RB goes medieval - a CK:DV succesion game

[Mist]

Mongols can show anytime between 1212 and 1250, rather earlier than later.

Mongols are very short term

[pling]

Damn, I posted that last post just before I went to bed & wondered just before I pressed the post button if I should wait till this morning & re-read bits of the thread first ... shoulda listened to my instincts

[SleepingMoogle]

Right, I'll focus on keeping the realm in one piece and at maximum strength then.

[SleepingMoogle]

Well this is somewhat familiar. -3 Realm stability, realm duress, and a whole lot of vassals that are either threatening to declare independence, or who have already done so. I suppose that the silver lining it that our reputation isn't downright bad this time around so at least we don't have to buy loyalty all the time.

At the start of the save we have no Diocese Bishop, but also no candidates to fill the position.

And apparently we can only govern 5 provinces out of the 10 we have with 32 Stewardship. What? I'll just leave that as is for now. Our court isn't very large, and I'm hoping that once the stability of the realm improves somewhat this will go away on its own.

(Later this turned out to be a really silly thought)



1212


January 1212:

A pouting vassal is greased a little to ensure loyalty.



Ane one more province forcibly converted at the price of a revolt.


February 1212:

The peasants realize that while they're busy wielding torches and pitchforks and spitting on our name, no one's actually working the fields. Stephan throws some gold at them, and the revolt ceases. The ex-revoltees are so happy that the province actually becomes rich.

Unfortunately the revolt had already spilled over into another nearby province. Curses!

Some random courtier dies of old age. Our court still isn't very large.


March 1212:

To celebrate its recent conversion, Saray finishes building a Church and starts on a Templar House.

The revolt again spills over to another province. That 50% efficiency is really hurting.


April 1212:

The citizens of Burtasy get tired of revolting and go back to work. Some firebrands still insist on sieging the castle so the local garrison scoops them up and uses them for target practice.


May 1212:

After 5 months, Stephan finally realizes he can spend some of the 70k gold he has to improve the realm. :rolleyes: Realm stability goes up to -2.

The Orthodox church forgives the province of Burtasy for their sins with Letters of Indulgence.

Kids in the court are picking on a club-footed girl. Such are the times I suppose.


June 1212:

Another disloyal vassal gets a gift to keep quiet. This isn't happening nearly as often as during the last turnset though.

One of the revolting provinces loses the Looted trait, but the peasants are still pissed.

The King of Hungary wants an alliance with us. Being a crusading Catholic, he's at war with a number of Sheikdoms but so far he managed to gain a foothold in Spain. The Cumans could be enough of a headache for us though, so I decline.


July 1212:

Smallpox arrives in Burtasy to keep the province occupied with something other than plotting against us.

Stephan falls in love with his wife and becomes Chaste. His wife is not really returning the feelings but she might warm up to him eventually.

Our chancellor's oldest son matures as a Saint. Unfortunately he's having a court education, so he won't be eligible for our vacant Bishop seat.


August 1212:

Some more elbow greasing to keep the vassals in line.


September 1212:

A vassal declares independence. I have no idea who or where, so I just let them go for now.

A father and daughter in our court become eligible to be married at the same time. Neither is particularly loyal or useful, so I send them off to other courts to strengthen relationships.

Two teens in our court explore the differences between boys and girls.


October 1212:

Sarkel continues to revolt so we hang some more pagan traitors. That might have been the wrong option as the revolt immediately spreads to another province.

We marry off some more useless courtiers.


November 1212:

Knowledge of Chainmail spreads to Moskva.

A sorry excuse for a soldier challenges his rival and promptly gets severely wounded in the process. Good job!

Our lovely revolting province picks up tourist attractions like a smuggler's ring and highway robbers. Nice!

Scholastics spreads to Aukshayts.


December 1212:

Chernigov becomes rich as marshes and fens are drained.



Well that didn't take too long. Realm duress is out and stability goes back to 0.

So Stephan can now control.. 6 provinces? I mouse over the efficiency marker and realize that it's calculated by efficiency, which Stephan has a massive 4 points in. Whoops!

So in the end I hand off the revolting and far-away provinces to loyal courtiers and send them off to go back to 100% efficiency. The process gives us a respectable reputation too. A good way to end the first year.



1213


January 1213:

Our now-stabilized realm immediately attacts the right kind of attention:



Sure, welcome back!


February 1213:



Yep, we're doing well.


March 1213:

Another former vassal rejoins our kingdom. I suspect we'll want to forcibly add the occasional province in the future, but for now I'm happy to just ensure stability.


April-June:

Nothing too much happens. A rebel army springs up in one of the provinces we gave away. Eventually I mobilize one of my own provinces to help them out.


July:

Stephan's oldest daughter is sent to court for her education.


August-October:

More tumbleweed. This is getting boring, so I figure I might as well start adding provinces again by the sword. I wait until the end of the month before raising armies.


November 1213:

Our mine in Kiev collapses. Time to build a new one.

Armies are on their way. I decide to use some of our reputation to offer vassalization to a duke who declared independence. He accepts, bringing a fair few provinces back into the kingdom.


December 1213:

Curse the lack of proper roads in some provinces. Armies take the scenic route instead.



1214:


January 1214:

Clothmaking spreads to Polotsk, which begins constructing a Spinning Mill.

The army finally arrives at the target province. Almost immediately our Marshal(!) disgraces himself and picks up the Coward trait. Marvelous. banghead:


February 1214:

One of our vassals is unhappy and wants a Feudal Contract. I politely tell him where he can stick it.

Stephan has to spend some prestige to hold onto his claim to the Prince of Kiev. I'm slightly annoyed I can choose either stability and a boring turnset, or actually try to do something and risk losing the stability again.


March 1214:

Stephan manages not to lose one of his friends. See? The moment you grab your sword everyone seems to hate your guts for it.


April 1214:

We vassalize the province we declared upon. Reputation's down to tarnished now, so let's sit back for a bit to let it recover.


May 1214:

The club-footed girl grows up as a Bravo. Somehow I can't see that being a very graceful fighting style.


June-July:




August 1214:



Well at least all that piety has its uses. The guy has terrible stats, but at least we have a Diocese Bishop again.


September 1214:

Kiev rebuilds its mine.


October 1214:

We inherit a province in Spain somehow. It's rich and a well-established one, but so far away we can't really expect to hold onto it. I give the title to a loyal-but-not-too-useful courtier to keep us at 100% efficiency.


November-December:

Ho-hum.



I paused here to figure out what to do next. But since apparently the Mongols aren't far off, it's probably best not to do anything that might destabilize the realm.



1215


January 1215:

Our reputation has improved to slightly tarnished again. I haven't seen any disloyal vassals for a while, so we should be fairly secure from civil war.


February 1215:

A new courtier is much better suited as our Diocese Bishop than the current one so I replace him. As a quick aside, our Chancellor loses 0.2% loyalty each month due to her traits (and I suspect our reputation). When one of our male courtiers becomes eligible to marry, I'll start looking for a suitable high diplomacy wife.


March 1215:

One of our vassals inherits a new province. Good for us I gues.

Polotsk finished a Spinning-mill and starts constructing a Dye-works.


April 1215:

Two of our vassals decide to be cute and declare war on the Cumans. Despite not nearly the powerhouse they used to be, I don't want to get involved.


May 1215:

A kid at court matures into an Autocrat, picking up a host of questionable traits. Perhaps he might make for a decent Marshal though once his training finishes.


June 1215:

Critical Bible Interpretations spread to Moskva.


July 1215:

Stephan picks up the Selfish trait as I don't want to make an enemy out of an already rebellious vassal.

Stephan's oldest daughter becomes friends with the Kingdom's Spy master.


August 1215:

An ill, 67-year old courtier waives away a miracle healer and somehow manages to overcome his illness through prayer instead. I actually chose this option hoping he'd get pneumonia instead and die, making room for a more useful courtier. *cough*


September-October:

*Tumbleweed*


November 1215:

Our wife and steward falls ill. She's still the best pick for the position, but I'm more worried about the fertility penalty since she and Stephan only have one son so far.


December 1215:

A rebellious vassal loses the trait. Good for us.

Our oldest daughter has a chance to befriend her mother. The odds don't favor us this time though.



1216:


January 1216:

One of our courtiers has a miscarriage. I wonder why this is relevant enough to us to warrant a pop-up window.


February 1216:

One of our vassals proposes a marriage between his hopeless spender, crappy stats son and a moderately skilled female courtier. I respectfully decline.


March 1216:

A courtier's daughter matures as a Zealot.

The disloyal vassal warning makes its return. This time however it's because the vassal just inherited his dead father's provinces. He's gaining 6% loyalty every month, so no need to do anything here.


April 1216:

The vassal provinces near what's Israel today decide to go to war. I wish them the best of luck and secretly hope never to hear from them again.


May 1216:

I poke a vassal to mobilize one of his regiments in order to smack down a rebel army that has been sieging his province for a while now. :rolleyes:

We get another shot at making a rival out of one of our vassals. This time Stephan picks up the Lazy trait by not doing anything, which actually increases his Intrigue and allows us to manage another province. Rather than claiming one now, I'll just keep my eyes open until we can pick up another without taking a reputation hit.

Polotsk finishes the Dye-works and is once more out of things to build.


June 1216:

One of our courtiers becomes stressed. Her being the polar opposite of her husband may have something to do with it.


July 1216:

Stephan ignores another vassal campaigning for Feudal contract.

Another courtier becomes stressed. Hopefully it isn't contagious.

A male courtier becomes eligile to marry. Our steward is below 40% loyalty at this point so the wife-hunting starts.


August 1216:

An independent province surrounded by allied vassals declares on one of them. Yeah, good luck with that.

The marriage proposal is accepted and we now have a 20 diplomacy courtier. Unfortuantely she enters at 2.4% loyalty which isn't increasing very fast. Rats.

Last month's vassal demands Feudal contract again. Ugh, go away already. I toss him some gold to keep his loyalty.


September 1216:

The King of Sweden offers an alliance. Since he has some provinces near what looks to be the crumble zone for the eventual Mongol invasion, I accept the offer.


October 1216:

A courtier finishes his education and becomes a charismatic negotiator. Despite this, his diplomacy score is only 8.



Fortunately she's not our lover. In fact, I don't know whose lover she was. Some of these events are way too vague.


November 1216:

I notice we have a loyal courtier with 20 diplomacy available, so our now thoroughly disloyal chancellor is replaced.


December 1216:

Our vassals conquer the province that declared on them earlier and add it to our kingdom. Works for me.



1217

January 1217:

As a counterpoint to the vassals demanding Feudal Contract, another vassal changes his laws to resemble ours which gives us some prestige.

Stephan's youngest daughter gains a point of intrigue after managing to avoid getting picked on by a certain club-footed Bravo.


February 1217:

The King of Sweden sure loves his crusades. He has a huge army around Jerusalem, but he's opposed by an even bigger Seljuk army. He eventually chooses the better part of valor and flees.

Boiled Leather spreads to Novgorod.


March 1217:



Good, now go have some more sons please.


April 1217:

Our inaction has improved our reputation back up to respectable. A province in the northeastern corner of the map vassalizes itself to us so it's helping.


May 1217:

I send a courtier's daughter to court for education.


June 1217:

Stephan has a chance to befriend one of his vassals but the die roll doesn't favor us.


July 1217:

Stephan and his wife are expecting a child!

The province our vassals conquered recently severs itself and declares war. It's still surrounded by allied provinces though, so that probably won't do much good.


August 1217:




September 1217:

Evidently the pregnancy is causing some domestic disputes. Fortunately Stephan manages to work things out with his wife in the end.


October 1217:

Our vassals reconquer the upstart province again.


November 1217:

Both of our daughters are friends with the Spymaster now.

Chainmail spreads to Kiev and Moskva gains knowledge of Mint.


December 1217:

Yeah.. sitting around doing nothing isn't that exciting. But I don't really want to present the next turnset as a civil war scenario when the Mongols can invade any moment, so I hope no one minds the rather brief report.



1218


January 1218:

Someone offers to teach Stephan's oldest daughter the ins and outs of court intrigue. Since we have a mountain of gold collecting dust, we take him up on the offer and Rostislava's Intrigue increases with two points.


February 1218:

Stephan's wife passes away!..

We don't get an explanation why, other than our oldest son Oleg inheriting some gold. Unfortuantely this means the child that was on the way is gone too and we're now without a Steward. Our next best courtier only has 14 Stewardship, so I start looking for a replacement immediately; Stephan is only 29 years old at this point, certainly he can have some more kids.

Unfortunately the picks are pretty scarce. The available brides are either old, have a set of traits that clash with Stephan's, are Catholic, or in most cases a combination of the three. Eventually I settle on a 27-year-old Itallian bride with a decent set of traits who actually has a higher Diplomacy rating than Stewardship. It's a bit of a temporary solution, but our chancellor is aging too, and this way we have a replacement if he passes away too.


March 1218:

A quiet month while the kingdom waits for Stephan's new wife to become pregnant.


April 1218:

Moskva's peasants are starving. Stephan decides to help them out and imports food which is well-received.


May 1218:

A son of Stephan's wife can select a formal education. His martial score is pretty good, so he's sent to the army for training.


June 1218:

Aforementioned son avoid's picking up a rival.


July 1218:

The prince of Kiev (one of our loyal vassals) requests a marriage between him and one of our female courtiers. Her stats are decent but not exceptional, so I accept the proposal.


August 1218:

Stephan's oldest daughter (the one who got the Intrique training earlier) matures as a critical scholar and gains the Suspicious and Sceptical traits, further boosting her intrigue score. Depending on how her court education pans out, she could become a good spymaster.


September 1218:

The club-footed Bravo becomes a silver-tongued merchant. It doesn't make her stats particularly good though. She's still angry at everyone and leaves to another court soon after. Good riddance.


October 1218:

Stephan's son Oleg gains the Honest trait from an upbringing event.


November 1218:

Soon after, we get to choose Oleg's education. I think on this a while, but with the Mongol invasion imminent, I think a military-trained successor will be a real boon.

Choir Songs spread to Aukshayts and Monastic Schools to Novgorod. The latter province starts constructing a monastery.


December 1218:

Our chancellor inherits a claim on a vassal province. I doubt with his age it will benefit him though.

Chainmail spreads to Chernigov.



1219


January 1219:

One more year to go. I make my periodic check to see everything's going well and wait until something happens.


February 1219:

Knowledge of Ironworks spreads to Aukshayts, which begins constructiong of a smithy. This overlaps with our current Mining research, but since none of the other advances look interesting, I'll just leave it and hope the knowledge spreads around soon.

Sweden continues to crusade and we get the occasional pop-up informing us that they declared war on some province down there. Stephan just shrugs and moves on.

Stephan's wife is expecting a child!


March 1219:

In preparation for the Mongol invastions, I drop the scutage which had been set to max for a good while now. I don't really see any vassals rebelling right now, so we might as well make sure they can raise large armies.


April-June:

Not too much happening. I inform another vassal that a rebel army is laying siege to his castle.


July 1219:

A courtier with a horrible set of traits tries to buddy up with Oleg. Fortunately the die roll ensures that doesn't happen.

Our spymaster chooses to remain chaste and picks up some piety. As she's past child-bearing age, I didn't really see the point in aiming for the opposite.

Stephan's eldest daughter Rostislava continues to be doted on by passing teachers. This time she picks up a point of Stewardship from a merchant.


August 1219:

Our Marshal is accused of using black magic(?). Stephan picks up the Just trait by choosing to hold a fair trial, but our Marshal is burned at the stake regardless. This kind of sucks because the only replacement hates our guts and the next best option only has 13 Martial skill. I go for the latter and pray those martial educations will turn out well.

In a continuation of weirdness, our Diocese Bishop demands a duel with a rival (wut?). I don't want to vacate a second council seat so Stephan reminds him he has more important matters to deal with.


September 1219:

Oleg has a chance to become friends with one of his half-brothers but the die roll thinks otherwise.


October 1219:

One of our vassals declares war on a neighboring province. It's not really clear who started the conflict, but they should have no problem winning.

I poke another vassal about the catapults lobbing boulders at his castle.

A useless courtier asks to retire, so I let him.


November 1219:

We have an honourable reputation again. I'll leave it up in the air what to do with it until the next turnset.

Stephan's wife gives birth to another daughter. Maybe we'll get more lucky next time.


December 1219:

Another passing merchant teaches Stephan's now second youngest daughter some tricks, gaining her a point in Stewardship. This makes her try to compete with her elder sister, but fortunately they don't become rivals.

A crappy courtier finishes training and becomes a Misguided warrior. Ah well, I didn't really want him as our Marshal anyhow.


And so ends a rather uneventful turnset. Apologies for the rather short summary, but there just wasn't much going on once the duress and stability improved. We should be in a pretty decent shape once the Mongols come calling at least.

The overview:

And the save: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21346291/1220%20Save.rar

[pling]

Nicely done Love the order of magnitude difference between our rank & the next highest

I think this makes us:

Code:

SleepingMoogle ----> Just played
TheArchduke    ----> UP!
Ichabod        ----> On deck

Unless Ichabod still needs a skip, in which case it's TT on deck.

Unless TT has no CK on his replacement PC? In which case it would be me on deck

(Actually, I think this could work out all wrong timing wise for me - I can't play between next Sat & the Thurs after coz I'm visiting the in-laws, so I may need to swap with uberfish depending on quite when the game gets to me - I should be OK with 3 people playing before me, but if it turns out to be just one I think I'll have trouble.)

[uberfish]

February 1218:

Stephan's wife passes away!..

This is not a bad thing... in fact if you need royal heirs it's best not to marry anyone older than 20 because female fertility declines very quickly in this game.

[TheArchduke]

Got the save.

And it works.

Will see about the turn tomorow or Wednesday.

[SleepingMoogle]

Mongols are very short term

By the way.. is it vain if I keep misreading this as Moogles every time I load up the page?

[pling]

By the way.. is it vain if I keep misreading this as Moogles every time I load up the page?

Now you've said that, I'm starting to as well Let SleepingMoogles lie! Beware of RampagingMoogles!

I'm not gonna be able to play before next Sat - so if I come up significantly before then I'll need a swap. (I can't work out if TheArchduke's silence makes this less likely, or Ichabod & TT's silence makes it more likely )

[regoarrarr]

BUMP for TheArchDuke - it's been a week. I know these turns can take some time but just want to make sure you know you're up