Year 993
======================
We continue during battle that we just left off. Cathars are persistent and they endure it till melee where one of our wings gets to counter they slow advance with regular advance for that sweet +400% damage bonus. The meatgrinder continues but in the end we score a huge victory, losing less than 500 men to kill 3.600 heretics. That puts Crusade score to 45%.
Meanwhile I was marrying off 2nd generation of our Jewish and Han councillors. Also did a search for new Senechal, Master of Horse and Hunt. This time remembered to focus on finding young lustful courtiers. With upcoming Death Plague I suspect the supply of many desired characters might dry up.
More funds for our empire. We need still more!
Our elder Master Engineer builds another improvment in Irghiz. I would definetely like it to be somewhere in high chiefdom of Perm but hey, at least we new have +1 technology points income of all kinds in Irghiz. Not sure if our chinese friend will live long enough to fire it again. I also remember to pick Celibate trait from options offered to us by being Oblatus in Benedictine Order. We have not bad currency income there = +20/month.
Our Han Engineer goes wild!
Back on the frontlines, most of Romagnan force are destroyed and Anglo-Saxon armies melted. So now beside Holy Orders there shouldn't be many who oppose us. Perfect for us to continue siegeing down more counties. We have still slightly over 1.000 Permian troops there, and 7.100 levies replenished back home.
March greets us with Sunni Khazar uprising, in province adjecent to Irghiz tribe - where our local retinue force reside. There is only around 2.700 of them, so I attack them at once. Not gonna miss that opportunity to lower Sunni Moral Authority even further. Before month ends, barony of Montalcino is ours.
Weeks pass on siegeing down more holdings and black plague taking Pope to heaven. Our Emperor decides to visit one of local benedictine monasteries. Crusade starts swinging more and more in our favour. Without enemies, AI Italy finally starts taking some counties within contested territory and soon by middle of summer we are looking at 83% score in #teamPope favour. I move to get some more holdings that actually will give me contribution (currently only 15%) because county we just took over doesn't. Our Ecclesiarch converts our single slavic tribe to Orthodoxy (love that we can be catholic and still convert to Orthodoxy!).
Between playing session I did some graphs Victoria 2 style. So progress can be measured better 
Once he is off cooldown I'll move him to last wrong religion county within de jure Nenetsia
. Then we will be one step closer to give Nenetsia away and not having to worry about some wrong religion uprising taking over. Our visit to monastery goes well, as by engaging in discussion with some monk I choose military option. While we miss +2 Modifier, by spending some time with him our Emperor losses Stressed trait, which is really nice. It saves me chosing any focus later to correct it. It also means I'm back to 4 traits.
In Autumn news about another Western Protectorate failure arrive. This time they lost against some Bengali Tribal ruler. Means probably Bengalis took over something in Tibet. On the side - Hindu Tribals are pretty metal, as their elephants scale nicely in tribes levies.
Black Plague spreaded to western europe as well and not sure if it affected our troops but we are down to 615 men
". Thus our siege pace slows down to 5.2% every tick. China recovers a little and somehow subjugates not small Xia kingdom. Our forces are late to lift siege of Syrt by Pechenegs, but we at least can catch them while they are leaving.
Before end of year due to dimishing supplies most of allied crusaders leave our army, making us unable to continue siege of Arezzo county. Black Plague makes thing difficult - who would have thought? I keep my 600 troops to not lose 67.8% progress we already did there. Saddly it does reset anyway :/. Not sure what now I can do to re-attach others to my stack. And hey - Asia Minor gets ravaged by plague!
Year 994
======================
Crusade isn't progressing and it stopped at 83% score. While our fellow Crusaders have forces to continue they are not doing that, and now I can't guide them forwards. Our forces that were to avenge Syrt tribe, got themself caught against enemy narrow flanking them down with just 600 troops. But it isn't the end of it, as Bogomilism shows up in Kerzhenets :/. Right in the middle of Orthodox provinces. Will send Ecclesiarch there asap but probably 1 or 2 provinces will turn away from Orthodoxy.
In February I spot first character within our realm that dies due to Plague. Upon checking it hasn't officially spread to us. Just look at how it spread so far
I like how it didn't affect central europe and us. On other hand Crusading amidst that is painful.
Some smaller crusader armies rejoin our banner, giving us around 1.300-1.400 men. Can try siegeing down at least personal baronies of Romagna king with that. Back home, our 4.000 light cavalry force from Southern Cumania is recalled to Burtasy tribe to deal with Pechenegs. Our Emperor laments death of his catholic french friend to terrible sickness but by visiting tavern he forges new friendship with Kind Komi Catholic - Setyamka.
I move around my troops to get ownership of siege and thus we begin trying to take over Spoletto county. We have only around 100 troops more than defenders so it is really risky. Then supply there goes so low that it is impossible to siege it without attrition so we lose some troops more. More importantly as expected - Bogomilist rebelion occurs. And it is the biggest we've seen so far
That's actually concerning.
As I'm marshalling troops, another rebelion occurs - Sunni in Kazakh. More concerning is that Bogomilist received (not even) 2 months later reinforcements of extra 12.000 troops :/. Given all that I have now to disband my levies in Italy, casue we will need our Permian levies to deal with those 22.000 heretics.
Monastic education events fire for 2 out of 3 emperor's daughters. Nice to have extra stats on them. Then in quick order we fight both rebelions - beggining wth Sunni rebels in southern Cumania
Luckily even with unexpected peasant reinforcements, our warriors beat them seperately
Slowly but without great losses we best initial wave of muslim peasants. But as you already noticed I said initial losses. They do receive reinforcements giving them another 2.500 troops, that will join this fight. At least we manage to route their initial army. Second battle goes for some reason even easier on defense despite worse tactics. By paying attention to it I miss the beggining of huge battle against Bogomilists in forests of Votyaki.
Not sure how did we best them so decisively with them having defensive positions in Forest but this is reaaally good.
I think our better commanders assigned there allowed us dealing them so many casualties, that we quickly routed them from one flank to other in quick succession. 210 casualties per day is quite a number. That defeats 2/3 of heretic forces leaving us only to hunt remaining 9.000. Sunni uprising also meats it's grizzly fate.
Year 995
======================
Year starts with us catching rest of heretics, who try to destroy some smaller vassal forces. We enter the battle in melee already which works to our advantage, due to portion of our army being Heavy infantry, while they field exactly 0 melee dedicated troops.
Last chapter in bogomilist uprising history!
As always something bugs out and we start with Pursuit aka no tactic. It doesn't prevent us from absolutely slaughtering those fools and in just 5 days we chew through red forces. With that both rebelions that flarred up last year are over. Kerzhenets even gets -100% revolt modifier, which will make work of our Ecclesiarch more safe. Sadly in few days our realm priest dies and now I can't assign Orthodox character there because we are catholic. Meaning no conversion for time being.
If you wonder what happened in Italy - the answer is not much. Crusade progressed whole 2%. I'm preparing 2 out of 3 retinue forces to send there. My levies took attrition hit and nose dived back to around 5.000 troops. But there is no time to lose, as 2 more religious uprising fire up at the same time in our eastern part of realm.
Ehhh. What's up with them? Why are they angry their religion has 0% Moral Authority. Ain't my fault!
Black plague interestingely already passed eastern parts of silk road and Persia, leaving everything at level 2 depopulation level. Rest of world is either at the same level or getting there and the sickness is still going on. We luckily dodged it entirely. Our retinues traveling south trounce some Bolghar independent host that thought it was good idea to raid us. Then for some reason we lose Humble trait due to being over the limit I guess? I picked Zealous some time ago, so we are still at 4 traits (Diligent, Patient, Content, Zealous). Does Celibate count for it? I think it shouldn't.
Pursuit of rebels continue. In June Sunni uprising is dealt with and we travel further south-west to catch tengri dissidents. Emperor Varaka also claims another rank in Benedictine Order. Something goes awry in Italy and we lose 4% (and one of our Permian controlled holdings there). But on other hand our contribution ticked up to 18%, giving us claim to around 3.000 gold coins out of crusading price pool coffers (we are 2nd biggest contributor). I start marching our retinues there. They will reinforce on the way and should allow us to more reasonably conduct further military operations there. Should have sent them initially. Lesson learned!
We get gifted some christian artifact upon advancment within Benedictine order. Mentioned because I don't remember it occuring always or even often.
Ain't much but hey it is something!
Out of nowhere plague strikes. It didn't arrive from east, but somehow it reminded itself about us and circled arround world to arrive in Cumania from west... Ok now we have a problem. As tribals we have no hospitals thus characters will drop like flies. I can't even seclude myself.
Did we just become victim of Nomad conspiracy? Bloody barbarians hit us where it hurts :/
By August first monastic tutor event fires for our 6 years old son&heir. It marks him for Learning (it always does) and Martial. He gets +2 Martial and +3 Learning, which is one of the highest possible rolls (we could only get +1 Martial more). What's more it fired when he was just 6! Meaning we have realistic chance at it firing again before he turns IRC 12. Those are also basic attributes thus will (I hope) carry through generation leading to slightly better character over time.
In September we inherit Turgay tribe, as it last ruler (little girl) dies due to plague. I instantly give it away to some courtier to keep it away from my own court. By October we finally catch Tengris that were dodging us persistently. Our son also becomes Fussy, which is outside of his current education focus but can lead him to being Patient. Great result overall.
By the third week of November, Black plague spreads through Cumania and reaches Siberia. Our vassals start rapidly dies, and tribe of Turgay goes back to us. At the same time our "another crack at Crusade" reaches Carpathian mountains, which mark the border of Bulgarian empire.
Year 996
======================
With dread I watch at the beggining of every month Black plague jumping onto another county within our realm. So far only eastern part was affected but the crucial counties around northern gap in Ural mountains are not affected. Once it spreads west, our own high chiefdom of Perm will become decimated prosperity wise. It tooks us 200 years to build those level 2 prosperity counties...
Once again trade caravan visits us. It also happened late last year and it is a suprise there isn't any cooldown to prevent it from firing. It does presents us in quick succession with 2 +Movement modifiers courtiers that make for ideal commanders for currently traveling retinues.
Once February starts all of de jure Cumania and Siberia are infected. But also some random counties within Nenetsia become sick. There seem to not be a clear pattern of line of spreading. Vassals die regularly, as we have over 90 of them. I think it would be prudent to expect my carefully crafted division of power needing readjustment later.
I'm fearful x]. It seemed fine and then the game told us: "Hold my beer".
The only saving grace is that Romagna is already severely depopulated giving them a nice -60% levy and garrison sizes as well as taxes. Great equalizer.
In March sickness crosses Ural Mountains. Goddammit. Well it also rapidly spreads in north-western Nenetsia. There is no avoiding it. I decide to change focus to hunting, as getting dog and training it with diligent can give us up to +1.5 health extra health in case things become dire. Sadly there is nothing, that can be done for security of our genius son I think. Or is it :>? I check sicknes map mode and Byzantine empire is already not affected by plague. I could sent him there to be tutored to avoid getting him infected. Also some Greek counts are happy to take hostage from our Empire.
Our Spymaster (who somehow survived being parked in Thrace and forgotten) steals 50 economic tech points. Then with advent of spring Black Plague arrives in capital itself. Decision is made instantly to sent our heir to court of our Niece Queen Shukshtoroyka of Italy, under tutelage of Dominican German monk. It doesn't take long and our Empress becomes the first to suffer plague!
Our retinues reached safe haven in some not affected by epidemic counties of King Lothar of Italy. We are down more than half our men due to forced march through sick lands. This is the only place that has more than 1.000 supply and we slowly (200 men per month) are recovering. Our spymaster once again steals technology - this time cultural kind.
In 2nd week of may our empress dies. Beside her only one other courtier (one of 2nd generation jews) is afflicted but around 10 characters are developing the same symptoms
". Soon our 10 year old daughter Chits'ka gets sick. In few weeks she dies, leaving her twin sibling alone. Also our Crusade beneficiary dies, getting rid of at least some problem.
Game starts culling our dynasty. We are not small so danger of getting wiped out is small but it can throw us into totally unexpected ruler.
Crusade almost crawled to a halt. Romagna have some peasant uprising and abysmal supplies prevent any sensible progression of that conflict. Basically all of our empire is under the reign of sickness. During July our Komi friend we made some time ago, passes to us hunting dog... While being visibly affected by Black Plague. Wow xD. Can be phrased as: "Sick gift!". I decided to start Emperor Varaka military career and assign him to troops in Italy x]. Thus he is evacuated from his home frontier.
As days pass other twin daughter gets sick, but she gets only mildly affected. Our court doctor gets to treat her, and soon he becomes Renowned Physician. Turns out Sanal'ka Permyakid treatment was succesful reducing penalty from -7 to just -4 health.
Accompanied by sound effects of everyone dying, I check on Italy. Locals have huge problem as rebels multiplied and now there is close to 17.000 angry peasants, who I have no idea how will be dealt with. Scrap what I wrote. After I finished writing, there is 30.000 of them. Luckily they lay claim to duchy outside of our Crusade target. Also Black Plague passed through south and central Italy already making it possible to siege again. If we somehow managed to avoid hostile rebels.
By November oldest daughter of Varaka becomes sick, but at least is succesfully treated. She is also sturdy. If you wonder my dynasty so far lost 25 out of 59 living members
". Also everyone beside spymaster Baruch died in my Council. As did most of investors and sadly several funds got away to some siblings in far away courts. So far I did not experience prosperity loss in Perm.
In December Sanal'ka Permyakid recovers from black death. My new council also doesn't allow me to pass titles away and number of characters within empire dropped so low that there isn't many candidates to choose from to get nod from them. Thus we start accumulating negative penalty for going over the limit
".
Year 997
======================
New year is spent on inspecting troops in Italy. We are over 80% replenished, so soon we might be able to start actively participating in Crusade again. Crusade went from 85% warscore to 68% in our favour, while our own contribution slowly tickled up to 19%. One thing I forgot to mention is raising our levies before plague could affect them. Now as long as I avoid attrition we should retain them relatively unscathed.
Somehow territory of Poland and Eastern Rus escaped Grim Reaper scythe.
As I was checking for possible monk/non tutor for Kezhay Permyakid I realised, that the whole benedictine order is in the process of switching to Catharism. Means probably we will be kicked out as Zealous Catholic soon(tm).
In February our oldest daughter recovers from plague. I reorganize our retinues in Northern Italy - center and left wing consist of 1600+ Light Infantry/Light Cavalry mix under our Emperor (+11% Morale Damage, +44% Defence, +27,5% Light Cavalry/Infantry bonuses) and Direct Leader vassal (+40% Leading the Center) leaving right wing with our Light Infantry/Archers under good command of another vassal (+35% Light Foot Troops, +43.7% Pursuit, +17,5% Morale Defence/Damage but -2.5% Defence). We move out while still reinforcing around 180 men per month to deal with peasant rebels in Romagna, because they target lands within Crusade scope. It works out because other rebelion (for county of Firenze outside de jure Romagna) just ended, halving amount of enemies we have to deal with on behalf of local ruler. Also Black plague left those lands, and rebels did take over several castles, leaving them with barely any garrison and now rip for taking.
Things play out nicely for us, as fellow Crusading Genoans who starts siegeing (what we want to do) get ambushed by over 9000 peasant rebels and trounced. Thus they will be allies, who weaken enemies for us, leaving the credit only to us
. After watching our rivals getting slaughtered we move onto tired peasant troops ourself. Unlike them, we are capable in Skirmish so we will be more evenly matched with red horde. Emperor Varaka finally gets "Crusader" trait (took us long enough).
While not exactly safe, leaving our Emperor back home or not progressing Crusade is even worse. So he has to embrace the role of Crusader for now.
Their center routs instantly. Then our center after slaughtering their retreating center, helps Emperor wing (that was winning anyway) and soon the whole battle ends as our infantry right flank dealt with their enemies handily. Three hundres Permian warriors for two thousand four hundred rebels. We basically deleted them and helped our war target for our own future gain. During battle we got one crusade event I haven't seen so far. Could get humble but we recently lost it to what it seem like being over the trait limit so instead +10% morale for 2 years is picked. After that we split our forces to not only start carpet siegeing but also better manage supply limits.
I made sure all of those counties are within war target limit so we can start ramping up that contribution meaning more gold later.
During all that time I do keep replacing our vassals. Epidemy is going strong but at least thanks to it our council slowly filled up with loyalists that just recently were granted lands by us, thus making whole process easier. Then as I split my infantry in half to start besieging 4th province we have to chase away small heavy cavalry force in Arezzo. And what would you know...
Hello there! Not expected at all. Well it kind of spooked me, but I instantly ransom him
We could end the crusade right there and then. But it doesn't profit me. If we prolong it I can squeeze more from crusade coffers by having higher % contribution and maybe some catholics donating more. So I'll take that 250 gold extra now. Sadly capturing enemy leader gives us exactly nothing in contributing to winning crusade :/. Would be sweet if it gave us bunch of war contribution to avoid scenario, in which you win whole Crusade by capturing enemy leader but someone else gets majority of prices.
So after repelling some smaller Cathar forces, we proceed with siege of 4 counties at the same time. I do a little check on prosperity and notice that Kol'va, Pil'va and Udmurts dropped 3 whole prosperity levels to Minor Depopulation. While Kudymkar, Perm and Tynea did not lose a single prosperity treshold.
In December we get another crusade related event. Our protegee picks up some italian girl. I think why not - we have prestige to spare and getting more pious traits increases the danger of getting sainthood bloodline. She will nicely cover our lack of intrigue as well.
Giovanna seems to cover our ruler weak intrigue nicely. Maybe there are some hidden events related to her in the future?
Sadly Bogomilist heresy spreads first to Vetluga and then to Udmurts tribes. As we are currently tied to being Catholic not much I can do about it. Overall all religions moral authority right now is hurting. Orthodox holds best yet it is still only around 55%. Around 1.500 Romagnans go to Italian controlled Rimini county and start recapturing. This works ideally, as it will lower our allies passive contribution gain, while we work on increasing our.
Year 998
======================
Beggining of yet another year in this sad world, is spent on splitting our eastern steppe army into 4 parts to park them inside our lands to avoid attrition (all the counties are down to 1.000 supply). Fun fact - we spread black plague back into east, so it made the whole circle. Originated in Xia and at the end went back to Xia.
In Romagna our warscore sours to 80% after we take top holdings of each of those 4 counties. Heretics start amassing some forces, but it still doesn't pose real threat to us. I also check and we are getting around 1/3 more contribution each tick that Italian. We are currently at 20% contribution, which gives Permo-Siberia claim to around 4.000 gold coins. Italians get almost the same but with 32% warscore. Kind of weird calculation.
We striked directly into Romagnan king domain, allowing rest of included sides too brawl on the other side of mountains. Isn't quick but will definetely lead to us winning in a way providing most benefits for Permo-Siberians
Something changed because I'm no longer getting assaulted by all the notification about vassals dying. Sadly plague is still here and Perm dropped from max prosperity to 1st level of depopulation.
Interesting choice. Killing cats gives -10% revolt risk. Not sure what is the downside. Not interested in finding out either.
I have to stop besieging, as before summer arrives we look at 97% warscore already. Also our new Italian wife dies. Then we get notification about eastern europe being ravaged. Once again crusader event with comet fires and I discover that taking the same options improves modifier from +10% Morale to +15% Morale and +1 Martial. On top of prolonging it by another 2 years. Now I wonder what the other modifier - Taskmaster upgrades into. I like those minigames like with prophet modifier in Hermetics. I watch as Romagnans and fresh Anglo-Saxon contingent simultaneously besiege Bologna and Rimini. Waiting for them to lower Italian contributions and make some room for us to conquer more. Meanwhile our army is resting in Orvietto that can sustain up to 28.000 troops. We also lost our Master Engineer but not thanks to current trending topic worldwide but just old age. Current Chinese emperor is 65 years old, so maybe soon that Komi-hating douche will go "ride a dragon". Kudymkar tribe dropped it's prosperity as well. Kol'va and Pil'va tribes hit 2nd depopulation level already.
In September our subjects petition us with most urgent matter:
Having wise and educated leader in such testing time sure is handy
I did not spot it previously but with so many titles inherited... We were passed jewish loan from one of our vassals. He spent the money, we will have to pay it back. Not ideal.
During november our loyal councillor Baruch, the Jew we sent to Thrace dies. He lived for 73 years and died due to old age. We can also resumme siegeing down Cathar holdings (but just limited to acquiring 2 targets). Our war contribution rised to 21% and it seems that not everyone is passively increasing their score, so the longer it lasts the more cash we will earn. Our peasants also forget about cats being culprits behind disaster that struck our realm.
Yet another Crusader event fires for our character. At first glance not great but after some deliberation I see the potential for some investor inviting with options we chose:
Possesed gives us chance at hearing voice of Jesus/Satan, which can be fun. Opinion penalty reduction is fantastic for our inviting courtiers playstyle, so it is kind of shame it happens during plague.
Year 999
======================
In January Cathars finally retake Rimini from Italians, giving us yet more room to besiege their heartlands without ending the Crusade. That said they reinforced up to 6.500 troops in the whole theater of war. Soon we might need to start tackling that problem. We have numerical superiority for now. And hey - it wasn't that we were just watching while twiddling fingers. We did took a majority of Romagnan holdings, which means they not exactly can reinforce their standing forces anymore.
Locals assault rest of Bologna and thanks to that our Italian allies are down to just +10 point of war contribution each tick, while we get around twelve times that. Then they press onto their occupied capital and we give them battle:
Risky defence of Alviano pays off. Not only we decisively beat Cathars but also finish taking over few surrounding holdings nearby, before reinforcing our troops in Orvietto.
What's initially looks not great soon will improve. Already was moving 2.000 extra troops from Spoletto and other 6.000 troops in Arezzo will join after finishing siege there. With reinforcements we get numerical advantage (6504 vs 4625) and new wing joins on Harass tactic. Bloody Cathars make it till melee phase but we receive another chunk of help from another 6000 army, which put's us at 3:1 advantege. Before we can fully relax and keep chasing stragglers our emperor Varaka get's challenged to a duel during battle and we take part. No better choice and luckily we win, cutting assailant hand off. UFF! In this battle our infantry wing with their commander really performed well on Feint tactic
. That tremendously affects, what defenders will be able to throw at us in the near future. Also jumped Permian contribution up to 23% of warscore.
In spring first few provinces in southern Cumania stop suffering black plague. Sadly in just a month huge almost 12.000 strong italian peasant revolt sprungs onto our besieging Spolleto troops, that were just divided to avoid needles attrition. We have almost 7.000 troops and are defending in Mountains (+100% LI Attack/Defence, +50% Archer attack and +100% Archer Defence) and well we do secure 2 narrow flanks. Turns out our men slaughter those clowns
. 400 lost for 6000 killed is good ratio.
After killing some more Cathar forces enemy consolidates close to 6000 troops in Orbatello . We can't allow them to get even stronger, so we move our 12.000 strong force to contest their siege.
Plain old regular battle without any suprises. Lack of commanders on enemy wings also eliminates risk of our Emperor dying in duel.
Fight seems to be going without any hiccups. Soon we paint the plains red with heretics blood but some other 2.000 strong cathar army shows in Bologna. We are up to 97% warscore though. No other choice that to let them be for now.
By November all of Cumania and Siberia recover from epidemic. But we have another problem as our peasants (no doubt thanks to Bogomilist heretics) in Udmurts rise up demanding... Independence. Oh boy!
That's an issue! Seems like most of surviving population rallied under that banner
Rest of year is spent on frantically manouvering around that huge peasant stack. What's worse they are immune to attrition and currently Perm itself can't support more than 1.000 troops. Making conentrating forces to oppose them a little tad difficult. Back in Italy I was squashing some small Cathar forces and by Mistake reached 100% warscore. We got up to 25% of warscore and probably soon all of that investment will end.
Year 1000
======================
Change of Millenium greets us with small Suomenusko uprising in north-eastern Nenetsia. Just 700 dudes unhappy with life. They ain't much of a problem. More importantly our Italian adventures come to an end.
Not bad. Not only did we earn catholic gold and prestige but also were presented option to evade black plague. That Artifact will also prolong our life a little
Our retinues are packing their toys and starting march home. We probably won't have them back home in time to deal with current problems. Severe winters once again attritions us terribly. Just my luck. This is the worst combination - epidemic + most harsh climate :/.
With March Black plague passes. It stopped affecting de jure Nenetsia and Perm - just remains south in counties of Volga-Bulgaria. I won't go back just yet because we can become victims of rebels capturing capital. One of our councillors comes upon a rumour regarding artifact. Nice but I don't have high hopes - both our emperor is not exactly young and I will have to do some digging how to max the chances for success in that endeavour.
Potentially can generate us quality 4 or 5 religious artifact - not bad!
Takes up to May for winter to go away and sickness to fully leave our realm. That gives us around 5.000 supply in our provinces. We retake Udmurts after which we can consolidate our forces there (as it gives us 10.000 supplies). Rebels realise that and at once push onto us. Joke on them - Udmurts has Forest making defending easier.
Many defences of Forests around Udmurts tribe. We do sacrifice some allied forces south from here to get those advantageous battles.
Enemies lock onto us, as we move from Udmurts to Tynea to intercept 4.000 rebel contingent. Meanwhile some of our vassals (2.000) get trounced by other 7.600+ rebel host. We roll decently and I realise we don't exactly have a lot of Heavy infantry. Still is enough to win without much losses. We then have to prepare for another round of defending again, that smaller army that locked already, trying to help their friends that are already eating dirt. The second engagment goes even worse for enemies. Before the battle ends, the rest of uprisers show up into melee. Not intentionally I asigned leader capable of performing Clever Ambush tactic and thus we spring that on them. It's good as we mostly have 2.000 Infantry in center that get's boosted by +120% from tactic and further 40% from leader. Slaughter is great and thus at once dangerous rebelion is dealt with.
I order my vassals to hunt remaining pagans in Nenetsia. Not gonna bother with such petty task and spend my attention at managing logistic of such venture. Now onto more pressing matters. Time to convert back. But before that we could use some of that devotion we had. We can teach virtue to our heir. It has 50% for both Patient and Diligent. Kezhay Permyakid has childhood traits that could evolve into those. If we give him Diligent then Conscientious could evolve into Temperate (+2 Stewardship). If we give him Patient then I hope we can just not pick Greedy/Paranoid. I like that plan. He becomes Patient.
Then we convert. Back to Suomenusko. Because I've read something interesting and want to try it out. Additionally I have piety to spare. Would want to go under 1.250 to avoid becoming saint. Currently we have 7.314. So what I'm cooking you ask? Well Defensive pagans have unique fortification structure in tribes. Heard you can retain it as other faiths. Let's try it
Read on internet that if you construct something before converting to feudal, you can retain extra building from tribe in Castles. Wondered if it works for religion depending structures, so we start Defensive pagan fortifications and then convert.
Funnily enough converting to Suomenusko, instantly forced to end that small pagan uprising. Not intended but will happily accept it
. After converting back to Orthodoxy it turns out my exploit doesn't work. Maybe I needed to finish it first and then start upgrading to keep it? Doesn't matter. We did preserve something - we still have Crusader trait. That's a nice bonus I guess. At least we burned some piety. We also leave Benedictine order to start our 90 days cooldown of not being able to join other society. Appoint new Patriarch (21 Learning, Genius, Erudite and just 28 years old) and sent him into Udmurts to proselytize Bogomilists (11.25% chance yearly).
Till Autumn I keep changing, who the guardian of Varaka's son is. He ends for those few months under tutelage of Orthodox Nun from Community of Saint Basil. I decide to also repay jewish debt and rebuilt lost forts in Perm. Who knows - maybe they will come in handy later. Our retinues enter Khazarian khaganate and will probably be too late to prevent sacking in Mordva high chiefdom by our rowdy neighbours. Bogomolists pops up in Bilyar (Bolgharia high chiefdom). Our Moral Authority sinked so low (35%) that we can't even use excommunications. Goddammit - we go crusading for 11 years and our original religion hits rock bottom.
We can't go hunting because game sees one of our positive health modifiers as penalty :/. But at least in November we start the Feast. It will give some prosperity in capital, which I hope might help getting rid of depopulation even if barely faster. Our levies are totalled - only 1.400 out of 13.000 remains. Good thing we still have retinues. We finally join Community of Saint Basil. Taking our guardianship over young Kezhay for ourself.
As preparation commences and guests are invited, our battle hardened crusaders come home and deal with 2.000 Khazarian raiders in Mordva tribe, killing 500 while losing 100. Infantry is split and sent towards Irghiz to take over as border guards. Supply in Mordva are really great (12.000 troops), so I leave hunting parties there. Feast proceeds but absolutely nothing happens. And with that festivity I will bid you adieu!
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