Year 1126
======================
Another year - another great project. Given China Golden Age period running out we too are running on tight time schedule. To make the best of it I decided to forcefully start road building in all cities across kingdom of Perm, Volga-Bolgaria, Siberia and Cumania. Costed us more than half of our treasury that left us with just 7.421 gold coins (after inviting more courtiers for our managment needs). So Vokan's Architect bloodline is finally fully utilized and those buildings are not bad - +3 gold income and some technology spread but most importantly - trade value. Hope it will help as it seems to be the only way of acquiring it as inland realm. More importanly - it is relatively quick construction and I want to start building remaining Universities in the last possible moment (cause game won't increase the cost of constructed building after starting them even if some bonuses run out). And well those will cost us an arm and leg but are important for that technology spread. From what I understand it takes around hundred years for single level of technology to spread from province to province so any bonuses will payoff in the long run. Our demense will do without it but our vassals might be technology starved.
Time to improve the infrastructure of our empire. It is weird that roads don't improve local armies movement speed when such bonus is already in game.
Did some more checking and turns out heir to Eastern Roman Empire is one of the attackers vying for control of previously released by us county of Tao. Funny enough we can join him (we have alliance with him) and make sure it goes quickly. Not sure if I'll jump on that opportunity right now. When it comes to Muhallabids - turns out that as I wasn't looking they somehow got rid of 50% worth of decadence and once again are at almost 0. So I do give our own Muhallabid specimen in Permian court maximum number of wifes and cross fingers hoping they will finally start creating decadence. So far we had none in that aspect.
Spotted 2 direct vassal scheming so I marked them and will in time excommunicate them. As I prepare to fix another bishopric I realise that somehow right beneath my nose things were really messed up. Bishopric of Perm somehow became vassal under Duchess of Veliky-Ustug even though we always held duchy title ourself. Not sure how it happen but I have to retract it before revoking title with tyranny.
Then as I was hasty (and unlucky) we suffer one of schemer Dukes rising in revolt after missing 74% arrest chance. We will deal with him with just single retinue army as his total force don't count even 2.000 men. As my notifications arrive about bought favour, turns out 4 out of 4 are not eligible because I didn't check for them being close relatives of rulers. Well that's close to 300 gold wasted.
I wonder how this happened. Didn't get involved in this personally. Slightly concerning. Also getting rid of another schemer so our reign continues without any disturbances.
Some smaller nomadic host arrives in Naberezhnye so we have work cut out for our warriors. We commence with extraction of temple in Perm and appoint Vokan's oldest son there - monk Kezhevat. With that another holding is in capable hands of high stewardship character. Just look at that income! From 16.6 to 48.2 we almost trippled monetary gain there
. Soon we also out of nowhere get "Christian Knight modifier" - well seems remaining on War focus while in Monastic society is good for something.
Fixed that Perm bishop by taking some tyranny. Our eldest son really is pulling his weight - as you can see he is tripling base income. Also not often do I get "True Christian Knight" modifier.
After that we can chill out for now. The -35 penalty to modifiers (-5 for extracting vassal and twice -15 for revoking barony without title) prevents us from further adjustments to administration atm. Kind off went under my radar but that Bishop we took titles from has over 4.000g, so it would be good idea to somehow take that funds. Will be tough inviting him as he hates ou guts (-120 for revoking 2 titles). But what can one do. Was so enraged when I spotted this "singularity" that I went into "fix it immedietely mode".
After beating Tverian rebels the siege of their holdings begins. It will be slow process and will take us probably up to autumn (and timer shows May when I write those words). Nomads were also repelled and I did another infrastructure check up across empire as some cities were finishing building something the last time I ordered construction myself thus I could not order them to make roads. We keep trying to assasinate one of mayors that needs fixing but due to his 14 intrigue we fail several attempts in a row (we are up to -600 modifier penalty on him from trying to kill him alone =D"). By end of May we finally succeed and are thus one step closer to resolving that mess. Still as I didn't have pre-picked candidate in place I can just do that now (lack of women in that court) so we need another assasination before City of Tashia in Bolgharia stops suffering from over the demense penalty. One of our wards and holder of Branicki Saintly bloodline also comes out of age - she turns really well which is great as she is to become our desired wife for genius heir. So not only will it give us that bloodline but also help with great stats.
Shrewd, Patient, Ambitious, Erudite, Kind and level 3 Learning education. This is simply great =D.
Soon after we get additional intervention trait from Monastic wards event - that makes her also Honest. As time passes to July our Master-Engineer creates fireworks guild in Kudymkar, further increasing our levies there. Before month ends we also finally sort out that Tashia's Mayor business leaving us with just 2 over the limit city vassals. Some time ago I saw notification about one of our out of personal demense Mayors getting forcefully vassalised by his de jure overlord. That make me remember why we need to have their capitals in our personal demense. It's a reminder that not everything within desired borders is paying us directly due to lack of holdings in personally owned demense. With each extra holding slot generated in Perm or Bolgharia we are looking at capability to steal 2 cities elsewhere from our's vassals.
Throughout the year, spymaster stole technology 3 times. Once for each category. Emperor's daughter recovered from Pneumonia, so our alliance with Byzantine empire seems secure (which is really lucky as due to being just courtier she did not receive any medical assistance) and we dealt with other scheming vassal before November. So the rest of this year is spend on slowly progressing that war with Tver towards 100%. There was also some extra taxation modifier event I don't recall:
Think this is just some usual feudal event that due to not playing feudal in long while I simply forgot. One of actually impactful ones as that +city income % is free money for us
Year 1127
======================
Year is up to not great start as it turns out that our Slavic Greek vassal in Anatolia won the race to take over Tao county. So onto more revocations we go (without tyranny cause he is Slavic). Then I admit new rulers and release both him and new Iconoclast Persian count of Tao. Let's hope this time ERE will take over them. That leaves just 1 county in Anatolia that for now can make for valuable resupply point for our armies marching from Perm itself. Also local Norse ruler adopted Orthodoxy so will have to extract her title following excommunication. Oh wait. This is Anatolia. So within jurisdiction of Ecumenical Patriarch - thus I can't :/.
At least schemer rebellion is over and we once again have clean slate when it comes to troublemakers. Well not completely (there is several schemers in Nenetsia under other vassals but we can't interact with them). I do another checking round and start additional few 1st level Garrisoned Roads across empire. That leaves us with around 8.700 gold coins, which while slightly less that I would like should still be A-ok as our 250% yearly income is around 7.000 gold (which is the cost for Prosperity event). We still have around 2 years before we need to go all-in on Universities. And we are up with income once again (+2.835 gold per year). Both fixing baron vassals and building up seems to be paying off. There is one bad news though - did check but seems like we are not getting benefit of Trade bonuses from those roads - at least I don't see it anywhere where either province wealth or holding income is broken down. Still that +3 (and in future +6) gold income is worth it. Kind of sad as those few initial points of trade have the biggest impact (each following point of trade has diminishing returns). Still it goes to list of complaints beside "Why does it doesn't offer local armies movement speed bonus"
.
In February I decide to start the busy work again. Time to think about our foreign policy. Finally send Chinese our Mjollnir but soon come to regret it. Did not expect that China being Expansionist prevent them from Invading on someones behalf. So now I have over 19.000 Grace and just 3 years for Chinese Golden Age to hope for new ruler there so we might press with that. Well if not here then somewhere else. We still can invade after golden age and it should be quite some time before east starts throat singing mongol style. Still utilizing Emperor that likes wealth should be worth it. We decide on quick war against our Tocharian Jain neighbours - for our rightfully missing county in Cumania. So up we go.
Not really much to tell - we will win. It will be more marching than fightng I predict.
In following weeks as we slowly accumulate force big enough to not be threathened by defenders we manage to fix another (over the limit) mayor vassal. Which leaves us just with one. And rather short supply of candidates. Already did some "for the future" marriages with few 50+ y.o. Mayor's daughters but it might become juicy as all courts within diplomatic range have run out of skilled 20 years old stewards. One of our Bishops died and was replaced with the same quality successor so no worries there.
During summer after getting to Tocharian county of Aylik, we have to defend against Jains military might just our retinues, thus we are somewhat outnumbered. Consolidated troops into single column and picked commander with +48% damage against religious opponents. To my suprise those peaceful Jains have even some Heavy Cavalry in their army!
Of course we are unlucky with our own tactic yet still deal some damage =.= Previously I didn't paid attention but after hitting several levels in skirmish techniques those Generic tactics rolls feel God awful :v
As predicted we lose cause our skirmish damage was non-existent. We still broke their center but in melee we were losing 1.300 men pe day :/. So peaceful Tocharians kind off bodied us left, right and center with bodies flying across silkroad. Well... will need to wait for reinforcements after that failure. So much for "another boring war" I guess. Soon in October our Chinese Princess Wife dies and we pick some kin - 43 year old with plenty of stewardship to fix our over the demense penalty without spouse. Unexpectedly we can choose between +300 prestige from marrying or... almost +1.400 gold coins instead. The choice is easy
. Maybe I should think more about it as we can acquire serious buck for marriages. The only downside - time spent on collecting gold is time not spent on procuring heir and we no longer have concubines. There might be some profit in Seduction though and playing as legitimized bastards. Seduction also feeds into intrigue. Hmmm....
Rest of year is spent on starting the assasination of our Norse Orthodox Countess in Anatolia (that is taking over count of Tao...(AGAIN) and watching as our armies cross from west to east. We manage to gather over 12,000 levies by end of year as our Tocharian adversaries lose men due to siege attrition. Finally we have 2:1 advantage in numbers. Come spring we will have our revenge!
Year 1128
======================
Last 2-3 Garrisoned Roads are ordered to be made by our feudal builders. Next year we will start Universities. Already can feel the financial pain x]. We have around 12.100 gold coins at the moment so this isn't so bad. Our yearly income reaches almost 3000 coins per year. We march our 13.000 strong army from Irtysh towards enemies that move onto Tarbagatai province. This will mean mountain fighting but let's hope or numbers will prevail.
Meanwhile our charactes suffers what seems to be Dysyntery. Gladly I found some really great new Court Physician (25 Learning, Masterful Theologian, Renowned Physician, Diligent) so it should be a-ok. Then something we haven't seen in long time pops up - Iconoclast heresy appeared in Qazan county. Orthodox Moral Authority is still at 100% so it was just unlucky roll. We instantly convert it back via monastic power but as you remember even though we eradicated it, it can still spread due to "heretic stronghold" province modifier. Well at least with 100% MA it is really unlikely and we still can fix it with Convert county power later.
Holly Molly. Inspired defence tactic twice! And they are already benefitting from defending in Mountains :O If I didn't had more heavy troops I would freak out.
Battle turns into meatgrinder that we ultimately win. With that we are almost to 0% warscore but now can freely commence with siegeing out Aylik. And our troops are still arriving!
Our case of dysyntery turns out to be a severe one - Emperor's Vokan is bedridden with -5 health alltogether! Our Renowned Physician provides good treatment thus lowering it only to -3 health but I'm not feeling too confident. There are so many things still to do! We haven't even fully sorted out succession and possibility of dying is now on the table. So we have to turn back our levies from Tocharian lands to disband them in order to declare war on Muhallabids to not lose or expensive claim. That will take even more time but hey - better safe than sorry.
The whole manouver is completed by 3rd of June and thus we are in war with Muhallabids (we call our Greek ally into it to give us some time as he has almost 10.000 troops). Maybe this will divert Sunnis into Greek lands instead of ours. Would be nice to be able to resupply in our Anatolian holdings without needed to retake them first. Then we once agan start mustering troops towards silkroad - this time with our middle eastern claim secured. After dealing with Tocharians, we will relocate towards Anatolia in order to get that vital county neighbouring Sultanate of Muhallabids allowing for future great conquest of Syria.
Scary CK2 RNG might be scary :O So we start sitting war, hoping Muhallabids won't go ham on us.
So once again long months pass as the only thing that is happening is us trying and failing in assasination of our Anatolian Norse countess. Really unlucky streak of failures is going on again and this time that character has only 4 intrigue. Tocharians siege out Zaysan as we reach near number parity with them.
Then in November this happens:
Well that came too early. Game once again scammed us out of trying to finally get "On Komi architectre" >.> With us de-aging character! Such is poopy way that ends 30 years of Emperor's Vokan "the Architect". During which we feudalised.
So we take over as Kezhedey genius younger brother Meltsayka as our heir. 5 Years of regency is ahead of us and for the moment our income zero'ed. Not sure how much things get screwed and we won't know until we take regain control of all lost titles. Will have to somehow kill our character. Good thing I took precautions and declared that war ahead of time! Imagine losing that claim too :V... Our Genius younger brother took over Kingdoms of Nenetsia and Cumania thus taking most of eastern half of or realm as well as some provinces in west.
Year 1129
======================
Well 1st year under new CEO begins. Did not expect that at all but hey - it is CK2 baby! Good thing we at least have wars to manage for time being to kill boredom due to being unable to use most of decisions. Something to do for now. But before that we can also start those universities. We keep going managing to fill every available county in Siberia and Cumania and then some west of Ural. That drops us from 14.000 gold to just 756 ducats. Well not that I will do anything with those anytime soon as on our underage monarch we have bad MTTH for prosperity events so we might as well make the best of that remaining year of chinese golden age
.
Give me all the technology spread you can offer. Also more passive technology points generation soon will come in handy.
After income update it seems we preserved most of our profits. We stll have ove 3000 gold coins income per year as our brother is paying over 400 gold coins directly. If I knew that then would use discounted nobles generation (real bargain each generation for just 64g!) but I wasn't sure and won't probably have use for them atm. Most important lesson to take from it - our setup survived such unlucky ordeal. Or at least it seems like that for now.
Another vassal adopts Feudalism in February so we still slowly trickle. Now that the game reminded me about them - we could spent all remaining prestige from Vokan's, couldn't we? Well can't play perfectly all the time
. Now it is water under bridge. Let's focus on our wars, and kill some Tocharians to start the reign with great achievment.
Our armies with our older brother Bishop Kezhevat at their helm for third battle with Tocharians. Who will come on top this time?
Once again we sent them packing. Our numbers save the day. Sadly one of our vassals mayors dies at just 32 years of age :/. Well maybe I need to to stop plots to not let them kill my carefully crafted vassals for once? We can remedy the situation but it will require some plotting to be done. We can try to excommunicate, arrest and kill to fix that and we do. Also our income updated again down to 2500 gold coins which is more in line with what I was expecting cause previously our personal demense seemed as high as previously and we lost 5 holdings in Siberia to our genius brother.
Our Armies across June retake border counties and then finally march to take over disputed Aylik region. Warscore is currently 17% in our favour. Muhallabid war is at 0% with nothing happening there. Except maybe Byzantines trying to vassalise our Slavic Greek released vassal in Trapezous. So at least that kind of progress is happening. Oh and we renewed our Byzantine alliance with Prince-Heir to empire. So we still are counting on this thanks to our older sister still being married into Greek imperial family.
July presents young emperor Kezhedey with peasant uprising in Qazan - well that +20% revolt risk from Iconoclasts and dealing with them surely was something to watch out for. Could sent Marshal there but was occupied with detoriating health of emperor Vokan. So now we have to send retinues (as our levies are on other side of empire). Ehh - logistic. Kingdom for Organiser commander to march troops quickly.
When it rains - it pours. Have to contend with all fools thinking "this is their moment". Komi iconoclasts might soon find themself without popular support.
Thanks to that revolt I spotted cheeky 3.800 strong Muhallabid host that is marching into Bolgharia! Well did not expect such commitment and skimming trough our Anatolian holdings! Color me suprised
. Well we can still deal with them using only our retinues from Perm but now they have a lot of marching to deal with rebels and Muhallabids. Ok Nvm! Turns out there is 9.800 strong muslim army marching from Nenetsian coast close to Siberian wastes down onto Permian capital. Did not expect that at all. They sailed all around Europe to naval invade through worst supplied arctic lands. That's some commitment!
Suprising AI offensive manouvers! It's not merely Artificial Intelligence move - it's worthy of Autistic Intelligence! I like it
That also means that now we have close to 12.000 enemy troops that are nearing our capital. Not great. We have to disband our levies on Tocharian front (our vassals + retinues can still continue fighting there) to re-raise them (for the third time) back in Perm. Muhallabids are moving straight towards our capital and soon we will give them battle, painfully - unable to fully join our forces in area. We barely win but killed 2/3 of Muhallabid invasion force and previously spotted 3.000 troops went back south leaving their allies high and dry. That mostly deals with that danger and now we can fully commit to squashing Qazan rebelion. Wow this game still manages to suprise me!
By december after grueling and bloody melee with light troops on both sides, we defeat rebels from Qazan. Our ruler turns 12 years old and gets childhood trait event - Fussy turns into Patient. Good moment to pinpoint that with Vokan's dying prematurely we lost ability to infuence our Genius heir education with regards to what type of education it will choose. Let's hope for either Stewardship, learning or diplomacy as they can improve MTTH for prosperity events. Still that 2 leaders in a row that we will get without having final say in what they are educate in.
Year 1130
======================
As we clear up some Muslim stragglers in Kudymkar, Tocharians once again march onto us, to relieve besieged holdings in Ayilk. We have over 1.000 men more and another 4.000 on route. Should be ok. But before we can do it, my game crashes due to internet connection. As I fear that we once again will be forced to replay this part from the start - turns out if I rejoin immedietely it brings us back to moment the game crashed =D.
Those Generic Skirmishes really hurt. Especially with Skirmish technique level 5 :/
We steadily beat Tocharians down. Game punishes me after restarting as the very next day 2 of my mayors die at once, once again creating penalties :/. Well at least Tocharians are on the run again, and our warscore rises to 87%. We lost only 1.000 men but killed around 2.000 of them. That should be the last battle, as we are finishing taking over holdings in targeted province. Our levies in Perm garrison Udmurts county after suffering winter attrition just as huge 5.500 strong nomadic host appears to loot Perm county.
By end of April we conclde war for last county in kingdom of Cumania. With that everything within de jure borders is ours. Leaving just the war in middle east. We must re-muster our vassal troops again though. We then enage nomadic looters in Perm and notice that some 2.500 strong Muhallabids are intercepting or small vassal forces 1 by 1 as they travel. Our younger brother creates title - duchy of Ob, which will be a hassle for us later to deal with.
After fighting in Perm is done we see that once again we managed to lose 49% province wealth :/. Then our brother king somehow pushes another idea despite being in regency - holy war for Altay against Tocharians we just beat. Problem being they still have more troops than him. At least due to his age he can't kill himself by leading troops.
Before autumn we manage to trash 2.500 strong muslim force in the area and send first 7.000 strong army into Anatolia. Our Byzantine ally calls us to war against Khazaria that he is rapidly losing. Seems like Yellow menace once again spilled into Eastern Europe at the cost of Romuvan Lithuanians. This time they will have to face off with strong Byzantine empire that also is slowly enchroaching into this region. Beside Orthodox Bohemia and Holy Roman Empire there is little to stop them. So they basically can expand till they meet us. Even Scandinavia isn't safe as Finland is Paulician and Jomvikings managed to start carving small realm for themself in Cathar Norway.
Year ends with our Master-Engineer building papermill in Pil'va and me pushing even more universities to be build in our western half of realm. Lowering treasury to just 284 ducats in the process. But hey as chinese golden age is still here it would be sin not to take advantage of.
Year 1131
======================
At last - Kingdom of Cumania starts drifting towards our Empire. Well it will take 100 years but hey - it is something
. Might help in one of following wars against Mongols.
Another 2.000 stong Muhallabid army shows up and I have to recall my retinues. Goddammit this is annoying. As my levies cross towards Anatolia I notice that Sultan is somewhere in Caucas mountain range leading troops but nothing happens. He should be back home defending especially as he suffers peasant rebelion in Antioch (16.000 troops).
As nothing happens let me spent a moment on some more economically related matter. Did some calculations as I wondered how much does it cost to build up each of holdings and how much wealth will be needed to be poured into our burgeoning feudal empire to max it. All assuming our non-coastal holdings together with our unique city structure:
===================
How much it will cost?
===================
Cost of fully developing Castle - 10.730g + 48.358 days (132,48 years)
Cost of fully developing Temple - 7.950g + 36,313 days (99,48 years)
Cost of fully developing City - 10.985g + 41,286 days (113,11 years)
Cost of fully developing Hospital - 11.600g + 6,565 days (17,98 years)
Total Raw cost (without modifiers): 804.750 (75 Castles) + 318,000 (40 Bishoprics) + 1.065.545 (97 Cities) + 1.020.800 (88 province Hospitals) = 3.209.095 gold coins
Total cost with current modifiers (46,3%- 35,9%): between 1.485.810g and 1.152.065g
It is fascinating and I wasn't aware how much fully build holdings are worth. Also how much does it cost to fully upgrade even our holding starved realm. This number seems attainable but I will have to put some effort. Especially as we are not taking everything from mayors and bishops. You also can see why focusing on gold cost is so important and to lesser extent (after taking slow technology spread) construction speed. At the moment in the remaining 300 years we will make over 750.000 gold coins at least. I expect more as we will keep upgrading cities, getting modifiers and creating more holdings to collect taxes from more cities. Another 750.000 will be collected by mayors themself. Those were also values including all military building that we won't be paying. But we will have others expenses including more Great Works and prosperity events. Getting another -10% construction time with our current modifiers still shaves off at least 115.206 gold coins! That's taking into account diminishing returns but also Chinese golden age that soon should vanish. Of course the price will continue to go down as we keep building with prestige in few remaining tribes and construction technology spreads. Might be really profitable to later nationalize some vassal funds to reinvest them into wonder building.
Takes us up to September to transport enough soldier to think about finally going onto offensive. At least we weakened somehow Muhallabids so far.
Enemies don't push into Anatolia, being content with just siegeing our single Barony in Edessa. Thus we can amass men for attack in peace.
Beside that nothing happened this year - no events nor emergencies. So we advance towads Edessa with our army where some concentration of enemy troops is spotted. Enemies retreat and then sacrifice half of their army to save the other half. Meanwhile our other childhood trait evolves into Temperate but sadly we aren't lucky to get Stressed :/. Would help with what I have in mind.
After beating some of locals we move our 17.000 levies towards Cilicia to finally stat besieging that county father of our character pressed his claims for almost 4 years ago.
Year 1132
======================
Year starts by spotting another 2.000 Muhallabid host marching towards our capital. Our retinues are on the move. Damn having low Martial as kid while not having levies home really stings. With <1.000 men in garrison such pitiful armies are something we have to deal with. Byzantines managed to vassalize Jerusalem thus now they have 3 out of 5 pentarchies under their direct control.
Is AI Eastern Roman Empire on it's run to mend the great schism? We will help them with Antioch so if only they are strong enough to tackle Egypt we might seem MEGA Byzantium
Our 16.000 men are besieging Cilicia that has far better supplies than Edessa. Resulting in now attrition losses on our part. Still have to watch out as Muhallabids have over 19.000 troops and might try to wait us out and let attrition soften us. So after taking Cilicia over we will patiently wait there, absorbing reinforcements thanks to being in owned territory. Thanks to finding +80% Siege commander we are taking rapidly over holdings (32% progress per tick on castle!).
During March our Greek coreligionists decide to push into Khazars taking example from their heir to the throne. He himself is losing badly (-91% warscore) but hey maybe with whole might of purple blob it might change the fate of his unsuccesful war. Basileos wants Galich, meaning they will expend into de jure Galicia-Volhynia, where currently huge chunk of Khazarian khaganate is located).
With May we are completely controling war target and move to relieve our single holding inside Edessa. That put's us at exactly 80% warscore. Enemies are losing against peasant rebelion cause they are not tackling that problem instead of just staring at us menacingly. Maybe we will be able to quickly tackle another holy war for Antioch?
As Summer greets us, our steward dies (creating 3/1 bishop problem in one of temples) and to my dismay it turns out that Meltshayka picked Martial education =.=. Thanks AI! On top of that he is already Slothful. So not only he will not get good modifiers but also will get few extra attributes from education... And extra levies from martial will make it extra difficult to declare great conquest on Muhallabids in the future. Meeeeh! As we trounce enemies in Edessa peasant rise up in far south-western part of our realm. After thinking it later it seems even worse development - we really would like Martial character after Meltshayka for Mongols. But now we are forced to make rather difficult choice - do we double on two non-prosperity rulers in a row or just give up?
Not only we have it in our realm only because of AI but also it will be difficult to put down.
Once September rolls out we are at 93% warscore in Cilician war. Our Byzantine ally also takes over his old man mantle and now is Basileos. Which means we have powerful ally with 60.000 troops to help us when we need it
. Soon we finish the whole war and have our staging point for taking over holy lands.
Single county but so much opportunity thanks to it! That concludes last of conflicts Kezhedey inherited from his father.
Having some gold on hands I splurge on even more universities. We are mostly done with building them and there are only few provinces without one that contain cities (due to not having high enough technology). That was really expensive but should prove to be great investment towards future.
Year 1133
======================
Raiders, raiders everywhere! 3 seperate groups befall us in 3 different places. At least by February we finally take care of that nomadic uprising far south. Our levies were disbanded but some retinues have to still travel back home from Anatolia. Muhallabids after recent defeat suffer civil war (small one) and Eastern Roman Empire now demands Galilee. Our purple allies are nicely carving kingdom of Jerusalem for themself so for now they don't intrude on Syrian Kingdom within our sights. That will speed up planned downfall of Egyptian influence in Levant.
Before spring our character finally comes out of age. He is mixed bag - Smart but only level 1 stewardship education. Patient and temperate but that's that. We immedietely pick Rulership focus and "See the Realm Prosper" ambition (to make the most of ideally short reign). We also become the guardian for our younger brother to make him somewhat better. Upon thinking it later as I realised how much of a setback we suffered with AI deciding to make out a soldier out of Meltshayka, the focus pick was more nuanced. Given that development it isn't so clear cut that Kezhedey has to die. He still has stewardship education that leaves him with potential. Very unlikely as we are only reliably counting on Trade Route from business focus to give us single stewardship education upgrade. Rest is resting on Rulership focus providing more than usually. Most of the time you will get stressed and depressed, but rarely events that are rng on success. Winning that lottery gives us either lifestyle modifier, just, ambitious, diligent or education upgrade. Those are all great but most of the time I can spent 30-40 years on that and still only get 1 or 2 of those. So developing Kezhedey is pretty much down to chance. We can try getting our luck with book writing but I don't like our chances without lifestyle trait. If I wasn't hasty Learning for once seems decent if we consider going down the Cultural->Necronomicon route for that +6/+7 Learning. That would fill the lack in regards to learning attribute and is relatively quick. But once again it is commitment to playing az Kezhedey iinstead of Meltshayka ergo hoping that Rulership will make Kezhedey great but later. At this point I'm forced by my impulsivness to just wait and see how Rulership behaves.
Well that's why I didn't want to play him x] Even with all artifacts his Learning is bad, Stewardship barely passable, no diligent and lowest education... He could make for ok Bishop but not Emperor.
We also start the voting on giving the ruler final say on title granting. We have 8 vassal limit not in use and well not having to consult council might be great when we think about seceding Nenetsia. Now we can finally start to clean the mess that not being able to plot and excommunicate created during regency.
We have two mayors that need fixing. Both can be managed thanks to having some lowborn female courtiers on our hands. First mayor in Bolgharia get's excommunicated, arrested and executed thus the problem is resolved. The other is in the work via assasination means (only 200% plotpower). If not lucky then we will excomunicate him later too.
By October we succeed in plot but I find 2 more over the limit mayors. So back to square one I guess. And we run out of candidates to take over. Then I do a round of inviting new character and this time return with more than satysfying results. Most of them aren't super young but hey - it's still better than suffering penalties. Our assasinations fire and fail in meantime. New Jewish steward is also procured. He soon gathers special tithe giving us +1.200 gold coins. This will help for now to patch our finances.
We suffer from negative prestige as reinforcing our retinues costs an arm and a leg. But soon it will resolve itself. Also we push through with more universities (mostly in our personal demense). Those start to stack up as we get over +1.7 economic technology points from buildings alone. Seems like Golden Age will persist till another change of Chinese Emperor happens - which is fine by me. I might also try some hospital upgrades at only fraction of cost
. But that is for another part. Sadly we kind of went up and down due to succession when it comes to income:
Unexpected events be unexpected. That's almost 500 gold per year less that we are getting. So it seems we didn't make any progress since last part =<
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