The Restoration of the Roman Empire in Just Over 50 Rulers - Modded Byzantium to Rome AAR (Gameplay Cancelled due to Save Breaking)

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

@jak7139 the Assassin isn't done yet, as I mentioned in the preview of the Interlude he still has another Basileus to kill.
I'm glad you like Interlude 2, I'm slightly worried that Interlude 3 will end up being a SFW version of Interlude 1 (as Interlude 3 will be another Ecumenical Council) just with different characters.

 

[Midnite Duke]

I am getting a "Only the Shadow knows" vibe around the Assassin. Thank you for updating.

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

@Midnite Duke only the shadow, and myself of course.

 

[Lord Durham]

Beside all this talk of 'who's the assassin', I want to know what lucky sod had to prepare Nikephoros meals. Now there's a job description.

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

@Lord Durham I'm guessing one of the 'recruits', seeing as they weren't needed for matters of 'conversation'.

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

813:
Crowned following the assassination of Michael I, Leon immediately set out for war in Armenia, leaving his younger brother Michael in charge as Regent (which annoyed the Basileus' adult son Bardas). He demanded the King, who had adopted local customs while retaining religious fealty to the Caliph, surrender a province in Coloneia. The King gave it up, hoping to avoid conflict. Leon invaded Armenia anyway, in an attempt to conquer the Emirate of Mesopotamia. The war lasted the best part of the year, with a famous battle in Cherson, where the Basileus' youngest brother, the local Strategos Ioustinianos fought the army of the Caliph, who defended their tributary state. Leon led his army into battle, defeating and capturing the King. Peace was signed, and Mesopotamia became part of the Empire. Leon used his victory as justification for the restoration of Iconoclasm, declaring that the idolatry of his predecessors weakened the Empire.

814:
Fearing the Assassin, Leon remained in Armenia. However he was shocked to discover the news that the King died in his sleep, with suspicions of murder arising. Leon decided to take advantage of the situation by demanding the southern portion of Tao, which was handed over. Leon then invaded to seize the Emirate of Armenia. This war lasted into the following year. Bardas had a son who he named Basileios.

815:
In January the war with Armenia ended when Leon captured the young King in a siege. The King fled to his ancestral holding of Edessa, while his vassals in Georgia declared independence. However he quickly put the rebels down.

816:
Leon caught Typhus but recovered. He maintained his stay in Armenia, bringing his wife Eudokia, which led to the conception of their second son Konstantinos.

817:
Leon decided to crown his young son as Symbasileus, enraging Bardas who had refused to accept the Iconoclast Restoration. Michael also showed his disgruntlement at the decision, citing Leon's ill health caused by excess weight and the risk of Bardas overturning their efforts to restore Iconoclasm. Carpathia asked Leon to help them convert to Iconoclasm. Leon agreed, and he oversaw the baptism of the Empress, the heiress of Radoslav the Blind.

818:
Leon finally restored the office of the Iconoclast Patriarch, which had been left vacant after the Council of Constantinople in 787.

819 + January 1st 820:
Leon visited Carpathia to see how the Empress and her subjects were getting on. He was left disappointed in the effort, or rather lack of, made to convert Carpathia to Iconoclasm. A number of vassals were murdered in their sleep, which signaled to Leon that the Assassin was at large once more. He returned to Constantinople, deciding to relieve his brother of his duties for failing to deal with the Assassin. Before he could find Michael however, he was ambushed. "Hello, you have something belonging to me" the Assassin said. "What?" exclaimed Leon. "That crown is mine, and you know it". Leon tried to call for his guards, but the Assassin chuckled, "They can't hear you". Leon said "What do you want, gold, land, women, you've got to want something?" The Assassin said "Your crown, and I'm willing to swap it for something you've always wanted". "What could you give me?" Leon asked. The Assassin said "Mother's approval, brother. This was all her idea, of course I expanded on it when she died 20 years ago, but killing Brother was her idea, not mine or Sister's." "Michael, you traitor, guards!" Michael took his dagger out and stabbed Leon in the heart. Leon's final view of the world was watching his brother take the crown off his head and place it on his own. He then bellowed "Let the games begin".....

 

[HistoryDude]

The assassin now reigns. Will anyone discover his murders?

All of these characters are really interesting. They're all either satanists, cannibals, incestuous, or some combination of the above. The Empire needs a Basileus who isn't any of those things and can keep the realm together... Prince Leon honestly seemed like the best candidate, and he did manage some conquests. Hopefully Michael doesn't screw things up too badly.

Why did Eirene trust her co-conspirator? He clearly wasn't above assassinating a reigning Basileus...

Does Michael approve of Iconoclasm? How will Bardas respond to this new development?

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

@HistoryDude Nobody will discover that Michael murdered all those rulers, but he does kill a load of vassals during his rule, so some might suspect him.
The incest is honestly getting worse, (Michael's son and heir has the inbred trait).
Eirene trusted Michael because of their mother, who was pulling the strings until she died, which is when Michael began to turn on his sister.
Michael is an Iconoclast like Leon, Bardas is isolated by Michael's rise to power (and he's terrified of him)

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

820:
46 years of ambition had come to this. Michael II was crowned Basileus by the Iconoclast Patriarch. He began his reign by calling for the assassination of a vassal who made the grave error of asking the new ruler for land. The vassal was killed in his sleep.

821:
Michael and his niece-wife Eudokia (the daughter of his brother Konstantinos VI (who he murdered)) welcomed their second son Pantoleon. The young prince was born with many deformities though, and was not expected to live for very long.

822:
Pantoleon died aged just 1, and Eudokia died a few months later of a broken heart. Michael responded to this development by beheading the bearer of the bad news. He vowed never to remarry, instead using 'recruits' to sate his need for 'conversation'.

823:
The Black Death broke out in Bruges, in the Frankish Empire. Michael's response upon hearing the news was "I knew this would happen". More vassals were assassinated.

824:
The Plague reached Constantinople, and Michael and the court entered seclusion. The Imperial guards were ordered to keep a close eye on Michael's nephews Konstantinos, Kaisarios, Athanasios (all sons of Konstantinos VI), Bardas and Konstantinos the Younger (sons of Leon V), just in case they tried anything.

825:
Konstantinos VI's aunt-widow, Melissa, died of the Bubonic Plague in her jail cell after more than a quarter of a century of imprisonment. Michael celebrated her death by executing a 'recruit' for no other reason.

826:
Large numbers of Strategoi began dying in the Plague. Michael decided to revoke many of their titles from their heirs to prevent consolidation of titles through marriages, vassals who refused to comply mysteriously fell out of windows.

827:
Michael was annoyed that a fat nomad asked to marry his teenage niece. Michael's spies discovered that the Khan of the 'Uyghurs' had a daughter the same age as Michael's niece Eirene. Michael wrote an angry letter to this Khan, calling him a REDACTED and suggesting his daughter should be REDACTED and killed. He had the letter laced with poison for good measure. The Khan would never bother him again. A Prince of Rus made the same mistake, but in his defense, he wasn't much older than Eirene. Michael didn't send a letter, he just had him killed using plague corpses flung into his capital fort by his acquaintances in Carpathia, who were still Iconoclast and wishing to be friendly with Constantinople.

828 + January 1st 829:
Michael caught the Bubonic Plague. His Court Physician was able to temporarily reprieve him of his symptoms, but the Plague struck him down again. Realising he was on his deathbed, Michael had more vassals assassinated, and purged the country of a junior branch of the dynasty - the Christophorians, descendants of Strategos Christophoros I of Epirus, the second son of Konstantinos V, - bringing Epirus back under direct Imperial control. Michael's younger brother Ioustinianos died in December, leaving Cherson to be taken over by his grandson, also named Ioustinianos. Michael II died of the Plague on January 1st 829, succeeded by his son Theophilos, who was seen by many vassals and relatives as an idiot...

 

[HistoryDude]

Michael II loved assassinations, which isn't surprising given how he took power.

Can someone who is more normal overthrow this dynasty of... strange people?

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

@HistoryDude If the Isaurian dynasty gets overthrown, how am I supposed to restore the Roman Empire? Also, they're only dysfunctional and inbred because it would be too easy to restore Rome otherwise thanks to all the mods I'm using.

 

[Midnite Duke]

The Assassin Revealed! Death Marches On! Thanks for the updates.

 

[Nikolai]

Gone is the Assassin. Will someone else take his role eventually?

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

@Nikolai Yes and no, there will be another Imperial assassination soon enough, but it will be the last for a while (about a hundred years).

 

[Bullfilter]

You have been going at a frantic pace, so here’s a big catch up comment.

The Pandemic seemed to never end, as Consumption returned to plague the lands.

At this point I thought it was just the worst bad luck, little did I realise until later you had taken the Wuhan Option!

Konstantinos was bored so he decided to join a secret society known as Lucifer's Own.

As you do. In character.

Melissa decided to gain her husband's attention by assassinating a minor Baron.

A lovely family.

The Great Pandemic finally ended, and the lockdown finished after more than twenty years.

Why did you do this to yourself? To have a mad, mad world, I guess.

Eirene the Younger stated "Everything, brother, just like you took everything from me. I'm going to take your crown, your sword and your life".

Just desserts.

A 20 year lockdown due to different pandemics is quite bizarre.

(Must be the increased diseases settings)

The penny dropped. That would do it!

the Ecumenical Patriarch liked to eat human flesh

<facepalms> well of course he does.

Eirene got a strange letter demanding she find and deliver a dwarf to some random Persian woman. Eirene refused, but wondered who the Persian woman was. She wouldn't get the chance to find out, because on January 1st 802, she woke up to her male co-conspirator in the death of Konstantinos VI holding the same dagger to her throat.

A theme (pun intended) is emerging.

The diseases is just having the game rules set to the maximum settings, so everyone is having the same problems as me.

For everything!? Wow

Nikephoros ordered for hospitals to be built.

A wise if belated move, given the Permanent Pandemic.

The Basileus decided to eat them as punishment.

He’s going to bite off more than he can chew eventually (ahem)

Staurakios started to grow frustrated at the restrictions his father was placing on him. He secretly joined Lucifer's Own to help him deal with Nikephoros.

A lovely bunch they are.

46 years of ambition had come to this. Michael II was crowned Basileus

The Black Death broke out in Bruges

Michael caught the Bubonic Plague. His Court Physician was able to temporarily reprieve him of his symptoms, but the Plague struck him down again.

Again, well deserved. A plague on all their houses!

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

For everything!? Wow

Yeah, minor diseases were set to increased, and the Black Death was set to deadly. 823 wasn't even the earliest I've seen the Plague start on these settings (In a different save with the same start, the Plague started in 776). Also ironically the maxed-out Black Death caused a shorter lockdown than the smoothie that was the Great Pandemic.

As to why I max out the settings, it's a way of balancing out the cheat mods (I can use them to effectively make certain important characters unkillable but it also means my court doesn't become overflowed with irrelevant tenth cousins (on reflection this might have been what killed the previous attempts at this save)). Pruning the court is also why I land younger sons of the Basileus (hint/minor spoiler: If an adult male member of the dynasty who has a son is unlanded, it probably means they or that son will be important in the story under a future Basileus, or I forgot about them). The court is often at 70 members, this includes 'recruits' and prisoners, but in the previous two attempts my court often peaked at about 200 courtiers.

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

Announcement: Upload schedule is going to become chaotic, I'm going to upload as I've played on, which means some days there could be multiple uploads while on other days there could be none. This is because I'm already starting to grow tired of the save, and I'm not even 100 years in. I could just play ahead and upload as normal, but I'm more likely to make mistakes with dates and events (I'm not writing anything down). This means that today (July 1st) there will be a few chapters, including Interlude 3 and the beginning of Part 4. There might not be an upload tomorrow (July 2nd) because I want to start a new Football Manager save but if I do that it would become my top priority (and my Football Manager saves are more time consuming than the average one).

Apologies in advance to anyone who feels the pace of uploads is too fast, and to anybody who feels put off continuing to read this AAR by the change in pace I completely understand as not everyone has the amount of time as I have to sit in their room in the middle of the night playing video games instead of sleeping.

 

[Bullfilter]

Do your own thing man! You could engineer a red wedding/coronation/Luciferian ritual/cannibal feast etc to kill off the entire dynasty in one stroke to put them out of their misery

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

829:
Theophilos the Inbred became Basileus upon the death of his father Michael II. His first act was to lift the lockdown despite the continued existence of the Bubonic Plague in the realm. However Constantinople was no longer affected by it.

830:
Theophilos' advisors told him he needed to get married, but he decided to go hide away from them instead.

831:
Theophilos started to upgrade the hospitals his kinsman Nikephoros I had built. He hid away from the world again.

832:
Theophilos' sister Elaiodora came of age. She married their maternal uncle Athanasios (the youngest son of Konstantinos VI). Konstantinos VI's eldest son Leon died, with the affects of inbreeding contributing.

833:
Konstantinos VI's second son Konstantinos died after suffering from poor health for many years (unrelated to inbreeding). Theophilos sent Leon V's son Konstantinos to govern Armenia for him. Athanasios became a Strategos as well.

834:
Basileios, the grandson of Leon V, had a son named Theophylaktos, however his wife died in childbirth. Theophilos hid away again.

835:
The Black Death had been gone for many years, but Typhus returned, leading to another lockdown. Theophilos hid away once more.

836:
Theophilos started to write letters to elderly priests in Armenia, who considered the Basileus as a friend. He also suffered a stroke, but quickly recovered.

837:
This Pandemic was the shortest yet, as Typhus went away and the lockdown ended once more. In June Theophilos hosted a bride show to find a wife for himself. He chose a suitable woman who was simultaneously the most beautiful and ugliest woman Theophilos had ever seen, but she was a genius.

838:
Theophilos and his wife had a daughter named Eirene, who was betrothed shortly after birth to her cousin Michael, the son of Theophilos' older sister Philippa.

839:
Theophilos and his wife had a son named Michael, who was crowned as Symbasileus and declared the heir to the Empire. The Basileus hid away to pray yet again.

840:
Theophilos ordered for the hospitals to be upgraded again. His wife died suddenly. Theophilos declared a week of mourning across the Empire.

841 + January 1st 842:
Theophilos introduced two of his elderly priest friends to each other, however they didn't get on. Theophilos prayed some more in seclusion. On January 1st 842, he suddenly suffered another stroke, but this time it was fatal. The young Michael was now guided by his aunts and uncles-in-law, who had religious agendas to fulfill...

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

@Bullfilter I think there's too many members of the dynasty to pull off any shenanigans, especially with so many of them holding land within the Empire (then again, one of the cheat mods has an 'Exterminate Dynasty' interaction available, but I'd have to switch to another dynasty beforehand to prevent a game-over).
I'm not cancelling the AAR or the save, the announcement was more of a warning for if I don't post an update for a couple of days.