Megas Logothetes' and Senators' Reports

[flyd]

Taking the save

[flyd]

http://mizus.org/files/pbm/LOTR-1113-3.zip

Besieged Caesarea, MotH offer still up.

[Andres]

Taking the save.

[Andres]

Here it's back:

http://mizus.org/files/pbm/LOTR-1113-4.zip

MoTH offer is still there.

Savvas is going back to Arta; spotted a small army of rebels, will probably make a detour to get rid of them. Can the Megas put taxes in Arta lower, since the inhabitants of the settlement are getting angry ("red" face, my SOT asks for "blue" face).

[TinCow]

Taking the save to deal with the Crusade.

Andres, you are free to manually adjust the tax rate of any settlements you own, there's no need to wait for the Megas to do it. I'll bump the taxes down for you while making my changes.

[TinCow]

http://mizus.org/files/pbm/LOTR-1113-5.zip

As every Crusader army is under 6 units, I am not going to bother with the +1 bonus roll calculations. Instead, I will simply remove no movement at all as a possibility from a die roll.

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Vartholomaios Ksiros (Rowan) and Kosmas Mavrozomis (Zim) left at the break of dawn and have sailed with the utmost vigor and skill. Both have made excellent time, exceeding even the expectations of their own experienced sailors. The two men are within sight of each other, southwest of Smyrna, and within reasonable distance of Rhodes.

Methodios Tagaris (Tristan de Castelreng) was not to be left out of this race, and he too left port early. However, his sails were less expertly managed and he could not keep up with the pace of the other two once they reached top speed. As they receded over the horizon, Methodios found himself alone in third place, directly west of Smyrna.

Stavros ek Amarinthou (Knights_of_Palma) woke up late and went about his duties in a leisurely fashion. Slow and steady may win the race, but they may not be good enough to reach Egypt first. He is in fourth place, northwest of Smyrna.

Shortly behind, and within visual distance, of Stavros is Efstathios Laskaris (Ibn-Khaldun). The delay in boarding his ships caused him great harm, but he made up for it by driving his team with a tremendous effort, milking every last bit of speed out of them. If he can keep this rate up, he will soon overtake some of the Crusaders in front of him.

Vissarionas ek Lesvou (Ramses II CP) is not an experienced sailor, and his progress has demonstrated it. Everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong, though there is no one to blame for most of it but the fates. Knots were tied wrong, sails flapped in the wind, bad weather forced him to take shelter in a cove for a short while, and a seagull temporarily blinded the helmsman with some impressive aerial bombardment. Poor Vissarionas is happy to simply be nearing the southern end of the Dardanelles.

Yet he is not in last place. That inglorious spot falls to Annios Solomon (woad&fangs). He was making fabulous time, comparable to that of Methodios Tagaris. However the terrain soon began to look strange. After a few days of sailing, the walls of Constantinople appeared before him and it became apparent that they had been sailing in the wrong direction! After a brief investigation, it was revealed that some villain had stolen Annios' sea charts and replaced them with forgeries designed to lead them in the wrong direction! The identity of the malefactor could not be discerned, though all crewmembers are looking cross-eyed at each other now. After stopping in port in Constantinople, Annios was able to obtain new charts and set off in the proper direction. He managed to reach his original starting point before the year was up, resulting in no progress at all.

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Note: The treasury is currently in the red. This is not the fault of the Crusade. I have double checked the upkeep for all Crusade fleets and armies, and the previous calculations were correct. The money I added to the treasury last turn included the sums for this turn as well. I specifically noted that in my post. I cannot tell what all this money was spent on, but it was spent on something without regard to the fact that the treasury is losing money each turn. As such, the current debt has nothing to do with the Crusade, since all sums for 1110, 1111, and 1113 have already been given to the treasury through the console.

From now on I will only add money to the treasury retroactively on the turn that I do the editing. This means that the sum for 1114 will not be added until next turn, which will be prior to the Megas making any investment for 1114 anyway, since he takes the save last. Thus the treasury will remain in the red for the rest of this turn. Next turn I will give it the total sum of the Crusade, which is 7,320 florins. The current projection for next turn shows -5692, which means that less than 2000 florins will be left in the treasury after I add in the extras. Be aware that this means that treasury spending is currently nearly outstripping its income. If this is not dealt with promptly, Byzantium may find itself in crippling debt.

[Privateerkev]

taking the save.