I just loaded a slightly older save (a month, big whoop).
I've been doing well since then. Progress in this particular start is way, waaaay slower than I'm used to. Especially since I'm basically deadlocked (there's only one other large state in our region, and it's about the same size as we are, we go to war a lot.) but when you make it it's super rewarding. the Karen Satrapy is a recommended start for when you're much better at the game. Also! The only viable Zoroastrian nation. Current goal is to retake the Persian Empire (I already have the Kingdom--or rather, Shahdom of Persia, but I only actually own about half of it. And the Empire of Persia is composed of that and another Kingdom.) and reform the Persian Religion. If I have a shitton of piety I can also declare myself the Messiah.
Can't wait to have to be the first to deal with the Mongols in a couple hundred years. ;-;
anyway, here's an older map about a decade after the start date. We'd already eaten up some easy land to the north.
that's the starting character Vandad Karen, now here's his grandson Vandad III's empire (Vandad "The Prudent", shitty nickname huh? He's technically listed as Vandad I, II, or III depending on what title history you look at) less than a hundred years later.
the Tabukids are undergoing a major revolt right now (from the Abbasids natch. The default family that controls that area, but have now been reduced to "mere" Sultans of Baghdad. The Tabukids took over after a Decadence Revolt) but unfortunately we were at war with them not long ago so we can't really exploit it. I'm gonna try to snatch up a few counties from the Abbasids maybe, but on the other hand the weaker the Crown Authority is in the Tabukid Empire the better.
finally finished my Wendish Empire game last night
Long story short, the Wendish Empire fell far. What little was left of it at game's end controlled no Wendish lands whatsoever. Being relegated to the island of Sicily (just the island now) and some scattered holdings in France. The House of Piast (us) no longer sits on the throne, either. A Sicilian child emperor (Bauves I) of the de Hauteville dynasty having been installed by a coup. Personally, we ended the game as Countess Jelena of Limousin. A far cry from the proud dynasty the Piasts once were.
As all this occurs, the Holy Roman Empire--led by the aging Kaiser Caspar IV--is the only thing that might be able to stop the Golden Horde which now controls the entirety of Europe east of Germany, and it's likely to fall into civil war soon due to the Emperor's lack of a dynastic heir. The Mongols are also making inroads in Italy, and actually controlled the county of Rome for quite some time (the Papacy was relocated to Pisa. In an interesting twist, our legacy on the Papacy persists, every Pope that's been elected since we installed our Polish antipope has been of Polish ethnicity).
Finally, the Caliphates control most of Andalusia and the entirety of Greece. The Byzantine Empire has been reduced to a rump state consisting of the heel of the boot of Italy and some counties in Upper Croatia. Furthermore, it's become a merchant republic. To the Southeast, the Timurids have begun taking over other Muslim holdings, building a united Shi'a empire.
So essentially, our game ended as a republican's worst nightmare.
in my current game (as the ua Briain dynasty), King Alexander sits on the throne of Ireland, as his Uncle's son Lochlan struggles to keep ahold of Scotland. Byzantium is headed by the Sicilian de Hauteville family, and speaking of Sicily, that kingdom only exists in what is now Croatia on the Empire's fringes. Elsewhere, the Company of the Star has taken over the Grand City of Venice, where their captain rules it with an iron fist.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Alp Arslan continues to be a hearty bastard.
I decided to settle for "double Sultan" and passed Syria on to my eldest in a way to get rid of tons of decadence. This turned out to work out exceedingly well despite losing tons of territory to my son. He had enough territory now to press a claim on the French and invited me to the ass kicking. Between our combined forces we steamrolled France into submission.
Shortly there after, I was able to declare a Crusade for Jerusalem itself. I actually lost a pretty major battle even with aid from an ally, but eventually overcame the army I was fighting after regrouping. This would be a vital turning point in the war as I captured the heir to the French army, adding 50% to the War Score in my favor.
After many successful sieges, a counter force of over 30,000 troops landed to do battle of an attacking siege force of only 7,000. However, I was close enough to victory on one of my other sieges that I pressed the attack in the hopes I could get my warscore up before inevitable defeat...
Eat a dick France. Eat ALL the dicks.
In the midst of all this, Alp Arslan had ANOTHER child by his youngest wife (he's 70, she's 30).
something I don't like about this game is that about a quarter of the time the outcomes of battles don't seem to make any logical sense.
for instance, if you have a larger force than an attacking army, a defensive bonus, and a higher attrition score, you'd really think you'd win. Most of the time you do, but sometimes you just kinda don't.
Because historically speaking, such things happen far more often than you would expect. Bad weather and timing can do wonders for a less equipped side.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Alp Arslan once again got the pox, he also was crippled in battle. He passed approaching 80 with lots of Children (some rather young!) and Grandchildren. May he rest in piece.
His son completed the war he was participating in with his father against Egypt, passed out some titles like they where cheap cigars, usurped a bunch more titles, appeased the one family member (his younger brother) who really was a threat, started finding religious reasons to throw people with factions against him in prison, put down some minor rebellions, made a flying machine and crashed it, and this is just the first couple years of his rule.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Sultan Malik Shah died of old age three years into his reign.
His son continued and eventually won a civil war, retaining all the land.
There are a number of minor factions running around, but thanks to Sultan Alp Arslan, most power is still within the family, which is bad for them; Muslims basically get free reign to impression and murder family members.
Felix II is living out his twilight years with various relatives on the thrones of Castille, Galicia, (Cousins) and Bohemia (a daughter-in-law), now an independant realm after a revolt against the much-weakened Holy Roman Empire) and has personal holdings as far afield as the Holy Land (the result of a sucessful crusade for Jerusalem. The Mongols have been stopped in their tracks by a united Catholic Europe, including the now catholic Byzantine Empire, ruled by Roger III of the Sicilian de Hauteville dynasty. As a consequence, Orthodox Christianity is almost dead. In spite of this, the Byzantines no longer control Constantinople. It and the surrounding counties making up most of what's left of the old Cuman Khanate. The various Khanates in Russia fight mostly amongst themselves and with the Old Tengri mongols, and Lithuania is the strongest pagan power in Europe, being ruled by the Reformed Romuvan Church and a solid dynasty that has resisted both internal toil and outside invasions for almost 300 years. The Ilkhanate was beaten back by the Borkugan Sultanate in Persia (the Seljuks fell to a decadence revolt early on), which along with us has been eating at the eroding Sunni Caliphate, and as a result that faith is now mostly dead too.
Currently, Felix's genius (literally, he has the incredibly rare "Genius" trait. +5 to everything) son Brian stands to inherit the throne, or rather the thrones. We have the most King-Level titles of anyone on the map, personally holding the thrones of Ireland, Alba (Scotland), Wales, Brittany (not England, it's an independent area in Northern France. We invaded them on a Holy War pretext because the rulers were Lollards) Aragon, and Jerusalem
I then realized that being a Muslim quickly turns into being a two faced son of a bitch as you'll give alms to the poor to reduce decadence and murder all of your brothers to keep decadence low
he's plotting to commit suicide, obviously (evidently, he does not have the "Depressed" trait and cannot simply do it from the Intrigue menu).
also ewww unnessential facepacks.
Also also Brian III has added another kingdom to the Kings of Ireland's long list of titles. New one is Andalusia which we picked up in another crusade.
I eventually ended up leading a rebellion that got a surprising amount of force behind it until he called in the combined force of about 3 allies and beat me down
...though I can't believe I didn't think of the marriage game. What, do I marry his daughter and kill off all his sons and then wait? That sounds brilliant...
I eventually ended up leading a rebellion that got a surprising amount of force behind it until he called in the combined force of about 3 allies and beat me down
...though I can't believe I didn't think of the marriage game. What, do I marry his daughter and kill off all his sons and then wait? That sounds brilliant...
there's kind of two ways to do it.
the easiest is to marry off a daughter, wait til they have a kid, and then push the kid's claim on his father's realm.
the slightly harder one is to just marry rectilinearly (or marry a son off) and have the realms be integrated into your own holdings over time by simple succession, assuming the son in question is your eldest.
Not sure I really understand the whole marriage thing. I mean, I understand marrying a son to another ruler's daughter and, ahem, ensuring that he or his child ends up as heir, but I still haven't figured out what to do with daughters.
I mean, married off normally, they and their kids are no longer of your dynasty, so how can they add anything to your realm? And noone of any power agrees to matrilineal marriage...
Not sure I really understand the whole marriage thing. I mean, I understand marrying a son to another ruler's daughter and, ahem, ensuring that he or his child ends up as heir, but I still haven't figured out what to do with daughters.
I mean, married off normally, they and their kids are no longer of your dynasty, so how can they add anything to your realm? And noone of any power agrees to matrilineal marriage...
the trick is setting it up in such a way that you can press the (nondynastic) child's claims in a way that will let you integrate their realm into yours. It's complicated and I'm certainly not a master of it.
my game as the ua Briain dynasty ended with me as the King of Andalusia. Not our dynasty's greatest height to be sure, but better than some others I've gotten.
playing as the de Geneves. Otherwise known as the dynasty the game uses to go "well, you did okay, we guess" ("they were counts of Geneva in 1066, they were still counts of Geneva in 1337" etc.) it's a tricky start. Your liege (Kaiser Heinrich IV) hates you because you're Frankish and you're flanked by a pair of duchies led by ambitious folks who both want your sole county.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Shanhansha Boru (Alp Arlan's grand-child) continues the proud tradition of slow but steady expansion while murdering anyone internally that posses a threat.
At one point he decided he identified more with his Persian than Turkish roots and moved shop. This allowed him to create the Persian Empire. Shortly thereafter, he decided he needed all the Holy Lands, all of them, and started a Holy War against Egypt (this is a slight ret-con from my above screen shot where I did an invasion for more territory, the decadence got me into major trouble and basically I was dethroned). Messing up throwing one of my vassals in prison ended in a simultaneous rebellion. Though, this turned out to be not so great for my vassal who has thousands of troops at his doorstep already because of the war.
Egypt also ran into bad luck when I captured their heir. Massive amounts of troops choked them out quickly and allowed me to annex the land. My vassal attempted to ask for white peace, but considering how apparent it was that his days where numbered, I choked him out too and nabbed his title.
EVERYTHING conquered went to my son who is like...sextuple Sultan or something. As Emperor, I still get levies off him and can use him to keep my decadence score low along with constant holy wars and giving him titles and land. As Super Sultan 6, he's compensating for his very short reign (he's like 17) by instituting lower crown authority and also beating up vassals and having the occasional holy war.
It's a system that seems to work and keeps major rebellions low while also keeping assassins from getting uppity about decadence scores and murdering off all the women in my court (something else retconned do to reloading to a saner time. I don't know why the assassins only picked women, but it was kinda creepy).
Despite becoming Emperor and being a success by most metrics, Shanhansha Boru is known as "the Lame" do to a club foot.
It blows considering his Grandpa was known as "the Wise", and his father was known as "The Noble".
Kinda the sort of thing that makes you want to annex more of the Byzantine Empire.
So, my old ruler finally died. He was quite a hardy old man, so is son is over 35. Said son has a single son of his own and a brood of daughters, two of which seem to prefer the company of other ladies...
And now, right after we have depleted our levies grabbing a nearby county, Cumania came knocking at the door. Or, rather, kicking the door down and steamrolling all over, as it tends to.
apparently my Andalusia-via-Ireland game isn't finished. End date is later than I thought it was haha whoops.
I kind of wish this game had a cadet dynasty mechanic. The de St. Malos are a dynasty that sprung from one of my daughter's illegitimate children several generations back and they've been consistently holding the position of Dukes of Toledo for about 100 years now.
in the interest of likely no one but myself, I will be compiling a list of the various Kings and Queens of the ua Briain dynasty once this game is finished. Both the direct descendants of Murchad of Munster and the side dynasties like the one ruling the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Byzantine Empire lands have been successfully annexed.
Of COURSE the second Catholic Crusades would begin shortly afterwards.
Oooooooh, good.
They sailed over a huge force, to Boru's credit, he managed to fend them off, but didn't have the resources to deal with the force that was marched across Europe.
I changed to guerrilla warfare by using my boats to move my smaller force up and down the cost. Hoping the attrition loss to the Catholic troops would be enough.
And then the unthinkable happened.
Boru died.
Just keeled over at like, age 42.
So, I began playing as Mr. Sextuple Sultan-Emperor, Boru's son Malik. This asshole had about 40,000 troops he had raised and was apparently leading in some sort of elaborate dance across the Persian Empire. He then said "smell you later, holmes!" And went of to Hajj, leaving his half-brother in charge.
During Hajj he had many adventures like DYING OF ILLNESS on the way back. His acts of Emperor being waving his troops roughly in a Jerusalem direction and...going on Hajj...in the middle of the Second Catholic Crusades...instead of helping his dad who MADE him a Sextuple Sultan.
*sigh*
Whatever, he died before he could get a title, so I've made one up: Shanhansha Malik the goat fucker.
At least the goat fucker had the courtesy to die without a son to give his stuff to, so I began play as his Half-Brother (also a son of Boru, though I'm sure that was obvious...)
Anyhow, I began playing as his half-brother who had inherited everything from BOTH his dear ol' dad and the goat fucker and proceed to mess the Pope's shit up leaving a huge mess around the coastline:
Also, some minor vassal raised his flag in rebellion when he avoided the dungeon, the 4000 troops on his territory where more than enough to choke him out.
Anyhow, after the long, ardious Crusades, Padishah Gunduz decided it was time for peace:
Peace be with you, mother fucker.
Needless to say, the Crusades ended shortly there after, wiping clean my decadence score, leaving me to deal with all the factions and minor rebellions.
Don't expect the crusades to stop (indeed, expect them to increase in frequency). Unlike the Sunni and Shi'a caliphs the Papacy can't cease to exist, so there's always a Pope to call crusades upon your house(s). The only way to un-create the Papacy is via a difficult to achieve special decision that's only available to the Byzantines.
also my Ireland game (which still hasn't ended! I really thought the end year was 1422) has progressed to me now being the Kaiser of The Holy Roman Empire and Emperor of Carpathia. We're slowly whittling down the Mongols.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Padishah Gunduz has gained the title "The Magnificent", has quashed or quieted most internal factions and has won two holy wars. About to start his third.
He's steadily improved his stats through play, has had a ridiculous amount of children, and a fantastic set of ministers (my incompetent court Imam with a scholar score of 6 lived a ridiculous long time despite being wounded twice while converting Zoroastrians, but one of us his sons has a Diplomacy rating of 27!).
He's been my favorite to play so far after Alp Arslan. Just need to figure out that decadence score. :/
so my Ua Briain dynasty game finally ended. We ended up as the joint Kaisers of The Holy Roman Empire and Carpathia. Effectively the last major Christian power in the known world after the fall of Byzantium to the east (France collapsed into a series of warring duchies after a failed takeover by the Doges of Pisa, and England has been in tatters since King John of England & Scotland was ousted from the throne. Everywhere else is either a part of Holy Rome, is a minor Iberian power, or has been annexed by one of the Mongol nations.)
We own most of the map, with territory as far west as South Africa and as far east as Crimea. Our only serious rivals are the Tengri and Shi'a superpowers--The Golden Horde and Timurid Khanates respectively. The Ua Briain dynasty has held more ruling titles than any other on the map. Only the de Hautevilles (longtime Emperors of Byzantium, and Kings of Sicily, Bulgaria, and Cyprus) even come close. The Ua Briains held--at various points--the Kingdoms of Ireland, Alba (Scotland), Wales, Aragon, Andalusia, Castille, Galicia, Mauritania, Jerusalem, Denmark, and Germany (not counting the numerous King titles Kaiser Felix created and briefly held before handing them off to vassals), and the Emperorships of Holy Rome and Carpathia. We are also the lieges of the current pope, Simplicus III. The cadet de St. Malo dynasty continue to hold their long-standing positions as Dukes of Toledo.
Mainline Descendants of Murchad of Munster (likely of interest to no one but myself):
------
(as Petty King of Munster)
Murchad ua Briain (1066-1071)
(as Kings of Ireland)
Brian I (Brian mac Murchad ua Briain) (1071-1116)
Mael-Patraic mac Brian ua Briain (1116-1120)
Brian II (Brian mac Mael-Patraic ua Briain) (1120-1149)
(as Kings of Ireland, Alba, & Wales)
Alexander The Noble (Alexander mac Brian ua Briain) (1149-1191)
Felix I (Felix mac Alexander ua Briain) (1191-1199)
Cenn-Faelad mac Felix ua Briain (1199-1218)
(as King of The Six Crowns [Ireland, Alba, Wales, Jerusalem, Brittany, & Aragon])
Felix II ("Felix The Rich") (Felix mac Felix ua Briain) (1218-1277)
(as King of the Seven Crowns [The Above, plus Andalusia])
Brian III ("Brian The Illustrious") (Brian mac Felix ua Briain) (1277-1338)
(as Kings of Andalusia & Aragon, after Felix's abdication of all other thrones)
Felix III / Felix I ("Felix The Scarred") (Felix mac Brian ua Briain) (1338*-1349)
Faelbe The Monk (Faelbe mac Felix ua Briain) (1349-1367)
Garcia Faelbez ua Briain (1367-1369)
(as King of Andalusia, Aragon,& Mauritania)
Jimeno The Apostle (Jimeno Garciez ua Briain) (also Kaiser-consort of Holy Rome) (1369-1426)
(as Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire)
Felix ua Briain (1426**-1428)
(as Kaiser of The Holy Roman Empire, Kaiser of Carpathia, King of Germany, and King of Denmark)
Peter The Great (Peter ua Briain) (1428-1453***)
Prince Heinrich ua Briain (heir apparent as Heinrich VI)
*Felix had been given the Kingdom of Andalusia by his father long before the latter's death. These dates only reflect his gaining (and subsequent abdication of) the other titles his father held.
**Felix's mother died before his father. He had been reigning as Kaiser for more than a decade before inheriting the Kingdoms of Andalusia, Aragon, and Mauritania
***Marks game end. Not an actual reflection on the end of Peter The Great's reign.
Other Notable Ua Briain & Ua Briain-related figures:
Rodrigo III: King of Castille at current date.
Felix IV: Last Christian King of Jerusalem to actually hold territory in Jerusalem.
Lochlann II: Child-king of Scotland who was assassinated (allegedly on the orders of Alexander The Noble), passing Alba/Scotland into a personal union with Ireland.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I need to get a screen shot of my map up, but Tengri has formed into an official religion with it's own High Priest etc... They've carved out a huge portion of Asia which is probably only rivaled by my own Persian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.
I've warred with them once over a single country I could Holy war over. The amount of troops committed from both sides was glorious. Possible over 100,000 from BOTH sides.
The next targets are much smaller, a handful of countries next to the Byzantines, then it's back to tormenting Egypt.
On a side note, the Egyptians have moved north a bit...as in they control parts of Italy.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Alp Arslan (Persian: آلپ ارسلان; full name: Diya ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Adud ad-Dawlah Abu Shuja Muhammad Alp Arslan ibn Dawud) (20 January 1029 – 15 December 1072) was the second Sultan of the Seljuq Empire and great-grandson of Seljuq, the eponymous founder of the dynasty. His real name was Muhammad bin Dawud Chaghri, and for his military prowess, personal valour, and fighting skills he obtained the name Alp Arslan, which means "Heroic Lion"[2] in Turkish.
"It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens
Pretty tame looking map, actually. I've only seen the AI form Tartaria a few times though. Usually it's just content to let the Cumans blob out as themselves.
watch out for the mongols when they arrive. The Timurids especially are literally going to be right on your doorstep.
The Pope tends to get on the Muslims' collective asses if they own any part of the Italian peninsula. I think it's actually prioritized over the Holy Land.
also since you mentioned the Tengri Church forming, watch out for them. They'll try to Holy War for Persia sooner or later most likely.
Comments
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I just loaded a slightly older save (a month, big whoop).
I've been doing well since then. Progress in this particular start is way, waaaay slower than I'm used to. Especially since I'm basically deadlocked (there's only one other large state in our region, and it's about the same size as we are, we go to war a lot.) but when you make it it's super rewarding. the Karen Satrapy is a recommended start for when you're much better at the game. Also! The only viable Zoroastrian nation. Current goal is to retake the Persian Empire (I already have the Kingdom--or rather, Shahdom of Persia, but I only actually own about half of it. And the Empire of Persia is composed of that and another Kingdom.) and reform the Persian Religion. If I have a shitton of piety I can also declare myself the Messiah.
Can't wait to have to be the first to deal with the Mongols in a couple hundred years. ;-;
anyway, here's an older map about a decade after the start date. We'd already eaten up some easy land to the north.
that's the starting character Vandad Karen, now here's his grandson Vandad III's empire (Vandad "The Prudent", shitty nickname huh? He's technically listed as Vandad I, II, or III depending on what title history you look at) less than a hundred years later.
the Tabukids are undergoing a major revolt right now (from the Abbasids natch. The default family that controls that area, but have now been reduced to "mere" Sultans of Baghdad. The Tabukids took over after a Decadence Revolt) but unfortunately we were at war with them not long ago so we can't really exploit it. I'm gonna try to snatch up a few counties from the Abbasids maybe, but on the other hand the weaker the Crown Authority is in the Tabukid Empire the better.
On an unrelated note, actually had a chance to tell my daughter "Fear is the mind killer"
Also, does it make sense to take a possessed lunatic into council if he is the only competent person around?
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Lunatic tends to make them just kind of murder everybody (you included) so avoid making him your spymaster.
Otherwise, sure.
finally finished my Wendish Empire game last night
Long story short, the Wendish Empire fell far. What little was left of it at game's end controlled no Wendish lands whatsoever. Being relegated to the island of Sicily (just the island now) and some scattered holdings in France. The House of Piast (us) no longer sits on the throne, either. A Sicilian child emperor (Bauves I) of the de Hauteville dynasty having been installed by a coup. Personally, we ended the game as Countess Jelena of Limousin. A far cry from the proud dynasty the Piasts once were.
As all this occurs, the Holy Roman Empire--led by the aging Kaiser Caspar IV--is the only thing that might be able to stop the Golden Horde which now controls the entirety of Europe east of Germany, and it's likely to fall into civil war soon due to the Emperor's lack of a dynastic heir. The Mongols are also making inroads in Italy, and actually controlled the county of Rome for quite some time (the Papacy was relocated to Pisa. In an interesting twist, our legacy on the Papacy persists, every Pope that's been elected since we installed our Polish antipope has been of Polish ethnicity).
Finally, the Caliphates control most of Andalusia and the entirety of Greece. The Byzantine Empire has been reduced to a rump state consisting of the heel of the boot of Italy and some counties in Upper Croatia. Furthermore, it's become a merchant republic. To the Southeast, the Timurids have begun taking over other Muslim holdings, building a united Shi'a empire.
So essentially, our game ended as a republican's worst nightmare.
indeed.
in my current game (as the ua Briain dynasty), King Alexander sits on the throne of Ireland, as his Uncle's son Lochlan struggles to keep ahold of Scotland. Byzantium is headed by the Sicilian de Hauteville family, and speaking of Sicily, that kingdom only exists in what is now Croatia on the Empire's fringes. Elsewhere, the Company of the Star has taken over the Grand City of Venice, where their captain rules it with an iron fist.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Ireland game is going well.
Felix II is living out his twilight years with various relatives on the thrones of Castille, Galicia, (Cousins) and Bohemia (a daughter-in-law), now an independant realm after a revolt against the much-weakened Holy Roman Empire) and has personal holdings as far afield as the Holy Land (the result of a sucessful crusade for Jerusalem. The Mongols have been stopped in their tracks by a united Catholic Europe, including the now catholic Byzantine Empire, ruled by Roger III of the Sicilian de Hauteville dynasty. As a consequence, Orthodox Christianity is almost dead. In spite of this, the Byzantines no longer control Constantinople. It and the surrounding counties making up most of what's left of the old Cuman Khanate. The various Khanates in Russia fight mostly amongst themselves and with the Old Tengri mongols, and Lithuania is the strongest pagan power in Europe, being ruled by the Reformed Romuvan Church and a solid dynasty that has resisted both internal toil and outside invasions for almost 300 years. The Ilkhanate was beaten back by the Borkugan Sultanate in Persia (the Seljuks fell to a decadence revolt early on), which along with us has been eating at the eroding Sunni Caliphate, and as a result that faith is now mostly dead too.
Currently, Felix's genius (literally, he has the incredibly rare "Genius" trait. +5 to everything) son Brian stands to inherit the throne, or rather the thrones. We have the most King-Level titles of anyone on the map, personally holding the thrones of Ireland, Alba (Scotland), Wales, Brittany (not England, it's an independent area in Northern France. We invaded them on a Holy War pretext because the rulers were Lollards) Aragon, and Jerusalem
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
he's plotting to commit suicide, obviously (evidently, he does not have the "Depressed" trait and cannot simply do it from the Intrigue menu).
also ewww unnessential facepacks.
Also also Brian III has added another kingdom to the Kings of Ireland's long list of titles. New one is Andalusia which we picked up in another crusade.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
start faction --> lower crown authority
or just play the marriage game.
there's kind of two ways to do it.
the easiest is to marry off a daughter, wait til they have a kid, and then push the kid's claim on his father's realm.
the slightly harder one is to just marry rectilinearly (or marry a son off) and have the realms be integrated into your own holdings over time by simple succession, assuming the son in question is your eldest.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I mean, married off normally, they and their kids are no longer of your dynasty, so how can they add anything to your realm? And noone of any power agrees to matrilineal marriage...
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
And now, right after we have depleted our levies grabbing a nearby county, Cumania came knocking at the door. Or, rather, kicking the door down and steamrolling all over, as it tends to.
apparently my Andalusia-via-Ireland game isn't finished. End date is later than I thought it was haha whoops.
I kind of wish this game had a cadet dynasty mechanic. The de St. Malos are a dynasty that sprung from one of my daughter's illegitimate children several generations back and they've been consistently holding the position of Dukes of Toledo for about 100 years now.
in the interest of likely no one but myself, I will be compiling a list of the various Kings and Queens of the ua Briain dynasty once this game is finished. Both the direct descendants of Murchad of Munster and the side dynasties like the one ruling the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Don't expect the crusades to stop (indeed, expect them to increase in frequency). Unlike the Sunni and Shi'a caliphs the Papacy can't cease to exist, so there's always a Pope to call crusades upon your house(s). The only way to un-create the Papacy is via a difficult to achieve special decision that's only available to the Byzantines.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
so my Ua Briain dynasty game finally ended. We ended up as the joint Kaisers of The Holy Roman Empire and Carpathia. Effectively the last major Christian power in the known world after the fall of Byzantium to the east (France collapsed into a series of warring duchies after a failed takeover by the Doges of Pisa, and England has been in tatters since King John of England & Scotland was ousted from the throne. Everywhere else is either a part of Holy Rome, is a minor Iberian power, or has been annexed by one of the Mongol nations.)
We own most of the map, with territory as far west as South Africa and as far east as Crimea. Our only serious rivals are the Tengri and Shi'a superpowers--The Golden Horde and Timurid Khanates respectively. The Ua Briain dynasty has held more ruling titles than any other on the map. Only the de Hautevilles (longtime Emperors of Byzantium, and Kings of Sicily, Bulgaria, and Cyprus) even come close. The Ua Briains held--at various points--the Kingdoms of Ireland, Alba (Scotland), Wales, Aragon, Andalusia, Castille, Galicia, Mauritania, Jerusalem, Denmark, and Germany (not counting the numerous King titles Kaiser Felix created and briefly held before handing them off to vassals), and the Emperorships of Holy Rome and Carpathia. We are also the lieges of the current pope, Simplicus III. The cadet de St. Malo dynasty continue to hold their long-standing positions as Dukes of Toledo.
Mainline Descendants of Murchad of Munster (likely of interest to no one but myself):
------
(as Petty King of Munster)
(as Kings of Ireland)
(as Kings of Ireland, Alba, & Wales)
(as King of The Six Crowns [Ireland, Alba, Wales, Jerusalem, Brittany, & Aragon])
(as King of the Seven Crowns [The Above, plus Andalusia])
(as Kings of Andalusia & Aragon, after Felix's abdication of all other thrones)
(as King of Andalusia, Aragon,& Mauritania)
(as Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire)
(as Kaiser of The Holy Roman Empire, Kaiser of Carpathia, King of Germany, and King of Denmark)
*Felix had been given the Kingdom of Andalusia by his father long before the latter's death. These dates only reflect his gaining (and subsequent abdication of) the other titles his father held.
**Felix's mother died before his father. He had been reigning as Kaiser for more than a decade before inheriting the Kingdoms of Andalusia, Aragon, and Mauritania
***Marks game end. Not an actual reflection on the end of Peter The Great's reign.
Other Notable Ua Briain & Ua Briain-related figures:
in other news, I also undid the Great Schism today.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I need to get a screen shot of my map up, but Tengri has formed into an official religion with it's own High Priest etc... They've carved out a huge portion of Asia which is probably only rivaled by my own Persian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.
I've warred with them once over a single country I could Holy war over. The amount of troops committed from both sides was glorious. Possible over 100,000 from BOTH sides.
The next targets are much smaller, a handful of countries next to the Byzantines, then it's back to tormenting Egypt.
On a side note, the Egyptians have moved north a bit...as in they control parts of Italy.
Man, this game is awesome.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Neat!
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Pretty tame looking map, actually. I've only seen the AI form Tartaria a few times though. Usually it's just content to let the Cumans blob out as themselves.
watch out for the mongols when they arrive. The Timurids especially are literally going to be right on your doorstep.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
The Pope tends to get on the Muslims' collective asses if they own any part of the Italian peninsula. I think it's actually prioritized over the Holy Land.
also since you mentioned the Tengri Church forming, watch out for them. They'll try to Holy War for Persia sooner or later most likely.