Pics & History of your Empire

[Innocentius]

A shortish update on

The Kingdom of Bohemia: 1112 - 1120 A.D.

Before King Vratislav could settle with his army in Brandenburg, and even before news of the conquest had reached all corners of the now vast kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire sought to take revenge on the Bohemians by attacking Bohemia itself. Prince Spytihnev, the provincial ruler of Bohemia at the time, was so shocked by the news that he spat his entire moithful of beer all over his keyb...dining table.
King Vratislav had lately been so busy with his conquest to the north that he had foolishly disregarded the defences of his own homeland, thus an outnumbered force under the comman of Prince Spytihev marched to meet the Imperial invaders in the summer of 1112. The situation looked grim at start, the Bohemians were outnumbered by 2:1 and were unable to find a fully suitable spot to defend. However, as the day revealed, the German army lacked any real substance, and its cowardly troops were no match for the Bohemians.
The Germans first advanced their archers in three groups, on in the centre and one on each flank. Their right flank was completely wiped-out by Prince Spytihev and his knights, stationed on the Bohemian left flank, while the rest of the German archers were beaten by the superior Bohemian bowmen.
After this failure, the German commander ordered a head on charge and the Bohemians, now out of arrows, chose to attack them and bravely meet them on the field. It wasn't long before the Germans broke ranks and fled, and their general, a prince of the Empire, was captured and executed along with his entire bodyguard.

All the prisoners were quickly ransomed by the Holy Roman Emperor for a decent amount of money.

After this disastrous defeat, the Holy Roman Empire did not have the power, funds or will needed to continue fighting the Bohemians, but nonetheless it remained at war with them, in its traditional, stubborn manner.

Shortly after this, in the year of 1114, Bohemian troops under Prince Vratislav attacked the rebel province of Friesland, and duly slaughtered the undisciplined rebels:

This time, not a single prisoner was spared.

Another important event of this year was an alliance with the neighbouring Poles. However, this alliance was probably only caused by several disastrous defeats suffered by the Poles against the pagan Lithuanians lately.

In Friesland, the fighting raged on. The backbone of the rebels had been crushed in the battle of 1114, but many rebels still remained and hid themselves in a great many forts all across the province. The last one wasn't to fall untill 1120. King Vratislav II however, never lived to see this day. He died out of old age in 1119, and was mourned by all the kingdom. He had been a great man indeed, and had lead his people to greatness, success and prospering.
His oldest son, Vratislav ascended the throne at the age of 45, becoming king under the name King Vratislav III of Bohemia. King Vratislav III was already a seasoned warrior and a great man indeed. He was known for his hot-heatedness and sometimes cruelty, not hesitating to execute all the prisoners he took, yet he was also know for being a great builder and a man who cared a lot for agricultural issues. He was also said to be very honest, thus earning the respect of his subjects.

The success of the Bohemians and the greatness of King Vratislav III became obvious in 1120. Not only did Friesland finally succumb totally, but the King also recieved a 1000 florins from the Pope. An indication to that the awareness of the increasingly powerful Bohemians had finally reached even the Pope.

Forgot to take a pic of the minimap, sorry, but it's the same as last time really, just with Friesland added.

[bamff]

Back again....apologies in advance to Rowan Atkinson fans, but I couldn't resist paying homage when I found out that my new king was Prince Edmund...I just hope he proves moew worthy of the crown than his "series 1" namesake!

You may recall also, my query about inquisition "fry up" numbers...check out what happened in sicily late in the pice on this one - with only 1 GI and 2 I's in attendance! What governs these numbers?

The Chronicles of Bamff’s English

Chapter 8 –King Edward III is dead, All Hail King Edmund III! (1237 – 1262)

The next matter of note to be recorded in Bamff’s Chronicles takes place in the year 1239. Word from our emissary in Rome brings great rejoicing at Wessex, and throughout the kingdom at large. Pope Giovanni II has accepted our offer of an alliance. King Edward is indeed pleased with himself – with Spain destroyed, and the Vatican now supporting him, he felt himself unstoppable.
Further news arrives at court. In Tyrolia, the local populace have tired of their Italian overlords, and have rebelled. A truly massive rebel army has seized control of the province from Italy.
Lord Scrope grows tired of waiting for his enemies to surrender in Cyrenaica. Tripoli castle is too well supplied to fall quickly, and Scrope is forced to take matters into his own hands. He commences the assault on the castle. It is a bloody battle indeed, with heavy casualties on both sides. Superior numbers carry the day however, and as the final trumpets sound across the field it is Scrope’s men that are raising their national flag over the smouldering remains of the castle.



In 1243, Prince John leads the attack on Tunis castle. He is successful, and thereby brings all of Tunisia to heel.
A period of peace ensues for the next 3 years. Well, peace for the English, at any rate – The Golden Horde and Byzantium continue their now long-running war. The Byzantines are coming off decidedly the worse for wear throughout these exchanges, with the provinces of Pereslavyl, Chernigov, and Lithuania all falling to the invading Golden Horde.
Whilst it is true that at this time we are many years away from facing the scourge of “political correctness”, the Horde are quite happy to demonstrate that they are an “equal opportunity invader” – prepared to take lands from any nation or ethnic group, and in 1245 they complete the conquest of Prussia.
The following year, the also take Poland from the Poles, with the young Polish king, Konrad I forced to relocate his throne to Silesia. To his great credit, the young Polish king refuses to accept the loss of such a key part of his homelands, and raises an enormous army, which reclaims the province in 1248.
Our spy in Milan, John Bolingbroke, sends word in 1250 that our allies the Italians are mobilising their forces in preparation for an invasion of the German held province of Austria. The invasion is apparently scheduled for 1252.
King Edward receives the news with some scepticism. “The Doge has long been our good friend and ally,” muses the English monarch, “I wonder that he should consider such a move without first discussing his intent.”
1252 arrives, with no sign of any move from the Italians. The Golden Horde are not so inactive, however. They continue their drive westward, taking Pomerania. This is a bitter blow indeed for Poland. King Konrad now finds himself with no access to seaborne trade. The impact on his treasury could be devastating. King Edward, still encamped in Granada following his successful invasion, has fallen ill with fever. Court physicians are most concerned with his condition.
King Konrad strikes back at the Horde in 1253, recapturing Pomerania. Poland is one of few kingdoms with anything to rejoice in 1253. The kings of both Sicily and Hungary succumb to old age and illness respectively. Our own sweet king, Edward III breathes his last. Whilst able to hold his own on the battlefield, he cannot fight a foe that he cannot see, and the mysterious fever claims victory. If this were not enough of a blow to the kingdom, Tripoli is wracked by famine, and Lorraine deluged by floodwaters.
England desperately needed good news at this dark hour, and this came in the shape of the coronation of the new king. Young Prince Edmund, who had previously been known by the sobriquet of “The Black Adder” claims the throne at the tender age of 20 years. The young king is popular throughout the kingdom, and all rejoice as he takes the title King Edmund III.



Edmund is acutely aware that the recent conquests made by his father have placed a strain on the treasury, and have somewhat depleted the English military strength. He sets about rebuilding and restructuring during the first phase of his rule.
In 1259, John Bolingbroke again reports from Milan that the Italian army is mobilising in preparation for an invasion of Austria. Edmund believes that the time is right to support his Italian ally, and orders the invasion of Bavaria by Lord Howard in 1260. The German forces offer no resistance, with the bulk of their number retiring with indecent haste to Munich Castle. Howard wastes no time in laying siege to this fortification. By 1261 it has fallen. An appalling 269 English troops have paid the ultimate price during this attack, but a famous victory is secured.
At the same time as Munich Castle falls, Sir Richard Plantagenet leads his army into the rebel province of Tyrolia. King Edmund is of the opinion that his allies the Italians have now had many years in which to launch a counter-attack on the rebels. Clearly they do not want these lands, so he has no hesitation in ordering this invasion.
The rebel forces occupy a commanding position high atop a steep mountain. Plantagenet is a wily tactician. He is well aware that if the enemy possess any archers, his men will suffer horrendous casualties if they attempt to march straight up the steep slope. Instead, he orders one force comprising a regiment of arbalests, one of billmen, and one of royal knights to wheel around to the enemy’s right flank. The movement of this force will be masked to some degree by the forest in which most of the enemy units are positioned. At the same time another force of knights rides to the enemy’s left flank.
The former of these two diversionary forces is able to position itself on the mountain top by the time the enemy force realise it’s presence. A force of rebel feudal men at arms charge from the forest. A dozen fall to the first volley from the English arbalests. The charge wavers as the second volley strikes home, and they melt back into the forest. The enemy commander has taken Plantagenet’s bait – unbelievably, the rebel force splits in two to meet the “threat” on both flanks. Plantagenet is able to move his main force up the slope to take position between two hilltop forests, where the enemy once stood.
The enemy general now commits a second grave error. He has decided (belatedly) to move all of his forces to the higher peak on his left. The majority of his force now march across the English front to reach their new positions. The English arbalests and longbowmen have a field day. The surviving rebels take position, but find themselves attacked in the rear by Plantagent’s second “diversionary force” at the same time as the main force smashes into their front. They are routed. 526 perish, and 173 surrender. English casualties on the day are a mere 62. The English are but a siege away from securing another valuable province for the realm.
Our inquisitors in Sicily send news that heresy is indeed rife in that province – 17,000 have burned so far in their attempts to “cleanse” the souls of the populace.
It is noted at Wessex that Bolingbroke appears to have again cried wolf as far as Italian invaion plans are concerned....King Edmund will regard the next piece of "intelligence" from Milan far more warily....

[Martok]

Wow; some truly excellent campaigns, guys!

My apologies that I haven't been able to post anything myself, by the way. Real life issues have been conspiring to keep me away from MTW as of late, and I doubt I'll get a chance to really get back into my Fatamid campaign until after Christmas weekend. The good news is that I have the entire week off between Christmas and New Year's, so I should be able to at least some playing time in (finally!).

[Innocentius]

Real nice campaign you've got going there bamff Could you post a pic of the map at present? Despite thorough reading I find myself a bit confused, just how big is the English Empire by now?

[Innocentius]

The Bohemians: 1120 - 1150 A.D.

At the beginning of King Vartislav III's rule, the Kingdom of Bohemia was stabile, yet dark clouds were gathering at the horizon. The Poles were fighting their unsuccesful wars against the pagan Lithuanians and Cumans from the east. Yet, the Bohemians really lacked the money and manpower to help their allies. Some good news for Christianity was the alliance betweeen the Bohemians and the Pope in 1122 though.

In 1126, all Christianty mourned, as the last king of Poland was slain in battle, and his kingdom was ended. Now, the Bohemians had become the leading Christian kingdom in the wars against the pagans of the east along with the weakened Hungarians. Bohemia and King Vratislav III would, however, prove to be only a little too much for the pathetic Lithuanians to handle.

In the year 1129 of our Lord, Bohemian troops invaded the pagan province of Silesia. The Lithuanians dared not fight and fled back to Greater Poland. This was a great success, and an easily achieved one as well, but a severe lack of funds prevented the Bohemians from advancing further east. The desperate state of the royal treasury was somewhat helped by a donation of a 1000 Florins from the Pope in 1131, the same year in which the last fort in Silesia fell.

The money from the Pope could not entirely help the Bohemians however, and in 1132, it was the Lithuanians who invaded Brandenburg. King Vratislav, who recided in the region at the time, decided that his force was too small, and retreated to the fort. The success for the Lithuanians was short-lived anyway, as massive reinforcements arrived the very next year, causing the invaders to withdraw without putting up a fight.

A few years of relative peace now followed, and no further actions other than small border raids were taken.
King Vratislav was now worried about the situation. He lacked the forces to attack the Lithuanians, and the pagan tribe called the Cumans were expanding at the expence of the Hungarians. An attack eastwards would be difficult to pull off successfully, and every month that went by, the Lithuanian s grew stronger in Greater Poland. Eventually, they would become so great that their lands could not feed them, and then they would come pouring eastwards, like the Huns ages before them.
Exactly the same thing happened in 1137, but this proved to be a fatal mistake for the Lithuanians that ultimately led to their downfall.

A massive Lithuanian army invaded Bohemia itself in 1137, and the Bohemians took their stand despite being outnumbered by 2:1 as usual. The day was long and bloody, but in the end, it was the Lithuanians who fled like dogs. And although casualties were high on both sides, the Bohemians had reserves in other provinces, something that the Lithuanians lacked. The few prisoners taken were ransomed by the Duke of Lithuania himself under humiliating circumstances.


King Vratislav III was not satisfied with merely this though, and while the battered troops in Bohemia recovered and recruited new men to fill the gaps, he himself led his massive army in Brandenburg and invaded Greater Poland in 1138. A small force of Orthodox allies from Russia also joined the battle. For once, the Bohemians experienced numerical superiority. That day, the few remnants of the Lithuanian army were slaughtered, the Duke himself only barely escaping to the "safety" of his fort.


However, almost directly after the battle, King Vratislav III died of a fever caused by a minor wound that had become infected. The commander of the Bohemian army didn't want his now demoralized troops to commence a long siege against the Duke of Lithuania, and thus stormed the little wooden fort. It fell easily, and although there are no exact sources regarding the amount of casualties, it's reasonable to assume they were low on both sides. In any case; the Duke of Lithuania was captured and executed, and his kingdom forfeit. The Lithuanians were no more.

Back in Bohemia, the deceased king's only son, Jaromir was crowned King of Bohemia as King Jaromir I. Jaromir was but 19 years of age, and was in all honesty a weak ruler when compared to his father and grandfather. Nonetheless, the kingdom of Bohemia was now powerful and he had many talented generals that he could rely on. He still had many years to live, and he would not likely end his days as a weak king.

Victory against the pagans finally started to seem achievable, and in 1143, a Spanish crusade on its way to Lesser Poland entered Franconia. It quickly passed through Bohemia and took Lesser Poland without a fight in 1145. The Lithuanians were now eliminated, and the Cumans were on the decline.

But just as the situation was again looking bright for Christianity, war broke out between the Christians themselves. England and France recommenced their disputes, and ther Germans of the Holy Roman Empire invaded Bohemia in 1147. Although cowardly and unfairly done, it must be said about the Germans that they chose the perfect time to attack. Bohemia lacked a talented general at the moment, and the king was occupied in Franconia. Adding to that, the army in Bohemia had still not fully recovered from the Lithuanian attack in 1137 and the Crusade just a few years ago. The outnumbered Bohemians thus retreated. Cowardly, yes, but it was their only choice.
Also Friesland was invaded, but here it was the Germans who fled, as they had clearly underestimated the strenght of the Bohemian army.

King Jaromir reacted quickly, and himself led an army to retake Bohemia in 1148. This was done with ease, and the Germans fled, seeing that they were outnumbered. A diversion was launched against Swabia at the same time. A minor force invaded, and a small German army took its stand, but was quickly outmanouvered by the Bohemians, and retreated to their keep instead. This provided the Bohemians with a nice loot, without having to do anything for it.


Ther Germans were swift in their vengeance though, and a massive German army entered Swabia in 1149 to break the siege. The Bohemians, happy with their loot, and being outnumbered by more than 7:1 decided to withdraw, in a most irritable fashion.
The Holy Roman Emperor's war against the Bohemians had this far been a great failure, and on top of that, he was excommunicated by the Pope for his agressive acts against his fellow Christians in 1149.

Here we leave the Bohemians for now. The Kingdom of Bohemia has now become a power to be accounted for, and has now incorporated much of what was once Polish lands. The Kingdom of Bohemia in 1150:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I quit the game at a very busy time. I think that my war with the Germans will not be over so quickly, but I'm positive about it. They're both excommunicated and at war with the successful Venetians, so I think their end might be near, even though they have massive stacks in some provinces. Another good thing is the conquest of Greater Poland, this means that I finally have at least ONE non-border province: Silesia, and this saves me a huge amount of money.
Anyway, we'll see what happens next, I still have Pomerania to conquer, but my units are not yet teched up enough to fight like 5 units or Royal Knights and 11 units of Viking Carls.

[bamff]

Real nice campaign you've got going there bamff Could you post a pic of the map at present? Despite thorough reading I find myself a bit confused, just how big is the English Empire by now?

Apologies Innocentius, keep forgetting to upload pics....

Hope this helps - it is the state of play at the time of the coronation of King Edmund III in 1253...I have now managed to have an emissary or bishop in almost all provinces that are not visible from my own provinces, the two "unknown" areas down in the South East corner are in Byzantine hands.

[naut]

Nice work there bamff.

[Kavhan Isbul]

I like the talent of bamff, and any energy to attempt any write-up, so here is a summary of my Teutonic Order campaign - I will let the screenshots paint the picture.



Initially I raced to take Prussia, then took advantage of a war between the Lithuanians and the Polish (the Polish were getting badly beaten), allied myself with the Polish (historically accurate, my order was invited by the Polish king and this is still early) and took Lithuania, while relieving a siege in Greater Poland. The Lithuanians abandoned province and never fought back. A few years later I took Volhynia (simply to hurt the Lithuanians) - they abandoned the province again. Had some money problems as my ports have not been built up, only had 2 caravels in the Baltic (more expensive than barques but cheaper upkeep and better ships), and ended up relying on cheap (in terms of upkeep) units such as arbalests and militia sergeants, plus any plunder I could get. Then the Novgorodians finally invaded Lithuania, a withdrew to the castle, and then forfeited Volhynia to the Cumans - I judged correcgtly that the latter will not go any further. Then took Novogorod and defended it successfully thanks to the excellent teutonic knights and allied myself to the Kievans (also fighting the Novgorodians).



In the next stage, I finally had the income to get crusades going - one at a time and none being built before the current one is over. Retook Volhynia, and then decided to take advantage of a new alliance with the Horde. The Mongols were way overstretched and I was more worried about the Russians. Invading Kiev was a bit tough and I lost the first battle (I actually won the battle but two boyars managed to hide and I ran out of time before I discovered and destroyed them - a minute or so more and I would have won). It worked out well however because I killed everyone in the second battle and avoided the siege on the fortress. I wanted Kiev as it provides a nice defensive position against anyone coming from the East.



It started to become obvious that the Horde needed to be eliminated if the Order was to prosper (and the same is I guess what the Mongols thought aboyt my faction - an obstacle to their expansion). I first had a successful crusade to Moldova, which pretty much finished off the Cumans, and then blitzed the Mongols out of Moscow, Chernigov and Levidia. They only counter-attacked in Moscow (where I sent a crusade) only to be repeatedly beaten a few times in a row. The good thing was that they weren't coming from Volga-Bulgaria, so there was no bridge battle, which made things almost interesting (but not quite). Soon they lost too many troops, and I took the rest of their holdings easily. Now they are gone for all practical purposes, with some rebels about to be dealt with in the Crimea. In the meantime, the Danes destroyed the Swedish and I bribed some rebels in Norway - I do not know why really.

Throughout the campaign I never attacked catholics, even rebels. I considered briberies fair though - they decided to join the Order and were rewarded for it. I only have one Grand Inquisitor and had two inquisitors, but one was assassinated. I will not replace him - I hame my 4 star GI. I am not sure what I want to do next - turtle down and win by GA points (burning a few royal lines in the process) or wage a war against the Heretic Armenians and take Asia Minor to connect my order to my brothers in arms in the Middle East (who are doing well themselves). I am afraid that other then the Byzantines and the Armenians none other muslims or pagans remain. The Pope should be pleased.