Part VIII (825-833)
.png){kind=avatar}
Part VIII (825-833)
Year 825
======================
We continue from where we left off (this time without any recruiting between parts). By January 18th Trier falls, and we gather 9 prisoners. The northern host moves onto Julich, while southern starts besieging Bern. Also Bolghars are back. They conquered tribal vassals, who seceded from Khazars and are now up to 1750 men. But this is winter so they will lose roughly 40%. As always they start with our vassal lands. So they won't have men to besiege our outer tribes. I also keep ransoming.
By spring our southern raid group moves past Bern (was not lootable for some reason), sack Vaud and move onto Varais in Kingdom of West Francia. It is really fractured and they have only 1800 troops tops, which we will beat. If it was united I wouldn't bother as we would need to stick together to beat big feudal army thus making it really slow. But with divided France I'm more than happy to take their accumulated wealth.
Sacking french lands
In may gardener event chain begins. Given that we can't change focus till autumn, I'm willing to go through it. It will generate some extra prestige and while extra stewardship isn't much needed, if I remember correctly final modifier should also provide extra +1 learning, which might be crucial.
We continue gardening work and in next event we miss 50% chance for diligent. Pity. We could really use it. But oh well. I didn't even remember moment ago, that it was a possibility. There still will be chances for that on next focus.
Halfway through the June Julich falls, we get 4 more prisoners. The raiders pivot north-east to Cologne. I can't stop being amazed at how much even dukes in western europe have their in coffers.
In July we become stressed. That is now a problem. Because we are over the limit of traits and the game will take one from us at random. Let's just hope it won't take Patient or Ambitious from us.
Too many traits. Please game don't take away patient or ambitious
Back in home Bolghars found that they can siege Tynea after replenishing. That's a problem. Don't want to lose on prosperity. Don't want to move back (troops in France won't make it in time anyway). My only option is to hire mercenary band. Sadly our mercs, who could prove themselves are just snatched by some duchess in Verona. We have to decide on more expensive mercenary option. I decide on Turkic Guard (1200 Light Cavalry and 600 Horse Archers). But they start at 0 morale, so it will take some time before we can chase off invaders. Luckily the siege of Tynea just started.
By end of month we conclude our ambition of "Seeing Realm Prosper". Several of our vassal provinces hit 1st level of prosperity. While they don't have access to Crown Focus, it is always nice to have prosperous realm. I don't pick next ambition, as only relatively useful would be to have an heir for introducing son to our vassals. But it would increase fertility and thus make our life more problematic in matter of succession. This prompts me to move Chancellor to fabricate claim on Yamalia Tribe in my quest to spread Komi Culture further east of Ural Mountains.
By August Varais surrenders to permian raiders and we get 29 (!) prisoners. Amazing. Time to move our forces closer in order to deal with kingdom of Luxemburg (which can muster some defenders). While not enough to beat even half of our sacking parties, less casualties mean longer possible sacking possibilites. Got to maximize gains for long march across europe.
Time to visit Luxemburg
As I was organizing mercenaries into single flank and assigning commanders, our steward spawns event troops. Nice. This is huge, as we are pretty evenly matched and I see that Tynea has hills (thought for moment it was just arctic). With those 2300 troops (1400 LI, 680 Archers and 250 HI) we should be able to just edge out the victory.
More tribal event troops
Good luck continues: on 13th of September Bolghars become victim of one of siegeing events and lose some 70 odd troops to bandits. Won't matter much as they reinforce. But still - serves them right!
On first day of October I decide to ride out as Mercs are almost full on morale bar. Sadly I underestimated how long it will take to move 1 province and Tynea won't hold :/. We also finish Gardening event chain for another modifier. It gives diplomacy (not learning) though. We picked bunch of modifiers, to sum up we got: +3 General Opinion, +0.5 Prestige/Month, +1 Stewardship, +1 Diplomacy. Not bad for last moment effort. But now we want swap to Scholarship. At long last - but still we need to wait to November for cooldown to wear off. Those prosperity bonuses won't create themselves without our assistance.
Turns out we were just one day too late to prevent sacking of Tynea. Tribe loses Practise range I. Ukko-dammit!
Punishing Chimgi-Turans for damage they inflicted
Our forces make quick work of Bolghars, which gives us another 5 years of peace. Vologda tribe hits prosperity level 1. Not as important because I won't be keeping it longterm (plan to give it away to 2nd son).
By November Perm finishes War Camp IV. Time to upgrade Weaponsmith to level II for quicker replenishment and some extra retinue + morale. Mostly replenishment to support it's 2000 garrison and 2000 levies troops.
Continuing development of tribe in capital
Mercs with event troops move to Siberia to deal with smallers raiders, before I disband them. I also rebuild fort in Tynea and add 2 forts in Perm, Kudymkar. Never too safe I guess.
Also few issues popped out. Our Diviner died, so I need replacement. The usual corrupt recruiting criteria apply. I find Arbitrary, Greedy, Deceitful reformed Norse candidate without any good (in our case bad) traits, sporting healthy 18 learning. Sadly she isn't eligible because of different religion. Then I notice that I can move my Marshall onto this position (he has 5 Martial, 12 Learning and meets usual criteria for traits). Then I think that the solution is to make already invited character a Marshall. Problem solved! But no once again I jumped the gun - Kingdom of Perm doesn't have tolerance laws high enough for women as marshalls. Because she isn't closely related to me I can't make her shieldmaiden via Warrior Lodge to remedy this situation as well. At least thank to this whole orderal, I learn that typing several traits with space between works for better more detailed search filter. After another search I finally settle on Slavic candidate with 18 Martial, Deceitful and Greedy. Will do.
We pick decision to construct Observatory. It will bump our Learning with Lifestyle and passive upgrade to over 20 which is more than enough for prosperity reasons, but also will grant some military tech, another chance at diligent and half MTTH on stealing technology events. Newly arrived Marshal is sent to marshall troops in Tynea to quickly replenish ravaged garrison.
Year 826
======================
We begin another year with worshipping the ancestors. Once again we pray for prosperity and hope this time it won't result in penalty. We sacrifice one of our ambitious vassals, who ended in dungeon cell. Hillariously his heir doesn't mind. Luxemburg has fallen and we move toward Vermandois.
As Cologne is pillaged, we get nice event. Our troops discovered rare artifacts - head of hero. Well not bad I thought. But then I checked it and it gives +1 Learning! This is seriously good for this playthrough.
Ooo. Nice trinket for some extra learning.
After some consideration I reconsider and disband mercenaries + event troops. They cost us over 200 gold per year. Also I can't force them into raiding somehow. And well don't really care much about empty Siberia currently.
We resist our foul impulses for extra 10 piety, bringing us up to just -532. It seems it will eat into our score for some time, but over time dynasty prestige should offset it. Also we move our raiders into Brugge and Yperen. They will operate close for time being, to check for any French attempts at relieving their lands.
Time to raid french held Netherlands
It is time to once again change vassal obligations. Moving Church obligations one step closer towards Tax side of contribution. With it we will get up to 50% of our direct temple vassals income.
Maxing temple vassal taxation for now
By Summer our spy finally (seems like it was quite a while) managed to steal technology. +50 Culture points. Few days after we finish observatory and get "Studying the Star" modifier for further +1 Learning. It would be nice if we lost some extra trait relatively quickly, before we acquire diligent.
Upon inspecting lands of our realm, I did notice that our Mari vassal managed to convert his tribe to Komi culture. Didn't even notice that they were Komi from 2 generation ago. Just as the game is unpaused, we get notification that it is him - High Chief Sektev of Mari that is slandering us. Additionally the opportunity to fabricate claim on Yamalia Tribe, which I take. Culture spread is important overall. By end of month we drag out 12 people out of Brugge castle. Soon joined by another 4 from Yperen. That's another 250 gold in cash.
Another chunky ransom
August offers us another Warrior Lodge mission to reject. It wants Sarin to change focus. We won't change our focus. We are on that sweet prosperity grind mindset.
Our besieging troops in Boulogne get intercepted by 600 warriors of local count. We dunk on them hard, resulting 4:1 kill/death ratio even with their main leader getting narrow flank. I remind myself to move chancellor to another tribe in Siberia. No sense in wasting his time, when we can push our shrewd managment further east in one go.
Beating local defenders with our Feint antics
By October one of our Venerable Elders dies and we inherit his wealth (around 200-300 gold). This is proof of concept that siblings don't inherit. I intend to use that knowledge to my advantage in the future
. Currently we have 3 investors, who have between them 950 coins.Year goes with us acquiring 24 ransomable assets from Kingdom of France capital Guines and Boulogne. Next on the list of targets: Rowen+Vexin (funnily we get joined on siegeing Rowen by everyone favourite Namsborg viking from Britanny). We decide on military technology option in scholarship (aiming for that sweet lifestyle trait for reduced MTTH for prosperity on top of extra +3 Learning). As per usual this year our christmass present or solstice (if you prefer) is death of our long time investor Shiresala, who lived till venerable age of 84. With his death our treasury peaked above 4000 wealth. I decide also to release non ransomable prisoners (25 characters). No point in keeping people who we won't benefit from - limits amount of notifications that can potentially clog message menu.
Year 827
======================
Year 827 starts approprietely with drinking. Warrior Lodge challenge, from which King Sarin doesn't back down. We succeed in winning and not getting Drunkard. Nice. Seems things are in control.
We fail to collect anyone from Rouen, and our diviner dies. As I look for new diviner, I realise how little corrupt characters there are with even average skill. Somehow by promoting corruption in our offices we clamped down on corruption across our vicinity.
Scrapping the barrel for corrupt characters
By April we get another 50 culture technology points. In the next month we get the chance to hold another Ukon Juhla and I take it. +100 Prestige and Piety ain't bad. Our Raiders move onto Anjou and Maine.
Before end of spring our ancestor worship decisions result is in. We rolled extra prosperity level and because we aren't eligible for it, we got 50 gold instead. Pays for feast.
Once again rolled prosperity lvl up from Ancestor Worship thus gold
Summer welcomes Sarin with another step in studying the stars event chain. It is chance for Diligent, which Sarin misses once again. Ukko'dammit. We can hold Great Tribal festival but I opt not to. It only increases prosperity in our capital, so I would mostly be paying potentially for chance to get better nickname.
Rest of that season is spend on rampaging through western France, but for little monetary gain (rarely do we get more than 10 prisoners from which not everyone is ransomable).
By September Kudymkar Practise Range is maxed out and Perm finishes Weaponsmith II. I decide to not build anything at the moment anywhere outside our capital. In our home, we go with Training Ground I. Because we maxed all other buildings providing base troops, those +2.5% bonus levy and garrison should bring the most bang for the buck. It also basically offsets Maintenence Mercenary Band penalty.
Time to start getting those % bonuses to already big base value
Rest of year is uneventful, not counting ongoing pillaging of single county vassals of French king (who rarely give us more than 10 gold per holding). Oh and our youngest investors turned out to be werewolf who is plotting to kill one of our children. So we move Marshal, who halfway rebuild defences in Tynea tribe to increase our arrest chance to 100% and safely lock him in our oubliette. It should speed up inheritance of his wealth while minimizing the risk of that lunatic.
Introducing werewolf to his new home. Safety of courtiers first!
Year 828
======================
With another year abroad, I think about how far will we pillage? Could visit Iberia because our foreign contigent is still going strong (6000 warriors). It will mean that we will return later though and there is no telling, if we won't need them quicker. There is always an option of disbanding levies and just marching retinues back, as we are mostly replenished back in home. Another argument for raiding further west is that we won't likely march again so far in Sarin's life. On our way back, central europe mostly recovered so they are eligible for Permian visitors again. Which at least adds another year or two on way back. As we invested in those Siberian claims, as well as having 4 eligible vassals for revolt provocation on top of having some unfinished subjugation wars, there is a good incentive to manage those affairs back home. Still I opt to check how profitable Iberians are (at least a little).
Long distance raiding
Before end of January our wife Tuulitar is pregnant again. I checked and she is mother to all of our children (not much concubines input I guess).
The question is - will this child have quick trait? See soon (tm). We also resist our impulses (I wonder if Cruel makes it more likely? If so then it is somehow good for our piety gains).
Maybe that previous revenge torture was to our ruler liking...
By May we have to keep resisting. It starts to fire semi regularly which I don't dislike. I wonder how much will it help us become pious man. Warriors pillage Saintougne and Poitou for 8+19 prisoners and move further south to Bordeaux and Lusignan. Then we have to decide on buying pregnancy gifts to our wife (and we opt no to for penalty of 25 piety). I would spend that gold if it didn't come with miniscule chances at 2 traits. I also decide to rebuild Practise Range I in Tynea. Maybe somehow we manage to patch up defences high enough to prevent further problems.
By spring Bordeaux is liberated for 9 people. Our Wife gives birth to another daughter, which has genetic trait. Not the one we would want though. Welcome Slyugan'ka!
Not great luck with genetics so far
By Septembers like bad rash, Bolghar riding raiders are back. I do a quick calculation and it seems they plan to winter in our vassal lands, so they should suffer attrition down to 1000 men. Maybe we manage to weather the storm? Or maybe finally our mercs become available after being tied down on long contract in lombardy. Both of their contractor wars at over 80% warscore after all. Sadly winter turns out to be mild and thus no attrition for raiders :/
Year 829
======================
Luckily Bolghars retreat in January as weather turned more frosty. They just barely have the manpower to siege Udmurts tribe, and Tynea Tribe isn't eligible to looting for another 6 years. Lucky us. We also find another "Lootbox" in Toulouse. Let's hope for some more cash in it!
Bolghars forgot their winter clothes
At February the 14th construction in Perm is completed, and continued toward Training Ground II (+5% Levy and Garrison). In Aquitanne we have to do some manouvers due to revolters presence, the amount of French troops in vicinity is dangeourly high. Some attrition during last few months melted troops to just over 4500 men. Seems we won't see much of that Iberia. Still I think it was profitable, as our treasury is nearing 5000. That pace is right on schedule.
Just in case I park Marshal in Udmurts to bolsters garrison numbers. With that Bolghars will be unable to siege it down. Better safe then sorry. Also we don't really have anything better to do for him.
In March we are visited by some bard, for +2 Intrigue modifier. Not bad, not neccessary. And our raiders are currently siegeing down La Marche and Aurillac in southern France. We quickly catch someone in some illicit love, and decide to profit from this. As a reward we get whole 1.0 gold. Not sure what to do with such fortune!
During spring our rival Prussian steward offers to build monument. 20 gold for +250 prestige and +10% prestige is such a bargain. Especially given how much prestige we are currently gaining. I will gladly pay 20g to get +1 prestige/month on 29 year old ruler! There seems to be more and more reasons to try to keep Wicked King Sarin on throne as long as possible.
Attaining high prestige income
Another Occitan castle falls and man. You could tell me that raiding in vicinity doesn't have any impact and I would believe. But for me it seems whenever I'm raiding close to whenever I found "Strange box" I find key. As was the case now. Turns out french RNG is way worse than Polish RNG. We got nothing, meaning that so far out of 2 "Strange boxes" in this playthrough we rolled once best and worse option. Or was there a 3rd box that also was a flop?
Bad "Suprise mechanic" result
We turn our raiders back, but instead of going straight back home, we pillage on way back. By going close to Alps, we can still harvest quite a lot and then upon entering slavic central europe, there still should be more potential targets. Polish lands already recovered and then we can pivot north to pillage Baltics, as we move around Khazars. What's best is that by the time we will be back, our levies will be fully replenished (currently over 85% replenished).
Beside that we get another "Study the stars" event step. Another 30% chance for diligent that we miss. Seems like we will have to try different thing in order to maximize our MTTH on crown focus events.
Another chance at diligent
During summer, we got screwed out of our Werewolf investor money. Don't know why, his sister inherited. Who is married to Sunni ruler. So as I understand free courtiers wealth goes to us, but imprisoned courtiers wealth doesn't? Well that's stings. I will mark her only daughter for now, maybe we will retrieve those 300 coins laters. We also finish Practise Range I in Tynea for total of 1100 defenders maximum.
In middle of summer our oldest daughter gets flu. She was decently treated for symptoms, but we proceed with full course of medical aid. Let's hope nothing crazy happens with our Mystic Court Physician. Also our Attractive, Quick concubine becomes pregnant, while King wonders if it is his child in her belly. More on that later.
During November nights Sarin makes a lot of progress on his astronomy hobby, increasing military technology points by 100 and learning attribute by additional +1. We are slowly getting towards optimal modifiers even without Scholarship focus. If only steal technology events would fire more often.
First week of december comes with news of fabricated claim on another Siberia tribe. We take it. With it we only lack 1 tribe east of Ural Mountain in order to be able to swoop all of them at once. Some technology finally spread somewhere in our western domain. While not tremendous it is good to note that, we started spreading technology across our realm.
Our good-for-nothing Greek Spymaster finally hauls some Byzantines technologies to us. Not sure why but... 3rd time it is cultural technology points. I would prefer Economy. Also if anyone wonders how are we faring tech wise, below is the screen. For now I'm not rushing it to get slightly more in the long run. For now we will leech technology from others and not eat that "ahead of time penalty". The only important tech to spread is economy for construction options inside holdings. Especially "Construction". So some balancing will be have to be done, but I haven't pondered about it heavily so far.
We start having some technology in perm...
Year 830
======================
Few days after change of date, Clermont falls. Our forces diminished so massively that I'm forced to join remaining 4000 warriors into single group. It will eat into our profits, but will prevent extra casualties due to fighting. But at least we will siege faster with more men, all under siege specialist commander.
In March our best commander succumbs to Cancer. He was vassal who developed nicely on his own - 16 Marshal, Brilliant Strategist with Leading the Center, Winter Soldier and Shield of Thundra commander perks + Patient trait (+20% Leading the Center, +75% Winter Combat, +20% Combat in Arctic, +30% Defence, +7 Winter Supply multiplied by his martial score). Sarin has still in service Siege Leader and 2 Warrior Lodge commanders (one of which has Flanker on top of Shield of Thundra trait), but boy will he be missed.
Upon birth of concubine's child it turns out Sarin was right, to doubt. It was not his child. It belongs to Chief of Keltma under High Chief of Votyaki just west of our Perm Duchy. Well this turned out rather nicely.
Spring comes with both: our spymaster offering us extra protection for 5g and our steward reporting construction of monument in Perm. Somehow it didn't turn weird due to him harboring rivalry towards us. Perhaps Sarin and his prussian steward have gained respect towards each other. I also hope this will make steward ambition event more likely.
Moar prestige, moar modifiers!
Raiders move onto Dijon. While concentrated they take close to 2 month per castle siege, which is neat. Sadly sacking counts is really not that efficient if we don't kidnap a lot. Mostly due to low individual ransom value.
In May our genius concubine/court physician dies out of Gout. She was 54 years old so wasn't contributing to our prestige any longer but was somewhat good Court Physician. We also finish our astro studies. We conclude with embracing lifestyle, getting bunch of prestige and bumping our learning up to 23! Now we are free to change towards anything we wish.
Another scholar Permyakid
Given our king is 30, Rulership seems not that great (we already have Ambitious but lack Diligent and Just) mostly due to already having stressed and having chance at Depressed. Business we already went through so there is little benefit in remaining events. The choice is between Seduction (to try to acquire genius heir but dividing our lands even further upon succession) or Theology (to get Diligent and Temperate while trying to get rid of Stressed, Cynical, Chaste on top of some extra piety). I like Theology better as safer pick (+1 Health from it). So once cooldown in November goes away we can start our religious ventures!
Our raiders took 8 people from Dijon for relatively good profit (140 gold). We move slowly, because in this part of map there is plenty of 1 county rulers. Patiently we churn through them.
At the time in August, our oldest daughter gets nickname: "the Heavenly", while our spymaster Pamphilion presents us plot counter-measures. Not bad. Between it and 14 Intrigue with Schemer modifier, Sarin should feel pretty secure.
Free Plot power defence yay!
October gifts us with extra gold (6) from being ambitious. I wonder if it scales based on our income. If so it could be nice in the future. Also some game hiccup happened as our daughter Vidyava "the heavenly" became known as 'the heavenly" but also got Attractive trait.
It is high time to find good guardian for our 12 years old son Dokya. He needs Diligent and Just guardian at least. Zealous/Erudite and Gregarious in further order. But then upon checking wiki it get's more complicated. Just is intervention trait, preventing obtainitng Diligent from Conscientious. I finally decide to get him assigned to Diligent, Erudite, Gregarious finnish lowbown abroad. Two of those traits are kind of high roll'y but if it succeeds, then I can take over and assign Diligent myself in worst case scenario. Or decide between Patient/Ambitious in better. If educator manages his interventions quickly, I may assign Dokya to someone who is Just.
But before our request can reach him, he dies to consumption. So we decide on more local option of wife to one of our Komi vassals, who is erudite and diligent. But then before we reach her, Dokya develops Diligent and stressed with our Concubine as Educator... So we can switch once again for Just+Erudite guardian (Wife of another vassal), as Just no longer prevents him obtaining Diligent trait. Also we finish Training Grounds in Perm and spend another 300 prestige to develop them further.
Slowly filling Perm tribe
Warrior Lodge finally has some interesting offer for us. Raiding neighbouring Chud Tribe in Vologda Duchy. That's doable and I won't say no to more free money on the way home.
Year 831
======================
Upon Checkin on our Mercenary band, they finished that cursed contract in Verona and were hired in Mercia. They accumulated so far 1400 gold, so they finally start popping off. At some point in the future I will dedicate single ruler to inherit that wealth upon succession. Currently though I'm on lookout for when they are not contracted so I can upgrade them with more Pikes and Heavy Infantry (so they win quicker and are more viable against nomads).
I also forgot to change Sarin's focus in november due to all education theories. I change it now to Theology. Just as that change is made our wife becomes pregnant and Sarin once again doubts being father of unborn child. Now this is less funny, given this is our wife.
Given how much prestige we are currently gaining, I decide to bolster up Tynea with Warrior Gathering Ground II. Ideally we will achieve immunity to sieges from Bolghars soon.
Sarin's fears confirm and once again Chief of Keltma claims fatherhood. I move my marshal to Keltma, and decide to try arresting. Just have to wait a bit for marshal bonus to apply.
Meanwhile rest of our raiders decide to move onto capital of kingdom of Lorraine. It is small and could pay potentially massively.
Time to visit Verdun!
We commit to arresting and succeed. Finally that Keltma tribe joker is locked away. We can even execute him without tyranny. Poor choice on his part to mess with "Wicked king". I don't decide on it though. Why? Because he is vassal under one of our rebelious vassals. High Chief of Votyaki (his overlord) will have to be dealt with soon, and then maybe we can strip him of his lands as well. Installing our own sons there won't be a terrible idea.
Techonology of Legalism I also spreads around. Soon our wife gives birth again. Now we can arrange divorce. Weirdly we can make use of that whole situation in order to get better wife. One with high stewardship, so we will be able to soon hold all the lands revoked from traitors. I find nice candidate: high stats overall and Genius. I spend some money on recruiting her. It costs us close to 500 gold to get her (because I screw things up and forget that close relatives can't be favour invited) but I manage to get her. Our demense limit increase by +1.
Genius wife for our king - another attempt at getting genetics
Our Raiders successfuly raid Lorraine but produced only meager results in prisoners. I move them on Duke of Trier capital close by. We are less than 3000 strong warriors. I think it might be hight time to think about going back. Sarin also develops sympathy to Christianity, to which I don't have an issue in accepting. Our ruler is cynical and major christian denomination kinda works into skepticism of idolatory (Iconoclasts). Usually I get nervous, as those events are more associated in my brain with secret societies but not this time. We have theology focus. No province or vassal is christian (only 1 has Iconoclast Court Physician). Most likely triggered due to some prisoners.
Starting to warm up towards Catholics
And so the year ends, on requesting some ransoms and moving Marshall back to Udmurts to bolster troops.
Year 832
======================
I start another year with taking "Groom a heir" ambition to introduce Dokya to our vassals. That's +15 opinion for 20 years. And currently we have nothing better to do. Even though I fulfill all the requirements I can't introduce him. Doh!
Our raiding host pries open Trier and brings us another artifact. This one will be nice replacement for Hero Head after conversion. It provides the same extra 1 Learning but also piety and prestige. Switching between Suomenusko and Christian faith later in the game will be more fluid thanks to it, as we will retain at least +1 Learning bonus in every case!
Useful christian holy relic
More of of them!Finally it is time to end our "Great sacking of Europe". Time to pack weapons and go home, as what's left is mostly our retinue. Meanwhile back at home we participate and lose in Flyting (costing us 75 prestige). Our troops arrive at Baltic coast, where they siege down some tribe to replenish supplies. I will move them, a little at the time to avoid attrition.
By June our new young wife proposes us to become our steward. We decline. Not only is she not better than our Prussian steward (who I just realised lost ambitious trait), but also wife-councillor is bad combination due to how state attributes are calculated. By having spouse as councillors you are losing on extra state attribute modifiers. Also it works poorly with our quest to generate gold through councillors. So no my dear.
Wife trying to help
We throw out another Jukon Uhla festival. I also deduced, why can't our king introduce Dokya to the realm - son is currently at his guardian court. Who still haven't fired single intervention event. Which is kind of bad, as he is 14 years old. At age of 14.5 guardian can decide on extra trait for tutored. I change guardian back to Sarin, so he can start introducing his son to realm and as quickly as we get education event, Dokya will be sent back to our vassals.
By August Warrior Gathering Ground II is finished in Tynea. I decide to upgrade Practise range to II level as well. Currently it sits at 1200 defenders total (with "Sacked" debuff). Our raiding party just replenished supplies, so it marches eastward along the coast. Next stop at Riga tribe.
In September we lose our Greek spymaster. Our Concubine (Sochava) finally gets the office, as she has nice intrigue (23) and holds positive opinion of king Sarin. We also inherit chiefdom of Ural. Not bad. Demense limit sits at 11/12. Bolghars also came back and pillageg Khlynov tribe and now are onto Ilyinsk tribe. I decide to disband remaining 96 levies coming back to kingdom and muster fresh levies up to repel nomads. Also splurge some prestige on our frontier in Udmurts tribe. Warrior Gathering Ground II should further boosts total garrison there.
Catching up in Udmurts
Our last investor dies and we get screwed out of his wealth again. It went to his siblings. Good news - those are 2 remaining part of that family, which are female and over age of 60. So we can retrieve it. It will just cost us some in the short run.
Intervention event for Dokya finally fires. We can decide on making him either ambitious or patient. I decide on ambitious. We have really solid plot defence and he can use as many stats as possible. Also he will be shipped to another guardian right after.
Sarin also advances among ranks of the Otso Followers. It means extra 0.25 prestige per month and +1 Martial. Not mentioning new special decisions and abilities. As Veteran he can instantly replenish garrisons (I think it include levies as well), inspire troops for combat modifier and use Suomenusko exclusive power to Summon quite big contingent of troops under lodge commander. It is simmilar to Slavic variant but from what I remember Suomenusko is better when you are relatively small in levy size. Who knows maybe we can make use of those.
By December Bolghars decide to skiddadle after succesfully assaulting the rather week garrison in vassal's Illyinsk tribe. Most likely prompted by setting of winter. It would cut them to half their numbers, if they decided to keep the siege. Before end of month, we have both sisters of our Pecheneg investor safely at court. With 486 wealth in pockets.
Year 833
======================
This year we decide on education of our oldest daughter - Vidyava "the Heavenly". Leaving her under care of her current educator seems like the choice, as our Concubine has rather good set of traits for intervention: Diligent, Gregarious, Cynical, Humble, Patient.
Famous Sarin's daughter. What does the fate has in store for her?
Our Retinue is around Estonia at the moment. Maybe this year they will reach our lands. I send our levies towards western part of Perm to finally sack that tribe in Chud, for which we have warrior lodge mission. Sarin also starts Theology lifestyle event with summoning the story tellers. We won't be able to max it, but at least we can still get additional +1 Learning. Our prisoner-seducer complains about his prison and contrary to what I would usually do, I decide to move him into house arrest. Want to assure he won't die too soon - before we can really punish him.
With start of february I check how is Dokya doing. He finally transformed one of his childhood traits into Erudite. Which is super nice. As Suomenusko we have limited access to that trait. Interesting trivia: in the past Slavic and African could really easily roll it on children by choosing Learning patron deity. For some reason with Holy Fury it was removed for them sadly. Now we just want to flip Brooding into Just and we are set with really nice heir.
By March I have to march back, because Bolghars get ideas about pillaging Tynea Tribe. Not on mine watch when I have over 6000 troops nearby. By April fort in Tynea falls and we have around month and half to arrive there. I hope we will be able to catch them in time. Tynea has hills as terrain so it should prevent nomad tricks. Let's check how do we stack against them.
On Dokya birthday we finish writing our Book. It results in failure as we only get Quality 2 (perhaps had to eat that sickness to improve quality), which gives... Plot power. It's such a bummer... Lesson learned.
Another failed attempt at getting desired books. Huh. Seems there ain't good way and safe way of acquiring what we need.
We catch Bolghars and roll mediocre volley tactic on both flanks, while center is shieldwalling. While our warriors break nomads morale pretty quickly, the kills exchange at 1:1 ratio (with defensive religion home ground advantage). In the end we kill 300 for our 200. If game rolled Feint on our stacked flank it would be much better result.
Seasonal repel the nomad event. Good training ground for future wars.
Our retinues arrive at Chud Tribe and start the siege. I sent them local 800 troops as reinforcment, while our main host after battle slowly moves across our kingdom as well. Now at least we don't have to worry about being pillaged and losing ongoing constructions on frontier. The rebuilding of Tynea fort is ordered to avoid forgeting about it. Sarin also progresses on his religious studies getting two +1 Learning modifiers: one pernament and one for 3 years. With that we are sporting nice 24 Learning (and 27 Stewardship).
During Summer we get spouse event allowing us to buy love from our wife. 15g for that? It's such a bargain. I won't say no.
Small gift for Sarin's wife.
In August we finish with Chud tribe, earning extra gold and warrior lodge currency. Still - feel like some of western europe ransoms from single counties were superior. But hey, now Sarin has this mission accomplished.
Another warrior-lodge sacking mission done.
Time to administer some king's justice to our vassals. We have quite the list of offenders (that I hope revolt). First on chopping block is High Chief Chipaz II of Votyaki, who makes design on Kingdom of Perm title. Sadly once again we succeed at 57% chance. For now I will move onto next villain. High Chief Sektev of Mari - another plotter and also owner of Sampo. We fire arrest and fail - he raises in rebelion. Neat. Let's hope we manage to capture all of his extended family at once.
By end of month we finish Training Grounds III in Perm and proceed towards last (IV) level of tht building. It lowers our prestige but now with our armies home, there is less advantage in having maxed prestige opinion bonus.
Situation evolves in October as High Chief of Mari calls for support from Chief Viryas of Vel. While, he is not the target I can use revocation to consolidate northern marches of Perm realm and lower amount of vassals in one move. We quickly beat the rebels, capturing most but no all of them. Sadly upon enforcing surrender, most of them goes back to Mari court. Vel tribe goes to Chief Osh of Izhma in the same duchy, to consolidate it a little more. I also move all captured spouses and concubines of Mari into house arrest, to make sure they outlive as many members of their family as possible.
Upon closer inspection, I move our Chancelor back to Yamalia as I have claim on Tribe but not on High Chiefdom. Can't proceed with restructuring Siberia without it. Time to rectify that.
Before end of year I catch my mercenary band not being in action. Immedietely send them extra 50 sets for heavy infantry and 150 sets for pikemen. With that they are ideally kited out, thus have nice set and weights on available tactics and more importantly should display as our culture Pikemen model <3
New better permian band!
// P.S: Slight delay in posting. That should be yesterday but I simply couldn't make it in time.
Last edited:
- 1
- 1
- 1
