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He's the Prince of the Pronsk, and he's finally made it! A yeAARly chronicle

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1067 (part 3): Countdown to Burtasy.

The Bolgar threat to take Burtasy filled me with gloom. Nothing could sway my mood. Not the decision I made to have little Yaroslav raised by a local noble (he grabs his toys so well, maybe he has some natural talent for collecting things…might make a good steward down the line):



Not the news that Konstantinos X had apparently passed away and Byzantium was running as smoothly as ever under Michael VII:



No, none of that could ameliorate the anger I felt at the Bolgars possibly capturing Burtasy literally right in front of my eyes. For several days our troops worked together, Orthodox and Muslim in an uneasy truce, while I searched for a way to convince the Sultan to yield his command…in spite of his superiorities in precedence, rank, and troops. Finally, I decided that while I could not reverse time or suddenly crown myself king, I could at least change the balance of troops.



Radoslav's capture of Chuvash would have to wait.

News of my approaching regiment did not, in fact, cause the Sultan to yield. But he did do something surprising, possibly wise, and definitely arrogant:



He had sent home almost all of his own regiments and proposed to finish the siege using mostly my troops! The nerve!



(By the way, my Khazar ally had prodded me to declare war on Mountain Cheremisa, despite the fact that it was not one of my immediate targets. I did so after the victory at Burtasy, as my troops were now adjacent to it and it made a tempting prize, as it had an income of 2.4 ducats-per-month.)

Now, if I wished, I could drive off the Sultan, maybe even capture or kill him. Was he trying to provoke a war? That made no sense, the Mordvins still had an army, and the Sultan could no more afford to fight two wars at once than could I. Besides, there would be safer ways to start a war with me, if he so wished. No, Akhad Moskha must have been relying on my adherence to protocol, hoping I would help him finish the siege while his regiments replenished themselves.

Well, frankly, screw that.



I decided that if the Sultan wouldn't let me take Burtasy, I'd go grab Mountain Cheremisa instead. It was decent enough, and good luck to you, Mr. Sultan, sir!



Have fun trying to take that hill fort with only a 307-man regiment to do it. I can grab Cheremisa and be back before they've made any progress.



In fact, the Sultan is so old he could die, which would probably cause the regiment to go back to Zyriane. Hmm, wonder if there are any stampeding oxen around here?

But, naturally, it turned out that I wasn't even able to leave town without incident, as Malyy had screwed his courage to the sticking post and attacked again:



But this had an unexpected benefit, as the Sultan packed up and left! Because, while the 700-some Mordvins were hardly a threat against my 3000+, they would be quite dangerous to the Sultan and his mere 300, should the Mordvins get by me. And as he was already at war with the Mordvins, he had no protocols to protect him from them.

So, sending away all those regiments turned out to not be such a good idea after all for the Sultan. Sometimes wisdom is only folly disguised.

So I defeated the Mordvins again and Malyy got more practice running away.



And, finally, I settled in to siege Burtasy.



My allies even showed up to help with the siege of Mordva.



See, here are the Polotsk troops coming to join the Khazars, who are already there, and…

I believe it was at this point when I suddenly said, "Oh, crap!"



For my "allies" were not so much helping with the siege of Mordva, as helping themselves to it. Suddenly, Counts Oleg and Igor and their 900-strong force found themselves supplanted by not one but two ducal armies, each over 1300 men in size And I, enduring yet another "attack" by Malyy, couldn't break off the siege of Burtasy to help them, even if I had wanted to do so.

Gee, thanks, "friends". Gah!
 
Interesting AAR. Principality of Pronsk is certainly a fun realm to play.

It was lucky that you got rid of the Sultan, but it happened what happens so often with the allies, that they decide to help themselves. For that reason, if I know that I'm going to attack against weak Pagans, I often remain unallied.
 
I propose you get rid off all your helpers, assistants, friends, co-workers, allies and so on and start all over again on your own... ;):p:D
 
And they're all friends of mine…

Olaus Petrus: Welcome! Yes, I indulged in two reasonable responses to a somewhat weak position (gaining allies and attacking weak targets) and was not thrilled to discover that those were not "two great tastes that taste great together" (as the folks at Reese's used to say). Very annoying. You can bet that once the alliances are canceled, I won't be in a hurry to reestablish them.

Murmurandus: "I am a rock. I am an iiiiiiii-sland…" ;)

demokratickid: To bastardize Kipling, "if you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, then you'll be a headsman, my son…" :D

Update.
 
1067 (part 4) From the mountains, to the…what the???

My three-pronged attack was rapidly turning into a three-pronged mess. Time to simplify. I called the counts' troops to come aid me in Burtasy…



…hoping to win the siege swiftly and turn back around to outnumber my "allies" in Mordva.



I even got some unexpected help when the Bolgars sent a regiment to join the siege, under the command of the Sultan's second cousin (yes, really), Adam.



Perhaps it was intended as an amends, or maybe the Sultan had thought that I would leave to secure Mordva and let Adam swoop in to capture Burtasy. In any event, it mattered little.



For while I did finally succeed in capturing Burtasy…



…which, by the way, freed me to dump Bryansk on Vyacheslava Fedorovich, a woman of such little import that she had been hanging around the court for six months without being assigned any duties (or indeed meriting a mention in this chronicle)…



…I was too late to save Mordva from being "liberated" by the Pelovtsy. My only consolation was that it was so isolated it would be likely an easy target if I was ever at war with Polotsk. But that was small compensation for the realization that it was likely my overly-complex strategy that cost me the province to begin with. :(

Well, no use crying over swiped Mordva. (Maybe that should be my motto?) Now that my troops were all together, I made a simple and direct thrust to Mountain Cheremisa.



Which seemed to be singularly lacking in Mountains, by the way.



Perhaps that was their idea of disguise? "Hey, where's Mountain Cheremisa?" "Beats me. It can't be here, because there are no mountains."



In any event, it didn't save them.

Late November brought some news to be thankful for. It turns out that my eldest son and heir, Gleb, had not been idle all summer, even though I had not called for his regiments from Tmutarakan.



I guess I was wrong about what that mouth of his meant, for not only was he married, but his wife was with child.



Older woman, hubba-hubba. Fairly capable, too.



In December, Veleslava Rostislavich became my new Spy Mistress. (I kept Zvenislava around to organize the closets, which will probably take years.)



This mean that I actually had fairly capable help in most departments, with the glaring exception of the less-than-sterling Marshal Radoslav. Time to get him a province, and out of my court!



I wasn't particularly sanguine about dividing my troops again, considering what happened the last time, but I decided to chance it. Even though there were actually about 1700 Mordvins still in Grassland Cheremisa (which will be grass-free, if "Mountain" Cheremisa is anything to go by), I had beaten them so often I figured that Malyy would flee the moment he saw my army.

However, I was wrong about that. By the time I got to Grassland Cheremisa, the Mordvins were in Chuvash…where they promptly fled at that sight of Radoslav's army, instead. (Clearly, they don't know Radoslav.)

And so the year came to an end. While not all of my plans succeeded, I have taken two valuable provinces and am sieging two more. I hope that next year I can finish the war with the Mordvins and then pay off my debts and restock my regiments. Although the excellent province of Bulgar (4.8 ducats/month) looms as a tempting target across the river Volga, I will need to do some retrenching before I can take on the Sultan, I think. (However, the Tribe of Ural has just declared war on the Sultanate, so perhaps my opportunity will come sooner than I anticipate.)



Still, I think prudence should be my watchword for next year. (Yes, I know patience was my watchword this year, but it's time for a change.) If I let my debts get too large, it could do serious damage to my realm. It's nice that the forestry was finished, but gold doesn't grow on trees!

Lastly, I should report the international news. Alfonso of Leon fought a short war against the Emirate of Zaragoza, and captured the province of Catalayud before signing a peace. The Prince of Abydos has rebelled against the Empire.

And…that's it for the international news. Quiet year, really. (Except for me.)

And so, good readers, I take my leave until this time next year.

31st December 1067
Svyatoslav Rurikovich
Prince of Pronsk and Ryazan
Count of Novgorod Seversky, Chernigov, Burtasy (yesss!), and Mountain[less] Cheremisa​
 
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If you're wondering about the names of the region, here's short explanation. Cheremis is a Russian name for Mari people. Main groups of Mari are Meadow Mari and Hill Mari (names are sometimes also translated as Grassland Mari and Mountain Mari). There's dispute if their languages are dialects of Mari language or separate languages related to each other. People are called Hill Mari because they live on the hills of the right bank of Volga. And Meadow Mari live on the flat land at the left bank of Volga.

Mari are related to the Mordvins, who are another Finno-Ugric nation in Russia.
 
Svyatoslav is well on his way to rule the world! I am curious to see what will happen when bigger fish start to notice him swimming around the pond. :)
 
Thanks to the OP, It's Amazing, for the laughter inducing theory about naming and disguise.

And thanks to The O.P., for the factual explication of the etymology in question.

Oh yeah, and Bulgar... very tempting addition to any demesne. Except for the risk that all the rest of Volga-Bolgariya goes to the Polovtsy!
 
Mari, Mari, quite contrari…

demokratickid: More convulsions to come. And not just in Russia…

Olaus Petrus: Thanks for the background. So the game has the proper distinction between the two Cheremisan peoples, but it erred in putting them both on the west bank of the Volga? Okay.

ZwolscheStudent: Yes, the pond already feels as though it's getting smaller…

Tskb18: Yes, it will be an interesting year for both myself and the Sultanate.

Update.
 
1068 (part 1): A man's reach should exceed his grass(land).

Well, that was…not the year I expected. I should have realized that it is the fool who thinks he can see the future; the wise man merely seeks to understand the past.

January started with a happy event, as my son Oleg came of age.



Even though he had yet to complete his military studies, he was still obviously more able than Radoslav, and I proudly named him as my marshal. Of course, since all of my regiments were already in the field, there was little reason to have Oleg interrupt his studies, so the title was mostly honorary for the moment.

Oleg's maturation also meant that I could make a marriage for him. I selected the steward of Leon, Ermengarda Arias. I was a little uncertain about bringing a Catholic into my court, but it turned out that this was not the major religious problem I needed to surmount.



(You can also see on this map that the County of Asturias de Oviedo, a vassal of Leon, has taken the capital province of Zaragoza from the Zaragozan emirate.)

As Burtasy was an important provice that I expected to keep in my demesne for a while, I thought it best to solve any religious problems as swiftly as possible.



A few dozen pagans butchered and Burtasy saw the light.



And Alfonso of Leon agreed to Oleg's marriage, which means I had a new steward. A little older than I would have liked, but still within child-bearing years, and her financial skills will more than make up for what she costs me in grandchildren.

And it seems that Gleb's wife, the well-named Sviatoslava, was a bit farther along in her pregnancy than I realized. (Hey, I was on campaign, I didn't have time to read his letters, okay?)



And it's…an undistinguished girl. Well, she's still cute! Say "Grampa"! :)



Meantime, the Chiefdom of Chuvash's regiment (which had been raised under local control, unlike the rest of the Mordvin force) suddenly reappeared, taking me by surprise.



But even Radoslav can win battles when all he has to do is defend against leaderless mobs that he outnumbers 3-to-1.

However, the loss of his status as Marshal does seem to have had an effect on Radoslav…



I mean, isn't he supposed to be thinking about burning down enemy buildings, not our own?



I ordered him to show mercy, even if that would dull his fighting spirit. (Yes, that was a joke. Much as is Radoslav. Sigh.)



And the good news was that we liberated Grassland Cheremisa, which proved to be neither grassy, nor mountainous, but…a forest????

Okay, I give up. Seriously, I give up.



Specifically, I gave the province to Gleb, as it was as bountiful a province as its fellow Misnamed Cheremisa, but not better than my other three. (Gleb turned Korchev over to his marshal, Simeon of Tmutarakan, to concentrate on his new acquisition.)

Meantime, I received disturbing news from Chuvash:



Not so much that the Mordvins had attacked, but that Radoslav had apparently disbanded the Chernigov regiment and gone home! Naturally, I was infuriated, and broke off my planned attack on Merya to rush my regiments to the rescue, cursing the day Radoslav stumbled into my court all the way.



But I couldn't get there in time. Great. Just…great.

And while the Bolgars had been holding their own against Ural, even capturing Bashkirs, things just took a turn for the worse. And I don't mean that the aged Sultan Akhad Moskha had died and his son Kol'n Dulo now sat on the throne.



Yes, it's one thing to be at war with Ural and some minor tribes. It's another to be at war with Ural, the Cumans, and the Pechenegs. My plan to rest up and pay down my debts before going after Bolgar was looking less and less likely.

"Curse you, Radoslav Yurievich!", I cried.

Then I realized that people were looking at me strangely, so I stopped crying out and started the army back en route to Chuvash. Sorry about that.
 
Rogneda is extremely talented for a girl who's only developed ability is the ability to poop! :eek: I've seen adults with lesser stats.

And although this year was not a true Glorious Victory, Svyatoslav shouldn't feel too bad. He won son, he lost some, but he's still better off than two years before!
 
Grassland, Mountainland, Forrestland... all that is irrelevant... just call it MY land...;):D
 
All your Cheremisa belong to us!

ZwolscheStudent: True, true. I've certainly seen worse base stats. Not to mention what can happen after events. For example, in a Germany game I played, this guy wound up as Papal Controller:



Way to pick 'em, Pope.

Still, Rogneda looks bound for a foreign marriage and a prestige bonus, rather than being kept at home and used for the eugenics program. But we shall see. (And she's still cute! Goochy-goochy-goo!)

demokratickid: Thank you, thank you. :D

Murmurandus: And if I can ever scrape up the 100 ducats for that "Prince of Cheremisa" ceremony, that's exactly what I intend to do. :)

Update.
 
1068 (part 2): Oh, the Cumanity!

The fight over the remaining Mordvin lands was already proving difficult, and would become moreso.



The reappearance of my "allies" from Polotsk was not heartening to me.



But I shook off the Mordvins and staked my claim to Chuvash, even as the Cumans gained control over Syrt.



And then I thrashed the remaining rabble and restarted the siege of Chuvash.

By late May, the situation had become quite complex.



While I was sieging Chuvash, the Pelovtsy were battling the Mordvins in Merya.



And the Cumans were making a tentative thrust towards a weakly-defended Bulgar.



I've always said that Catholicism was a bastard faith. :p



Did the Trapanids really head off to attack us? They're not at home, that's for certain.



Meantime, I continued to be harassed by Mordvin "attacks", no matter how small. I thought of remobilizing the Chernigov regiment (under Oleg's command), as there were over 1000 troops I could call forth, but I decided against it. For one thing, with the Chernigov troops idle, Ermengarda was able to start paying down my debt, even though I still had armies in the field. And sadly, even an additional thousand troops probably wouldn't allow me to finish the Mordvins in time to challenge the Cumans for control of Bulgar. (Nor would I be able to match the 5000+ men they had assembled there.) I resigned myself to knowing that all I could do would be to finish my business with the Mordvins, rebuild my forces, and hope that something would disperse the Cumans before they could conquer Bulgar.



So I settled in to repulse what I hoped was Malyy's last significant attack…



…and learned a sad new meaning to the phrase, "The grass is always greener on the other side of the Volga". In fact, it was looking as though I might not even be able to keep the Pelovtsy from taking Merya.

Great. Just…great.
 
At least Mordva is about to fall under the rule of Pronsk. Volga Bolgaria may be lost for now (at least till you get more strenght), but there are other easy to conquer pagans near by. Hlynov region is full of them, although none of their provinces are rich.
 
Entitled to the praise?

demokratickid: Thank you, and yes, the titles are a challenge all their own.

Olaus Petrus: Yes, but unfortunately, if the Cumans finish off the Bolgars, it is they, rather than I, who will be adjacent to the Sames. On the plus side, maybe once I rebuild my army, I can take advantage of the Cumans' expansion and strike at their better provinces while they are occupied elsewhere. I'll have to see about that.

Update.
 
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