissary, which really stinks, especially in the first few turns. Even though Bohemia is passably rich and can build a variety of units, it (like any province) only has one queue so that cripples you early. In fact, I imagine it's all you can do just to build quickly enough to discourage a computer attack - Armoured Spearmen and a Royal Knight or two.

I don't think lacking a coastline is that big a deal. It's not like I was building ships early when I was playing Bulgaria either. There's just no room for them in the queue. It certainly will get inconvenient later but my strategy was simply to wait for an opportunity, then seize it until it goes away. No surprises so far on that front. Hungary allied on turn 2, which was great because I knew the Hungarians would have other business quickly (Serbians, Cumans, and the strong Early Byzantines). I had my sights on Poland since Lesser Poland was the richest province for what was guarding it, but then they offered alliance as well. I had to consider long and hard on that one. I couldn't afford a black mark diplomatically and I knew the Lithuanians were at war with Sweden or something so it might have been a long wait. In the end it was a coin toss and I opted to throw all my bets on the HRE being encroached on all sides as often happens. As it turned out this was probably the right choice as Poland never went to a major war with anyone.

So I sat like a vulture until one day, the Genoese and Germans went to war, then jumped in and knifed Austria from behind, and it went from there. :2thumbsup: It's very slow progress though, despite the fact that France has recently jumped in on the dogpile. There are many years between border expansions as the Bohemians are always at a serious numerical disadvantage and I've also had famines every three years on average now. All this is exacerbated by the severe damage these provinces always take. I dunno if it's an XL thing but geez, I took Austria with a tower and farms and Bavaria didn't even have a tower left when I finished sieging. Finally, I've made the point of never actually fighting the Germans in the field. Chickenlike or not, Bohemia can't afford even a 2 or 3:1 loss ratio with anyone and I just can't reliably pull that off on an attack with a 4-star general.

I've considered going after Venice but I don't think it's worth the risk politically. I might get called by the Pope and I just couldn't end the war fast. So I married the Doge's daughter to my prince and each day, the entire Bohemian royal family prays that the Doge will get cancer and die childless.

Here's hoping no one from Hungary stabs me in the back. :sweatdrop:


Update 1108: In 1107, the Cumans attacked and occupied Lesser Poland for a turn. I could see the Poles had enough to drive it off so I launched and joined in hoping for some brownie points. I figure Poland was in good enough condition to hold so it'd be politically safe since I wouldn't be taking the brunt of the assault. In 1108, we drove out the Cumans bloodlessly, the Poles send their gratitude and as it turns out, the Byzantines cancel their alliance with them. All in all, a good turn, though I didn't get any influence :(.

They Byzantines have now also overtaken the Germans as the richest.

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Originally Posted by Martok

Wow, danfda, that's one crazy game! I too am surprised at how well the Scots are doing. It's not uncommon for me to see them take over most of Britain, but I don't think I've ever seen them occupy Ireland or conquer lands on the Continent before.

And I don't think I've ever seen the Byz make a comeback like that--ever. To go from just a couple provinces to being a superpower again? And while doing so in the Late period? That's simply amazing! I wonder how they pulled it off. :inquisitive: (By the by, how did the Genoese end up with Denmark, Saxony, and Sweden? The only guess I have is that they must've bribed the garrisons there, since I know the AI has trouble extending fleets that far for an invasion.)

Which type of campaign are you playing, btw? Domination mode or GA?


Trust me, you're not long-winded. That particular adjective would be used to describe me. I appear to be terminally verbose. ~:rolleyes:

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I've never seen the Scots do anything before. So with their emergence, plus the Byz revival...I don't have any idea how they did it. It was with very little help from me (directly) and the Crusaders were simply huge to begin with. It may be that my front in Iberia cost them too much in manpower and monies, plus I annihilated their navy, but the Byz had hardly any units at the start of the comeback. I honestly don't know how they did it. I wish I had taken screenies.

And the Genoese went Crusade happy. They took Sweden and Prussia and Livonia and various parts of Northern Europe, but when they began to crusade against me they began to get a little shaky. Only one civil war as of yet, and I wasn't able to really take advantage. Sad. Genoese fleets did cover almost all of the med, with really good coverage for a long while. Strangely, shortly before their ill-fated crusade to Constantinople they began to pull thier ships back...at any rate, their navy is nonexistant now. :2thumbsup:

And I am playing GA, so I tend to reign myself in a lot. The campaigns where I sit there, have my little corner of the world and watch the rest fight in such unpredictable fashions is one of the best things about this game.

And maloncanth, one thing I have learned in XL, Hungary will always stab you in the back, sooner or later. Good luck.

Suddenly, this happened:

https://img61.imageshack.us/img61/13...1115es9.th.jpg

Kinda like Kashmir except with two Indias and three Pakistans. Fortunately, the Germans were more than happy to ceasefire. :sweatdrop: We are now staring at each other grimly across the fields of Lesser Poland.

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Originally Posted by danfda

And the Genoese went Crusade happy. They took Sweden and Prussia and Livonia and various parts of Northern Europe, but when they began to crusade against me they began to get a little shaky. Only one civil war as of yet, and I wasn't able to really take advantage. Sad. Genoese fleets did cover almost all of the med, with really good coverage for a long while. Strangely, shortly before their ill-fated crusade to Constantinople they began to pull thier ships back...at any rate, their navy is nonexistant now. :2thumbsup:

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Wow, I didn't even know the Genoese could Crusade. I thought that the only Crusading factions VikingHorde added was the Portuguese and the Danes. I might have to give them a try one of these days. Way to put down their navy, at any rate. :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by danfda

And I am playing GA, so I tend to reign myself in a lot. The campaigns where I sit there, have my little corner of the world and watch the rest fight in such unpredictable fashions is one of the best things about this game.

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Yeah, that's what I like about GA mode as well. It's nice to be able to win the game without having to take over the whole bloody map. (It's hard to believe that at one point, I actually was vehemently opposed to ever trying GA mode!) Are you on pace to win, by the way?

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Originally Posted by Martok

Wow, I didn't even know the Genoese could Crusade.

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they can, though they don't get GA points IIRC....

btw sorry for your bohemian campaign. it was interesting to read, though, and your failure very much resembles mine with the Polish in MedMod (see guides). sometimes the AI just can't resist ganging up on you.

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Originally Posted by Martok

WowYeah, that's what I like about GA mode as well. It's nice to be able to win the game without having to take over the whole bloody map. (It's hard to believe that at one point, I actually was vehemently opposed to ever trying GA mode!) Are you on pace to win, by the way?

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Of course! :knight:

Its 1426 and I am about 30 GA points ahead, and it's pretty much a done deal. After the era I talked about earlier, I was in 4th--the HRE, Aragonese, and Crusaders were ahead of me (Crusaders by about 20 points). Civil wars and assassins later, the HRE and Aragonese "died off" (hehe) and my war with the yellow bellies put me firmly in first place.

Amazingly, I still have three allies in the Byz, the Scots, and the HRE. :laugh4:

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Originally Posted by Deus ret.

they can, though they don't get GA points IIRC....

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Nope!

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Originally Posted by Maloncanth

Suddenly, this happened:


Kinda like Kashmir except with two Indias and three Pakistans. Fortunately, the Germans were more than happy to ceasefire.

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LOL. Yeah, you're definitely in a rather hairy strategic situation. It's one reason why I find the Bohemians an interesting challenge.

I'm curious to see how you do, Maloncanth. If the Bohemians are still thriving past 1160, then you'll have bested me for certain. ~;)


As for myself, I fired up a new campaign as the Norwegians; and I can happily say that I've met with much greater success this time around. It's strange--for all that I'm of half-Norwegian descent (on my mom's side), I don't think I've tried this faction before. I've discovered there's something very liberating about playing the Norwegians: their lands are so poor that you have to expand almost immediately. There's no fretting about trying to develop your lands first--it's clear that the smart choice is to attack early and often!

My first target was the rich lands of the Swedish king, and I immediately began gathering together an army. I trained 2 more units of Vikings and 2 units of Horsemen (a unit that I have come to respect as a result of this campaign), and in 1091 King Magnus invaded Sweden with an army of 380 men. The Swedes fought hard, but their doom was inevitable from the beginning. My Vikings were simply better than theirs, plus I outnumbered the foe. Before you could even say "lefse", I had suddenly more than doubled the size of my kingdom.

I then began to ready my people for war against the Danes. Attacking them would be trickier, since they owned both Denmark and Skania. I therefore wanted to strike quickly and destroy them in one blow, but this would require careful preparation and timing. Toward that end, I built a couple longboats and deployed them in the Skaagerak (between Norway and Denmark). They would eventually help transport my army in the invasion, but in the meantime they allowed me to add a small amount of trade income to my still-meager treasury.

During all this, my son (also named Magnus) came of age. While not possessing a very subtle mind, he was already a great warrior and showed potential of becoming a fine general as well. I decided that I would test him early on, putting him in charge of the army that would be invading Skania. In the meantime, however, I continued to mass a powerful army. King Olaf of the Danes apparently believed I was getting ready to invade Britain, and therefore took no notice of my preparations. He was about to get a hard lesson in learning the consequences of ignoring me. ~D

I love this thread (and the PBEs and after-action things). Anyways, I'd like to share one of my games once (even though mine usually suck since I am not good enough to play harder than normal mode), but I have forgotten how to take pictures in the game. I know there is a tga folder in the MTW folder, but I forget wehat key(s) capture the pictures. If someone could remind me I'd be thankful. :help:

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Originally Posted by Deus ret.

btw sorry for your bohemian campaign. it was interesting to read, though, and your failure very much resembles mine with the Polish in MedMod (see guides). sometimes the AI just can't resist ganging up on you.

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Indeed. I think I was simply too tempting an opportunity for the other factions to pass up. The strange thing is, when I keep a decent-but-not-overly-large garrison (300-500 men) in a border province, it's usually enough to discourage the AI from attacking. I can somewhat understand the Polish attacked me, as I don't think they had any easy pickings (aside from taking Brandenburg from the HRE). But why the Cumans chose to invade Austria when there were more attractive targets available to them--Serbia and all of the Polish provinces come to mind (since the bulk of Poland's armies were besieging Prague)--remains a mystery to me. :shrug: Oh well!

Oh, and thanks for the compliment. Glad you enjoyed my little story, tragic though it was. ~:rolleyes:

(Note: I wanted the make the images a little smaller, but imageshack wouldn't host them when I tried to resize them at the same time for reasons unknown.)
Novgorodians - BKB Super Mod - Early Period - Normal

Starting Ruler: Prince Sviatopolk I, an able general and better than average defender.


1087: Unhappy with the size of his kingdom, Prince Sviatopolk invades Lithuania. No resistance is offered and the territory is claimed.

1088: An army begins to assemble with the intent of carving out an empire to go down in history.

1089: Prince Sviatopolk's first son, of the same name, comes of age. Rumors of his secret perversion run rampant in the castle.

1092: Angered by the cold treatment that his emissary has been recieving, Prince Sviatopolk I leads an invasion of Sweden to prove his country's strength. He leaves Lithuania in his son's hands for now.

https://img451.imageshack.us/img451/8586/1kb0.png

The invasion was a huge success that ended with our forces killing 4 men to every 1 lost. A newly acquired unit of Mordovian Horsemen was key to the victory. It was decided that the 138 prisoners should be publicly executed to instill fear into the populace.

https://img446.imageshack.us/img446/6052/2yj9.png

1093: The remaining 9 spearmen stubbornly resisting were dealt with.

1094: The Kazar Khaganate conquer Moscovy and are now in a position to invade the weakly defended Novgorod!

-the empire thus far-
https://img378.imageshack.us/img378/9788/3hk0.png

1095: The Cumans become the first "allies" of Novgorod when Prince Sviatopolk I's first daughter is wed to one of the heathen royal family. In addition, a port is completed in Lithuania.

1096: Prince Andrei, Prince Sviatopolk I's second son, comes of age. Though slightly overweight, he has a knack for killing.

1098: An alliance is made with the Seljuks and Egyptians, both enemies of the Germans, who had rudely declined our offer of alliance years earlier. Novgorod is secured when our diplomat successfully negotiates an alliance with the Kazar Khaganate.

1099: An alliance is made with the French, who have also become enemies of the Germans. Prince Sviatopolk I's first son, of the same name, has been publicly exposed as being perverse; the father is furious with his son.

1100: Preparations are made to invade Norway, where a large number of troops are massing.

1101: Prince Sviatopolk I again leads his men from the front in the outnumbered invasion of Norway.

https://img107.imageshack.us/img107/1112/4ao9.png

The lines get overextended and as we are ready to charge downhill into their right, their royal cavalry smash into our weakened right, flanking us.

https://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5961/5ik4.png

Our right flank is routed and the victory seems to be out of reach, but we are prepared to fight to the death!

https://img478.imageshack.us/img478/7482/6ow1.png

Half of the enemy force foolishly chases after our routing units instead of helping their comrades finish off the Novgorodians still fighting. This allows us to overcome the enemies weaker units and gang up on other units. A rain of arrows from Prince Sviatopolk's boyars and a charge from a group of Mordovian Horsemen reduce King Olaf III's unit to 1, the king himself. He flees the battlefield, diminishing the morale of his troops and leaving them to die.

https://img467.imageshack.us/img467/6091/7qt4.png

It was a bloody battle with large losses on both sides, but a victory nonetheless. Once again the Mordovian Horsemen proved invaluable. The Norwegain king's son, Prince Olaf, was captured in battle, but his ransom was refused and he was executed along with 182 of his countrymen. Prince Sviatopolk I's second daughter is married off to the Danes just as disturbing news reaches the King's ear; Not only are the Germans the richest nation, but they have also developed powerful new technology. Though he is set againt one day meeting the Germans in battle, Prince Sviatopolk I is no longer looking forward to it!

Phew! That was a lot of notes to take. I don't think I'll be able to provide as much detail in the future. I'll probably cut out all diplomacy unless it is important. Also, I generally auto-calculate battles in my campaigns, but have decided to play out most of them this campaign to add something for this thread. Hope it was at least mildly interesting to read! :2thumbsup:

Very good, Galagros. May the enemies of Novgorod fear your reightous might! ~:cheers:

I will be posting more of my Norwegian campaign, but not tonight I'm afraid. It's getting rather late, and even a night owl such as myself needs sleep from time to time! :sleep:

Well the Bohemian Campaign is crawling along.

After about ten years of deadlock around Lesser Poland, the Cumans attacked Hungary and were repulsed. Following this, the Poles attacked three times into Lesser Poland, repulsed each time, but also weakening the Cuman garrison there. After the third attack, the Poles were totally out of action. With seven hundred scattered and battered men. I'd been propping more units into Bohemia in case of this and after the last Polish Offensive, launched one of my own, driving the Cumans out. That turned out to be the bloodiest siege I'd ever committed to. As it turns out, Lesser Poland is marked flatland and really very hard to defend. There are very few hills and lots of open terrain; totally Cuman Heavy Cavalry territory. The Cumans naturally attempted to recapture the province starting next turn.

Cuman Heavy Cavalry (along with Kataphracts in XL) are let's see: Irresistible Charge, Excellent Morale, Very Good Attack, Very Good Defence, and Very Heavily Armoured. They are also not slow like Kataphracts, which means they are very reminiscent of Chivalric Knights except the Cumans have them in early and roll them out in huge numbers since they only need Armourer + Horse Breeder. They had to have had half a dozen full or partial units of those each time they attacked, along with 2-4 more units of Steppe Heavy Cavalry.

Over the next six or seven turns, my King gets Eager to Retreat which I thought was utterly ridiculous :gah2:. What kind of a madman stays behind to fight superior numbers of Cuman Heavy Cavalry on flatland?

The computer apparently, because afterwards, the Cuman forces shrank to deal with other problems and I retook the province. On the next Cuman attack, I pressed autoresolve with about 1400 defenders vs 1100 Cumans (more than half the starting units were some kind of heavy cavalry) and got a bloody victory. For another two turns, the Cumans threw everything they had at my Bohemians and they managed to autoresolve a victory every time. I'm at a loss of how the autoresolve does it. I sure as hell would not have stood a chance manually commanding.

Then, on the third Cuman attack and with the end of the siege, everything ended. Civil War, Hungarian attack, Byzantine attack, king and princes captured (and ransom-refused, ~sadface :( ) and the Cuman Khanate vanished overnight. I had Lesser Poland; after sustaining the kind of losses that I did, you might say I deserved it. :sweatdrop: It would be decades before the campaign paid for itself though because I had only one province at the time that could turn out troops so it was literally decades before the income minus garrison costs of that province could be translated into replacements for the over thousand casualties I took. Lesser Poland would never be easy to defend either, so in the end, it was probably an even worse decision than bribing Tyrolia a ten years back. Then again, Bohemia had to expand somewhere.

Taking things at a snail's pace while the world changed around them, the Bohemians managed to eke out enough forces to pull together a war effort against the Venetians (alliance broke with them after they warred with France) to take Venice around 1150 and later Milan. Both of these provinces really got the Bohemian economy running again. Previously, they'd been on around +300-400 annually simply staying alive. With every neighbour bordering with two stacks or more I was nervous depleting garrisons for any reason and I didn't know enough about how AI's view garrisons on a strategic level.

To a degree it's fair to say the lack of expansion is misleading because the Bohemians were developing the territory they had quite quickly. Most of the provinces now have Castles under construction, which was a herculean effort of scrimping and saving. Things should be better now with some of the Italian cities in the fold, but I still expect to be viewing things in terms of tens of turns rather than turns until the Horde disrupts things.

Things turned around in the late 1160's when the Byzantines went to war with the Hungarians. I don't know who started it, but the Hungarians were utterly steamrolled. I do know they've gone to war with Egypt also, but with both Antioch and Tripoli out of their hands, I don't know how successful they'll be. It has given me cause to think about attacking the Byzantines outright but the heavily upgraded XL Kataphracts are really making it untenable. I do think I'll end up at war with them quickly in either case though. The other option is to attack some of the minor powers but that runs the risk of getting steamrolled from behind.

World in 1170:
https://img226.imageshack.us/img226/...mia1170im0.jpg





And here's an update from the Bulgarian campaign: 1284 there from a High start.
https://img53.imageshack.us/img53/37...ria1284rh1.jpg

1102: King Olaf III returns to Norway with a vendeance ... and a much larger army.

https://img378.imageshack.us/img378/2251/8en5.png
We retreat and soon afterwards Olaf sends his daughter to be wed into my royal family. I accepted, knowing that I needed my army elsewhere to deter the Kievans, who have driven the Cumans from my borders. Prince Ysevolod comes of age; he's known to be a prideful warrior, not accustomed to leading men into battle.

1103: Prince Sviatopolk I leads a small expedition into Finland.

https://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6241/9gx3.png

https://img417.imageshack.us/img417/5045/10nk5.png
An unexciting battle follows in which we are the clear victor. Later, 170 captives were executed.

1104: Prince Sviatopolk I's fourth son comes of age; though a great warrior and general, rumors of his sexual preference circulate throughout the empire.

1105: Trade is established with the east coast of Britain, bringing in much revenue! Prince Yaroslav comes of age and despite being a more than able general rumors of his sexuality also run rampant. What is happening to the royal line!?

1106: Prince Sviatopolk I's first son, Sviatopolk, is captured by rebels while patrolling the Livonian border. His insanely high ransom is refused and he is never heard from again.

1107: Prince Andrei, now heir-apparent, leads an offensive into Livonia. seeking reveng for his brother.
https://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5505/11bz3.png

The battle soon turns into a mass of spearmen being rained on by many ranged units, only to be trampled to death when they turn to flee!
https://img457.imageshack.us/img457/3966/12xs0.png
Victory!!
https://img316.imageshack.us/img316/9492/13jo0.png
180 prisoners are put to the sword immediately following the battle, further increasing the dread that the name Prince Sviatopolk causes. In other news, a new ally, the Polish, now share a border with our great empire.

1108: Construction of a true castle begins in Novgorod as Prince Andrei ends the siege in Livonia.

1110: Trade has been established with all of the British Isles and the coast of France. This is deemed adequate by Prince Sviatopolk and the dockyards cease their work.

The Empire
https://img313.imageshack.us/img313/9345/14vl3.png

1114: With trade booming, construction begins on a castle in Lithuania. The Polish also attack Kiev and a large battle ensues.

1116: Hurrah! Our empire has been named the richest! Prince Sviatopolk's sixth son, Vladimir, comes of age. Even though he is an adept killer, other warriors still consider him strange. Prince Andrei leads a large force into the weakened Kiev.
https://img416.imageshack.us/img416/7180/15sa3.png
It was a hard fought battle (auto-calc), but we soundly defeated them by more then 2 to 1.

1118: Prince Andrei ends to siege of Kiev as his father, Prince Sviatopolk I, is likely nearing death from age.

Congratulations, Maloncanth! You've accomplished what I could not--guiding the Bohemians past the mid-12th century and keeping them intact. ~;)

Yeah, Cuman HC units are a real b**** to fight. I still have no idea how Prince Boleslav managed to kill so many of them (in my last Bohemian campaign), especially since he lost that battle. In any case, however, I salute you for managing to outlast the dreaded Khanate and his legions of cavalrymen. :bow:


@Galagros: So I take it that Sviatopolk II was sent on a "glorious conquest" (i.e. suicide mission) to Livonia? Poor him. ~D Good story so far; looking forward to hearing more of it!


My Norwegian campaign is progressing well. In 1096 & 1097, I struck against the Danes from both sides. My longboats destroyed King Olaf's small fleet in the Skaagarak, and King Magnus landed in Denmark with a modest but powerful force, including his Huscarles. To his (and my!) utter shock, Olaf did not offer battle, instead electing to abandon the province altogether. This proved to be the Danish king's undoing, for he did not yet realize he had nowhere to flee to.

From Sweden, Prince Magnus had led his men into Skania, following his father's plan to crush the Danes on both fronts. The enemy garrison was commanded by Eric Thorkelson, the Danes' royal chamberlain. A man of good character and possessing an able mind, he nonetheless was no general. Although having enough sense to position his troops in a large copse of trees (I'd brought with a fair-sized cavalry contingent), Thorkelson was unable to instill in his men the discipline needed to stand their ground. Unnerved by the Norwegians' advance, the Danes abandoned their concealed positions in the woods and charged Prince Magnus' army head-on. I hesitate to even call the ensuing melee a proper battle, as the clash lasted barely more than a minute before the enemy turned tail and ran. In the end, only 18 Danes made it back to their castle (out of an original force of 220 men).

Having nowhere to run, King Olaf and his son were both captured and executed. The following year, Prince Magnus stormed the fort in Skania and torched most of the buildings in it. (He preserved the fort itself, however.) With the prince's victory coupled with the surprisingly bloodless conquest of Denmark, King Magnus' dream of a united Scandanavia was now a reality.

His ambitions didn't stop there, however. He looked west across the North Sea, and remembered how Harald Hadrada had tried to conquer England less than two generations ago. Magnus now became determined to succeed where Herald had failed....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martok

To his (and my!) utter shock, Olaf did not offer battle, instead electing to abandon the province altogether.

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Well educated king:inquisitive:, where is the pictures? Gl in your Norwegian game Martok

Quote:

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Originally Posted by r johnson

Well educated king:inquisitive:, where is the pictures? Gl in your Norwegian game Martok

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Thank you. :bow: I'm admittedly a compu-tard, and thus have never figured out how to post screenies from my campaigns. ~:rolleyes:

Nicely done Martok. In my (unfinished) Norwegian campaign, I followed your strategy almost exactly to the T. I only got to 1207 and stopped, since it almost seemed too easy. My allies (the Novgorodians [sic]) and I controlled all of Northern Europe, England, Scandanavia, the western European coastline--only the French remain, and not likely for long. Hopefully, we can coexist, though I've not played that one since May or some such time. ~:D

Some of the colors in the BKB mod seem wierd...I may have to try it out and see!

Thanks, danfda. I too have had a relatively easy time of it as the Norwegians (at least in the very early part of the game), which surprised me. I fully expected the conquest of Scandanavia to be a bloody and costly affair, but the Swedes were the only ones that really put up much of a fight. The invasion of Britain, however, is another story. (The English were less of a pushover than my fellow Norsemen.) ~;) I'll hopefully have a chance to relay that part of my campaign tonight when I get home.

Martok - Yeah, I suicided Sviatopolk II. I was wondering if anyone would criticize me for that, but I didn't want to risk a perverse king with very few or no heirs. For some reason 3 of my king's 5 sons are "perverse". Also, to take the pictures while playing simply hit F2. They are stored in the TGAs file in the Medieval - Total War folder. Host them on a site like imageshack, which will then give you a screen bombarded with URLs. The bottom one is the one you want to copy and paste. When you make your post his the clip-art looking mountain button and paste the URL in there. You may need to change to format of the photos in order to host them. If so, just open them and save them as .pngs or something. If you need a program to open them I reccommend InfranView, which can be downloaded for free.

danfda - Yeah, some of the colors in BKB are bright and weird looking, but it's still one of the best mods. You should definately try it out at some point. I'm in heaven because I just figured out how to get multiple installs of MTW to work (after having the game for years). Now I don't have to uninstall and reinstall everytime I want to play a different mod.

I'll play more of my campaign later tonight or sometime tomorrow. No college or work tomorrow, yay! :2thumbsup:

https://img212.imageshack.us/img212/...mia1204st0.jpg

A bunch of things have happened. On the expansion front, things went smoother as expected after getting the Italian cities running. First, the Hungarians, in all their wisdom, backstabbed me. They'd already been steamrolled by the Byzantines and had gone through civil war as a result and were down to Croatia. I obligingly destroyed them and took Croatia, paying the requisite 482 lives to storm the citadel ahead of the pope warning. The sad thing is, its citadel survived and was the first citadel in my whole empire.

A few years later, I gathered some forces and finished the Venetians off for good as well, annexing Savoy. The Pope warns me, so I rush the keep. After that, I took Swabia from rebels.

England and a whole bunch of others war on the Almoravids and wipe them out in a series of Crusades. Then Genoa went to war with the Pope and managed to suppress them. Then he returns and sits with four stacks in former Genoese Rome. Meanwhile, the Poles went to war with the Kievans and I sided with the latter. Nothing interesting happens there though as neither seems able to overpower the other.

The roots for the eventual AI gangbang on all powerful England also begin to build. It doesn't start well. The Aragonese go to war with the English and get wiped out. The Genoese war with them to a standstill until the Pope hits them.

During this lull in action, I stopped building feudal knights out of Bohemia to roll out half a dozen Inquisitors. I promptly begin torching Englishmen and there isn't a soul out there to stop me. :2thumbsup: I also embark on a massive assassin campaign. There was so much garbage clogging up my campaign map. I mass assassins and embark on a five-year plan of bloodshed, successfully clearing up my whole territory and getting enough high level assassins to keep it clear. Now I can select my units and I'll never accidentally click on a rival princess or emmissary. I also spam out enough ships to finally wrap around Italy.

There is a scuffle between the Poles and the Germans. I betray my German allies and take Franconia. The Pope warns me, so I rush the keep. I end up capturing the Holy Roman Emperor and a bunch of nobles for well over eight thousand florins. This shoves me briefly to over 13,000 and I quickly start a pair of Citadels, a castle, and some other important stuff.

I faithfully wait over ten years, building up while the Genoese imploded as they too went to war with England and predictably lost. I invade Switzerland. The Pope warns me, so I rush the keep nd wipe the Germans out too. Meanwhile, he happily tore into Genoa, who go into civil war quickly. They survive, but barely, on top of the Italian boot.

And finally at this point, practically everyone in range (and many who aren't) is now at war with England. The largest among them, the Danes, are the most successful, making a few quick gains. A few turns of mass conflict quickly break up the west. There is a brief English civil war but a rebellion against the Danish occupation of Freisland swiftly yanks most of the rebels back under the flag. Meanwhile however, the Almoravids have revived in Grenada, keeping that English stack rebel. A lot of the British isles have stayed rebel as well, which gives us hope for a Scottish re-emergence.

Meanwhile, I'm preparing to join in the feast and attack England myself. If I can get Lorraine and Burgundy, that's three more inside provinces that don't need heavy garrison.

https://img208.imageshack.us/img208/...2042dr6.th.jpg

Great game Galagros, makes me remember I have to reinstali BKB's Super Mod.

I'm almost tempted to start a new BKS Cuman campaign. Haven't touched MTW for a while now, but this thread serves as a reminder of how satisfying a decent little empire can be. :2thumbsup: