"I have returned"

[Martok]

Curiously though that single action of aggression, began a chain of events that would lead to the destruction of Novgorod and the Volgas and the rise of the Kievans.

That may not entirely be a coincidence. It's not been definitively proven (and maybe never will be), but a number of MTW players have noticed that if they remain at peace, then the rest of the map tends to stay quiet as well. Whereas on the other hand, if they go to war with someone fairly early, it seems to trigger a chain reaction where a bunch of other factions will attack each other. It's one of the odd little things about this game, and we can't be sure if it's an actual bug or if it was just a quirk in the code somewhere.


As for me, my Bohemian campaign is over. I don't think I've ever had a game of MTW collapse on me as swiftly as it did last night.

Things went badly from the beginning. As I'd feared, Novgorod invaded Livonia before my reinforcements could arrive. My men there fought well, but in the end I was overwhelmed and had no choice but to withdraw what was left of my army to Lithiuania. This wouldn't have necessarily been a crushing blow in and of itself, except that worse was to come.

From the frozen north, the Swedes and Danes (who were allied) hit me with a joint invasion. Pomerania fell to King Olaf's army with barely a fight, almost completely cutting off my men in Prussia (including troops who'd originally been intended to reinforce my army in Livonia). Worst of all, however, the Swedes--after destroying my fledgeling navy in the Baltic--landed a large expeditionary force in Lithiuania. After a prolonged battle in which the momentum swung back and forth several times, my outnumbered army finally drove the Swedes back into the sea, where many Vikings perished.

In the end, though, it was a Pyrrhic victory, as my army was absolutely decimated--fewer than 300 men survived the battle. Sensing they would never get a better opportunity to do so, the Lithiuanians rose up against me, fielding an army that easily numbered over 2000 troops. While I could've moved more men in from Prussia, I realized doing so would be a futile gesture and withdrew from Lithiuania entirely.

The year after that, the Danes invaded Prussia in force, but I narrowly defeated them in a battle that was nearly as bloody as the one in Lithiuania where I beat the Swedes. Unfortunately, however, Prussia turned out to parallel the situation in Lithiuania almost exactly, as my surviving garrison was again too weak to prevent the Prussians from rebelling and driving me out.

At this point, 3 factions--the Cumans, Hungarians, and HRE--must have smelled blood in the water, as they all invaded most of my remaining lands over a span of 4 years. Silesia fell to the Germans, and Lesser Poland was quickly occupied by Hungary (who had dissolved our alliance by then). I managed to fend off the Cumans' invasion of Greater Poland, only to have the Poles themselves reappear there the next year.

By 1148, only Bohemia itself was still under my control. I tried to expand once more and reverse my fortunes, but to no avail. I failed in both of my attempts to regain territory--a modest raid into Francony(sp?), and a daring invasion of Hungary itself (both of which were initially successful, but in both cases a relief army arrived raised the siege).

In 1161, the German Emperor decided to finally finish me off for good (and put me out of my misery!). He attacked from Austria with an army of around 1800 men, including quite a few mounted x-bows. This time, the hills of the Czech clans' ancenstral lands were not enough to save me. Not even a whithering storm of arrows from my famous bowmen could deter the Imperial troops. They surrounded Prague and proceeded to starve my people into submission. In 1164, the Emperor's men stormed the city, and my king fell before its walls.

Thus ends the account of my Bohemian campaign. I believe I'll try again, but I definitely need to re-evaluate my strategy!