Road of Queens - CKII India AAR

[Eurasia]

Crusader Kings 2 - The Road of Queens
Chapter One Hundred-Twenty-Two : Learning With Despot "The Bold"

Pudding. And The Promise Of More Pudding!​

"Run!" shouted one of his grandchildren, "He wants to have family time with us!"

The Despot sighed as the children ran out of the play room. He just wanted to have some quality time with them. Was that so wrong? True, it involved a lot of rambling stories and tall tales and lies, but didn't all fathers and grandfathers talk about how great they were?

He had won wars and killed tigers and lost a leg. He was allowed to put a twist on many of his stories, surely?

He sighed and was about to leave the play room when he felt somebody grab his left hand.

"Hey Dad, can I talk to you about something?" asked Princess Theophano. His 11 year old daughter from his second wife who happened to also be one of his friends. She seemed to ENJOY spending time with him.

"Sure honey," he said. He sat down on one of the tiny kid's chairs and pointed at another chair. "Pull up a seat."

She pulled a chair closer to him and sat down. "I need to ask something."

"This isn't about sex is it?" asked the Despot. "Because I was told your nannies explained that kind of stuff to you kids."

"No, I want to ask why you are pushing yourself for a war that you could leave to my half-sister Princess Arminestra. SHE has the claim. Why not just let her do it when she becomes Queen?"

"Oh...well," said the Despot rubbing his chin. "Let me explain what happens if I die before carrying out the war."

"You won't die."

"Well, not today," replied the Despot, knocking on his wooden leg, "but one day I will and than Duchess Arminestra becomes Queen Arminestra "The Wise". And when she becomes a Queen she will end up with THREE Duchy titles. And you know what they means?"

"She has to give one up," said Princess Theophano. "And the Duchy of Varendra is the one she would likely give up. It only has one Trade Post unlike the other two Duchies she would inherit from you."

"Yes," said the Despot with a nod. "She would likely keep Pundravardhana while giving the Survarngram to somebody before making them the Doux or Duchess. In other words give them a worthless county and a worthless Duchy while keeping the other two."

The Despot leaned forward and added, "But she could still go to war for the third county in their name. The County of Madhupur would go to whoever holds the Duchy though."

"Oh..." said the Princess. "But if YOU go to war you can get the County of Madhupur for her NOW. And when she becomes Queen and has to give up the Duchy title she could keep BOTH the County of Madhupur and the County of Pundravardhana. She can decide to keep the GOOD counties and only give up the bad one."

"Yes," said the Despot. "So she gets the wealth and ALSO does not create a powerful Duchy with two counties."

"Thanks Dad," said Princess, "It is nice to know what is going on."

"And knowing is half the battle!"

"What?"

"Never you mind," said the Despot. "Now run along. I think the kitchens made some rice pudding. I bet you can get some before supper. As long as the other children don't eat it all!"

As the Princess ran off the Despot stood up and cracked his back.

"I think war will be coming soon," he said to himself. "Very soon."

 

[Eurasia]

D'uh! The Duchess is more "Wise" than I thought. If you look at her information in the above chapter you will notice a claim. But that isn't a claim for the County of Madhupur (which she can still claim as the Duchess of Varendra). It is a totally different county inside the Kingdom of Pala. Looks like she was fabricating a claim of her own!

 

[stnylan]

He's thinking ahead the Despot is.

Well no one ever accused him of stupidity.

 

[Nuada Airgetlám]

I like the Despot's forward thinking. And the explanation.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Very clever. Now that's got me thinking about the possibility of someone somehow doing a Thrawn AAR...

 

[Eurasia]

Crusader Kings 2 - The Road of Queens
Chapter One Hundred-Twenty-Three : WAR!

What Is It Good For? Elephants!​

We open this chapter in December, of the year 828 AD, with the hiring of the Bengal Band. Captain Vasudeva was in charge of his hired swords with Commander Prabhase on his right flank and Commander Theoktistos on his left flank. They were ordered to march south to the County of Laksmanavati as soon as possible.

​

While Despot waited for his first army to be in place he received the news that Sumaise "The Troubadour" was trying to kill Bharkhuman Satazk of the House of Vijaya. The Spy Master promised to demand that she stopped.

On the 20th of February the Despot sent a declaration of war to the Great King. The war, named Kamarupa Ducal War for Princess Arminestra's Claim on Madhupur, had started.

​

The Battle of Puthia started shortly afterwards when the Captain's army marched into the Capital-County of Laksmanavati RIGHT when the Great King was assembling his local levies. The Great King was able to keep the center from collapsing but his flanks melted away under the assault.

​

By March the center was all that remained and the Great King showed great skill in holding it together. Soon Pala reinforcements arrived but they collapsed almost as soon as they took up their positions on the flank. The Great King and his core of loyal troops were all that remained. Again. By the 23rd of March the Battle of Puthia came to an end.

​

The Captain lost 62 men while the Great King lost 298 soldiers.

In April it became clear that the Despot was no longer capable of any kind of work. He could not remember faces or names, didn't know where he was, and saw things that did not exist, like unicorns, fairies, and Vikings.

Commander Theoktistos happened to be the Despot's Regent AND was also marching with the army. That kind of made sense as many of the decisions that needed to be dealt with were on the battlefield.

Within the Kingdom of Pala a small war started as the Raja Dharmapala II of Nadia started a war with another realm. Which meant his soldiers were now no longer available to the Great King AND another enemy army would be marching about messing up the Pala's counties.

By May the levies had assembled together and under Commader Caiytiska with the flanking Commanders Dipankar and Ayehah they started to march west towards Madhupur to siege it.

While the Despot went in and out of the real world and his inner dream world he was notified that Princess Dionysia had the bad case of the flu. He ordered the Court Physician to focus on his daughter and not on him.

Between treating the Despot and the sick girl the Court Physician Serapion would become known as a Renowned Physician!

In June the hired swords, who had been chasing pieces of the Pala military forces about the map for months, were able to capture a small army and attack it. The poor fools didn't even have trained officers among them! On the 3rd of June the Battle of Fathabad started. Even as the armies exchanged arrows Pala reinforcements were on their way to help their comrades. Would they arrive in time?

The next day, even as the Commanders fought the enemy, they received horrible news.

On the 4th of June, 829 AD, the Despot had died comatose in bed at the age of 58. Duchess Arminestra was now Queen Arminestra II "The Wise".

The Regent stepped down and Prince Andronikos Dysnomia become the new Heir to the throne (though everybody knew this would likely be changed).

And of course the Councilors were all removed from the Council. The new Queen would have to select new members.

So we close this chapter with a siege in progress, a battle being fought, and a new Queen who needed to direct a war while rebuilding her Council and securing her throne.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

A shame but a good long life lived. I like the rulers you've had so far but this new queen is quite a bit older and has already lived outside your control. I wonder what's been going on?

 

[Nuada Airgetlám]

Thus passes the great Despot. Hail the new Despotess!

 

[stnylan]

Farewell Despot. You went from a craven embarrassment to your mother to a brave son any mother would be proud to claim her own.

 

[JabberJock14]

To somewhat steal a quote from someone who came much, much later and from a part of the world the Despot would not care much about, "We found him a pygmy but he left us a giant."

And we'll see how many hosts/claimants wars pop up in the kingdom's future. (That's a loooooong pretender list)

 

[Nikolai]

And so an era ends...

 

[Eurasia]

Crusader Kings 2 - The Road of Queens
Chapter One Hundred-Twenty-Four : Battles And Politics

Artist's Impression Of The New Queen (1)
​

We open this chapter in June, of the year 829 AD, as the Queen tries to help the Kingdom of Kamarupa survive the death of her father AND a war.

The first duty she was to carry out was to decide the second stage of Princess Theophano's education. She decided her half-sister was to become a future diplomat.

Then she picked her next Heir - her daughter the Princess Anastasia Dysnomia. She wanted to make sure a Queen followed her reign. Is that not what the First Queen Arminestra, her grandmother, had wanted? A line of Queens?

Then she spent the next few hours selecting her Councilors. All her picks were based on loyality first and skill second. She didn't want a problem with her Council during a time of war and change.

The first on the list was Isaias who became her Magistros. He seemed both loyal and skilled.

The second on the list was good old Kyriakos as Protostrator. Seemed a waste NOT to bring him back.

The Sakellarios was the one-eyed Wiryasini "The Wise" who the Queen had never heard of but she liked his nickname.

The Spy Master (Mystikos) was a Mayor. Bosporios was neither as skilled as she would have liked nor as loyal but he was the best she could find. The more skilled people hated her guts so it was best to be safe.

Serapion was also called back to be the Upadhyaya. He was the most skilled on the Council but, like Kyriakso, still hurting from being removed from it in the first place. She would have to work on the hurt feelings of many members of the Council once the war was over.

It was brought to her attention that she could, if she wanted to, usurp the Monastery of Para-Lauhitya from Monk Isidoros. But she saw no reason to - it would just upset the man even more. Why bait the tiger? Also being a Buddhist Temple Leader seemed to be what blocked him from marrying. Why mess up a good thing?

On the 5th of June the paperwork had been processed and her new Heir, Princess Anastasia, was certified. She also became her daughter's guardian and became responsible for her education. True, Prince Nikodemos was unhappy about his ward being taken away from him but she felt her second son would recover from the blow.

It was announced the next day that the Raja Dharmapala II of Nadia had won his war and now could join his liege in the conflict with the Queen. The Queen was not impressed.

That same day the report came in from the Battle of Fathabad. The enemy army was fleeing the Queen's cavalry. By the 14th of June the battle was over. The Queen's army had lost 15 soldiers while the Great King had lost 129 soldiers.

The Queen hired a second mercenary unit the Rajput Band, and had them start marching to join the siege in the County of Madhupur.

On the 17th of June the Queen was alerted to the fact that the army in the County of Kumara Mandala had been attacked by the Great King who had assembled 1,721 soldiers. The Battle of Kumarakhali had started even while the losers of the earlier battle were still trying to flee. There were even Pala reinforcements on the way. The Queen was worried the hired men might not hold up against such numbers.

By the 25th the reinforcements had joined in but the battle was still too even. The Great King had the numbers but the Bengal Band had the Commanders and the Elephants. By July the enemy's right flank had failed while the enemy's left flank had charged the Bengal Band's right flank - trying to use their numbers to overwhelm the defenders. Soon the Great King's flanks were collapsing and the Queen's army focused all its might on the remaining center.

During this period the Queen had joined the siege at Madhupur which meant messages from her Commanders in the field got to her quicker while messages from the Palace took longer.

So she sat in her military tent outside the besieged Castle of Madhupur receiving reports and replying to them. For example, she was notified that Commander Ayeshah kure Naz'aktar and his wife had given birth to another baby boy which they had named Fezl. The Queen suggested they teach the boy the Buddhist faith.

Shortly after that the Battle of Kumarakhali came to an end. The Queen's forces had lost 251 men while Great King had lost 524 AND the Commander who had been in charge of the King’s right flank.

While the Queen was known for being cruel she was almost known to have a head for business and asked a small ransom for Commander Govindachandra.

While waiting for a reply the Queen got a scroll from her Spy Master. It started that the Isidoros had started a Faction to put Prince Ioulianos on the throne.

The Queen snorted and crumbled the scroll. “Not going to happen,” she hissed as she burned the paper over one of her candles.

In August she received the 10 coins for the release of Commander Govindachandra. The letter from the Great King was short but also polite.

We close the chapter with the Queen firmly in control of the war and trying to keep control of the Kingdom.

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Author's End Notes:

1. There seems to be a debate among historians on just WHAT Queen Arminestra II looked like as she was a mixture of Greek and East Indian blood. There has been no images of the Queen found among historical records or artwork from the time period. Much of the images of the Queen were made AFTER her reign and are believed to be less than accurate. It is likely we will never know just what she looked like.

 

[Nuada Airgetlám]

She's nice. Apparently.

A victory is no poor way to begin a reign.

 

[stnylan]

All in all a good start to the time of the new Queen.

 

[JabberJock14]

She's off to a fine start - some excellent generals there! When the Queen inherited the throne she was already a better ruler than the Despot was when he came to power (though he grew into a great king), so she can really hit the ground running.

In the end, it probably doesn't matter what she looked like. If she's successful, she'll be changed to whatever the modern standards of beauty. I mean look at Cleopatra, who in reality was an extremely inbred Macedonian.

 

[Eurasia]

Crusader Kings 2 - The Road of Queens
Chapter One Hundred-Twenty-Five : Removing Problems

Can't Choose Your Family​

We open this chapter in September, of the year 829 AD, with a little comparison between the Great King Mahendra of the Pala Kingdom and Queen Arminestra II "The Wise" of Kamarupa.

The Great King was a military man. He commanded his armies and he commanded them from the center. Sadly, he was either outnumbered or outfought at every turn. And even with hired swords he only could build up about two thousand soldiers.

The Queen had been raised and educated carefully to be a well rounded ruler. She had gained experience as a Duchess, running her own vassals and holdings. Now that she was a Queen she let others command her armies. Which now numbered over six thousand warriors.

The Bengal Band had been wandering the Kingdom of Pala. They spent much of their time chasing the fleeing enemy soldiers, collecting cheap postcards, and getting those stupid snow globes. You know the ones. The cheap ones that always leak over the years and get glitter all over the place. Anyway, where were we? Oh yes.

The Great King finally assembled a large army and launched an attack on the Queen's hired swords on the 12th of September. With reinforcements on the way. Maybe? And so the Battle of Bansberia started.

​

After the traditional exchange of insults and arrows the enemy's left flank charged in to overwhelm the Band's right flank. And completely failed. The Great King in the center soon found himself under fire from most of the archers and his troops also started to flee.

Soon the only part of the enemy still fighting was the enemy's right flank. The Queen received news of the victory on the 22nd of October. But it was a close thing as the Bengal Band lost 207 men and the Great King lost 286 men.

​

The Queen realized that the Bengal Band would have to be replaced as they were no longer a effective fighting force and dismissed them. After all the Rajput Band was already on the payroll and had joined her in the County of Madhupur. She knew that the Great King did not have the numbers or the funding now to defeat her.

As she enjoyed the sight of the burning towers, broken walls, and a body filled moat she received a letter from The Great King Mahinda II "The Chaste" of Lambakanna Kingdom. He suggested that Princess Theodosia and Rajkumar Rajasinha become betrothed. She agreed. Her step-sister would become a Queen. Far, far away.

Later in the month of November she was able to help Ramtish Anantazk learn about being patient. It also reminded her that he was one of the many within the House of Vijaya who could claim the crown of Khotan.

So of course she suggested that him and Princess Dionysia get betrothed. Which they both accepted because she was the liege to both of them.

She also hired the Alan Riders and ordered them to join the main army. You could never have too many hired warriors. Soon the Army of Captain Saros would make her main army even more massive.

The Queen was notified that the Thakur Shanibhangar of Madhupur had sent his Chancellor, Mayor Ranasura of Pabna, to try to grab her title. Or one of them.

"Fool!" she said on learning of this. "How will he claim my title from a dungeon?"

Later that month she found out not only had the Mayor gotten the claim but his liege had used it.

"Never GOING to HAPPEN," stated the Queen when she heard that. "The fool is in a dungeon! How will he take any of my titles away from me?"

At the end of the month the Castle of Madhupur finally fell to the Queen's army. The next target of the Army of Caiytiska was the City of Pabna. The Queen was looking forward to crushing that city.

Council meetings were rare but still happened. The Councilors, those available, would come down to the siege to report to the Queen and receive orders.

During a meeting in December the Spy Master Bosporios told the Queen of a rumor about another lost artifact. The Queen found it interesting and did not dismiss the idea of hunting it down. But she felt that the Kingdom, and its funds, should focus on the war for the moment.

After the meeting it was brought to her attention that Princess Eustathia, her other daughter, had no educational pathway set up for her. The Queen decided the girl would focus on duty.

Later she was also told that Prince Leontios, one of her sons, needed the second stage of his education decided on. She selected philosophy and religion for his future.

At the turn of the year the Princess Theodosia finally came of age and finished her education becoming a master of intrigue. The Queen told her to pack and prepare to leave for her new home.

The Queen also gave a writer patronage to work on the family's chronicles. It cost her over 86 gold coins but she was okay with that. She was rich and it would make for good public relations.

On the 7th of January Princess Theodosia left to marry Rajkumar Rajasinha. One less member of the family who might cause her problems. Well, the Princess could STILL try to cause the Queen problems but it would be hard to do from so far away.

We close this chapter with the Queen one step closer to winning the war and securing her place in history.

 

[stnylan]

The start of her reign continues in a hopeful fashion.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

It's only up from here hopefully.

Sure, it may be a tiny island, but it's stable and unthreatened, which is a rarity in India in this game. So don't think they're gone forever and never going to come back to bite you in the behind.

 

[Bullfilter]

I wonder why my alerts seemed to switch themselves off (again) even though the thread is still watched! Then four updates come out in a few days! I don't know how you do it, Eurasia!

I will now have to digest - including the momentous news of a change of ruler ! But, in the meantime, long live the Queen - given the name of the AAR, it's good to have one back again . I'm sure she will be formidable - but also plagued by problems and presented with opportunities, big and small. Such is the lot of a busy ruler of an increasingly important realm .

 

[Eurasia]

I wonder why my alerts seemed to switch themselves off (again) even though the thread is still watched! Then four updates come out in a few days! I don't know how you do it, Eurasia!

I will now have to digest - including the momentous news of a change of ruler ! But, in the meantime, long live the Queen - given the name of the AAR, it's good to have one back again . I'm sure she will be formidable - but also plagued by problems and presented with opportunities, big and small. Such is the lot of a busy ruler of an increasingly important realm .

I played this war in a two hour session and am now breaking it down to small pieces. I enjoy writing and find the chapter names and the chapter images. It is easier than trying to make a long chapter with two hours worth of game play - that would be all text and only 20 images.

As for the Queen and future problems - I look forward to it. She is different from her father and even from her grandmother - so she is a whole new character I have to figure out. And the future DLC and updates will make things even more interesting.