Under the banner of the Snow Leopard - Alania AAR (CK 1.05)

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Under the banner of the Snow Leopard - 1066:Alania AAR (CK 1.05)

Under the banner of the Snow Leopard-Prologue

On the Caucasian plain, Alania included territories from the river Great Laba (tributary of Kuban) to the modern Eastern Chechnya. In the north, the Alan lands reached the middle course of the Terek and included Stavropol highland. Already in the 2nd century Ptolemy called Terek the "Alonta" river. In the early Middle Ages Terek was known as Alandon (Alan River). The mountain areas of Alania encompassed both sides of the Main Caucasian range. On the northern slope of the Caucasus, Alan territory reached Darial region (from Persian Darialan-"the Alan Gate"). On the southern slope the Alans settled between Mamison and Cross gorges. According to Armenian and Byzantine medieval authors, small Alan principalities existed to the south of mount Elbrus- in the upper reaches of Kodori and Inguri rivers.

The Alan royal dynasty claimed its origins from Akhsartaggata-the legendary clan of the epic heroes called Narts, the warriors of the early Aryan society, and it was this dynasty, known subsequently as the Akhsartagatos, that converted to the Orthodox Christianity of the Eastern Roman emperors.

To the North and West of the King of Alania’s realm lay the realms of the Cumans and the remnants of Khazars both nations of Turkic origins, to the South lay the Kingdom of the Georgians and beyond them the massive realms of the Eastern Romans and Seljuk Turks. The king of Alania, Dargulel, faced internal problems due to the conversion of the royal court and aristocracy to Christiantiy while the vast majority of the Alan populace remained loyal to the pagan faith of their Alan and (further back in history) Sarmatian forefathers.

OOC: My first ever CK AAR!! I must admit I still love playing CK and could not resist the urge any longer to start my own AAR. As you can see I have chosen the nation of Alania (ancestors of the modern Ossetians) to lead against the inevitable Turkish and Mongol hordes. I will make minor adjustments which is renaming the royal dynasty from ‘of Alania’ to the name listed above and promoting Alania from Principality to a Kingdom, I found the info on the dynasty from an Ossetian website based in Canada and while not knowing wether its factual or not it sounded cooler to me to have some sort of native name!! So i Hellenised the name a little by adding ‘os’ at the end for added effect.
I have had a couple of games as Alania before and I admit it was very hard especially once the Seljuk’s got frisky, so my main aim is to ensure the survival of the Alan nation (especially form the inevitable Mongol horde) and the expansion of the Akhsartagatos dynasty!

Due to my ongoing DD AAR (see sig) this AAR will be updated every week or so as the former must be my priority until its completion (whether by defeat before ’53 or survival until ’53) but rest assured this will be continued to the end. I plan to post a formal first part with screenies tomorrow.

 

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Good luck, you'll probably need it. Watch out for the Cumans, if Pereyaslavl decides to attack them, do so too. And best you get Itil as soon as possible, the province is rich and can be your absolute core province once you convert it.

 

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cheers for the advice, generally in past games i take advantage of Georgia inevitable demise and ally when possible with the Byzantines while all the time looking to expand at the expense of the muslims, however i may take out the Khazar's from the off as you suggested, anyhow until tomorrow Ciao.

 

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I've never played in that area myself. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. Good luck with the game and the AAR

 

[stnylan]

I look forward to see how it develops.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

Alania is indeed a tough place to start and also an interesting place for an AAR

 

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Part One

Reconstructed image of a medieval Alan warrior

The tradition of recording the histories of the Alanian state began with the King of Alania’s decree in late 1059 that led to the adoption of the Georgian alphabet. It is from these ‘royal histories’ that we are able to gleam much information on the medieval Kingdom of Alania. Dargulel had been King of Alania for some 16 when the royal chronicles began there duties and he was regarded as an arbitrary ruler, a valiant yet ruthless soldierm he was also a highly regarded religious scholar. His father, the tough soldier Prince Respendial, had himself crowned King and converted to Georgian Christianity in the hope of aid from the Georgians against the Turkic tribes to the north and south of his realm and Dargulel had been faithfully educated by Georgian monks in the wisdoms of faith as well adhering to the warrior ethic of the Alans. His realm was overwhelmingly Pagan except for the province of Kuma were (Khazar) Turks dwelt and like there kin in Itil clung to the Hebrew faith, only the provinces of Yegorlyk and Manych lay outside of the royal demesne with both being ruled by subordinate Alan families.

The royal court at Maghas was small in comparison to the courts of Georgia or of the Emir of Derbent, the officials of the court were the son and heir of King Dargulel, Prince Yasynya who held the office of marshal and was considered handsome and charismatic while the king’s beautiful 18-year-old second wife, Rasudan, was Royal Chancellor. The King’s distant relative, Kuluk, was steward of the Kingdom and the spymaster, Buürgur of Osettia, who had come from relatively humble origins to attain high office, was considered efficient and loyal. Diplomatically the Kingdom of Alania was allied to Georgia whose King, Bagrat IV, was of partly Alan descent (via his Akhsartagatos mother) and in early 1067 this alliance was sealed with the marriage of Prince Yasynya to King Bagrats daughter, Princess Mariam.

The southern borders also touched upon the lands of the Emir of Derbent and his ally the Persian Sheikh of Kartli who ruled over a largely Christian Georgian populace, Kartli being the historic centre of Georgian Christianity. To the north lay the pitiful remnants of the Khazar’s, once overlords of the Alans and much of the Caucasus and Steppe lands north of the Black Sea, while further west the great realm of the Pechenegs stretched from the Don River to Hungary. Also on the western borders lay the Pagan Alan state of the Kassogs who had broken away during King Respendial’s reign in opposition to the conversion of the royal court.

The continued refusal of the Kassogs to return to the fold prompted Dargulel to attempt to reassert rule of the Akhsartagatos dynasty over the wayward province and after decisive victories at Manych and Kassogs, the pagan province was absorbed into the royal demesne in 1067 raising Dargulel’s standing among the Alans whose culture venerated strong Warrior leaders.

Later that year the King’s young wife bore him a son, Aton, while his heir sired a son of his own, Boz-Uruz, safeguarding the future of the dynasty. The beginning of the year 1068 saw war erupt across the Caucasus with King Bagrat’s attack of Kartli being supported by Dargulel, however the Georgians expansion of the war against the strong Emir of Derbent in May of that year angered Dargulel who refused to support what he saw as a rash second war against a numerous and strong enemy. The Georgians at first struck deep into the lands of the Emir however the Muslims superior numbers overcame the Christians and by the height of the summer the Emir with 2500 troops had begun to besiege Kalkheti. In October with the Alan Kings attention focused on the raging conflict the pagan Kassogs revolted looking to restore a Pagan state, however the revolt was brutally crushed and under the threat of extermination the clans of the Kassogs convert on masse to the faith of the King becoming the first Christian province of the Kingdom, buoyed by the crushing of the pagans of Kassogs King Dargulel decided to now aid the Georgians whose armies had retired for winter while the Muslims continued to ravage Kalkheti, Dargulel marched into Semender defeating the Emirs troops in the area and laying siege to the local hillfort, the siege was over quickly by all accounts and the Alans decided to seize Kartli successfully clearing the province of Muslim troops and its Persian Sheikh; the Emir of Derbent quickly agreed to peace in late 1069 paying tribute and leaving both Semender and Kartli under Alan rule (which must have been a relief in light of the Kingdom's finances being in poor shape due to the cost of maintainig the army), the Georgians having allowed the armies to rebuild during the close of 1069 resumed the war with the Emir, whose troops had resumed the siege of Kalkheti.

During the war Queen Rasudan gave birth to a second son, Safrak, however unknown to the young queen her conduct had been subject to the attentions of efficient Spymaster Buürgur, who was aware of her affair with a member of the royal guard and that Safrak, was indeed the son of her lover and not the King.

The King’s rage was terrible to behold, he denounced Safrak and stripped Queen Rasudan of her court position (with Mariam, wife of Prince Yasynya, becoming Royal Chancellor in her stead), the Queens lover was castrated and his eyes gouged out and publically humiliated before dying of his injuries. However despite firm action the prestige of the King was effected and his own broken heart was indeed to take longer to heal, yet he had enlarged the kingdom were Alans, Georgians and Turks were ruled under the banner of the Snow Leopard.

OOC COMMENTS:

Sorry for the messed up picture above, dunno how the 'print screen’ freaked like that!! Anyhow in grey you can see mighty Alania, Georgia is light blue oh do note that the two also grey provinces in the far south are not Alanian but rather the Muslim state of (Caucasus) Albania, the green is of coruse the Cumans whose western provinces have fallen to Slavic expansion and the Khazars are in red (and now allied to the Sultan of Bolgar!).

It had been my intention to first strike Kassog’s and then the Khazar’s however largely due to financial constraints by the time i was ready they had allied with the Sultan of Bolgar who i do not fancy messing with. I also do not wish to weaken Derbent any further as they would serve well as a buffer against the Seljuks! So northwest seems to be were i will look to expand in light of the Pechenegs faltering to the Slavs in the west of the ukrainian steppe.

 

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Very good opening moves! Both with the marriage and alliance, and the timely military interventions. Shame about the wife, she did look pretty (although the picture is a bit small ). I think you're right about taking out the Pechengs; if they are realy weakend best conquer some of their land, before the russian principalities take them apart.

EDIT: You should take care not to border the Bolgar yet though.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

A good start to the AAR

On a small side note, make your screenshot smaller in size, they now take very long to download.

Convert the .bmp file of the screenshot to a .jpg file using Irfanview

 

[stnylan]

Exciting from the moment the start gun is fired! A little war and some intrigue - exactly the right combination for a CK-AAR

 

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Shuma: thx, the marriage seemed logical in light of the alliance between Alania and Georgia. oh and sorry but instead of Pechenegs i did mean to say Cumans!? :wacko: !? i have edited all the posts to correct this....so yes i will be attacking the Cumans and looking to seize lands to enlarge my northern frontiers

Veldmaarschalk: Cheers, and thx for the tip i will look into it

stnylan: thank you very much


Next update on this will be monday, Tchüss

 

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I still think you should go for the Khazars now. The province of Itil is just too rich and thus tempting. The Bolgars could make some troubles, but as long as you're rich enough it seems logical to me. That means either before or after you looted your provinces to get them Christian and recovered from this. I'd say before is better.

 

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Part Two

The advent of 1070 AD saw the war between the Georgians and Persians of Derbent continuing with the Emir’s last stronghold besieged, the siege lasted the better part of a year but eventually Derbent fell to the victorious Georgians extinguishing the perisan emirate and sealing nearly the whole of the Caucasus under Christian rule.

Meanwhile to the south of both Alania and Georgia the once mighty Eastern Roman state began to fracture into civil war as Emperor Michael Dukas struggled to impose his rule on the entire Empire, The provinces in the far west on the border of Hungary and the Pechenegs broke away first and by febuary the Prince’s of Hellas and Trabzon rose the standard of revolt; this spiralled further with the Armenian overlord of Armenia Minor (Cilicia) breaking away and by may the Archbishops of Mesopotamia and Armenia (Ani) also declared independence

The greedy Bagrat IV looking to extend his realm persuaded the Archbishop of Armenia to accept Georgian rule and promptly declared war on both Armenia Minor and Azerbaijan in June; Dargulel sought to reserve his strength to campaign against the Cumans and did not participate in this latest bout of expansion by the Georgians.

Despite his advancing age and broken heart King Dargulel began to plot further expansion of his realms, to the north of Alania lay the realms of the Cumans. The Cuman’s or Polovcy as the Slavs called them were a recent arrival in the locality, a Turkic people akin to the Seljuks and Khazar’s, and having ejected the Pechenegs they established a large pagan state centred on Dasht-i-kipchak and dedicated to raiding its neighbours; this provoked the hostility of the Slavs and the Cumans soon found themselves at war with a Slavic co-alition led in part by the rulers of Kiev. Within two or so years of fighting the Cumans had been forced to relinquish control of their western provinces to the victorious Slavs while in the far north there war with the Bolgar Sultanate continued unabated. In July King Dargulel’s forces from Alania and Kuma was gathered in Yegorlyk, the lords of Yegorlyk and Manych also heeded the call and had joined their king on the frontier boosting the Alanian force to some 5500 men and after a brief council of war crossed the frontier into Kuban signalling the start of the Alano-Cuman war. In the subsequent battle of Kuban the Alans were victorious however the severe wounding of Prince Yasynya during the heat of battle was a personal disaster for the old King.

Yet the campaign continued with the Cumans defeated in battle at Tana, leading to Kuban, Azov and Tana being secured for the Kingdom. Yet despite the victories the cost of maintaining the army had crippled the royal treasury and the February a peace was declared leaving the Alans in control of the conquered provinces allowing the Alans to retire as the hot summer approached.

The caucasus was dominated by the allied Kingdoms of Alania and Georgia, both nations unified not only politically but in faith with the nascent Alanian church subordinate to the head of the autocephalous Georgian church, Catholicos-Patriarch of Kartli. On the southern frontiers the disintegrating Empire had led to independent lords and clergy across Armenia except for Dwin which remained a bastion of the Seljuks.To the north the weakened Cumans had been driven east while the slavs of Polotsk had pushed south reaching the sea of Azov while to the north east lay the Khazars.

King Dargulel’s thoughts turned to his realm; in some 20 years and only Alania and Kartli held any structures of note (Forestry and church respectively) and his campaigns had left his realm in debt once again and he resolved to dedicate the remainder of his reign to building up his Kingdom, but only after one last campaign, this time against the Khazars of Itil whose Jewish king had remained allied to the Sultan of Bolgar; however the Sultans forces had been weakened by constant war with the Cumans and King Dargulel felt the time was right to strike at the Turkic Khazar’s who had once been overlords of the Alans; to this effect the King gathered his revenue and prepared to seize Itil.

 

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And another good expansion. The king is right in deciding that he should concetrate on the economy soon, let's hope the Bolgars really stay out of it and this war doesn't turn out to be a lengthy one.

Although it is good to have a strong Georgia as a buffer against the Muslims, it would be nice if they aren't too successful in their southern campaigns. If they grow too powerful, they might look north as well.

 

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thanks Shuma, my poverty stricken Mountian Kingdom really cannot afford a long campaign at this moment so i really do not have a choice but stay put as much as possible.

The Bolgars are far away and with the Cumans between me and them they will have there hands full , the Cumans seem to be content with raging war against the Sultan of Bolgar and the Slavs of Polotsk simultaneously :wacko:

As for Georgia i have no worries; sooner or later the they will provoke the Seljuks whose rise in the mountains would be a disaster, so for now i am pleased that Bagrat IV the Greedy is expanding his state.

Some pictures of Alania (Ossetia) to help you feel the Alanian mood

 

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Not a place I want to live . Keep up this good AAR

 

[stnylan]

Seems like the man has a good sense of timing.

 

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A good bunch of expansion but I feel you will need it. The Seljuks will be knocking on your door quite soon I fear. Your main problem is that you're dirt poor until you get fully Orthodox as you have constant revolts and putting them down makes the provinces looted. Well, better to break them soon. That also means you can only win from Itil years later as you first have to loot the province. Maybe you could try to let your King (if I understood that correctly his son was wounded but not he himself) in the war and steal sieges in the north while you let the rest go home to increase your income.

Nice pictures in your last post, btw! The area looks nice.

 

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Belgian Fuhrer: thx.

stnylan:

CSK: yeah the revolts are crippling me somewhat and Itil is due to be conquered shortly. I squeezed in a couple of hours gameplay last night so i have an update to be posted alter today. You wanted Itil I give you Itil

As for the photo's i found a number of photography webistes with landscape shots in North Ossetia, the modern day Alania, from what i saw (and i posted) theirs lots of mountains

 

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Part 3

With preparations for a new campaign the Kingdom of Alania remained at peace however across the mountains in Georgia the sithuation was radically different, The unfortunate Emir of Derbent had escaped the fall of his capital and fled to his holdings in Shirvan and from here managed to maintain the struggle against the increasingly outnumbered Georgia, adding to Bagrat IV woes.

In june of 1071 the recently conquered Cumans rose in revolt across Tana and Azov, both provinces were brutally suppressed and yet despite attempts at forced conversion the Cumans stubbornly refused to convert. Following the chrushing of the revolts both provinces were granted to Prince Yasynya as his own demesne, while the King’s kinsmen and loyal steward Kuluk Akhsartgatos was rewarded the lordship of Kuban (his armenian wife, Apsae Maoukian, took his place at court as Royal steward).

However despite the revolts and his debts King Dargulel launched his planned offensive on the Khazars in July shattering them in open battle and besieging Itil, by November the fall of the Khazar capital signalled the final end of the Khaganate who could trace its roots back to the 6th century AD.
Itil’s position as a trade entrepot and the center of a fertile province greatly contributed to the royal coffers and in an effort to maintain this valuable source of revenue the Jewish faith of the Khazar’s was tolerated with royal edicts protecting its status.

Meanwhile the Georgians continued to fight on marching south to ravage Azerbaijan despite the Roupenid forces besieging Abkhazia and Guria causing chaos across the Georgian Caucasus.
Alania in comparison was peaceful save for the harmony of the state was being interrupted in the fall of 1071 as the Jewish Turks of Kuma rose in revolt, The Kuma Turks were more than likely looking for the same recognition of their faith as their ethnic and religious kin in Itil; like the Kassogs and Cuman revolt the King suppressed the revolt with great brutality and sucessfully forced the survivors to convert or face annihilation, this time his tough tactics worked and the elders of the Kuma Turks converted to the Christian faith.

The advent of 1072 saw the assembly of nobles gathered in Maghas, and the monies raised at this estates general allowed the royal coffers to rise out of debt, Alania with its finances in a healthy state embarked on a period of renewal as King Dargulel concentrated his Kingdoms resources in raising fishing wharfs in Semender and Kuma, and also establishing new forestry’s in Kassogs and Kartli which were built over the course of 1072 and 1073.

The Georgian war lumbered on, by may of 1072 the Roupenids successfully besieged the Georgian strongholds in Abkhazia and Guria, in the east the Emir of Derbent was successful in retaking his old capital and ejecting the Georgians. In the southern Caucasus various Muslim armies ravaged Georgian fiefs in Armenia Major.

Meanwhile the internal renewal of Alania continued unabated with the Alans of Alania finally accepting the Christian faith and by June the province witnessed mass conversions greatly strengthening the Akhsartagatos dynasties position, the economic strength of the kingdom rose as a result of King Dargulel’s efforts to improve the infrastructure of Alania and non involvement in the wars of the Georgians had ensured the Kingdom strength in contrast to exhausted realm of Bagrat IV.

In the region the Alans remained wary of the growing power of the Prince of Pronsk, whose realm now ran near the Dnieper river.

While to the immediate north remained the Cumans, who remained weakened by constant war against Pronsk, whose prince was also waging wars against the pagan Mordvins and Chuvash.

Further south the drama of the Byzantine civil war continued as Michael Dukas lost control of the throne to Nikephoros Bryennios, however Constantinople remained in Dukas hands who ruled as Prince of Thessalonike, the new emperor was forced to relocate his capital to Thessalonike, an irony not lost on the commentators of the time. The relative weakness of the empire led to further revolts as Nicaea also raised the standard of revolt further destabilizing the Empire.

Amid all this conflict the Georgian wars ended with its power in the southern Caucasus shattered, Armenia Major lay split up among rule by Muslim lords who either ruled independently, such as the Sheikh's of Tao and Ani, or ruled by the Fatimid caliph (in Karin), However Georgia remained in control of the Archbishopric of Mesopotamia and had also succeeded in establishing its authority over Azerbaijan.

The Armenian lands of Vaspurakan and Suenik remained ruled by independent christian lords. The Georgian war with Armenia Minor also ended with Bagrat IV accepting terms and recognizing the Roupenid's claim to rule in Cilicia (Armenia Minor). In Trebizond the collapse of the rebellious Komnenos family had seen the title passing to an Imperial loyalist centered on Theodosiopolis.

Alania remained peaceful especially in the mountainous heartlands of the Alans (Alania and Kassogs), bouyed by its growing prosperity, the rising Christian faith and the firm rule of King Dargulel, and despite the chaos outside of the realm the populace remained blissfully unaware of dangers ahead.

OOC: Now my economy is in better shape i can begin to contemplate further expansion, i am thinking of eliminating the muslim states of Albania, Tao and Ani allowing me to expand south, this would allow me to chase my current wish to create the title 'Prince of Georgia' which would be a lovely addition to the Akhsartagatos dynasty. Indeed CSK was right about Itil, it is indeed a prosperous province and i resisted the temptation to loot it prefering to maintain its regular incoming revenue for now.
The collapse of Michel Dukas's tenure as Emperor is strange and i am not sure how it happened?? did he give the crown away??? anyhow the civil war in the empire is a cause for concern especially should the Seljuks or Fatimids decide to try profit from the chaos, anyway till the next update, Tchüss.