Middle Ages: Interactive

[Csargo]

............

Don't hate me cause I'm European. Oh and invaded France

[Motep]

Don't hate me cause I'm European. Oh and invaded France

I dont hate you...I just view you as the enemy of my ally and think you are an untrustworty bakka!

[Hepcat]

So when do I get decisions to make?

[Csargo]

So when do I get decisions to make?

NEVER

[Motep]

NEVER

Bwahaha?

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

Mongolia has finished inification.


Decisions Decisions:

Sicily: Continue in North Africa? Bring down the Moors in Spain? Bring down England?

England: Push into the French mainland? Wait for supplies? Launch a Second Front (specifically, where?)?

France: Drive the English out of the coast (will take a while)? Focus on Spain?

Moors: Drive the Sicilians out of Tunisia? Destroy the Spanish Kingdoms? Invade Egypt?

Seljuks: Push the Egyptians toward the Sinai Penninsula? Attack Persia before the Chinese conquer it? Attack Arabia?

Byzantium: Continue attacking Bulgaria? Attack the Seljuks?

Holy Roman Empire: Attack Poland? Intervene in Bulgaria? Attack France?

Leon: Attack the Moors? Wait for the French to get here (if they do)? Unite the Spanish Kingdoms

Mongolia: Advance into Siberia? Attack China?

China: Conquer Persia? Attack Korea? Attack Vietnam?

Pope: Excommunicate the Byzantines? Un Excommunicate England? Continue the "Holy War" against the Moors?

[Motep]

Now to make things public:

China has two million soildiers. 1 million more are in training.

1, 000 ,000 men are headed to invade Persia.
250,000 are headed to invade Korea.
500,000 are protecting their homeland.
250,000 are conquering up to the western wastes and deserts.

Once my troops training is complete, those 500, 000 will head to the south to conquer lands there

Map of China



striped areas represent lands I plan to take on the home front.

I am orange.
the Khitan Empire is green.
the indians are red.
everybody else is just the tannish color.

[Comrade Alexeo]

Chaos.

All was chaos.

***

"...and dost thou and all of your descendents swear fealty to the Holy Roman Kaiser Otto III, and all of his descendents, in perpetuity?"

The King of Croatia, Ivo Mesic, hesitated for just a moment before replying with a sigh:

"Yes, I do so."

*

It was over almost before it began, and before anybody expected it to be.

The Duke Josef von Speyer of Carenthia had planned to march quickly to the Croatian capital of Zagreb and thence lay siege to King Ivo Mesic and his court. The army had made good time, but Speyer was surprised when he arrived at Zagreb to find the Croatian army waiting for him outside its walls.

Ivo Mesic wanted a fight, and he would get it.

He should have stayed inside the walls; the Germans executed a swift and devastating victory against the poorly-armed Croatian militia. Speyer executed it thusly:

The German spearmen formed up in two lines on flat farmland outside the city, with woods on their left to protect their flanks. Speyer waited with his knights on the right side of the line. Half the archers were deployed after the spearmen, and the other half hid in the woods.

Mesic had only managed to gather some 50 knights, who fought with javelins and swords - which he knew were no match for the Germans and their great lances. He had, however, conscripted nearly 7500 from Zagreb and nearby villages, and armed them with spears and shields. In these he would have to count on victory - overwhelming the German force through sheer mass was the only option.

There could be little finesse to his plan, and Mesic simply began a massed charge towards the German lines while his knights swung to the left in order to distract the Germans.

What the King did not know was that von Speyer wanted all of this to come to pass. He had given his restless knights strict orders not to directly engage the Croatian cavalrymen, with promises that if they did so they would have plenty of killing to follow. So it was that the German knights began to "chase" after the Croatian knights.

Now the German infantry seemed exposed to the large mass coming towards them, and Speyer then ordered them to withdraw quickly as if in retreat; he knew that his men had the discipline to execute such an order.

At the opposite end of the spectrum were the Croatians, who lost all pretense of order and began to sprint towards the back of the Germans and their commander von Speyer, who suddenly blew a battle-horn.

At that moment, several things happened at once:

-the German infantry halted and turned around to face the Croatian charge.
-the archers on the field also halted and turned to face the Croatians, nocking their arrows.
-the German knights stopped the chase and charged right into the Croatian knights, who had been lulled into a false sense of security.
-the archers hidden in the woods marched double-quick outside the forest and set up in a line behind the Croatian infantry, also nocking their arrows as their field counterparts.

Mesic knew what was to come but could do naught but watch as disaster struck:

A sudden hail of arrows darkened the sky as the field archers let loose upon the Croatian herd. Almost as soon as that happened, the archers who had come up from the woods and formed up behind the Croatians fired straight into the backs of their enemies.

It was like a scythe cutting wheat; most of the Croatians were unarmored, and of course none had shields on their backs. Hundreds fell almost instantly; screams of war were exchanged into screams of death as everybody tried to figure out just where everybody had disappeared to.

The Croatian knights fought bravely, but were easily overwhelmed by their German counterparts and began to race towards Zagreb's walls. Then the German knights turned and galloped towards the Croatian infantry.

Mesic himself and his retinue charged towards the battle as well, hoping to take the German archers in their backs as they had taken the Croatians, but it would all be in vain.

Several more volleys from the archers streaked through the air before the Croatians figured out just what was happening - and when they did, and they saw the German knights just moments away on their left, they despaired and began to rout.

Speyer blared his horn again, and now he and the German infantry charged forward and chased after the Croatians, who were even now being utterly cut apart by the greedy German knights, filled with bloodlust. The field archers stopped firing and, though somewhat weary, began to chase as well - for even among vassal militias much plunder could be found off corpses.

Mesic was nearly upon the second group of archers when they calmly turned around and let loose a full volley at almost literally point-blank range.

It was disastrous; dozens of horses collapsed in an instant, and Mesic was thrown from his steed and then there was only darkness...

*

So it was that Duke Josef von Speyer, almost by accident, found himself with a virtually annihilated enemy army, a capitulated capital, and a captured king.

Surrender of the latter's country came quite quickly afterwards.

He allowed his force a well-deserved rest within the comfortable walls of Zagreb while he sent riders - some back to Klagenfurt with orders to ramp-up mobilization of the army intended for Hungary so they would be ready to march when Speyer returned, and some to the borders of the newly-conquered kingdom to maintain watch on the Byzantines, who surely would be able to defeat the Bulgarians rather quickly.

And so he waited...

***

To the King of France, Robert the Second

Der Kaiser is glad that you have come to him now. He believes that it shows that, despite your vile alliance with the heathens of China and Byzantium, the French Court may very well not be as possessed with heresy as previously thought, and indeed may not require trial by the Holy See.

As a test of your faith, der Kaiser will accept an alliance with France and further pressure our noble but, perhaps, misguided, ally of England to halt their campaign against you, but only if France agrees to cede the Duchies of Burgundy and Flanders in full and perpetuity to the Holy Roman Empire. By this, you will demonstrate that you are in fact not, to our mistake and embarassment possessed by evil and sin, but are indeed wise, noble, and pious souls.

If not, then der Kaiser will be even more convinced of the presence of Satan in the French court, and as a good Catholic will by necessity be forced to encourage His Holiness Silvester II to save the French citizenry from the Abomination.

Regards,
Baron Sigmund von Wilhelm of Bavaria
Deputy Commissioner of Kaiser Otto the Third of the Holy Roman Empire

***

Order.

All would be order.