Part IV (794-800)
Year 794
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I decide in january to speed things up and divide our forces to pursue more strategic objectives at once. One army besieges enemy capital, other goes to relieve besieged garrison in Syktyvkar. Less whack-a-mole, more efficiency.
February sees our new plans come into fruition - we catch Vologdan host in Syktyvkar and handilly beat them, while our duel partner dies thus invalidating mission from lodge.
Warcamps are finished by march in Perm/Kudymkar/Kolva tribes. As we keep ransoming, we also hit 800 wealth mark in treasury. We also cordinate both armies in pincer movement to catch 300 Vologdan host, pushing from Hlynow to Velsk with 2nd army coming from east to Syrj. Our beautiful daughter is born, which resolves problem of potential extra heir. I can also matrilinealy marry her, to produce off-main branch dynasty members. While it would cost us prestige, it would save claim managment.
In may another rulership focus event fires. This time it deals with one of our Siberian Khanty vassals. As I don't care for him and would be more than happy for him to plot and revolt (and definetely won't pay out of my own pocket or eat local risk penalty), decision is made: he can compensate on his own
. Alfter crushing Vologdans, we move to besiege both Pinega tribe to the north and Vologda tribe to the south.
Another rulership focus event fires
Pinega falls by july, so our brave warriors move onto next one in the north - Vashka.
By august we capture Vologda, as it's host moves to recapture Syktyvkar.
In september we take over Vashka tribe and end the war! By 17th day of month we finally create Kingdom of Perm. As we had the ambition for it and stockpiled maximum amount of piety (1000) we get nice discount so it is rather cheap.
We are finally, a king tier ruler. Took us 25 in game years. Far longer than most people are used to even, if we take into consideration 5 years of regency following abruptHigh Chief Omurtag I death. But we had to in order to prioritise our economic long-term goals (and thus 2x See Realm Prosper ambition, as well as studying stewardship). Here's our current size.
Almost trippled our realm size
While it isn't the end of our "map painting", it is a good moment to slow down and focus more on internal affairs. First with our newly found prestige I will order 3x Practise Range III (+15 Archers) in Perm, Kudymkar, Kolva plus Practise Range II in Udmurts for total of 1100 prestige. Then as we became the king and have quite the bank, it is time to commision for crown jewelry. We should get at least quality 2, but maybe we luck and get quality 3 set for cheap. The more prestige and piety we start getting early, the better.
Start of mass forging of artifacts due to reaching King rank
Lastly as we no longer need so much piety, we can spent it on defensive pagan exclusive piety retinues, with our newly increased limits thanks to king rank. Just beforing pressing those buttons I push Military Organisation technology in Perm to II level. As we are currently at 809/3100 retinue limit I decide for split. 4 Retinues of other piety bands - Ardent Guardians. I will use that HI in "holding flanks". The rest of limit is filled with extra 6 bands of Sworn Defenders (putting them at 10 retinues total). It lowers our piety from over 1000 to 476, which won't last for long. At least we should be around halfway done with reinforcing. For that reason I think, it is worth to change Marshal from Training Troops to Organizing the army (to lower maintenance by almost 20%).
More piety retinues - this time more melee oriented
We also have some imprisonment opportunities. Chief of Viled is plotting to become High Chief of Veliky Ustug, so we incite him to rebel by trying to arrest without setting our marshal for extra +arrest chance. Sadly we succeed (57% chance), so vassal chief doesn't rise up in rebelion. Wanted to replace him, because we are quite culturaly differse right now, and it seems to be a good idea to try starting culture conversion early. We also have Chief of Khantia, as target of lawful imprisonment. Sadly once again we succeed (46% chance). There is chance that by having both chiefs in cell, we will let death sort things out. That said chief of Mansia has 1 year old son.
Cultures inside our newfly founded kingdom - all are in Finno-Ugric group
As we let days go by till October I notice, ownership of Kostroma tribe in duchy of Mari. Don't plan on keeping it longterm, though given circumstances it is ideal to start settling Komi people into this Mordvin land. So our Stewards goes there with settle tribe mission. He is terrible at it (12 stewardship) and is sick (Great Pox), so my expectations aren't great. Also start plotting to revoke Chiefdom of Pil'va (last county in our capital duchy). We currently have too many duchies (4), so most of our newly conquered vassals hate us with passion. While it usually would be considered bad, I hope it allows us to pick and relieve them off their counties. All in order to assign new better administrators of our culture (especially in Nenets and Khanty tribes).
(Between playing sessions I noticed, that my game has different Finno-Ugric portraits compared to what I've seen online. After investigating turns out that I don't own Conclave content pack. Which was since then remedied. So from now on, don't be suprised for change in visuals. I for once welcome that change, as I prefer those unique hats that Fledglings in Warrior Lodges sport. Did also spent some time looking for interesting courtiers (possible "investors"). Additionally spent some time looking through event files, to dig up crucial info. Turns out every corruption event sets invisible flag on character, making them not eligible for further such events. The same goes for ambitious stewards. So I will need to be more active with my approach to those one&done schemes.)
In November we invite new steward to replace our current office holder (which is not eligible for desired event as well as being actually better at work). We also start FOUR wars to extort tribute from rest of Nenetsia chiefs to the north-west. Gold income is not the goal - 200 prestige per won war is. It will also be repeatable for each ruler. Thus such prestige farming will easily benefit Perm much.
18 Stewardship ambitious steward! Finger cross he will be industrous
December starts with first enemy chief wishing to surrender - which we accept. As our new steward arrives, our chancellor dies, so I fish for another one. Before end of year, we get to choose what kind of gift we want to present ourselves from commisioned goldsmith. We go with 150g expensive option, hoping for improved quality. Day after new chancellor arrives (19) and we set him on trying to fabricate claim on Vologda tribe (which is currently held by Nenets chief). Also another chief wishes to surrender, which we accept.
Let prestige rain begin! Imagine not having to siege down those terribly supplied provinces
Year 795
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We gather our troops in Udmurts, while in March we get another goldsmith pop-up. Interestingely I decide to reprimand smith, as that 50 prestige doesn't stink but also has 5% chance of improving quality. King Omurtag II also spends 100 prestige on Practise Range I in Tylnea (which I refrained from investing so far, but now I think we will be able to defend it).
By may we get Perm's regalia and contrary to what the event box says it is only quality 2 set, neating us currently +0.6 prestige/month and +6 Tribal Opinion. MEH! It still is 720 prestige per century, which by endgame will provide around 4300 prestige. Not bad, but I hoped for better outcome. For reference upgrading single tribe from 0 to max costs 5000 prestige.
Some more artifacts to command respect among vassals and garner prestige
As our troops slowly move across our kingdom, we get another rulership event (I'm quite content on how often they fire, not so keen on missing all 50% success chances so far). This time it is drunkard vassal variant. Having little love for him I order him ti pay for his damages and take extra 30 prestige. Finally we succeed and roll on +1 Administrator Modifier. Better than nothing I thought but upon some consideration that extra stewardship will be crucial once Omurtag II moves from Rulership Focus to still be at required tresholds for prosperity events. I don't want Administrator lifestyle trait though.
Finally Rulership focus success. Better late than never but that said I would prefer any other possible reward
In July I spend some cash to invite 2 courtiers from across western lands. Both with objective of inheriting their gold. I make an error and buy favour from someone, who is on council and thus isn't keen to move even with favour. That's close to 100g that I spent for nothing! Mistakes were made
".
Mistakes were made! Close to 100g went away. Will I never learn to check requirements instead of risking it?
This is also the time that I want to point out something. Yes - another mistake. Remember how I wrote about Parava, the Starweaver being our concubine. Well it turns out to be just our ruler (and my) wishes, as I mistook Concubine box with Lover box in character relations. And while we were lovers with "Starweaver", we never actually took her as concubine. The whole jig was up, once I started inspecting what happened to our favourite concubine nickname. Initially though that "Clumsy" has just higher in-game weight and thus overwrites "Starweaver". But no. For 8 years we didn't notice and though our concubine was someone else. What worse we have daughter with Setyamka. Ooopsie!
Ok Concubine. We had daughter and all but tell me: who are you exactly?
By August, we hear from Followers of Otso - another mission. Another relatively safe honour duel, so we accept. Will eventually commit to it (soon tm).
November marks another councillor dying. I don't know what it is in our council that keeps killing whoever is part of it. This time it was marshal. So once again I have to move myself to character finder to find someone eligible for corruption. And we do find an rather "exotic" option considering the distance that is both skilled (19), greedy and brave. Never expected to have access to african mercenary bands courtiers in... Siberia.
Decembers really start to habitually bring us some goodies. Our capital reaches level 2 of prosperity. New Marshal is sent to Train Troops in capital (successes increase prosperity). Siege of Tsilma also starts.
Prosperity progressing nicely
Year 796
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With January we take over Tsilma chief capital tribe, get some prisoners, ransom one of them and get the war finished. That leaves us with just 1 enemy High Chief of Bjarnia, who in meantime rampaged over some of our vassal tribes. Time to rectify that.
Finally moving out against pesky Bjarnians
As Udmurts finishes Practise Range in March, I become little confused, why did it finish sooner that rest? The answer for this is - it was lower level. So now I add Warcamps II, cause it pads out the numbers and is comparetively cheaper. Also start Warcamp I in Tynea. We relieve Vashka and Pinega Tribes and march to confront Bjarmian invaders, who run.
Slowly catching up with infrastructure in our southern-border demense
April presents interesting opportunity. I can try to imprison Nenetsian Chief of Vologda for trying to kill someone. I would love to fail that, so we can revoke him without having to wait, for currently working there Chancellor. Not only can we assign someone there to speed up cultural conversion but it also is adjecent to many other wrong culture counties meaning, if we convert it it will help with spreading around. So we try and finally we fail, I mean succeed
.
Sire! We failed you and your vassal rises in rebelion! King Omurtag II: NEAT! Finally someone does their damn job
As we fight Bjarmians in Velsk, our trusted vassal commander slays their High Chief. Ha! Wouldn't submit like more wise neighbours and see what he got. This will make for gruel reminder for rest on what happens when you oppose our kingdom. How cool it would be, if game now did another check for surrender for new High Chief? Sadly it doesn't happen.
If it isn't demoralising for Bjarnian warriors, I don't know what is
Sadly our marshal dies due to natural causes. Ukko'dammit! I find someone more realistic - Orthodox Alan Commander with both Greedy and Arbitrary. It is risky as I need to buy his favour. Didn't remember during play, if commander makes him impossible to invite through favour. If it succeeds I will get money spent on him sooner or later back on top of gold he generates through abuses of office. We commit and this time our effort pays off!
What a find! Most corrupt marshall candidate up to date! More of them please
Also the ruleship event fires again (rng madness!). We get the "soldiers burned farms by accident" flavour connected to one of our Khanty vassals. We order them to compensate (cause we don't want to pay from our own pocket). This time we fail (which makes us miss 3 out of 4 50% chances :/).
By August we finish Vologda adventure (locking plotter safely into cell) and move onto Bjarnia. We also finish Practise Range in Perm. We proceed with Warrior Gathering II building for more and better heavy infantry (it affects our retinues as well). Tribes in Kudymkar and Kolva follow suit.
By September, while our "Affable" king spends some time with daughter, our warriors move to relieve Pinega tribe and start siege of Dvina. By assigning Organiser commander we arrive just in time to prevent tribe from falling into enemy hands. We handily beat besiegers and move onto Dvina.
October starts with more troubles with women. Our King tried to fancy some courtier, which awarded him with screams. Definetely not a dream result.
In November our spymaster generates 50 culture technology points. More than enough to push towards Legalism II in our capital, with which we can enable Religious Title Revocation. Gaining more power in regard to deciding our realm religion, will be of utmost importance later. Not only does it make it easier to deal with stubborn vassals, but also makes for cheap culture correction. In far future I suspect there will be some religion swapping to suit our needs. For now it won't be of any danger to our vassals as we are still decades away from Military Organisation IV tech, which will make us not dependent on defensive pagan land attrition.
By december 13th we conclude last of tributary wars, as new High Chief of Bjarnia after being beaten some more, surrenders just as we prepare to take over his demense. UFF! That was a lot of foreign wars. I welcome more internal focused gameplay with open arms.
Year 797
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Sadly we start the year with Chief of Mansia dying in our dungeons. I thought about ransoming him for 70g but now that opportunity is gone. With most of warfare done for the moment, once again I can turn my attention towards internal matters. Thanks to all won tributary wars, vassals think more highly of Omurtag II (+40 tribal vassal opinion). It is more than enough to get plotters behind idea of revoking Pilv'a tribe and thus completing my capital duchy. I have to move my 75% ready retinues on county in question first though. In meantime we revoke Vologda from traitor, park our Steward there on "Settle the Tribe" mission (7,8% yearly chance) and move fabricating claims chancellor next door towards Galichy Mersky tribe.
By February after refusing vassal giving more land, we get interesting event. Not sure if it is regular but prosperity in our capital hits level 3! I think it is associated with our Ukko patron god, as while looking through event file I did find one more event beside one increasing stewardship (which works till your character reaches 15 of associated stat). By being on maximum prosperity we are now eligible for all the prosperity goodies! That said with our somewhat lacking education, learning and no lifestyle that chance sure isn't high.
Blessed be Suomenusko gods! Advanced from Prosperity II to Prosperity III in just 2 years. Less than 30 years to max prosperity
Chief of Pilva refuses our demand and thus we have another revocation war. As our Retinue and his were both parked in the same county we start by ambushing their 790 warriors with out 1590.
In March we mop up rest of Pilva standing host, finish another building in Tynea and start Heavy Infantry cultural building (100 prestige). I also commision level I Hillforts in Kostroma and Vologda to increase my retinue size further.
By June we win, and start ransoming all 3 heirs to chiefdom of Pil'va for some serious cash (26g per son). With that we finally consolidate our core lands. Pil'va comes with some infrastructure already built (level 2: Hillfort, Market Town and level 1 Weaponsmith, Warrior Gathering Ground). We still have room for more as our demense sits at 8/11. That said we are in line to some inheritances - some counties in Ural seem pretty certain.
Whole de jure duchy of Perm is ours. Finally we assembled our core demense for this playthrough
After all that scuffle, our personal levy broke through 3000 treshold (3800), so it is high time to make another good long-term investment. I'm talking about assembling Mercenary Band. I choose one of our capable commanders - Rateg Rategid. It costs us initially 50g and generates good sized mercenary company, that I further upgrade with 3x50 Pikemen for total cost of 200g. We end up with total numbers of 527 Light Infantry, 70 Heavy Infantry, 150 Pikemen and 210 Archers. I hope this will be more than enough to not lose that Band, due to being wiped out in combat.
Our hidden economicy stratagem - mercenaries! I have great hopes for them
Also we try to arrest Chief of Vel who sits on 70g but also plots some murder, we once again fail in arresting him (and for once we could succeed as I don't need his land). So another small internal war it is. Being king is surely a busy work - let's hope that today's seeds of economic prosperity will result in tremendous long term harvest.
It is almost October as War Camp II finishes in Udmurts, and given that we are somewhat strapped for prestige, I order Weaponsmith I (quicker replenishment and +25 retinue limit). Also I want to spend a moment to apprecieate, that somehow we are building in every single holding we currently have!
Building sector living good in Perm right now
Few days later we win, and now not only traitor chief is ransomable but also his family (once he gets enough cash). So far it seems civil wars are as profitable as raiding foreign realms.
We are making the bank by nationalising vassal funds
Before year ends, we are presented with need to keep the trade route in perm going. 70g is a lot but we have to keep those modifiers to be able to keep adding them to more counties so in far future it will pay off. But with that and only 230 gold in treasury it is time to be more stingy with our money. I need quite some bank for prosperity events to fire. It would be a real "feel bad moment" to have any instances of missing rng chances. Also I think given that Omurtag II trade expedition didn't apply trade route modifier anywhere that I have to change capital in future for that event chain, if I want to collect trade routes in every single county of our de jure duchy. That said probably I could let one or two instances of trade route disappear and still be able to collect enough before feudalising (we are limited to 1 trade expedition per ruler). I will err on the side of caution though.
The price of future greatness
Year 798
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Year starts with something we didn't see for quite some time. Bolghar nomads (1135) arrive at our vassal tribe. We are more than able to chase them away even without our vassals, and we do. Fighting on land of our own religion is good course of action because of huge (+80%) defense bonus for our troops, meaning far fewer casualties sustained. This was really unfortunate for them, as with that action they gained my attention. Still remembering costly defeat they inflicted upon us in the past, revenge is potentially on table.
Tynea constructs Warrior Gathering Grounds I and goes onto Weaponsmith I in March. Our Warriors fall onto Bolghars and we roll powerful Feint tactic on 2 out of 3 flanks, thus inflicting some actually good losses on nomads (300 raiders loss). As we have our forces consolidated, it is good time to start pillaging again. We are in need of more gold!
In May we opt to hold Ukon Juhla Festival. While it costs 50g, we could use more prestige and piety especially as this has some cooldown tied to itself.
After feast, as our Hillforts finish we can now expand our retinues even further! We have enough piety for 6 bands of Sworn Defenders (75 LI, 75 Archers) and we purchase them. We also toggle raiding on our 4500 army and move quickly into Bolghar lands to snipe their capitals and take some prisoners. We also push Practise Range I in Pilva in order for that tribe to catch up with rest. We have also assigned siege leader to that raiding host and usually progress around 44% in each tick during sieges resulting in less than month to break through nomads encampnets.
In August we say goodbye to our Slovien investor - Vratko. He generously left us his riches: +100 wealth added to treasury
. We totally demolish defenders of Qazan (1250), killing 300 for 100 losses of our own. We loot it in October and take 4 prisoners, then move south to Bolghar capital named... Bolghar.
Before end of year we loot Khan capital and take... 14 prisoners! I hope tto exchange them for big bounty.
Adventures in Bolghar's lands
Year 799
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New year starts with news of our "not-Starweaver" concubine being pregnant. In February the other concubine (Styaka, known for being physically strong) also becomes pregnant. To calm my nerves about potential of 2 non-planned boys, I start ransoming. Auto ransom assumes getting 800g, but after first round of ransoms the projection falls off with no further ransoms possible. Khan just doesn't have enough gold I guess/hope. We move south towards last of his vassal in Rhyn and fight defenders off.
April is fruitful, as our diviner finally abuses his power. Time to cash in, starting with arrest for that extra 100g! Oh and also need to find new diviner I suppose. We also clean up Ryn and collect 17 prisoners. Time to spent some time making sure they are comfortable waiting for their liege to save money. That said with those numbers I'm not sure how long will I bother to move every single prisoner into house arrest. In the same ball park - once their rulers start plotting to free them I suspect to be buried into notifications, so maybe will have to turn them off.
I feel like in our Kingdom corrupt priesthood slowly becomes an important pillar of our economy
As we rampage through nomad lands south, Pilva opens up new Practise range and moves to have Warcamp as well. We are kidnapping so many people, that I lose count. We also become father of baby boy - Sarin. While not especially genetically gifted, we can use him to establish spare branch of family. Given our accidentally acquired tribes in Vologda. Maybe we will even push some over the limit duchies onto him. Month later another daughter is born and I can breathe out in relief, she is sickly though.
With newly acquired wealth, we embark on ambitious project of pushing hillforts everywhere in Perm duchy level higher (towards level 2) .
December starts with Iconoclasm overtaking Orthodoxy. Shame. out of curiosity I checked and beside lack of Knight Order's and Varangians, they also don't have access to somewhat rare "sponsor an icon" event which gives +1 to random stat. I mention it, because it is currently my go-to religion of choice for many reasons.
We lose fleeting in warrior lodge, which costs us 75 prestige. Ouch! That's one hell of a price to pay for all the benefits. We also get contracted to loot some tribe under bolghar rule, so we move back planning to clean some raiding bolghars as well.
Year 800
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First time seeing that pop-up. Very cool for them I guess
Viking age starts - wohoo! I usually don't play in this bookmark so this is first time I can read that. Doesn't affect us much, as we swear to not abuse riches accompanied by sea raiding.
We clean up Bolghars in Votyaki tribe, after which we hear that first Vikings (Sjelland) convert to catholicism. Well that didn't take long, did it?. Seems that whole "Viking age" was overblown by analytics and hype didn't translate into reality. What's more upon short inspection it's not clear why did they decide on it. They are not exactly threatened by Franks and their realm is not terribly big. I can imagine as player waiting just for Viking Age to start to get those free Shipyard levels and then transitioning out but seems questionable, given all Germanic goodies (Viking Traits + Prepared Invasions).
In September we wrap up Followers of Otso mission and have enough Renown to claim veterancy in lodge. Also those mission pay far more than I would get from those counties which is useful. It almost feels like paid advertisement before 1000 AD
. Ironic that given how much attention is focused on scandinavians, no one seems to notice that our raiders just dismantle steppes and roll out slowly but surely towards west.
Another home visit sponsored by Followers of Otso
Before year's end we finish upgrading hillforts and our men are moving towards High Chiefdom of Merya to pillage. Want to gradually pillage further and further by securing our direct vicinity first. As we keep hitting ransom button, our treasure quickly balloons. Sadly we are out of piety with all those piety retinues. That said I discover that piety based retinues keep reinforcing even after breaking into negative piety. Seems game only checks for gold and prestige. Huh. It seems like perfect knowledge to exploit. Still negative piety will diminish our dynasty prestige and thus prestige in the long run. It might also be counter-productive if we ever decide to forge saintly bloodline. So there are trade-offs.
In last moments of 8th century decide to throw Great Tribal Festival. I'm not sure, but hope it generates prosperity everywhere. Maybe some good events will help us.
P.S.: Wow! That part surely didn't lack action. I'm glad I broke last week playing sessions into halves. Finally picking up steam!
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