The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the House Bodzeta: An abridged history

[Samurye]

The Kingdom of Jerusalem stands as a beacon of light in the darkness. Carved from the heart of the Infidel-controlled Holy Land, it is a bastion of Christianity against the hordes of Islam. Forged in the fires of war, and maintained by the blessings of God Almighty, Jerusalem represents the perfect fusion between violence and mercy. For centuries it has been looked over by the members of the House Bodzeta. Jerusalem is built upon the backs of these brave men, and with their blood, sweat, and tears is the realm safeguarded from all who would do her harm. This is the story of those men. The good and the bad, those who were the spirit of the Crusades personified, and those whose very existence was a blasphemy. So come now, and listen. To the tale of the men who toil to maintain the Kingdom of Heaven.

(Disclaimer: This intro was written purely for dramatic effect, and does not accurately represent the content of this AAR.)


Hello and welcome! I'm quite new here, and excited to meet you all. In a move no doubt already duplicated by countless others before me, one of my first acts on this forum will be the creation of an AAR. I have no Idea what I'm doing, but when has blindly jumping in over your head ever been a bad idea?


Much like every new AAR writer, I'm certain, I have started with ludicrous ambition. If all goes well, (Which is astronomically unlikely) this will be but the first part of a long, Six chapter AAR, telling of the exploits of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the early 12th century to the 22nd. Of course, the obstacles to this plan are insurmountable, and will end up a particularly weird footnote in the history of abandoned AARs.


But enough of that, let us worry about the present! (Er... Past)


This AAR, shockingly enough, will follow the exploits of the Bodzeta family as they rise from the lowly Counts of Czersk, to the illustrious Kings of Jerusalem. And, of course, how they send all of their good fortune down the tubes and are reduced to a fraction of a shadow of an empty shell of their former glory.


However, the game is currently in the mid 13th century, so I'll have to bring you up to speed with a series of updates detailing the various Bodzeta rulers up to the current date.


Note: This AAR will be very light on screenshots. This is even more disappointing to me than it is to you, because I am of the opinion that no AAR (especially a megacampaign) is complete without screenshots. Unless of course, it is a narrative AAR, but this isn't one of those, as I'm about as poor a narrative writer as there ever was. So, yeah. I'd really like to put up lots of screenshots, but my computer won't let me. So, you'll have to make do with short, text only updates, with the occasional screenshot showing something important. I'm very sorry.

Another note: Unfortunately, this is not one of those squeaky clean AARs. I do, occasionally cheat. However, I try to do it sparingly, and where I think that it would make narrative sense: Here are the circumstances under which I may consider cheating:

1. To reorganize the realm. I primarily do this to keep the Knightly Orders where they belong. I will turn on the Byzantine cheat, and revoke or grant titles. I do this because I'm a bit OCD when it comes to keeping my Kingdom in order. As it is not possible to assign vassals to new lords in CK, I have to do it this way.

2. To replace a loss of money that I find unreasonable. I'm not talking about typing "gold" every time I make a transaction. With only a single exception (to be noted later) I only use this when the "Advisor asks for money in order to not leave" event takes a ton of money, while I'm already broke. For instance, the Steward demanding enough money to buy a medium sized castle in Acre while the realm is four digits in debt? That;s when I call up this cheat. Not that this is used almost exclusively when the amount demaded is greater than 1000 golden coins.
The single exception was during a war. The Cout that I was declaring war on offered me 1400 coins. At the same time,I had conquered his province, and could make peace demands. According to the peace menu, he didn't have a penny. I took the province, and gave myself 1000 gold.

I also once used cheats to represent an Event that I had come up with. As my event making skills are nonexistant, I represented it with cheat codes.

I generally try to avoid reloading. Occasionally though, my game will crash, and I'll be forced to start from an earlier save. I'll admit that I proceed using the knowledge gained the first time around, but not if it would play seriously against character.

If you are still willing to read an AAR so tainted, continue on. If not, well... You're a better person than I.


Well, this first post has gone on long enough. Here's to a short and forgettable AAR, and the shattering of my hopes and dreams!

(The first update will be put up when I get around to putting it up. You might want to hunker down for a long wait, as it could be a while)

 

[Rivus]

Aw don't be so apologetic. A good story is always worth a read

 

[Samurye]

How we got here


The story of the House Bodzeta must, of course begin with Count Jaroslaw Bodzeta, of Czersk.

(The background of this picture show the current state of the realm. I am the man pictured on the right. We will get to know each other much better after I can bring you up to speed.)
He is the first recorded Bodzeta. Nothing is know of and members of the dynasty before him.
Count Jaroslaw was not a very interesting man. He did very little of note, but he did raise the man who would make the name Bodzeta one to be respected.
Jaroslaw was a simple man, staying home and ruling his County with perhaps a bit too much leniency. He spent most of his time raising his children to become good Christians, like himself. He may very well have been the best possible example to his young son, which would turn out to be very important.
In early 1079, Jaroslaw Bodzeta passed peacefully into eternity. The throne was left to his seven year old son, who would go on to become one of the most important people in the history of the dynasty.

 

[the_hdk]

Nice a Polish Kingdom of Heaven

One tip doh...you could edit the white space of teh pic in paint this way the screenshot would be bigger

 

[unmerged(127999)]

Poles in the Holy City? Awesome, please continue.

 

[Samurye]

I did notice that the white space was kind of huge. If I may ask, how do you edit it? (It's probably something ridiculously easy, but I can use all the help I can get.)

Sorry about the lack of updates past the first. It was a bit of a nightmare trying to do updates from 200 years ago while the game was still in progress. I decided that I would play to the end (1400) and then write all the updates. Hindsight will make it much easier to tell when important turning points happen.

No need to worry that update will take forever, though. I'm already in the 14th century. Updates should be flowing in by New Years, at the very latest. Rest assured though, I will not let the AAR die. Yet.

If this game ever does go to EU III, updates will be in pseudo-real time.

Also, check out the addition to the opening post. Pretty dramatic, huh?

 

[the_hdk]

I did notice that the white space was kind of huge. If I may ask, how do you edit it? (It's probably something ridiculously easy, but I can use all the help I can get.)

Sorry about the lack of updates past the first. It was a bit of a nightmare trying to do updates from 200 years ago while the game was still in progress. I decided that I would play to the end (1400) and then write all the updates. Hindsight will make it much easier to tell when important turning points happen.

No need to worry that update will take forever, though. I'm already in the 14th century. Updates should be flowing in by New Years, at the very latest. Rest assured though, I will not let the AAR die. Yet.

If this game ever does go to EU III, updates will be in pseudo-real time.

Also, check out the addition to the opening post. Pretty dramatic, huh?

what system do you have? if you have windows 7 it's indeed quite easy as theres an option in Paint "Cut down" where it just deletes the white space
otherwise in Paint just select what you want copy (ctrl+c) open up a new file in Paint and paste (ctrl+v) than save the file

 

[Rivus]

What I do is screenshot a variety of events and keep them in folders with description, then batchconvert everything into JPEGs first. Turning points are indeed difficult to spot without hindsight... as is in real life ... so I tend to screenshot everything I encounter...

I only select the pictures when I start typing the AAR and pick/rename/edit the screenshots concurrently (using Paint.NET mostly).

 

[Samurye]

That is what I would have wanted to do. However, every time I take a screenshot and exit to past it to paint, I'm locked out of the game and have to reload. That's why screenshots will be sparse: I don't really wasnto save and reload any more than absolutely necessary.

 

[Rivus]

That is what I would have wanted to do. However, every time I take a screenshot and exit to past it to paint, I'm locked out of the game and have to reload. That's why screenshots will be sparse: I don't really wasnto save and reload any more than absolutely necessary.

Have you tried F11? It creates a numbered screenshot in your Crusader Kings directory. Then you can take all the screenshots, then go review them after the game session. Pictures in BMP though so it can get very heavy on your hard disk...

 

[Samurye]

I was under the impression that F11 only worked in Clausewitz games....

Anyway, I am going to steal an idea from a much better AAR, and d ask the readers to help me make a decision.
In the 14th century, Jerusalem has extended to Mecca. Mecca is part of a "Meccan corridor", a strip of plains terrain in the midst of a desert. This allows a much larger variety of buildings to be built there than in Jerusalem.
The Corridor is a much better place for a capital. It offers Huge Castles, War Academies, Universities, and a number of other great structures not available in Jerusalem. The Corridor is also very rich.
However, Jerusalem has been the capital of the Bodzetan Kingdom for centuries, and is the most revered city on the planet.

So, this is my question to my billions of adoring fans: Should the Bodzeta's move their capital to the Meccan Corridor, or stay in Jerusalem? Which is more important, function or tradition? Should the Bodzetas move and leave Jerusalem in the capable hands of another, or be content to rule in a respectable but second-rate city?

You decide.

(Don't worry the updates won't be long. If you're lucky and I get sick or something, the story might be ready by Christmas. Otherwise, it will be out by the end of the year at the latest.)

 

[the_hdk]

I say stay at the Holy City

 

[Rivus]

Both are holy cities.

But yeah I think sticking to Jerusalem feels more right. Keep Mecca as a demesne.

 

[unmerged(127999)]

Stay in Jerusalem; Mecca is not a Christian holy city, after all.

 

[Samurye]

Thank you all for your support. I'm sorry that I can't really do this AAR justice, as it is quite the story. This game only became an AAR halfway through, and it shows. Since then, I've exhibited slipshod notetaking (read: not notes whatsoever) and so I don't remeber most of what has happened. However, it has been a bit of a learning experience. I plan to start a new AAR soon, and I intend to make sure that it is an AAR from the begninning. However, I'm not going to completely abandon this AAR. I'll do my best to tell everything that I remeber from the story.

Anyway, there are 15 years left on the clock. The first "update" should be up by the end of next week.

(BTW: Part of the reason that I considered moving to Mecca was that my rulers firstborn son was a Arab. I had planned out a story that would have shaken the game up quite a bit. Unfortunately, he died from the plague, leaving his ghost-white brother next in line. Ah, well. Maybe next AAR....)

-Regards, Samurye

 

[Hannibal X]

Move to Mecca to make Muslims mad.

 

[Samurye]

Sorry that the update is late. It was my birthday, so my schedule is a little off. The update will come, eventually. I'll probably only do about 5 updates, detailing the most important rulers of the KoJ. My new AAR is in production right now, FYI.

-Samurye

 

[Samurye]

Now, as a special Christmas gift, I presnt to you: The Second Update! FIREWORKS! TRUMPETS!
(Again,I'm terribly sorry about the latness in updating. However, I did manage to get it up by Christmas, as I said i might in post 11. Yay?)

The Foundations of a Kingdom

The responsibility of sowing the seeds of the great Kingdom of Jerusalem fell entierly on one man: Bozydar Bodzeta, Duke of Prussia

Bozydar Bodzeta took the throne from his father at the age of seven. At the age of ten he joined in the Crusades. Bozydar's army captured Acre from the Muslims, and pushed on. It was then that got his first glimpse of Jerusalem. Bozydar 's army laid siege to the Holy City, but was eventually driven out by a massive Egyptian army. However, he made a vow that one day Jerusalem would be his. Acre, the only prize that Bozydar's troops managed to conquer, was given to the Knights Hospitalliers, on the condition that they would serve the Czerskian crown.

Bozydar then led a series of campaigns against the pagans that eventually led to him becoming Duke of Prussia, and exponentially increasing the size of the Bodzeta family's property. This expansion of his land and subjects eventually allowed him to achieve his dream.

In the year 1122, Jerusalem was the target of a Crusade. The Holy City had previously been held by a number of European monarchs, but Muslim uprisings had turned it into an independent Islamic city-state. Bozydar saw his chance. His new, much larger army set sail across the Mediterranean for the Levant. With an army several times larger than last time, and facing a much smaller number of enemy troops, Bozydar was able to finally capture the City. So it was that forty years after first laying eyes on it, at the age of 50, Bozydar finally walked through the gates of Jerusalem. His lifetime goal now complete, Bozydar's health declined, and he died a year later.

 

[unmerged(31994)]

I was under the impression that F11 only worked in Clausewitz games....

Anyway, I am going to steal an idea from a much better AAR, and d ask the readers to help me make a decision.
In the 14th century, Jerusalem has extended to Mecca. Mecca is part of a "Meccan corridor", a strip of plains terrain in the midst of a desert. This allows a much larger variety of buildings to be built there than in Jerusalem.
The Corridor is a much better place for a capital. It offers Huge Castles, War Academies, Universities, and a number of other great structures not available in

As someone who has been to Mecca several times, I can tell you honestly that is not true at all. Mecca is not in the Tuhamma plains but is actually a hilly and even mountainous city in some parts - its near the Sirawat afterall. The municipality are barely chiseling away at the huge blocks of stone to make room for their huge projects nowadays.

 

[Samurye]

In game, it's classified as "Plains". Thank you for the feedback, though.