A Catholic in Pagan Lands: Another CK Dynasty

[Abe Sargent]

Oct 19 - We take down rebels in Palermo

Oct 22 - The King of Hungary has died. Bulgaria is making us an offer. The new King is allied with some count. Alright Bulgaria, I accept.

The Duke of Novgorod either annexed or inherited the County of Sarkel, above the Caspian Sea

Nov 18 - We defeat rebels in Crimea

More and more Egyptian vassals are DOWing us

Dec 7 - 672 troops from Egypt arrive in Jerusalem. It will need to be a lot more than that my friends.

Dec 10 - Just three days to defeat the troops. I leave the army up.

Welcome to 1179

Feb 1 - I order a Monastery in UaL

Mar 14 - A huge Egyptian navy is sailing past Palermo. Are they coming here?

Apr 16 - I nipped in and captured Agrigento, on Sicily. I want to take it in peace. Hold on, let me see if I can absorb the BB

Apr 26 - We arrive in Trapani and begin an assault against the 3500 troops here

May 7 - We win and the siege begins

May 23 - Trapani falls to us.

Again, we have not taken Trapani or Agrigento provinces in peace yet, just currently holding them.

I give the Count of Poznanskie the title Duke of Greater Poland. Lubuz now reports to him

I make the Countess of Hamburg the new Duchess of Holstein

I order a Large Castle in Lubeck

I give my third daughter, just turned 16 the Countess of UaL title

May 25 - I take Trapani and Agrigento in peace with those sheiks

I order a small castle in Agrigento and training grounds in Trapani

June 12 - Egypt accepts our peace proposal afte probably getting tired of losing vassasl.

We are still at war with a few minor Arabic powers outside fo Egypt.

June 22 - I order a sawmill in Palermo

July 1 - I order a spinning mill in Jerusalem

Welcome to 1180

Feb 28 - The final Arabic powers and us are now at peace

[Abe Sargent]

Mar 26 - I order a Monastery in Trapani

Apr 24 - I get religious tensions in Agrigento, and decide to crush them. It is now Catholic and Looted

May 9 - I get an event to kill the bastard son of my daughter. I choose not to do it, and he gains trusting.

June 2 - I gain the Count of Siracusa as a rival

Jul 8 - Agrigento is no longer looted

Aug 18 - I order a sawmill in Dalarna

Sept 7 - I get religious tensions in Trapani and choose to crush them. It’s looted and rebelling, but did not convert to Catholic

Sept 11 - Moneylenders are forced to leave Lubeck

Sept 22 - I order a Monastery in Palermo

Oct 15 - The Third Crusade has ended, once again with us claiming the prize.

Ocy 19 - Minor Merchant Houses are expelled in Jerusalem.

Nov 3 - I order Dye Works in Jerusalem

Dec 2 - The King of Bulgaria just got hammered by Byzantium. They lost a bunch of provinces as well as their Bulgaria title. They are now the King of Rus

Welcome to 1181

[Abe Sargent]

Jan 12 - The pope, pleased with the results of the previous two crusades has called the Fourth Crusade to liberate Alexandria. It’s a nice prize, but I’m not going to be the pope’s baby on this one. Let someone else bear this cross, I took the last two.

Jan 20 - Dysentery is leaving Aukshayts

There are a lot of civil wars springing up. I need to drop my BB in order to take advantage.

I give Plock to my daughter, who is married to Duncan. I give Dalarna to Duncan.

The Duke of Slesvig, at some point in time has picked up the Bishopric of Narke, in Sweden

I give the Count of Sudovia and Hainaut the title Duke of Lithuania.

That will help our BB a bit in case we want to make some vassalization offers.

With an elevated prestige and piety due to the crusade, I need to take this baby out for a spin.

County of Gwent, Duchy in Norway, County of Opava, Archbisropric of Moravia, County of Opole, Duke of Brandenburg, County in Lowlands, Duchy of Dioclea, Duke of Orkney, Duke of Gwynedd

Do any accept offers of vassalization?

Nope

Ah well.

[Abe Sargent]

April 22, 1181

My King died of old age today at the age of 55. He had 10077 gold, 3907 prestige and 1359 piety

Today the French and Lithuanian Crowns combine.

The new King:

Karel Nakonid

10158 gold
342 prestige
-42 piety

9/17/5/8 stats

Chaste, Reckless, Indulgent, Trusting. Romantic

Stressed

Before I do anything else, I need to stabilze my realm:

BB is still a a problem, but a little less than it was.

I create the titles:

Duke of Bourbon
Duke of Karelia

Current ally is the Duke of Flanders

I am keeping the courtiers of the King of Lithuania

I hand out around 1400 gold to counts and dukes to make them happy

I give the Count of Onega the Duke of Karelia title.

Reporting to him are Kexholm, Kemi, and Karelen

Our capital is in Aukshayts but I might want to find a better place

I give away Liege to a new Count, Countess of Agrigento, Charolais to the Duke of Burgundy (my son), Montpellier to the Duke of Toulouse, Trapani to a new Countess, Gotland to a new Count.

I order - Tile Factory in Holland, Zeeland. Medium Castle in Charolais, training grounds in Pfalz, sawmill in Mainz, Civilian Harbor in Montpellier,

I give the Duke of Bourbon title to the Count of Limousin

Our BB has plummeted



June 1 - Our vassals are mostly loyal again, with low BB and super high diplomacy. I have a diplomacy of 17, and my Chancellor 23, giving my realm an unprecedented 40 diplomacy. That’s crazy high.


Maptime

[Abe Sargent]

We are sprawling. I have Ile de France on the left if you want to take a look at it.

We are in Scotland, Wales, England. Sweden, Norway, Benelux, France, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Russia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Spain, Israel, places like the Crimea and more.

We are everywhere. My vassals keep vassalizing or inheriting land. I keep taking land. This was the biggest inheritance I've ever pulled off.

Alright, more on this in the next post.

[Abe Sargent]

I am considering ending this dynasty. The game has gotten over the flashpoint that all games have,

What is that flashpoint?

There is a point in most games where you have won the game, but the game has not ended. Still, becuase you know you won the game, you are less likely to finish it.

There is exactly one major obstacle left in this game - the Mongols. Frankly, with a Europe as big as I would have by the time they arrived, I would slap them silly.

In just 125 years I've gone from one province to a massive section of Europe under my control. Before this inheritance, I was up there with Byzantium, Sweden, Egypt and Hungary for most powerful kingdom, but I'm absolutely dominant now.

I could honestly have several wars going at the same time, and win them all. Itenerant counts and dukes are flocking to my banner. I have enough money to pay off the vassals who are rebellious.

Sure, I might get another civil war event, and that would set me back a few years. However, there are no major challenges left, except for the Mongols, who might not appear for another 75 years. Imagine how large I'd be by then?

Frankly, from this point, I could end up conquering all of Europe. I've never done a full map victory before, and that gives me a goal to work towards, but it would be so tedious.

I feel like I have beaten the game. There is nothing left to stand in my way, and anything I do, like ignore BB and just wage war until everyone is at war with me, would just feel artificial.

So, there is every chance that I am ending this.

Now, tomorrow evening I may sit back down at this computer and want to load it up again, and things will continue as normal. If I thought that would happen, I would not have posted this, though.

As of right now, if I had to lay odds I'd say that I'm done.

I do have an idea for a future CK/EU challenge. Simultaneously capture every province that I have ever started from and survived for longer than 20 years across Europe and the Middle East.

Oldenburg
Halsingland
Glamorgan
Sligo
Lubeck
Suenik for fun
Trebizond
Wallachia
Salerno
Granada
Naxos


All at the same time. That's provinces in Ireland, Wales, south Italy, the Aegean Sea, Iberia, Armenia x2, the HRE x2, north Sweden, and the Balkans. That seems like an interesting challenge, and maybe I'll try that.

I doubt it though. This is probably it.

Alright then, have a good night. See you on the flip side.

[Abe Sargent]

If I were to still play, here is what I would do"

With the French inheritance, I am one province in Finland away from declaring myself King of Finalnd, and there is a free duchy holding one Finnihs province. You do the math.

Grab some of these French provinces in and around France, to shore up our defense.

Take out Poland. Get a few moire provinces, usurp the crown, then blast them into nothing and take the Crown, taking all of the dukes too. Let them keep a few provinces for themsleve,s but grab Poland.

England is going through massive Civil War right now. Blast the English Isles throughly. Use our holdings here as outposts for expansion.

Finish going down the Swedish/Norway peninsula, grabbing lands and the crowns.

Expand eastward into the rich Russian province,s then do not go farther.

Leave the Middle East, Iberia, North Africa, Italy, the Balkans, Turkey, Greece, Ireland and Hungary free for a long time. Focus on the areas I have taken already.

With a low BB, you;d see me wage a major offensive shortly against a majr power, eliminating them as a threat.

Thus, by the time 75 years is over, we might have most of Britian, Scandinavia, Poland, France, and North Russia under our control, allowing me to absolutely hammer the Mongols.

Then, post Mongols, focus on on area at a time. Consolidate island holdings in Ireland, Iceland, the Shetlands, etc. Then move to Germany and finish it off. Then Italy. Then Iberia. Then North Africa. Then Hungary. Then Russia. Then the Balkans, and finally the Middle East and Turkey.

That'd be the plan.

[mrsimperless]

Thanks for the enjoyable read. I've been wanting to read a CK dynasty for a while and this was it.

My favorite parts were when you assassinated your family members.

I guess, "When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by mrsimperless

Thanks for the enjoyable read. I've been wanting to read a CK dynasty for a while and this was it.

My favorite parts were when you assassinated your family members.

I guess, "When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."

Thanks!

[Chief Rum]

Yes, I enjoyed this. Master stroke with the French crown. That really capped this one for you.

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Yes, I enjoyed this. Master stroke with the French crown. That really capped this one for you.

Yeah, I am a sneaky bastard.