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just a quick pre-Thing initial response: You know, that is the first time I’ve ever seen mention anywhere, including reading AARs, that you can build a fort on enemy territory while conducting a siege, whether for protection or to reduce attrition! I’ll have to explore that the next time it comes up (I guess you only do it if attrition is being applied, or if winter is coming). Super-helpful, thanks!
just a quick pre-Thing initial response: You know, that is the first time I’ve ever seen mention anywhere, including reading AARs, that you can build a fort on enemy territory while conducting a siege, whether for protection or to reduce attrition! I’ll have to explore that the next time it comes up (I guess you only do it if attrition is being applied, or if winter is coming). Super-helpful, thanks!
It was quite an eye opener for me too, I was wondering why those forts kept on popping on my provinces during wars and suddenly disappeared when I take the province back. First time I thought ooh look free holding
Merry Christmas/holiday season etc to all. The next Thing and chapter after the break (probably at least a couple of weeks away, will see how it goes).
The Twenty-fifth Þing of Eilif’s Reign – 7 October 911 (a summary of advice from Chapter 94)
It’s the holiday season and I know comments are going to be a little sparser than usual and that's fine, so here goes with what we have to hand – and many thanks for those!
I'm always wary fighting defensive pagans (suomenusko and the ones around poland I guess) on their soil but the long way via Kexholm seems to be too long to march around. We're big enough to win anyway, but the elevated losses were not only luck and river crossing but them defending well on their soil.
In this case, it was on neutral Karelian territory (never had to actually enter Pomorye due to capturing the heir early on). Would that have made a difference?
Well, that was a fair bit costlier than expected. Still, it was a battle of faiths, so that may have been fitting after all. Fighting on good Norse soil helped keeping the casualties a bit lower than they could have been, too. Now to pursue the dream.
Oh, and good news - I don't believe Grimr is a hel-worshipper, or he'd have far more negative traits.
I think so – and it could indeed have been worse than it was. A good lesson to check for next time, too. Re Grimr: yeah, I though that. The nickname must just be generally descriptive of him rather than anything to do with his membership of the dread society.
Very much so – it seemed light years away when I started this first CK2 game as a rank newbie. The first of the major achievements I hoped to complete in the game.
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Ch94 Q1: Summoned Army Strengths.Something I noticed here is that all the piety-based defensive armies summoned by Toivo seem to have appeared at well below full strength. Setting his personal levy aside, he should have had 16,000 warriors (from the 1,600 piety he spent on them). I calculated them as (at start, before any reinforcing, which they stopped doing once they left Pomorye territory) at exactly 65% of that. Is there some limiting mechanic or explanation (such as a limit on this type of soldier in regions, for example) why those armies didn’t appear at full strength, whereas prestige once tend to do so? It certainly saved me either having to wait for longer to get all my vassal allies together and/or spending even more prestige on a third tribal army. I am curious though.
1) No idea. May have just been bugged. The mechanic is no longer in the game so no way to test.
1a) Good work handling the war with minimal cost despite the surprise 12000 man army. One other option would have been to send an army (by ship?) behind the lines and take the single county, maybe with an assault. If the enemy is fully occupied it's an automatic 100% warscore, and allies do not count (of course, vassals do).
Noted re that defensive army feature being superseded since. For this run through, I'll always assume full strength when planning, anything less being a bonus. Also good point re the end run - though it would be a long voyage around the White Sea, it's always a possibility.
There's a setting that you can select between 0%/50%/100% reinforcement rate which the AI could've turned off, or his piety might've run out. Troops called by piety reinforce by piety so if you're out of piety it doesn't reinforce (but as many of my experiences this might be horselord specfic).
My guess here is fairly simple. Toivo did summon 16k men. His problem is that they've been in poor, forested territory, far north, in winter. In other words, attrition .
And to clear things up, both tribal and religious armies don't reinforce.
Ah, that could have been it. And noted re reinforcement (which was as I had thought - that these hosts are one-off and non-reinforcing).
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Ch94 Q2: Reform.I have the basics above, including the other effects. A little more detail on what this may mean for succession law options would be very handy – and whether other conditions will apply (I suppose I’ll find out soon enough, but some advance notice would be good). Also, anything I should do beforehand or immediately after the reform is proclaimed. Otherwise, I’ll just do it and see what happens.
2) Some random info on reform, in no particular order:
-You will be able to declare holy wars. The target duchy must be your neighbor and/or within two sea zones, as well as of course a different faith. If you win you get everything owned by the target realm in that duchy. Holy wars can be very powerful, but they are also very risky: unlike with conquest or claim wars, any nearby (not necessarily neighboring) rulers of the same faith can choose to join in the defense. This includes vassals of other realms. You can end up with a very tough war pretty quickly.
-Maybe the best immediate advantage: you can demand that vassals or courtiers convert. They need to have ~35 opinion of you, bribes can be helpful. This is a good thing to do right after reform.
-Not every Norse pagan will convert to the reformed faith. I believe all your vassals should, but other rulers will have a choice. If they don't they'll become "Old Norse". You'll then be able to use holy war/conquest against them and they won't like you.
-Not an issue for a while, but eventually you'll get great holy wars. There's an event; I'll skip details until then. Short version: it's a holy war for a whole kingdom, and any norse ruler can join.
-Succession: Going from memory since things have changed, but I think it's bad news - I believe you don't get any good laws until you're feudal. Then you should be able to get ultimogeniture (youngest son inherits everything) or elective (same as now but all titles go to the heir). Primogeniture requires an additional law change. I actually prefer ultimogeniture though - the long reigns tend to make up for the early weakness.
-Increasing tribal authority becomes much more popular. This is intended to smooth your path towards feudalism.
-I think you may see some decrease in levy size. Not sure on the details. Nothing huge.
-One big one I almost forgot: you'll start to get very low supply limits in unreformed pagan counties (other than Old Norse). This can make it very unpleasant to invade. The Russian empire concept might become difficult. This is nullified at military organization level 4.
If this sounds like a mixed bag, it is. There are a couple good benefits, but mostly reforming is a pathway to feudalism. Once feudal you are basically Christian+, since you keep raiding, county conquests and concubines.
@MatthewP makes a good summary. I'll actually just make some additions to that.
-You will be able to declare holy wars. The target duchy must be your neighbor and/or within two sea zones, as well as of course a different faith. If you win you get everything owned by the target realm in that duchy. Holy wars can be very powerful, but they are also very risky: unlike with conquest or claim wars, any nearby (not necessarily neighboring) rulers of the same faith can choose to join in the defense. This includes vassals of other realms. You can end up with a very tough war pretty quickly. Holy wars as reformed pagan cost 100 piety - but you still keep your conquest CB, so it's an additional option to seize duchies if you can keep your target's coreligionists at bay (or they are busy/ don't join).
-Maybe the best immediate advantage: you can demand that vassals or courtiers convert. They need to have ~35 opinion of you, bribes can be helpful. This is a good thing to do right after reform. That is, if they don't decide to keep practicing in secret - then you'll need a good seer to root them out by hunting apostates. If there isn't a good character or dynasty I want to preserve, I usually tend to go for the purge.
-Not every Norse pagan will convert to the reformed faith. I believe all your vassals should, but other rulers will have a choice. If they don't they'll become "Old Norse". You'll then be able to use holy war/conquest against them and they won't like you. Old Norse will be a heresy. Those who like you are more likely to follow suit, but there will probably be some holdouts even within Eilif's kingdom. Most of the provinces don't convert, too, so you'll likely have heretic uprisings in formerly good Norse counties.
-Not an issue for a while, but eventually you'll get great holy wars. There's an event; I'll skip details until then. Short version: it's a holy war for a whole kingdom, and any norse ruler can join. Norse crusades, triggering around 1000 IIRC.
-Succession: Going from memory since things have changed, but I think it's bad news - I believe you don't get any good laws until you're feudal. Then you should be able to get ultimogeniture (youngest son inherits everything) or elective (same as now but all titles go to the heir). Primogeniture requires an additional law change. I actually prefer ultimogeniture though - the long reigns tend to make up for the early weakness. As a tribal, your succession laws are limited to Elective Gavelkind, Gavelkind and Tanistry. As long as Eilif doesn't decide to embrace his inexistent Celtic heritage, that only leaves you with Gavelkind. You'll still have to change your highest titles' laws, but regular Gavelkind has (almost only) advantages compared to Elective:
+ no title is going to create itself out of thin air for your non-primary heirs
+ no heir can decide to rather be independent of the primary heir if they inherit a lower title
+/- your eldest son will inherit your primary title, there's no election mechanic
-Increasing tribal authority becomes much more popular. This is intended to smooth your path towards feudalism. There's no opinion penalty any more, and your vassals will support passing the law.
-I think you may see some decrease in levy size. Not sure on the details. Nothing huge. Not that I can think of, actually. Pre-HF reform keeps the Norse faith offensive pagans, so they'll keep their inherent levy bonus.
-One big one I almost forgot: you'll start to get very low supply limits in unreformed pagan counties (other than Old Norse). This can make it very unpleasant to invade. The Russian empire concept might become difficult. This is nullified at military organization level 4. Building forts becomes critical - during sieges, you'll have to spend 20 gold to build one, or attrition will tear your army apart.
- Eilif will bear the title of Fylkir and be head of the faith. Most of the time, you won't notice any difference, but the Fylkir's piety will increase MA of the faith and may act against heretics per event. Also, he can launch the aforementioned Great Holy Wars once triggered.
Holy Wars: Excellent, and good to know some of the risks and benefits. Maybe a Great Holy War one day too. But not yet.
Forced Conversions. I've really been looking forward to that and already have the relevant law in place.
Old Norse, Heresy etc. Useful info. A pity re Norse counties needing to be converted anew. Is that effort all essentially redundant now, or is there some residual benefit (either in opinion or ease of re-conversion to reformed)?
Succession. There might be some advantage then. Will see what becomes available after reform. If Gavelkind is a definite improvement over the elective version (looks like it is), it might be a worthwhile step on the way to feudalism, which I think is still a relatively long way off.
Tribal Authority. Good to know.
Supply Limits. Yeah, read that one and saw it would be one of the bigger trade-offs to be made. And as mentioned before @alscon that was very useful new info for me re siege forts.
Raiding. I liked that when I was looking through the things that were kept after reform.
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Ch94 Q3: Way Ahead.Any general advice on how and where to proceed from here would, as always, be welcome. Now that I have been forced into assembling a fair-sized supplementary tribal army, I’m minded to use it straight away (the rolling declaration of war when peace is made but before they disband). They and the Royal Guard are now in the north, so striking another target up there among the de jure Russian Suomenusko realms would make sense. But Poland (for Turov – thanks for the suggestion @diskoerekto ) would also make sense – and it’s on the way to Memel, which will have to be dealt with too. Mind you, the latter could be done by warring in the north, but sending some re-mustered levies to Memel to fix things up there at the same time.
3) You could conquer a few more counties I suppose. Only worth a whole lot if you're not at your demesne limit in my view. In the medium term, I'd say do a bunch of raiding (spend the prestige on buildings since it's useless once you go feudal...or die), increase organization, try to convert everyone, and maybe mix in some holy wars against the Old Norse who pop up and other targets of opportunity.
Some options there. On conquests, given I'll be aiming for Empire (as diskoerekto allude to below) I'm still happy enough to do them if they contribute to the county tally.
I do not accept this, Russian Empire is going to happen. See this war, we nearly did all the battles on our own soil, and if I knew @Bullfilter one little bit, he's the master expert in managing logistics.
One note about prestige buildings: Except shipyards and huiscarl training grounds, try to keep them at level 2 or 4 because that's when the upgrade to the next level castle version happens. What I mean is, War Camp I will disappear when you feudalize and turn the tribe into a castle but War Camp II becomes Barracks I. War Camp III also becomes Barracks I (so lost investment) but War Camp IV becomes Barracks II.
Weaponsmith seems to have the best conversion rate of prestige to gold when one looks at the upgrades (300+400=700 prestige for 200 gold for first level and 500+600=1100 prestige for 250 gold for second level. Shipyard one can say 200/200 gold for same amount of prestige, Keep (from Training Grounds) is 150/200, Militia Training Grounds (from Practice Range) and Barracks (from War Camp) is 100/120 gold)
Among War Camp / Practice Range, the latter is more desirable for a tribal ruler because archers > light infantry but when upgraded, Practice Range becomes Militia Training Grounds which gives a mixture of archers and LI while the puny War Camp becomes a Barracks which gives heavy infantry and pikemen. So spend on that one if you're not spending on shipyards or huiscarl training grounds or Weaponsmith.
In short, after that complicated explanation I can say among prestige buildings the priority should be Weaponsmith, Shipyard, Keep, War Camp and lastly Practice Range while keeping all except Shipyards at levels 0, II or IV.
Among gold buildings, Huiscarl Training Grounds stay as they are, Market again has its upgrades at level II and IV (Market Town and Large Market City respectively). Market Town keeps its value but Large Market City is a big loss in gold. So if you have Market I (Market Village) it's best to upgrade to Market Town to protect your investment but otherwise never bother about Market and if you want to build a gold building go for Huiscarl Training Grounds.
It's Bjarmia, Saamod or Poland at this point; right? Once, I was really fed up with pacts so once they left I declared war on 3 countries at the same time. If you think 10000+ strong army can take on all 3 in a row, you can even do that. Since they are unrelated wars they do not form huge stacks and one can defeat them after one another. I looked at the previous episode but strength analysis is for other provinces and not Bjarmia or Saamod.
On a slightly related topic, on which province is our chancellor trying to fabricate a claim at the moment? I forgot which one that was.
About the new provinces, I believe giving them to trigger happy Norse rulers might make them conquer neighboring provinces like the Minsk example.
This has been good progress despite a bad surprise, and now it seems it's time to turn the crisis into an opportunity
I'll redo my strength calcs again once I get back into the game, but they seem to be the main options. The Chancellor was in the Murom counties (in the Rus imperial claim). The ones Eilif's vassals seem to be intent on conquering, so I might have to look elsewhere now.
The good thing to come from the peasant revolt is that you don't need to be too hasty - the revolt is a war too, after all. So you can disband your troops, send the tribal army to your target, and then strike swiftly.
Waging a holy war after reformation comes to mind, but I do believe Eilif sadly won't have enough piety to do so after reforming. It may be a good idea to strike someone close to your powerful vassals, so they may decide to do a follow-up war on the weakened enemy.
Or you could decide to send a message to the defensive pact, something I'm sure Eilif would like to do. Especially with the conquest of Pomorye, I believe the conquest of Veps might be a good idea, mostly to connect the land (and avoid too harsh attrition if marching through this county).
It shouldn't be too deadly to siege down Veps (if you build a fort there!), and Eilif would have shown the pact that it can't stop him.
Hmm, wasn't sure the revolt would count as a 'right type' of war. Will consider all options, including pact-provoking, but would take some convincing to do that yet.
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With that, I’ll now play the next session and try to get both Germanic Reform and the next ‘chain war’ right. And see what reforming and becoming Fylkir opens up. Bound to get some things wrong and mess others up at first, but that’s what this AAR is all about, after all! Thanks as always for the advice and support.
In this case, it was on neutral Karelian territory (never had to actually enter Pomorye due to capturing the heir early on). Would that have made a difference?
I'm not 100% sure but if the neutral Karelians share a religion with Pomorye it could've been a bonus to them. Someone more experienced than me can maybe comment on this.
I'll redo my strength calcs again once I get back into the game, but they seem to be the main options. The Chancellor was in the Murom counties (in the Rus imperial claim). The ones Eilif's vassals seem to be intent on conquering, so I might have to look elsewhere now.
I’m not sold on gavelkind being an upgrade over the elected version. You’re then locked in to your oldest son instead of being able to (sort of) pick, otherwise it’s similar. The one exception would be if you’re going to end up with several new kingdoms on succession, then it may be worth it.
Chapter 95: Old Gods, New Perspectives (7 October 911 – 25 April 912)
Chapter 95: Old Gods, New Perspectives (7 October 911 – 25 April 912)
Previously, on Blut und Schlacht … Eilif is poised to finalise his conquest of Pomorye, which will then allow him to reform the Germanic Faith – fulfilling one of his father’s dreams; Jarl Virdyan carries on his war on Vechkas of Murom; while another peasant revolt simmers in Memel.
AuthAAR’s Note: this next session was just a bit too long to cram into one chapter, so there will be two shorter ones instead. This should also make it shorter and more ‘consumable’ for the holiday period. Most of the questions for the next Þing will be posed after the next chapter.
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The Reformation - 7 October 911
The conquest of Pomorye was enforced on Toivo Vepsä – who now became just another landless ex-chief. And Eilif’s youngest son Tolir (still not one year old) became the nominal heir to the county.
Eilif’s very next action was to declare the Germanic Reformation with himself as Fylkir. The first thing that became apparent was that the moral authority of the new faith had to build itself ‘from scratch’: down from the highs of the Old Germanic faith – now a heresy.
Ch95 Q1: The Fylkirate.Will the ‘temporal’ title of Fylkir be passed on to Eilif’s heir? Or is there another method for deciding the new one? I presume MA is built the same way it was with the Old Germanic faith. Christian control of Uppsala now becomes a little more irritating, but hopefully can be lived with until the Bloody Bishops shuffles off (unless I try to kill him extra-judicially, I can’t force him to convert as he’s not a direct vassal). Anything else (conversions and later Great Holy Wars aside) I should be using the Fylkirate for at present (as opposed to the powers the Reformation grants Eilif as a ruler)?
In the Garðarikian heartland, Holmgarðr and three other counties converted immediately to the new Reformed Faith. The rest of the Germanic counties adhered to the old ways. Interestingly, Zaozerye (Buðli’s capital) and Smaleskja (Grimr II’s) converted.
In Scandinavia (Garðarikian Sweden as well as Norway and Denmark) a good number of counties also reformed, but a majority stayed set in the unreformed religion. With a couple of heathen Christian counties thrown in.
Flanders was already mainly Christian (Catholic). Hainaut, the only Germanic county, did not reform.
King Halfdan II of Jorvik converted and brought Jorvik (the county) itself with him. The rest of his lands remained heathen.
Of Eilif’s many Germanic vassals, only Frirek ‘the Unchaste’ of Gent continued to follow the old heresy. Every other Germanic direct vassal converted. Eilif hoped that in time they would bring their people with them, whether they were Christian, followed the old ways or one of the other pagan belief systems. [We will see more of Frirek - another very 'interesting' character - in the following chapter.]
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October 911
With Eilif at the limit of holdings good management permitted, he immediately transferred the new title of Pomorye to none other than his infant son Tolir, heir to the county in any case. That then put him over his maximum ‘acceptable’ limit of vassals, so Tolir was allocated to his nephew and current overall heir Jarl Buðli to manage. Keeping it all in the family – and making Buðli happy as well.
Veps was considered as a possible nearby target – it would link Pomorye to Garðariki proper and add another county to the de jure Russian imperial claim. But High Chief Päiviö of Veps was a current pagan defensive pact member and (in addition to having too many dots in his name) had much prestige [864]and piety[507]. He would be bypassed for now.
The army headed south instead, while further opportunities were awaited and to get going in the direction of the irritating Memelian rebellion. The plan at this stage was to dismiss the levies once back on Garðarikian soil (in Ladoga, which would take a month of marching [with 5.3% attrition] to free up the ability to declare a new war if necessary, while continuing with the Royal Guard and the summoned tribal armies to crush the peasant revolt.
Virdyan was still engaged in his subjugation war for Murom and retained around a thousand of his summoned [event spawned] troops plus about 1,500 of his own levies. The issue of his Suomenusko religion would be allowed to rest for now, as would that of the few other vassals of non-Germanic or unreformed beliefs.
Memel’s tribal hold (one of Grimr II’s possessions) fell to the rebels on 18 October – the core of 1,218 peasant troops remaining to continue the next siege there.
Chancellor Grimr was ordered back to court in Nygarðr that day, desisting in his fruitless and now largely redundant efforts to fabricate claims on Murom. Until a more useful target suggested itself, he would perform statecraft – and specifically increase the rate at which the perceived threat of Eilif’s ambitions decayed. That may be useful if he kept adding small or indeed large chunks of territory for his imperial claim in the future.
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November 911
On 30 October, High Chief Venceslav of Turov made what seemed to be a very bad mistake: he quit the pagan defensive pact against Eilif. With only around a week to go before his levies were safely back on home territory (and thus no longer subject to the massive losses incurred when disbanded on foreign soil), Eilif was delighted. The county of Pinsk (the only county in the Duchy of Turov) was his preferred next target, as it was part of the de jure Russian empire and on the way to Memel. But just a few days later, news came that revealed the Turovian plan: Venceslav declared a claim war for Minsk (owned by Grimr II) on Eilif!
“I’m therefore afraid,” said Chancellor Grimr, “that legally you must defend his claim war and cannot now declare war on him yourself, My King. You will not be able to claim Pinsk as part of any settlement.”
“Damn his eyes! He must have employed the same tricksy bush lawyer Vechkas did. Thwarted again. I’ll have to wait until this war is done before claiming Pinsk in another war.”
At that point, Grimr’s aide whispered some helpful information into the Chancellor’s ear. Grimr ‘Son of Hel’ thanked him – in an unintelligible language, before nonchalantly striking him in the head with a club he was holding, without any warning. He was calm as he turned back to the Fylkir.
“Ah, as my man points out, you will have to wait for up to another ten years to do that even after a win, due to peace treaty technicalities.”
“What!?” snarled Eilif. Becoming Fylkir had not, it seemed, invested him with the luck of the Gods after all.
“Oh, and I almost forgot – Venceslav has summoned a tribal army of 2,500 men to help his campaign.”
Grimr sauntered out, stepping over his unconscious aide, leaving his King and Fylkir to fume at the injustice of it all. This was not what he had planned for the triumphant return of his army from the defeat of Pomorye.
At least Budli was doing his bit to promote the Reformed Faith among his vassals. When given the chance, Eilif would consider doing the same himself.
11 November saw the army back in Ladoga, but the levies remained mustered as they made the long trek south to meet the Turovian threat.
By 21 November, The Turovian army was in Minsk and besieging the tribal fort. And more bad news came in four days later: Venceslav had summoned another 2,500 warriors to his cause. This was going to be an even tougher fight than previously expected – and Pinsk wouldn’t even be claimed if (when) it was won.
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December 911
Eilif’s mood was brightened somewhat at the beginning of December, when Spymaster Tihomir sent back yet another trunk of papers from Constantinople. It was decided to see the effort put into improving Garðarikian knowledge of construction. The last branch of military research remaining was on cavalry – it could be improved now, though the next priority was on improving military organisation.
Doing so however would be more difficult due to it being considered ‘ahead of its time’ for Garðarikian researchers.
“Is that because we have not completed our cavalry research?” asked Eilif of Marshal Vihavald.
“I’m not sure My Liege, but I can check.”
“Yes, do so at the next Þing Vihavald. If the advice is that completing cavalry research would make the next level easier to attain for all other military research, then perhaps we should do that first, then focus on military organisation.”
Ch95 Q2: Research – Ahead Penalty.In this case, the ahead penalty is 53.3%. I really want that next organisational level (for supply and retinues in particular), but that’s a massive premium to be paying. Will it disappear if I complete cavalry?
At this time, the Fylkir was becoming known for his poetry – Nordic sagas in praise of the Gods being his forte, of course. He embraced this fame – it would help him in his rule, both as King and Fylkir. And his recent elevation and now this new reputation as a poet made him decide he would make a change in his appearance. Out with the old style, in with the new! Eilif was becoming a true Reformation Man (Nordic style)!
On 11 December, Minsk fell to the Turovian siege. They arrived in Orsha a few weeks later – and resorted to a quick assault against the relatively small local garrison, perhaps sensing the approach of the main Garðarikian army. Grimr II’s own levies were approaching by now – they had not disbanded in the north, but had followed Haukr’s army down from Ladoga. Now, The Turovian commander Bryacheslav was heading for Smaleskja itself, while Haukr approached Vitebsk from the north.
As he followed this news from the front, Eilif sat by the fireside, reading his latest saga out to his faithful old dog Hunter. As he finished, he ruffled Hunter’s ears gently.
“What did you think of that, boy? Pretty boring I guess – Hunter. HUNTER!” Hunter would never again keep him company by a roaring fire, or follow his master on the hunt. It was proving to be a bleak winter, bringing cold comfort to the great King and Fylkir.
By 26 December, it was deemed both safe and convenient to call Jarl Grimr to arms, to help defend his own lands from Turovian and peasant depredations. The call went out.
“Will he come as he and his father always have, Grimr?” Eilif asked his Chancellor.
“Maybe, My King. Maybe.”
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January 912
The new year brought Haukr to Vitebsk on 2 January. He continued on towards Smaleskja, to see if Bryacheslav – now in charge of over 5,600 men – would meet him there on 11 January. He would not: the Turovians instead made for Vitebsk to try to slip behind the Garðarikian army. But they had to cross a major river to do so: Haukr pressed on to Smaleskja, confident he could outmanoeuvre the Turovians once he was there.
As this played out, just to the south Barsbek ‘the Liberator’ finally finished his conquest of Lyubech, terminating the short-lived Kingdom of Bohemia.
And the same day, Grimr II honoured the call to arms. He had just over 900 men to the north in Latgale and Luki: it seemed they had been heading to Memel.
More good news arrived on 11 January – Tihomir had ended his embarrassing membership of the faction agitating to lower tribal organisation in Garðariki.
Then on 16 January, the Memelian rebel army appeared outside the walls of Werle in Pomerania: unfortunately, their 1,172 men would have to be left for now to do their worst. But their hash would surely be settled in due course.
After what seemed like a very long time coming, on 19 January Virdyan finally completed his subjugation of High Chief Vechkas of Murom. This meant his entire realm – two Jarldoms and two chiefdoms plus attached vassals – went to Virdyan. Though it made the Jarl worryingly powerful, it also brought two more Russian counties into the kingdom. And made a likely reckoning with the Suomenusko Jarl ever more imminent.
That day, Haukr made it to Smaleskja and immediately made to march back to Vitebsk, where he would catch the Turovians in open country just four days after they made it there. The move worked, with Bryacheslav halting in place again in Orsha on 21 January. Haukr now turned to face him, advancing to Orsha himself.
Haukr was due in Orsha on 7 February, where the Turovians would have the advantage of hilly terrain in their defence. Haukr wanted all available troops to hand, so on 27 January ordered Grimr’s levies to join with him to form an even larger host, which would deal with their mutual enemies in succession.
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February-March 912
The Battle of Orsha Tribe began on 7 February with the customary exchange of arrows and skirmishing on snowy hills. The enemy’s flanks were strongly held but their centre was badly undermanned. By 13 February, that centre division had broken and were being pursued from the field by Haukr’s men – the Royal Guard and levies – while the two flanks were based on the two tribal hosts plus some levy regiments. The Turovian left fled on 20 February, Sölvi’s division joining in the pursuit. Virdyan, commanding the Garðarikian left, kept pressing and two days later the enemy broke there too. The pursuit and battle ended on 2 March in a crushing Garðarikian victory, tipping the scales of the war firmly in Eilif’s favour. The enemy’s hilltop position had not done them much good.
Just as the battle in Orsha was wrapping up, a messenger arrived to inform King Eilif that his elderly sister-in-law Jorunn Ketillsdottir – his long-dead brother Helgi’s wife and mother to Buðli and Hakon – had died of natural causes at the ripe old age of 71. One of the few remaining figures of any significance from the early days of the Rurikid dynasty, she would be respectfully remembered.
Haukr was in no mood to dally in Orsha: the Turovians had only left a small garrison and he was suffering attrition from the lack of forage and hard winter conditions. An immediate assault saw the keep retaken the day after the battle was won, with no further casualties. He moved straight on to Minsk, arriving there on 18 March, to find the Turovians still in rout, fleeing back towards their homeland. The process was repeated in Minsk, and a day later Haukr was chasing the invaders over the Pripyat River to Pinsk. He was in a hurry: attrition [for being over the supply limit of 6,000 with 7,900 troops in a severe winter] was running at 12%!
On 26 March, scouts reported that the Turovian army – now just over 4,000 men in strength – had halted in Pinsk and would stand to defend their homeland. They would be doing so with the advantage of a large river in front of them. By that time, attrition had reduced Haukr’s host to just under 7,000 me[I assume this must – in addition to the severe winter - be partly due to the reformation and changes to supply rule – even though they are still on home territory?]
At this inopportune time, while the Memelian revolt siege of Werle continued in Pomerania, over 700 Karelian raiders arrived in the king’s own country of Kexholm on 28 March to begin looting the countryside and besieging the fort. The period of their discouragement after their last failed raid must have worn out! Like the rebels, their justice would be delayed, though sure.
This only redoubled Haukr’s urgency. His army fell upon the defending Turovians in Pinsk on 30 March, having to fight their way over a large river to get at their enemies. The Turovian centre was still weak (it was assumed it constituted Venceslav’s entire levy, while the two flanks, like Garðariki’s, were manned by the two tribal armies he had summoned at the start of the invasion.
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April 912
The enemy centre broke on 3 April and this time, instead of chasing them, Haukr turned his men towards Virdyan’s left flank. This eventually paid dividends after some tough fighting, with that flank collapsing on 14 April and both Virdyan and Haukr turning to Sölvi on the right. That last enemy division retreated on 17 April. By 25 April the pursuit was over. It had been another comfortable victory, but the river assault had led to almost 400 Garðarikian warriors perishing this time.
One of Venceslav’s commanders, Yaropolk Yaroslavovich, was captured during his defence of the left flank. But it seemed his High Chief did not like him enough to ransom him! He was sent to Eilif’s prison in Nygarðr.
As this battle was fought, on 10 April the keep of Waren had fallen in Werle. As the Memelian rebels moved onto the next holding, ugly rumours of treason hastening the fall of the castle leaked out.
The Fylkir could only grind his teeth in frustration while the army set about preparing to reduce Venceslav’s stronghold in Pinsk: it was too heaving fortified and garrisoned to make an assault cost-effective, so Sverker was brought in to replace Sölvi and use his expertise to speed up the process.
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Questions
Just the two this time – there will be more, including the seeking of advice on next steps, in the next chapter.
Ch95 Q1: The Fylkirate.Will the ‘temporal’ title of Fylkir be passed on to Eilif’s heir? Or is there another method for deciding the new one? I presume MA is built the same way it was with the Old Germanic faith. Christian control of Uppsala now becomes a little more irritating, but hopefully can be lived with until the Bloody Bishops shuffles off (unless I try to kill him extra-judicially, I can’t force him to convert as he’s not a direct vassal). Anything else (conversions and later Great Holy Wars aside) I should be using the Fylkirate for at present (as opposed to the powers the Reformation grants Eilif as a ruler)?
Ch95 Q2: Research – Ahead Penalty.In this case, the ahead penalty is 53.3%. I really want that next organisational level (for supply and retinues in particular), but that’s a massive premium to be paying. Will it disappear if I complete cavalry?
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The Battle of Pinsk, April 912 AD. This unwanted distraction had frustrated the new Fylkir – but he recognised that the Gods would follow their own mysterious courses, whatever earthly office he held in their name. Perhaps Loki and Hel had contrived to send rebels, raiders and invaders to test his resolve: he would not be found idle in his response.
Oy, the annoyances keep stacking up since reformation.
the fylkirate will go to eilif’s heir. It gives you some passive opinion bonuses I believe, along with great holy wars later. Also, attributes of the fylkir directly affect religious authority (unless this was added in holy fury). You should be able to see this in the tooltip if it applies in your patch. And yes, you build it up mostly the same way, but will have a higher base value. Also, as a reformed
Faith seers attempting conversion will now be more effective for any given level of religious authority.
the ahead penalty is based on the game year. It will go down with time. This creates a strategic tradeoff between getting the tech soon and starting spread throughout your realm and waiting to maximize the “bang for your buck” in the capital.
also, there are a few reasonable ways to approach the virdyan problem, but just wanted to point out that if you give him a council seat and a gift or honorary title he will almost certainly agree to convert. I do think you need to be at peace though.
Ch95 Q1: The Fylkirate.
Will the ‘temporal’ title of Fylkir be passed on to Eilif’s heir? Or is there another method for deciding the new one? I presume MA is built the same way it was with the Old Germanic faith. Christian control of Uppsala now becomes a little more irritating, but hopefully can be lived with until the Bloody Bishops shuffles off (unless I try to kill him extra-judicially, I can’t force him to convert as he’s not a direct vassal). Anything else (conversions and later Great Holy Wars aside) I should be using the Fylkirate for at present (as opposed to the powers the Reformation grants Eilif as a ruler)?
For the most part I have no clue but I’m guessing if your vassal converts himself (or you forcibly convert your vassal) he might in turn forcibly convert the bloody bishop.
The army headed south instead, while further opportunities were awaited and to get going in the direction of the irritating Memelian rebellion. The plan at this stage was to dismiss the levies once back on Garðarikian soil (in Ladoga, which would take a month of marching [with 5.3% attrition] to free up the ability to declare a new war if necessary, while continuing with the Royal Guard and the summoned tribal armies to crush the peasant revolt.
“I’m therefore afraid,” said Chancellor Grimr, “that legally you must defend his claim war and cannot now declare war on him yourself, My King. You will not be able to claim Pinsk as part of any settlement.”
“Damn his eyes! He must have employed the same tricksy bush lawyer Vechkas did. Thwarted again. I’ll have to wait until this war is done before claiming Pinsk in another war.”
Ch95 Q2: Research – Ahead Penalty.In this case, the ahead penalty is 53.3%. I really want that next organisational level (for supply and retinues in particular), but that’s a massive premium to be paying. Will it disappear if I complete cavalry?
This is really good thinking, so much that I doubted my own experience but unfortunately each level of technology is tied to a certain year so completing cavalry wouldn’t help.
A lot of different factions (revolter, neighbor with a bush lawyer, raider) are making themselves nuisance like annoying mosquitoes but Eilif will crush them all and invade a county or two in the meanwhile thanks for a new episode, looking forward to the second part
Looks like the reformation caused another target to appear - the Danes. If they don't want to follow their Fylkir, it is time to show them the right path - by force. Retaking Lejre would help MA. Also, it seems that the Bloody Bishop's gone - but the new godi of Uppsala is an adherent of the old faith, which makes a small difference as he helps the Old Norse MA from completely plummeting, along with the Danes.
Jorvik adhering to the reformation is good news for them, as now they can finally begin converting their provinces. Unreformed pagans need to be extremely lucky if they wish to convert any province belonging to an organized religion.
If the pact scares Eilif too much to go on with his expansion plans, he should deal with Virdyan before he is too much of a thorn in his side.
Time to counter Venceslav's lawyers. Clearly he can't afford the same quality of advice as Eilif . For it is only the attacker in a war who is subject to a truce. Eilif's best course of action would be to siege down his tribal holding, return to friendly lands, disband the levies, and invade the now defenceless chief. Even if he should rejoin the pact, the siege would be over before the pact members can even muster their response.
Ch95 Q1: The Fylkirate.Will the ‘temporal’ title of Fylkir be passed on to Eilif’s heir? Or is there another method for deciding the new one? I presume MA is built the same way it was with the Old Germanic faith. Christian control of Uppsala now becomes a little more irritating, but hopefully can be lived with until the Bloody Bishops shuffles off (unless I try to kill him extra-judicially, I can’t force him to convert as he’s not a direct vassal). Anything else (conversions and later Great Holy Wars aside) I should be using the Fylkirate for at present (as opposed to the powers the Reformation grants Eilif as a ruler)?
The Fylkirate always goes to your primary heir, so you don't need to worry. Also, even as a ducal title, it doesn't count towards your duchy limit, so you can hold two other ducal titles without your vassals complaining.
Reformed MA is mostly like the unreformed one. The changes are a result of the lost holy site and the modifiers from conquest wars, converted rulers and looted/built temples. Additionally, the Fylkir's diplomacy and piety helps hold up the reformed faith's MA.
As to Uppsala, I mentioned it above. Additional Fylkirate uses open up through random events, nothing more. (Sadly, you cannot excommunicate characters .)
Ch95 Q2: Research – Ahead Penalty.In this case, the ahead penalty is 53.3%. I really want that next organisational level (for supply and retinues in particular), but that’s a massive premium to be paying. Will it disappear if I complete cavalry?
No, it depends on the date only. It's definitely worth it to overspend though, as you'll still passively accumulate tech in cavalry from your Byzantine spy network, so cavalry tech will eventually reach the next level without Eilif spending anything on it.
Military organization should clearly be a priority compared to that.
As an aside, pillaging generates tech points (definitely for hordes, not sure for tribals), so that's another way that can be gone (not for Eilif and his aim of feudalizing though, if he did that it would be counter-productive). If you pillage everything, you have the absolute tech mastery and can be centuries ahead of your enemies.
I like to think of that tech gap as a result of both a case of finding better methods to efficiently raze civilizations as well as said civilizations having been razed .
1) I don't know about this.
2) As others have said, it's based entirely on the year. Which in the past has led to me doing a bunch of dodgy math to try to determine the optimum point to give in and pay the penalty (for Byzantium or Rome, just always do so).
To all my dear readers: going through a computer OS update process right now, plus a bit of RL. Very confident I have all my game and AAR saves well backed up in multiple areas, but there's a chance I may have to go through the laborious process of re-installing a raft of programs, settings, passwords etc as part of this. So FYI future AAR updates could be delayed a little until all is sorted.
Very true! Fortunately it all seemed to go like clockwork. I usually have my key files backed up on a second hard drive, a thumb drive and a detachable hard drive that includes a full system image backup.
Thankfully none needed this time, so normal programming (heh) will resume soon. The next chapter for this AAR should be out in a day or so now.
The Twenty-sixth Þing of Eilif’s Reign – 25 April 912 (a summary of advice from Chapter 95)
also, there are a few reasonable ways to approach the virdyan problem, but just wanted to point out that if you give him a council seat and a gift or honorary title he will almost certainly agree to convert. I do think you need to be at peace though.
Yes, agree, that’s long been considered a viable option. It was done for his predecessor (old Jarl Tyueykezhut) who became a good support on the Council. There’s the issue of possibly wanting an excuse to attack him and break up his now even larger power base and redistribute it to a number of good loyal Germanic vassals instead. More discussion of this at the end of the next episode.
Oh, they sound like an excellent treatment for pesky neighbours! But in this case, as borne out by subsequent advice, Venceslav’s lawyers weren’t quite tricksy enough. Though he did run to the Pagan pact very quickly. So the fire maggots should still be applied.
A lot of different factions (revolter, neighbor with a bush lawyer, raider) are making themselves nuisance like annoying mosquitoes but Eilif will crush them all and invade a county or two in the meanwhile thanks for a new episode, looking forward to the second part
Looks like the reformation caused another target to appear - the Danes. If they don't want to follow their Fylkir, it is time to show them the right path - by force. Retaking Lejre would help MA. Also, it seems that the Bloody Bishop's gone - but the new godi of Uppsala is an adherent of the old faith, which makes a small difference as he helps the Old Norse MA from completely plummeting, along with the Danes.
Jorvik adhering to the reformation is good news for them, as now they can finally begin converting their provinces. Unreformed pagans need to be extremely lucky if they wish to convert any province belonging to an organized religion.
Yes, that seems the priority. The question (as mentioned above and to be raised at the end of the next chapter) is whether it’s to be the carrot or the stick.
Time to counter Venceslav's lawyers. Clearly he can't afford the same quality of advice as Eilif . For it is only the attacker in a war who is subject to a truce. Eilif's best course of action would be to siege down his tribal holding, return to friendly lands, disband the levies, and invade the now defenceless chief. Even if he should rejoin the pact, the siege would be over before the pact members can even muster their response.
It seems so. As well as being one of the major objectives set for the game right at the start and one that has taken quite a while to achieve.
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Ch95 Q1: The Fylkirate.Will the ‘temporal’ title of Fylkir be passed on to Eilif’s heir? Or is there another method for deciding the new one? I presume MA is built the same way it was with the Old Germanic faith. Christian control of Uppsala now becomes a little more irritating, but hopefully can be lived with until the Bloody Bishops shuffles off (unless I try to kill him extra-judicially, I can’t force him to convert as he’s not a direct vassal). Anything else (conversions and later Great Holy Wars aside) I should be using the Fylkirate for at present (as opposed to the powers the Reformation grants Eilif as a ruler)?
the fylkirate will go to eilif’s heir. It gives you some passive opinion bonuses I believe, along with great holy wars later. Also, attributes of the fylkir directly affect religious authority (unless this was added in holy fury). You should be able to see this in the tooltip if it applies in your patch. And yes, you build it up mostly the same way, but will have a higher base value. Also, as a reformed Faith seers attempting conversion will now be more effective for any given level of religious authority.
Re Great Holy Wars: standby! I think the personal attributes do apply, but will check again next time the game is fired up. Let’s hope my proselytisers (and those of the reformed vassals and fellow converted foreign rulers) take advantage of that. Lots of Old Germanic heretic counties to be brought aboard, in addition to a vast amount of misguided heathens.
For the most part I have no clue but I’m guessing if your vassal converts himself (or you forcibly convert your vassal) he might in turn forcibly convert the bloody bishop.
The Fylkirate always goes to your primary heir, so you don't need to worry. Also, even as a ducal title, it doesn't count towards your duchy limit, so you can hold two other ducal titles without your vassals complaining.
Reformed MA is mostly like the unreformed one. The changes are a result of the lost holy site and the modifiers from conquest wars, converted rulers and looted/built temples. Additionally, the Fylkir's diplomacy and piety helps hold up the reformed faith's MA.
As to Uppsala, I mentioned it above. Additional Fylkirate uses open up through random events, nothing more. (Sadly, you cannot excommunicate characters .)
Thanks for that. Will have to gradually build it up again, including the purification of the faith within the kingdom. If not excommunication, then conversion or death can substitute!
Fortunately the hive mind once again came to the rescue.
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Ch95 Q2: Research – Ahead Penalty.In this case, the ahead penalty is 53.3%. I really want that next organisational level (for supply and retinues in particular), but that’s a massive premium to be paying. Will it disappear if I complete cavalry?
the ahead penalty is based on the game year. It will go down with time. This creates a strategic tradeoff between getting the tech soon and starting spread throughout your realm and waiting to maximize the “bang for your buck” in the capital.
This is really good thinking, so much that I doubted my own experience but unfortunately each level of technology is tied to a certain year so completing cavalry wouldn’t help.
2) As others have said, it's based entirely on the year. Which in the past has led to me doing a bunch of dodgy math to try to determine the optimum point to give in and pay the penalty (for Byzantium or Rome, just always do so).
It's definitely worth it to overspend though, as you'll still passively accumulate tech in cavalry from your Byzantine spy network, so cavalry tech will eventually reach the next level without Eilif spending anything on it.
Military organization should clearly be a priority compared to that.
As an aside, pillaging generates tech points (definitely for hordes, not sure for tribals), so that's another way that can be gone (not for Eilif and his aim of feudalizing though, if he did that it would be counter-productive). If you pillage everything, you have the absolute tech mastery and can be centuries ahead of your enemies.
I like to think of that tech gap as a result of both a case of finding better methods to efficiently raze civilizations as well as said civilizations having been razed .
Very useful additional info and advice, as always. So the fact I have an ahead penalty is actually a good indication perhaps that Garðariki (mainly through lots of fighting and the decades of spymasters in Constantinople) is shrugging off its habitual backwardness. A bit, anyway.
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Thanks once again for the comments and advice – always such a pleasure to receive any comment, however large or small. Next chapter ready to go and will be published soon.
