The year is 1066 CE. The Saxon king of England is under attack by rivals both from the north and the south. The Moors are poised to conquer the fragmented christian lords in Iberia. The Byzantines, though fighting infidels in the east, still dream of lost glory and reforging the fallen Roman Empire, with an renewed invasion of Italy being the first step. The Holy Roman Empire is holy only in name, and is plagued by corruption and infighting. It is a time of glory, betrayal, and above all else:
War.
Italy has long been a meeting place between cultures and a sort of melting pot as far as peoples inhabiting it. Gaul and German, Roman and Greek, Christian and Muslim, all and more have lived or do live within her. Italy, understandably considering the inhabitants, has also often been a hotbed of warfare. The fall of Rome has left the peninsula scarred and desolated, but she has had time to heal and now her people cry out to be united once more. Now, northern Italy would seem to be in a state of relative peace, situated well inside the Empire. It has little to worry about from outside the empire's borders, but much to worry about from within. Bavarians and other German lords hold much of northeastern Italy, Tuscan and Lombard are at odds with each other over who will rule northern and central Italy, while many fledgling Italian states find themselves caught in the middle. It is with the Lombards that our story shall unfold.
The Lombards, descended from a north German tribe in southern Scandinavia, traveled south in search of new lands some time before the first century CE. They, along with other Germanic peoples, formed the Suebi tribe which threatened the Roman Empire periodically but eventually settled in the lands between the Elbe and Oder rivers in Germany.
Later, they would move south towards the Danube; there the Lombards defeated and subdued other Germanic tribes in the area, including the Heruls and Gepids. In the sixth century CE, the Lombard king Alboin lead an invasion of a much weakened Italy. Saxon, Herul, Gepid, Thuringian and Ostrogoth all fought alongside Lombard in the campaign, and by 569 almost all of northern Italy was under Lombard rule, with areas of central and southern Italy being added by 572. The Lombard Kingdom in Italy, known as
Regnum Italicum, or Kingdom of Italy, was created.
The Kingdom lasted until 774, when the great king Charlemagne defeated and integrated the Lombard kingdom. But Charlemagne is long dead, his holdings have been divided and this Holy Roman Empire is an empire rotten to the core. The lords of the empire, swearing loyalty to the Kaiser, squabble and plot amongst themselves to increase their own power at the expense of their neighbors. The opportunistic Normans have defeated the remaining Byzantine forces here in the west, but now claim the whole of southern Italy for themselves. Muslims still hold the vast majority of Sicily, and are could invade the peninsula anywhere at any moment. But above all, the Germans are looming over Italy, German lords already have control over much of the north and no doubt seek to consume the rest, greedy of our lush lands, prosperous cities and rich culture. This will not pass.
We must not allow ourselves to be swept aside in this growing storm, we must bring Lombardy back to its former glory. We must unite Italy and stand against any who threaten her. Lombardy will be great once more. Italy for Italians, and damned be the consequences.
Alright, now that I have dazzled everyone (
no one) with my research abilities (
google) I will finally get this amazing (
trainwreck) AAR moving! Since the game is already one hundred years in, I will be attempting to catch the reader up to the current year in one post. Because of this, it's going to be vague and generally whatever the hell I can remember. As for the style of the AAR, it will probably be mostly gameplay-based with some historical or otherwise interesting blurbs thrown in as long as I deem them relevant to the material in one way or another. But, enough with all this... on with the show!
Here is Lombardy, as it is in the 1066 Pre-Stamford Bridge start. Given that we, along with almost everyone in our immediate area are in the Holy Roman Empire, it can be a little hard to see exactly what you control. However, the fact is that in the mess that is northern Italy we control only five provinces, or counties. Three of these, Lombardia, Pavia and Padua, are under our direct control. Cremona is held by an old fart with no children, and will likely soon be added to our personal demense once he croaks. Grisons on the other hand, is a much different story. Grisons is held by our second eldest son, 'Count' Folco. This is the first threat Lombardy faces. Grisons itself is of immense strategic value to us as it acts as a sort of gatehouse to southern Germany. Controlling Grisons means we control the shortest route over the Alps and thus the most direct route to and from most of the German states we are going to be pissing off while trying to reunite Italy. Grisons can not and must not be lost, and it has to be under out direct control. As I said, it is at the moment being controlled by our second son, and while some players like to hand out land to their kinsmen in order to have more loyal vassals, I regard this as being a terrible, terrible thing to do. I will go more into this later, but suffice it to say that young Folco is going to be a major pain in my bum if I don't remove him from the playing field, one way or another, before he comes of age. I have only two sons, Ugo, my eldest and direct heir, and Folco, the (
temporary) Count of Grisons. One of them is going to inherit Lombardy, and I intend it to be Ugo.
Let's take a step back here, and without unpausing the game, assess the threats and short term goals presented to Lombardy.
1)
Grisons - As stated, Folco is going to have to be dealt with either by knifework or penmanship. (
I'm either going to smother him with a pillow or write him a nasty letter and take away his favorite toy, my county)
2)
Brescia and The Cow of Tuscany - Ah, Matilhde. You cause me grief to no end. Tuscany is larger, stronger and given the Cow's lack of marriage at the start of the game, will have stronger allies than we will once we come to blows. The Cow controls Brescia, bordering on our capital province and inside our namesake Duchy, Lombardia. This will not be tolerated, but the inevitable war must be approached carefully. It is hard to tell from the map, but the Cow hold Lucca, Parma, Modena and Ferrara, effectively locking us out of central Italy. We are already scattered enough as it is, our disconnected county of Padua shows how dangerously vulnerable it make us when we simply skip over hostile land to grab one or two provinces. We must seize opportunities as they come, and create them when they refuse to do so... but we must not become careless.
3)
Padua and The German Duke of Carinthia and Baden - Our sole holding on Italy's eastern shore is Padua, a profitable county that I have no intention of losing. The trouble is that the Germans control the rest of the duchy it is in, and will without a doubt declare war on us for it. This is one of the reasons why we must be so very careful about pushing our similar ducal claim on Brescia. We may be able to defeat Tuscany or the Germans, but we cannot hope to fight them both at once.
4)
Trent and The Bavarians - Trent is, besides Brescia, the only part of Lombardia we do not control. It is currently held by a German Bishop under the wing of Bavaria, and this shall have to be remedied. There are a few problems with this however, as Bavaria often has a network of allies in Germany who are more than happy to throw thousands of men across the Alps at us. (
Remember how I said Grisons is important? This is the first direct example as to how important.) Sieging Trent and then rushing to defend Grisons and destroying Bavaria's German allies in a defensive battle give us our best shot at giving us Trent, and we shall proceed according to that plan until and unless something changes. Did I also mention that Bavaria is our only ally at the start? Turns out, our eldest child, a bastard by the name of Welf Welf (
Best. Name. Ever. I would make this guy my king if I could.) is married to one of the Bavarian duke's daughters. We will try to make use of this alliance, but honestly all it typically means is that we either have to wait for the marriage to end one way or another to break the alliance, or take the prestige hit for attacking an ally when we make our move on Trent.
5)
Republics - Italy has three Republics at the start of the game. Genoa, Venice and Pisa. All have extremely profitable lands and it would be very nice to have all three under our wing, but Pisa is at the moment beyond our reach. Genoa and Venice on the other hand, shall be ours. Genoa is the obvious first target, both because we already border it and because capturing Genoa quickly denies it to the Cow, who also shares a border with the grand city. Venice is without question the best county in northern Italy, rivaled only by Rome. We must have it, but we have other matters to attend to first. Given that I am the only player in Italy proper at this point in time, I feel confident that I can wait to get my ducks in a row before I fall upon the Venetians.
Now that we've assessed our present goals and pertinent threats associated with them, let's take a short look at our strengths.
1)
Agnatic Primogeniture Succession - Lombardy is one of the lucky few who start the game with Primogeniture succession, my preferred and arguably (
Some would say Elective) most stable inheritance law available in the game. Most dukes start out with Gavelkind inheritance, and the problem presented by this for those playing in the HRE is that the emperor typically has a hard time getting the Crown Authority high enough for them to switch to anything other than Elective. The fact that we start with
Agnatic is both a blessing and a curse. Agnatic means that only males can inherit, which means that if one of my future dukes has a dry spell of sons and only produces daughters, I might be in for a rough time. This also means that, as far as I can recall, I cannot push the claims of female claimants and thus it is going to be a little harder for me to expand than it otherwise would be with Agnatic-Cognatic. Given this is a multiplayer game, I might not make every session or might be late for one and have to wait for a rehost, putting Lombardy in the hands of the AI in the meantime. Having Agnatic means that I won't come back into game with a Duchess of Lombardy in a regular marriage, happily spitting out kids of another dynasty and destroying all of my hard work in the process. I may have retarded children but at least they will be
my retarded children.
2)
Relative Seculsion - Given that this is, again, a multiplayer game, a major influence on the flow of the game is the placement of player-controlled states. I am the only one in Italy, my closest neighbors being in Savoy and Apulia. I talk with both players at the start and thankfully have played with both of them in the past. Savoy is going for the Burgundian crown and makes it quite clear that he has no intentions to grab anything within the de jure Kingdom of Italy, which is fine by me. Apulia is going for Sicily and, for now at least, has no ambitions about going further north than that, which again, suits my purposes. This means that I will be fighting the AI for the most part, which to be honest is my preference, I prefer to work with players rather than fight them. I have no intention of interfering with any other player's zone of ambition, and expect them to respect mine as well.
3)
The HRE - The HRE is both a burden and a blessing. Though I am not actually inside the de jure empire, I am still subject to its laws and often will have to pay for my troops as they fight for the Kaiser in one of his many wars in which I will gain nothing except an influx of weeping Italian mothers as their sons die far from home, never to return again. However, the HRE is also my shield and one I shall use well. I am safely within the borders of the empire and beyond the reach of anyone outside the HRE, but as I expand I will be counting on the emperor's perceived strength to deter any, namely Muslim, attackers from trying to establish a foothold in my land. This shall be the way things are until Lombardy, and Italy, are strong enough to stand on her own two feet, without the 'help' of the Emperor.
Well then, now that everyone is ready (
asleep) I can try to scrounge up something to get the ball rolling on how the game actually progressed.
Unpause.
The 'Battle' of Brescia. Seriously, what the hell is going on here?
Remember how I said to start be careful in dealing with the Cow of Tuscany? Well, you can either take my advice and wait for the opportune moment or you can declare war on the fatty as soon as the game starts like I did. It all came down to a defensive battle in which the Cow's army attacked mine in the mountainous terrain of Brescia, and despite being outnumbered I was able to win and chase down her defeated army, destroying it entirely. Fatty was quick to offer peace after that, and I gained Brescia.
Bavaria was next. I tried to call them into my war with the Cow, but obviously the German Duke of Bavaria has a thing for the fatties and declined to join in my righteous crusade. Bavaria can be trouble, as it is not uncommon for them to be voted into the Emperor slot if the current Kaiser screws something up, which he typically does. Thus, a quick confrontation before that has a chance to happen is a good idea. I had to fight not only Bavarians but also men of both Upper and Lower Lorraine during the conflict, but came out on top due to having saved enough money for a few critical months with the Lombard Band, a group of Italian mercenaries I find myself using quite often. +1 Trent. Lombardy is now under Italian control once more.
It was about this time that my Duke died, I would like to say in battle or during a heroic siege but it's more likely that he just got drunk, fell off his horse and skidded down a mountain. Thus it was that Ugo took on the duties of his father, and it was at that moment that the German duke of Carinthia decided that Padua would look lovely on his mantle and declared war on our peaceful duchy. Rushing to gather my depleted levies once more... another problem arose.
Remember Folco? Good, because I sure didn't. He chose this as the right time to show his hand and rise up in rebellion against his brother, fighting for the right to rule Lombardy even as it was being attacked by the damned Germans. Grisons and its levies went with him, and suddenly a hostile army was in control of the gateway to Italy. I decided to put down Folco down before turning to defend against the Germans who were already sieging Padua. His army could not stand up against mine, even depleted as it was. Luck was with me and Grisons fell before valiant Padua, letting me disband and reform my army, which was now larger than our German enemy, both of us had been whittled down during the siege but the Germans had taken far more losses than I had. One short battle later and suddenly it was the Germans who were on the defensive. Seeing that they had lost, the Duke let the war linger on for another year or so before offering a white peace, which I gladly accepted.
It was during all this that our pleasant neighbor, Savoy, had been expanding his own domain... and now approached me with a very pleasing gift. He offered me a vassal who had a claim on Genoa, which my inept chancellor had been trying and failing to fabricate claims on since the beginning of the game, in return for an alliance and the return of the vassal once I had conquered the grand city. I did not hesitate in accepting his offer, and though Genoa managed to pull together a strong army of levies combined with mercenaries, I eventually came out on top in the struggle. I revoke the vassal's claim on my rightful city, fought a short war when he refused to give up his new city, and suddenly I was in possession of one of the greatest cities in northern Italy. Thanking Savoy for his generous offer, I returned said vassal to him and the alliance was formed. The Bishopric of Nice fell soon after, and thus the entire duchy of Genoa was now under Lombardian rule once more.
Years of peace passes afterwards, interrupted by a short war with the Germans once again when I pushed a claim on Verona, taking it back under Italian rule.
Then it finally came... The First Crusade...
Crusader Knights charging in the Battle of Jaffa
Historically, the first crusade was a resounding success for the Christians. Victory had established the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli and Edessa. The Byzantines were able to regain portions of lost territory in Anatolia. Crusaders that survived the campaign returned home as heroes.
In our game, we failed miserably. Thousands of soldiers from all over Europe sailed or marched all the way to the Holy Land only to be killed or routed by the seemingly endless number of Muslim warriors the Shiite Caliph commanded. It was a horrible loss of life, and the streets of Italian cities grew quiet as an entire generation of fighting men were lost in the multiple armies sent to answer the Pope's call to arms. The Pope would eventually call off the crusade after so many lives had been lost, and the Christian world had gained nothing but sorrow and death.
1116. Fifty years have passed since the start of the game. We've gained Brescia, Trent, Genoa, Nice and Verona. That's a 100% increase in our holdings. The treacherous Folco is now nothing more than a memory and Cremona is in more capable hands (
mine); Our holdings are more stable now than ever before. Our inept chancellor is attempting to give us an excuse to add Venice to our Italian state, and Mantua and Treviso are our next priority targets. Those two counties may have German lords, but the people are still proud Italians, and will welcome us with open arms as liberators rather than conquerors. To our south, The Cow's holdings have been split between her two daughters, the Duchesses of Tuscany and Modena. Fragmentation of our most powerful Italian rival is welcome news, but we are not yet ready to step into central Italy while the vile Germans still hold so much of the north. Our ally, Savoy has formed the Kingdom of Burgundy and is now a major power in his own right. We would do well to stay close allies with the Burgundians, and I mean to do so.
All in all, things look well for Lombardy. The First Crusade has been a failure, but Christianity remains strong. We shall wait and let our wounds heal, allowing the infidel to grow complacent in his victory. Then we shall strike again with vengeance. What can stop the whole Christian world acting as one?
Cathars in Ireland? Probably nothing to worry about. This darling little princess certainly seems at ease.
Honestly, I cannot remember when things took such a major turn for the worse. We had a small successful crusade against the Moors in Iberia, and both Burgundy and Lombardy added one more county to our belts in central Spain. The trouble was... We also had anti-popes by this point. Not just anti-popes, but also a seemingly never-ending stream of terrible Popes who did nothing to try to reassert the failing moral authority of the church.
Anti-popes - Anti-popes can be game breakers, but are very much a part of our history. Especially in the HRE. Hell, Barbarossa installed three different anti-popes during his reign. Anti-popes are very popular in multiplayer, as far as I have experienced. It is easy to see why, considering how much money the Pope rakes in, who doesn't want that kind of income to be directed towards them? The trouble with them in the game is that they destroy the moral authority of the church. As moral authority declines, heresy increases significantly. Not only that, but your ability to convert heretical counties back to Catholicism goes into the proverbial toilet. It seems harmless at first but before you know it half of your holdings are of one heresy or another, along with half your vassals and courtiers. Once the heresy train gets rolling it becomes a very, very hard thing to stop.
Still, the show must go on. Lombardy continued to expand in northern Italy at the expense of the German lords still holding sway there. Venice was shown the light by force of arms and thereby deemed in its wisdom to agree to join the growing Italian state. Mantua, Treviso and Aquileia were all liberated from German oppression, although most inhabitants of Aquileia had spent so long under the German thumb that they had forgotten themselves and began to speak and act like their occupiers. This too, shall pass. They will remember who they are.
Also, it should be mentioned that it was during this session that I found myself to suddenly not be the only player in Italy proper, and in a much more dangerous situation than I had been in previously.
A new threat arises in central Italy...
There are a number of things to address here, so I'm going to take them one at a time.
1)
Glorious Lombardia - Everything shown in yellow (
minus Ancona) is now a part of Lombardia. We have grown significantly in power, and now control the three greatest cities in northern Italy: Milan (
The capital of Lombardia), Genoa and Venice. We are now the strongest power in Italy, and are now just three counties (
Karten, Krain, and Istria, all along the Croatian border) shy of uniting all of northern Italy under the Lombard banner.
2)
The Cow's Progeny - The Duchies of Tuscany and Modena (
shown in green) have reunited under the nine year old grandson of the Cow. This is unwelcome news in itself, but worse still is the dynasty this little Cow Paddie belongs to.
de Barcelona... The line of the King of Aragon. This boy may be Italian, but he presents a major foreign threat that cannot be understated. Apparently, the Cow married the older brother of the first Duke of Barcelona, and spit out little Catalan timebombs that have as of yet not exploded and taken half of Italy with them. This is made worse by the fact that a player now controls this little brat, one whom I have played with before and I know is competent in command. In fact, I was late arriving to this session and when I jumped in for the rehost, said player was at war with me over his grandmother's claim on Brescia. We came to terms and he backed down, but the threat remains. As I said earlier, I prefer not to fight players, but in this case I may not have a choice if I want to continue my dream of reuniting Italy. Which I do.
3)
The Kaiser's Authority - As the moral authority of the church has plummeted the crown authority of the Emperor has risen to take its place. At this point in time, we can no longer continue our liberation of rightfully Italian lands from German lords. The Kaiser's grip has grown too strong. If we are to continue to survive and grow, we must either loosen his grip, or cut off the hand that binds us entirely.
"You guys should totally go conquer the Holy Land. I'm pretty sure this time it will go better. Let me know how it turns out."
At this point, the moral authority of the church is all but destroyed. Cathars, Lollards and other heretics are establishing strongholds all over Europe, and Lombardia has not been spared. Catharism has spread from the north, over the Alps and infects even the capital of Milan itself. Meanwhile Lollards have the openly proclaimed the righteousness of their faith in Genoa, and have been spreading inside Italy and to neighboring Burgundy from there. Something had to be done, and so the Pope called for another crusade. Once again, the blood of Christians and Muslims alike will stain the sands of the Holy Land...
To be continued...
It does crack me up how you're Africa now.
![150px-Wappen_Landkreis_Meissen[1].png](https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/46555/150px-Wappen_Landkreis_Meissen[1].png "150px-Wappen_Landkreis_Meissen[1].png")
