Still going very well. Nice little pick up of land. And "the Red Duke" - that's a pretty cool nick-name. Must put the fear into his foes. Keep it up.
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Zeno: Heh. He certainly rocked them, yes. A shame he had to die: "Rock Me Constantine" lacks a certain...ring.
coz1: A nice little pickup, yes, and a change from gobbling it in Duchy-sized lumps. And I didn't even have to fight a major war for it.
This, as you're about to see, is going to change.
Longish update today, but you'll see why. Not, I think, that you'll mind.
Chapter 4: Descent of the Red Eagle (1086-1099)
Brandenburg, March 13th, 1086
"Father! Father!" The shrill, girlish yell echoed over the training grounds at the Adlerschloss, followed by the neigh of an exhausted horse as it was skilfully reined in to a stop in front of the Duke.
Udo lifted his hand to the soldiers drilling with him, half of whom were grinning when his back was turned, and smiled indulgently up at his daughter as she dismounted the black gelding.
A slightly older Ingegerd Staden, avid rider and not-so-nice Scheming Shadowy Sister
"Father! I was out riding along the road, and I saw a procession coming towards the town!" She still sounded excited, but not quite so loud. Thankfully.
The Duke had to smile at her energy...if leavened with concern. "What have I told you about riding out of the town, Inge?"
"Not to tell you about it," she answered, with a wholly false angelic smile. "But this is important! They were flying gold flags with blue lions! Isn't that..."
"...the King of Denmark's flag," the Duke and his daughter finished in unison. "Your grandfather's flag, Inge. I wonder what he wants?" The Duke called an end to the drill, and headed back inside with his daughter to prepare for the visit.
He met the procession at the gates, with Ingrid and their children...all save Kunigunde, who was in Grisons with her new husband. Bannermen and guards in Danish livery rode through at a walk, followed only by a grey-haired woman on a white palfrey.
Obviously not the King. Further, she was dressed all in black. Behind her rolled wagons filled with chests.
Udo looked to his wife, who gasped aloud. "Mother?", she said softly, the woman of nearly forty suddenly a little girl again and nearly overcome with joyful tears.
The woman dismounted gingerly as Ingrid rushed forward, past her smiling children, to embrace her mother. Udo kept himself to a graceful bow. "Queen Rannveig, I am honoured. What brings you to Brandenburg?"
"Queen no longer, my lord Duke," corrected Rannveig as she turned back to her daughter. "Child, it pains me to tell you this, but you were always my favourite daughter, and I thought you should hear it from my own lips."
Ingrid's hand rose to cover her lips, and her eyes slid to her mother's black raiment.
"Yes, your father the King is dead. Your brother Harald rules in Sjaelland now."
Dowager Queen Rannveig sought refuge from a stepson who despised her, but would lend her diplomatic expertise to the cause of her daughter's adopted home.
That ill news rang in 1086, and there was worse to come for the Stadens, for in June, Lady Margaret, the Duke's eldest daughter and bride of Lothar the Bright Prince, died in childbed with her second child. As before, the Duchess was pregnant with her eighth child soon afterward, and as before, the realm mourned in spite of what should have been happy news. She exhibited stress symptoms during the pregnancy, though with seven children already that was hardly a surprise. Still, she was delivered of a daughter, Sofie, early in 1087.
In the fall, Lothar was married to a daughter of the Duke of Saxony, and given the county of Stettin to rule. Lady Ingegerd, third daughter of the Duke, was appointed in his place as spy master, and married to Marshal von Querfurt. She took on the former role much more readily than the latter: rumours of infidelity and perversion would stalk her for years.
The next few years saw the death of the old Marshal Heinrich, who passed on Wolgast to his heir Lothar, Count of Stettin. Judith and Ermengard were married off to the heirs of German counts, and old Queen Rannveig died in 1090, being replaced as chancellor by Duchess Ingrid.
Outside the Red Duke's family affairs, he embarked on a program of road-building throughout his domain, adding to the riches and power of the merchant caste at the expense of both peasants and clergy, some of whom were heard to complain...quietly, so as not to be ferreted out by the competent, loyal, and above all ruthless Lady Ingegerd, whose name was soon enough used to scare grown men, let alone unruly children. What went on in the dungeons she managed could chill the blood.
In happier news, the first library in the March was built in 1090. The Margaretheum, named for the tragically lost daughter, became a center of learning and scholarship for northern Germany.
Ordulf, the heir to Brandenburg, grew up hale and hearty, if prone occasionally to white lies. In 1093, at 13, he requested and was allowed to travel Europe in the company of a rich merchant, one Heinrich von Querfurt, a distant younger cousin to the Marshal Albrecht.
Heinrich von Querfurt
There would soon enough be cause to regret that decision.
Altmark, November 14th, 1093
The observer hid upon a hill overlooking the border with pagan lands, watching as masses of men moved over the rolling, snow-covered plains like unruly ants.
There was no doubt about it. If the sight and the smoke of campfires didn't give it away, the drums and war chants were audible for miles around.
They were gathering, and soon enough they would move. But against whom?
Brandenburg, November 23rd
"Against the Danes." Ingegerd slapped the letter from her cousin Sivard, the Crown Prince of Denmark, down on the council table. "The Danes have declared a crusade against the tribes in Mecklemburg. Apparently, pagans from all over the Baltic are answering this call for help."
"Still, it is a chance for us," mused the Duke. "We can take the ports in Lubeck, Stralsund, and Rostock with little difficulty while their warriors are busy with the Danes."
"And miss the chance for a glorious battle?", asked Marshal Albrecht, sounding almost offended.
"And miss the chance for a glorious death," snorted Ingegerd sarcastically. "You should be all for it, husband mine."
Invasion of Mecklemburg
The pagan troops departed for Fyn in January 1094, and the raised troops of the March crossed the border soon afterward, meeting the pagan reserves in battle before the port of Stralsund. Udo showed great command skill in routing them, but messengers managed to escape the slaughter and carry word to the front on Fyn.
By March, pagans returned from the front, moving to attack Brandenburg itself. Udo's army moved from Mecklemburg to answer the threat, catching the pagans between his forces and the Adlerschloss garrison, with grisly results.
Counterattack in Brandenburg
The summer saw the arrival of royal troops...terribly disorganised royal troops, to be sure. King Heinrich laid siege to Mecklemburg, while Udo moved up the coast to Lubeck, where he encountered his son and his merchant companion, and took them under his wings.
Royal troops stood rearguard in Wolgast and Werle, watching for more retreating pagan detachments.
The Summer Sieges of 1094
They were not disappointed, unfortunately, but instead were routed by the main force of pagans, Vaisvillas the Chief at their head, returning from their conquest of Fyn. They even posed a threat to the King's troops around Mecklemburg...but instead, they swept into Brandenburg itself and laid siege to the town and castle. Udo finally broke the gates of Lubeck in October, and hurried back home...but not in time to keep the castle and city from being raided by the pagans, with much loss of life, including that of the Duchess herself, whose remains were never found upon the city's recapture.
The Fall and Recapture of the Adlerschloss, 1095
The ducal army and the main pagan force battled through the snowy woods around Brandenburg through the winter of 1095, until the pagans were finally put to flight in March. They fled into Mecklemburg, and there managed to defeat the remnants of the royal army beseiging Stralsund.
However, they were hotly pursued by an enraged Red Duke and his army, who struck them at their rest in Stralsund and forced them to flee. The forces of the vassal counts, commanded by Lothar the Bright Prince, kept up the pursuit into Lubeck while Udo's forces continued the siege.
The pagans returned to Mecklemburg under Lothar's harrying, only to be trapped between the Red Duke and the Bright Prince, and thoroughly annihilated.
Tragically, Marshal Albrecht was killed leading the final charge in the engagement. When news reached his wife in Brandenburg, she remarked coolly that, "It was what he wanted, after all." She was not seen to grieve, and soon enough she was seen with his much younger cousin Heinrich. They were married within the year.
The Second Battle of Mecklemburg, Jun 1095
As the summer waned, the remnants of royal forces were left to cover the port of Stralsund and keep up the siege, while Udo moved to Rostock and Lothar to Werle. During the fall, peace overtures from Vaisvillas, the chief of the Mecklemburg tribe, reached Udo's war camp at Rostock from the chief's refuge in Fyn.
It is said that the messengers found themselves flung over the walls into the besieged city.
The Autumn Sieges of 1095
Werle and Rostock fell in the winter, the former being granted to Lothar's young son Burchard, aged seven. Udo moved into Mecklemburg, while Lothar's army crossed the Kattegat, with the remnants of the King's regiments, to attack Fyn. The pagan armies had by now been exhausted, and the near-defenseless forts didn't last out the year.
The Bright Prince was not nearly so kind as his uncle might have been, and the head of the High Chief of Mecklemburg was decorating the highest tower on Fyn with the black-on-gold of the Kings of Germany, at Christmas in 1096, when Udo reached the isle with his army.
News reached the Duke there of the fall of Denmark to pagans from across the Baltic. The counts of Slesvig and Sjaelland had managed to hold against the Prussians, but the rest of the country and the Estridson Kings themselves had been left defenseless by their defeat in Fyn, and easily conquered.
Many of his children, lovers of Denmark literally from their mother's teat, urged him to press on and reconquer Denmark, but he was a tired man at the head of a tired army, which instead headed for home, their bloodlust sated.
In 1097, the aftermath of the crusade, came the distribution of spoils.
Ordulf, a surprisingly naive planner given the example of his elder sisters, was granted the county of Lausitz, and married to Berta von Tschudi, the younger sister of Thietmar, the count of Schwyz, and thus his sister-in-law. (Ermengard had married Thietmar a few years earlier.)
Wilhelm von Glarus, who had married Kunigunde and since inherited the County of Grisons, came to his father-in-law's court when his fief was seized by the King. He was granted the County of Rostock.
Heinrich von Querfurt, Ordulf's merchant companion and Ingegerd's new husband (and erstwhile lover, whispered the flapping tongues when she wasn't around to hear) was appointed Steward of the March.
Udo was crowned with the additional title Duke of Mecklemburg, and laid claim to the title of Duke of Pommerania which was currently held by the King. The whispers and slanders of treachery grew louder against him in Wurttemberg, but he ignored them again, for a reason which became clear two years later, when he died at the age of 64.
The Duchy in 1099
Ordulf's Inheritance
The Duke is dead, long live the Duke!
Brandenburg, July 7th, 1099
Seven of the eight children of Udo Staden, the Red Duke. stood in a rough half-circle around the eighth. the heir and now the Duke, Ordulf Staden, half a boy at 19 as he stood in front of his father's throne, unrolling a tightly bound scroll.
"If you are reading this, my son, then I have passed to whatever reward awaits me, and you are now the Duke.
Tell your sisters, and your brother Poul, that I am proud of them. Every one of you fit to rule: my only regret is that I did not manage to arrange it so. You will shake Europe, my children, you and your descendants. And I shall watch from above and cheer your every step.
You, Ordulf, are of course my heir in all my titles and demesnes. I have only one request of you.
Inge's boy, Hardeknut. Set him to rule over Mecklemburg. It saddened me that old Albrecht died in his moment of victory, and this, I hope, shall make some amends.
Rule well, my child. You are the Red Duke, now."
Ordulf rolled up the scroll in his hand and placed it on the throne, then stepped forward into the teary embraces of his siblings.
coz1: A nice little pickup, yes, and a change from gobbling it in Duchy-sized lumps. And I didn't even have to fight a major war for it.
This, as you're about to see, is going to change.
Longish update today, but you'll see why. Not, I think, that you'll mind.
Chapter 4: Descent of the Red Eagle (1086-1099)
Brandenburg, March 13th, 1086
"Father! Father!" The shrill, girlish yell echoed over the training grounds at the Adlerschloss, followed by the neigh of an exhausted horse as it was skilfully reined in to a stop in front of the Duke.
Udo lifted his hand to the soldiers drilling with him, half of whom were grinning when his back was turned, and smiled indulgently up at his daughter as she dismounted the black gelding.
A slightly older Ingegerd Staden, avid rider and not-so-nice Scheming Shadowy Sister
"Father! I was out riding along the road, and I saw a procession coming towards the town!" She still sounded excited, but not quite so loud. Thankfully.
The Duke had to smile at her energy...if leavened with concern. "What have I told you about riding out of the town, Inge?"
"Not to tell you about it," she answered, with a wholly false angelic smile. "But this is important! They were flying gold flags with blue lions! Isn't that..."
"...the King of Denmark's flag," the Duke and his daughter finished in unison. "Your grandfather's flag, Inge. I wonder what he wants?" The Duke called an end to the drill, and headed back inside with his daughter to prepare for the visit.
He met the procession at the gates, with Ingrid and their children...all save Kunigunde, who was in Grisons with her new husband. Bannermen and guards in Danish livery rode through at a walk, followed only by a grey-haired woman on a white palfrey.
Obviously not the King. Further, she was dressed all in black. Behind her rolled wagons filled with chests.
Udo looked to his wife, who gasped aloud. "Mother?", she said softly, the woman of nearly forty suddenly a little girl again and nearly overcome with joyful tears.
The woman dismounted gingerly as Ingrid rushed forward, past her smiling children, to embrace her mother. Udo kept himself to a graceful bow. "Queen Rannveig, I am honoured. What brings you to Brandenburg?"
"Queen no longer, my lord Duke," corrected Rannveig as she turned back to her daughter. "Child, it pains me to tell you this, but you were always my favourite daughter, and I thought you should hear it from my own lips."
Ingrid's hand rose to cover her lips, and her eyes slid to her mother's black raiment.
"Yes, your father the King is dead. Your brother Harald rules in Sjaelland now."
Dowager Queen Rannveig sought refuge from a stepson who despised her, but would lend her diplomatic expertise to the cause of her daughter's adopted home.
That ill news rang in 1086, and there was worse to come for the Stadens, for in June, Lady Margaret, the Duke's eldest daughter and bride of Lothar the Bright Prince, died in childbed with her second child. As before, the Duchess was pregnant with her eighth child soon afterward, and as before, the realm mourned in spite of what should have been happy news. She exhibited stress symptoms during the pregnancy, though with seven children already that was hardly a surprise. Still, she was delivered of a daughter, Sofie, early in 1087.
In the fall, Lothar was married to a daughter of the Duke of Saxony, and given the county of Stettin to rule. Lady Ingegerd, third daughter of the Duke, was appointed in his place as spy master, and married to Marshal von Querfurt. She took on the former role much more readily than the latter: rumours of infidelity and perversion would stalk her for years.
The next few years saw the death of the old Marshal Heinrich, who passed on Wolgast to his heir Lothar, Count of Stettin. Judith and Ermengard were married off to the heirs of German counts, and old Queen Rannveig died in 1090, being replaced as chancellor by Duchess Ingrid.
Outside the Red Duke's family affairs, he embarked on a program of road-building throughout his domain, adding to the riches and power of the merchant caste at the expense of both peasants and clergy, some of whom were heard to complain...quietly, so as not to be ferreted out by the competent, loyal, and above all ruthless Lady Ingegerd, whose name was soon enough used to scare grown men, let alone unruly children. What went on in the dungeons she managed could chill the blood.
In happier news, the first library in the March was built in 1090. The Margaretheum, named for the tragically lost daughter, became a center of learning and scholarship for northern Germany.
Ordulf, the heir to Brandenburg, grew up hale and hearty, if prone occasionally to white lies. In 1093, at 13, he requested and was allowed to travel Europe in the company of a rich merchant, one Heinrich von Querfurt, a distant younger cousin to the Marshal Albrecht.
Heinrich von Querfurt
There would soon enough be cause to regret that decision.
Altmark, November 14th, 1093
The observer hid upon a hill overlooking the border with pagan lands, watching as masses of men moved over the rolling, snow-covered plains like unruly ants.
There was no doubt about it. If the sight and the smoke of campfires didn't give it away, the drums and war chants were audible for miles around.
They were gathering, and soon enough they would move. But against whom?
* * *
Brandenburg, November 23rd
"Against the Danes." Ingegerd slapped the letter from her cousin Sivard, the Crown Prince of Denmark, down on the council table. "The Danes have declared a crusade against the tribes in Mecklemburg. Apparently, pagans from all over the Baltic are answering this call for help."
"Still, it is a chance for us," mused the Duke. "We can take the ports in Lubeck, Stralsund, and Rostock with little difficulty while their warriors are busy with the Danes."
"And miss the chance for a glorious battle?", asked Marshal Albrecht, sounding almost offended.
"And miss the chance for a glorious death," snorted Ingegerd sarcastically. "You should be all for it, husband mine."
Invasion of Mecklemburg
The pagan troops departed for Fyn in January 1094, and the raised troops of the March crossed the border soon afterward, meeting the pagan reserves in battle before the port of Stralsund. Udo showed great command skill in routing them, but messengers managed to escape the slaughter and carry word to the front on Fyn.
By March, pagans returned from the front, moving to attack Brandenburg itself. Udo's army moved from Mecklemburg to answer the threat, catching the pagans between his forces and the Adlerschloss garrison, with grisly results.
Counterattack in Brandenburg
The summer saw the arrival of royal troops...terribly disorganised royal troops, to be sure. King Heinrich laid siege to Mecklemburg, while Udo moved up the coast to Lubeck, where he encountered his son and his merchant companion, and took them under his wings.
Royal troops stood rearguard in Wolgast and Werle, watching for more retreating pagan detachments.
The Summer Sieges of 1094
They were not disappointed, unfortunately, but instead were routed by the main force of pagans, Vaisvillas the Chief at their head, returning from their conquest of Fyn. They even posed a threat to the King's troops around Mecklemburg...but instead, they swept into Brandenburg itself and laid siege to the town and castle. Udo finally broke the gates of Lubeck in October, and hurried back home...but not in time to keep the castle and city from being raided by the pagans, with much loss of life, including that of the Duchess herself, whose remains were never found upon the city's recapture.
The Fall and Recapture of the Adlerschloss, 1095
The ducal army and the main pagan force battled through the snowy woods around Brandenburg through the winter of 1095, until the pagans were finally put to flight in March. They fled into Mecklemburg, and there managed to defeat the remnants of the royal army beseiging Stralsund.
However, they were hotly pursued by an enraged Red Duke and his army, who struck them at their rest in Stralsund and forced them to flee. The forces of the vassal counts, commanded by Lothar the Bright Prince, kept up the pursuit into Lubeck while Udo's forces continued the siege.
The pagans returned to Mecklemburg under Lothar's harrying, only to be trapped between the Red Duke and the Bright Prince, and thoroughly annihilated.
Tragically, Marshal Albrecht was killed leading the final charge in the engagement. When news reached his wife in Brandenburg, she remarked coolly that, "It was what he wanted, after all." She was not seen to grieve, and soon enough she was seen with his much younger cousin Heinrich. They were married within the year.
The Second Battle of Mecklemburg, Jun 1095
As the summer waned, the remnants of royal forces were left to cover the port of Stralsund and keep up the siege, while Udo moved to Rostock and Lothar to Werle. During the fall, peace overtures from Vaisvillas, the chief of the Mecklemburg tribe, reached Udo's war camp at Rostock from the chief's refuge in Fyn.
It is said that the messengers found themselves flung over the walls into the besieged city.
The Autumn Sieges of 1095
Werle and Rostock fell in the winter, the former being granted to Lothar's young son Burchard, aged seven. Udo moved into Mecklemburg, while Lothar's army crossed the Kattegat, with the remnants of the King's regiments, to attack Fyn. The pagan armies had by now been exhausted, and the near-defenseless forts didn't last out the year.
The Bright Prince was not nearly so kind as his uncle might have been, and the head of the High Chief of Mecklemburg was decorating the highest tower on Fyn with the black-on-gold of the Kings of Germany, at Christmas in 1096, when Udo reached the isle with his army.
News reached the Duke there of the fall of Denmark to pagans from across the Baltic. The counts of Slesvig and Sjaelland had managed to hold against the Prussians, but the rest of the country and the Estridson Kings themselves had been left defenseless by their defeat in Fyn, and easily conquered.
Many of his children, lovers of Denmark literally from their mother's teat, urged him to press on and reconquer Denmark, but he was a tired man at the head of a tired army, which instead headed for home, their bloodlust sated.
In 1097, the aftermath of the crusade, came the distribution of spoils.
Ordulf, a surprisingly naive planner given the example of his elder sisters, was granted the county of Lausitz, and married to Berta von Tschudi, the younger sister of Thietmar, the count of Schwyz, and thus his sister-in-law. (Ermengard had married Thietmar a few years earlier.)
Wilhelm von Glarus, who had married Kunigunde and since inherited the County of Grisons, came to his father-in-law's court when his fief was seized by the King. He was granted the County of Rostock.
Heinrich von Querfurt, Ordulf's merchant companion and Ingegerd's new husband (and erstwhile lover, whispered the flapping tongues when she wasn't around to hear) was appointed Steward of the March.
Udo was crowned with the additional title Duke of Mecklemburg, and laid claim to the title of Duke of Pommerania which was currently held by the King. The whispers and slanders of treachery grew louder against him in Wurttemberg, but he ignored them again, for a reason which became clear two years later, when he died at the age of 64.
The Duchy in 1099
Ordulf's Inheritance
The Duke is dead, long live the Duke!
Brandenburg, July 7th, 1099
Seven of the eight children of Udo Staden, the Red Duke. stood in a rough half-circle around the eighth. the heir and now the Duke, Ordulf Staden, half a boy at 19 as he stood in front of his father's throne, unrolling a tightly bound scroll.
"If you are reading this, my son, then I have passed to whatever reward awaits me, and you are now the Duke.
Tell your sisters, and your brother Poul, that I am proud of them. Every one of you fit to rule: my only regret is that I did not manage to arrange it so. You will shake Europe, my children, you and your descendants. And I shall watch from above and cheer your every step.
You, Ordulf, are of course my heir in all my titles and demesnes. I have only one request of you.
Inge's boy, Hardeknut. Set him to rule over Mecklemburg. It saddened me that old Albrecht died in his moment of victory, and this, I hope, shall make some amends.
Rule well, my child. You are the Red Duke, now."
Ordulf rolled up the scroll in his hand and placed it on the throne, then stepped forward into the teary embraces of his siblings.
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One day the Red Eagle shall turn to black... Hail Prussia
One word from a reader:
PLEASE don't rebel against the King of Germany unless a) the loyality of your Duke is under 50% and b) the King is really being a jerk off.o
I know people want to do great deeds, but there is just too much backstabbing going on. People did actually put good faith in the feudal contact, especially in the 11th and 12th centuies... later things started to break down as society was changing. Just a word of advice, either way I'll still be reading.
One word from a reader:
PLEASE don't rebel against the King of Germany unless a) the loyality of your Duke is under 50% and b) the King is really being a jerk off.
o I know people want to do great deeds, but there is just too much backstabbing going on. People did actually put good faith in the feudal contact, especially in the 11th and 12th centuies... later things started to break down as society was changing. Just a word of advice, either way I'll still be reading.
A most excellent war by the sounds of it. Will the new Duke strive for the same moniker I wonder?
Let's see inseresting ephitits... The cruel?
No, the new duke dosn't look cruel so that won't fit what will?
No, the new duke dosn't look cruel so that won't fit what will?
Auch I diudnt think the new Dukes stats be that bad, I mean all my one in my game have fairly good stats all over 6 lol maybe its that Spanish maden named Sancha Jazmina or what ever her name was lol, oh well to late now lol your 1 Generation new into the game
I do agree dont rebel against your liege jsut yet, how every tempting it might be. Wait till your Army grows to around 3000 men or more like 3500 or so, then whgen the liege has like one province left due to him making the others into Vassels, it be easy to gain your freedom, also helps if you try to muster before hand hehe because of the distance.
Thier area is assasinations but thier no garuntee, plus youll need to have a a claima gainst your leige if you got good loyalty with him, get a claim near him tahts available that cost really low. Its complicated but for me I trie to get löoss from my liege as early as I can due to him interfearing in every war, I have with the darn Pagens hehe.
now that you got some Pagen Provinces when you can try to get Prussia, or what ever, the fac6t is that the German King allways brings his allies in to get things dosnt help either, just pray that Heinrich isnt Controling hzis army when coming to help you lol, other wise you loss that province to him... its an annoying new system.
But good AAR... if not a bit rich in writting or for me it is anyway.
I do agree dont rebel against your liege jsut yet, how every tempting it might be. Wait till your Army grows to around 3000 men or more like 3500 or so, then whgen the liege has like one province left due to him making the others into Vassels, it be easy to gain your freedom, also helps if you try to muster before hand hehe because of the distance.
Thier area is assasinations but thier no garuntee, plus youll need to have a a claima gainst your leige if you got good loyalty with him, get a claim near him tahts available that cost really low. Its complicated but for me I trie to get löoss from my liege as early as I can due to him interfearing in every war, I have with the darn Pagens hehe.
now that you got some Pagen Provinces when you can try to get Prussia, or what ever, the fac6t is that the German King allways brings his allies in to get things dosnt help either, just pray that Heinrich isnt Controling hzis army when coming to help you lol, other wise you loss that province to him... its an annoying new system.
But good AAR... if not a bit rich in writting or for me it is anyway.
Nice little war. Who knew those pagans were so tough? I about spit my drink out when I saw Brandenburg itself fall. I was also surprised that imperial troops did not go after any land (though I may have missed it if they did.)
The writing remains top notch, and I really like the monikers you have given to certain characters. It helps me to recognize them, especially as more and more people come along in the story. Continued excellence.
The writing remains top notch, and I really like the monikers you have given to certain characters. It helps me to recognize them, especially as more and more people come along in the story. Continued excellence.
Elias: There's rebelling and then there's rebelling. Since the HRE didn't fall to pieces like in my 1.02 games, some other way out will have to be found.
strylan: Yes, it went very well. Aside from the raid on Brandenburg, I didn't lose too many troops, and even got to keep all the territory and titles.
I envision Ordulf as a fairly warlike Duke, yes. This may be a problem, as I dislike writing battle scenes, and I fear I'll have to do one eventually.
Zeno: Well, having already played out his reign, I'll give a small hint. "The Crusader," perhaps, or "The Conqueror".
Maximillian: Oh, I already have a claim against Heinrich. _I_ should be Duke of Pommerania, damn it.
But I'm very, very unlikely to try and take him from inside the realm unless it falls apart beforehand. The new AI has too good of a record for smacking down rebellious vassals, but if I have low loyalty, then likely some others will too, and make it easier.
coz1: Oh, Brandenburg isn't half of it. If you notice the white Skane in the screenshots later in the war: their Prussian allies conquered Denmark while I was fighting in Mecklenburg.
Oh, and the imperial troops did go after some land. But they made the mistake of splitting their forces too thin and getting repeatedly smacked by pagans I'd forced to retreat.
They did manage to take Fyn, but really I didn't care too much about Fyn at the time. I should edit the text, though, to make that clear.
I was almost hoping the King would be killed or wounded in battle, but no such luck.
As always, everyone, thanks for reading. I'm enjoying every minute of this.
strylan: Yes, it went very well. Aside from the raid on Brandenburg, I didn't lose too many troops, and even got to keep all the territory and titles.
I envision Ordulf as a fairly warlike Duke, yes. This may be a problem, as I dislike writing battle scenes, and I fear I'll have to do one eventually.
Zeno: Well, having already played out his reign, I'll give a small hint. "The Crusader," perhaps, or "The Conqueror".
Maximillian: Oh, I already have a claim against Heinrich. _I_ should be Duke of Pommerania, damn it.
But I'm very, very unlikely to try and take him from inside the realm unless it falls apart beforehand. The new AI has too good of a record for smacking down rebellious vassals, but if I have low loyalty, then likely some others will too, and make it easier.
coz1: Oh, Brandenburg isn't half of it. If you notice the white Skane in the screenshots later in the war: their Prussian allies conquered Denmark while I was fighting in Mecklenburg.
Oh, and the imperial troops did go after some land. But they made the mistake of splitting their forces too thin and getting repeatedly smacked by pagans I'd forced to retreat.
They did manage to take Fyn, but really I didn't care too much about Fyn at the time. I should edit the text, though, to make that clear.
I was almost hoping the King would be killed or wounded in battle, but no such luck.
As always, everyone, thanks for reading. I'm enjoying every minute of this.
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I apologise for the lack of updates in the past week or so.
I've been having some persistent computer problems that have left me quite unable to play CK or work on the AAR.
While things should be resolved by next week, I may be forced to end this AAR early if the HD crash I'm dealing with ate my save file.
Wish me luck.
-D.
I've been having some persistent computer problems that have left me quite unable to play CK or work on the AAR.
While things should be resolved by next week, I may be forced to end this AAR early if the HD crash I'm dealing with ate my save file.
Wish me luck.
-D.
Unfortunately, I shall have to call things to an end here, as I was unable to recover the savegame from an HD crash. I'd like to thank you all for reading and all your comments.
-D.
I'd like to thank you all for reading and all your comments.-D.
A great shame. Can we expect another aar from your good self sometime in the future?
Fall of Stars said:Unfortunately, I shall have to call things to an end here, as I was unable to recover the savegame from an HD crash.
-D.
Indeed a great shame. A very fine AAR this was. I look forward to another one. I hope you didn't lose too much important work data in that HD crash! It happened to me not so long ago
I'm a student on summer vacation. I have no important work data. So that's all right.
I'll probably do another AAR, but not for a while. I think a time of just playing the game is in order. At least until i get a more reliable HD.
Thanks for all the well wishes.
So that's all right.I'll probably do another AAR, but not for a while. I think a time of just playing the game is in order. At least until i get a more reliable HD.
Thanks for all the well wishes.
Well, enjoy playing the game. After all, that must come first. But I too hope another AAR will be in the works in the future. It will surely be of the same or even better quality as this.