The earlier turns are a little hazy here as they took place a while ago now...

General plan here is to survive - Bandito is experienced at hotseats and I'm guessing he'll be heading my way first. Currently (had turn 3 so far) I've not entered into diplomacy with him - I should do to see how it goes but I'm a bit worried anyway. Ho hum. His early expansion may make it easy to convince the other players to not trust him either, which would be nice.

I'm going to keep my expansion to the south west so that I give Bandito minimal footroom, that will however hinder me defending against the other humans if they want to attack me.

turn 1
One army heads north and takes York, minimal fuss involved.
A second army heads to Rennes but doesn't quite make it to the walls I think, maybe it does, who can be sure without making notes?
Princess Matilda heads over to Denmark to secure trade rights with the Danes and then to contact HRE when we work out how to deal with them.

turn 2
Renne falls to our forces, that makes it likely that it was seiged in turn 1, huzzah


Bandito has launched a jihad against Lisbon, cheeky to be moving so fast against the ai, but fair - it also lets me cry to the other humans against the injustice of it all.

To HRE

To Milan


I'm not sure if I should send a fleet south to blockade Bandito - it'd annoy him but would need to be big to make it worth it, and that costs a lot to set up and maintain. Especially when reinforcements take a few turns to get to the main fleet.

turn 3

HRE responded to my whining in a favourable way. In an email I suggested to him that we all send one or two priests to go and bother the Moors - the conversion of heathens impresses the pope, may annoy Bandito and any heretics caused by priests falling from grace aren't on our lands. A win win win situation it seems.


Lisbon has fallen and Portugal with it, I made sure to express again the danger to the other Catholic factions (although I didn't record the messages I sent).

I've got an army moving towards the next French rebel castle to the south, I may need some mercs to bolster the militia army I've got but that could be a reasonable investment. A diplomat is on a boat going to spain, looking for trade rights and an alliance with Spain.

Matilda secured trade rights and an alliance with the Danes, now she's moving south to HRE to agree an alliance (hopefully).

plan (ish) as it stands

1. See if I can get to and take Pamelmonoa in Spain before Bandito - that's a reasonable bottleneck area for land armies

2. Push down and start a war with France - we may wait until HRE attacks them too so that they're attention is divided.

3. Build up a moderate fleet capable of annoying Bandito, a few blockades could be almost as costly as the ships I'd need to do that...

4. Before any attack by or on the Moors, start some sort of dialogue to see if I can get any info without revealing too much to Bandito. He probably knows I'm worried and will play on that, but that's life. Hopefully with auto resolve I can cause enough bother that destroying me entirely wouldn't help him...

I wouldn't bet too highly on priests unless you've got the rule that forbids the surrounding trick. Otherwise, fairly well thought out plan, and I hope it works. Block Gibraltar if you can for sheer annoyance, and don't forget to withdraw your navy to keep it intact if needed.

There is a rule, although I don't expect him to stick to it...

I'm wondering about the wisdom of trusting Hoppylyte in alliances too - but that's a different matter

Turn 4

This turn was fairly uneventful to be truthful. I received a message from HRE, stating that their happy for an alliance and that Milan doesn't want any aggression against the Moors.


I had a peek at the faction rankings. I hadn't realised quite how much land HRE had access to. I may be its ally but that doesn't mean it's not at all intimidating that HRE now has 2.5 times the land and no doubt somewhat stronger armies than England.




Nevermind eh? we're allies. Oh dear...

On the alliance front, both HRE and Milan are allied to the pope. Not something I like, especially as it's human players doing it - always feels rather cheating to me as the pope should be somehow higher. Maybe that's just me.

On a small note, it turns out Matilda is actually called Celia. You live and learn eh? I thought it was odd that the English and Sicilian princesses had the same name.

Turn 5

An offer for a map information exchange arrives from HRE. Seeing the status of my Danish allies as being enemies of HRE I delay by asking for some money - nothing like angering the largest faction on the map.

No, this is how to anger the largest faction on the map - break your alliance and send threats you can't live up to. Muwhahahaa. Not have been the best of plans



Oh and the messages have been slightly cake themed today as I was a bit hungry - not very good references but they're there.



On the theme of angering people, I ally with Spain after Bandito stated that he was only after Iberia and would be peaceful if I didn't try and interfere. Allying with his opponent doesn't count right?




Winning is over-rated anyway

Up for sending spies and assassins?
You're a nutcase sometimes, Swampy

Winning is over-rated anyway

Lies!

Turn 6
I'd intended to make notes and put more detail up later - but then I sort of forgot the detail. Hopefully the pictures will make up for that:



HRE gave me 1000 gold to compensate for being a big bully, which I obviously took.

It would however have been beyond me to take the money politely, so I suggest that he @@@@ off to the holy land


Milan seems to be taking a Swiss approach and to do so more effectively is moving to Switzerland:


The Moors offered me trade and an exchange of map information. I thanked them for the offer and suggested that they also pay me 400 per turn for 5 turns (I think). I don't really want them to have much trade :0)

Not quite as polite as Bandito's initial message

Let's see if peace will last long enough to get a few fleets in place...

There's a bit of a recruitment issue too as I've only got about 2 2nd level barracks and nothing better, oops. Despite noting that, I've concentrated on growth and income for most settlements. Let's see how badly it backfires...

Turn 7

More of the same really, a few buildings going up but nothing interesting.


A little discussion takes place with HRE (I'll call him that whatever he thinks his country is)

Alas there's no getting rid of him with cheap tricks (and no the crusade wasn't me)


The Moors are at war with Spain which probably looks rather bad for the Spaniards. They have a fullish stack in the field but Bandito is rather good I fear - my chaps are too far away to help Spain. Alas alack etc

Surprisingly enough, my attempt to foil Moorish trade went as planned, Bandito choosing not to pay me more than he'd make on the trade...

I;ve also had a 'close defeat' in Wales, my first of the campaign. The autoresolve didn't think my massed cheap and mercenary spears could overwhelm the few longbow units there. Possibly fair but an annoying setback. Another attack in a couple of turns time though. Pah.

[This message has been edited by SwampRat (edited 04-01-2009 @ 02:47 PM).]

I've given up avoiding the double post (esp. as I'm adding pictures for the previous couple of turns at the same time) - so here goes

Turn 8

The reputation of England (now the GLC) has plummeted to a new low of 'dubious'. They must have heard of the dodgy dealings going on in government.

Still, go on we must, and forces are regathering around the welsh stronghold that so embarrassingly rebuffed the advances of Prince thingy. This time, at least one unit of mailed knights will join the advance against the 3 longbow units holding the castle. In a battlefield fight it would have been settled long ago, but that's not what autoresolve thought.

The Moors are crushing Spain, now down to its last settlement, and send a vaguely peaceful message - probably as a taunt:



Sensing the pointlessness of trying to blockade the Moors and lacking any other real option, England shames itself with a pathetic message seeking to avoid hostility. The people may wail to see the country brought so low, but frankly, we can't raise enough of an army to provide a strong defence.



Military buildings are on the build list in 2-3 settlements, but currently there's still only Caen as a troop producing centre (spears and peasant archers), Roastingham (peasant archers only) and London (spears) - which really isn't enough. Still, it's only early.

edit - ahh nuts - I copied the wrong code for thumbnails.
I'll put the pictures in properly for the other turns another day then. Ho hum.

[This message has been edited by SwampRat (edited 04-01-2009 @ 02:48 PM).]

Turn 9

Right, I've told Bandito he can have Spain and agreed to trade rights and map info. That should show him my mini realm without even Wales.




What it won't show is the army ready to take Wales next go (it better or that place will be a very very expensive waste of time and men) or the fleet ready to take them to Ireland next go.



I've invested the little spare cash I had into troops with the intention of attacking France and taking two settlements. Hopefully followed by peace...

Next turn the Southern force will be bolstered by knights from Bored o' waiting ("Bordeaux" -> "Bored o'" you see?) to attack Toulouse. The downside is that there's a decent sized army there and I don't know if we're doomed to lose (again, isn't it humerous how you can muck around with French names?). My coffers may not stretch to mercs after paying for buildings - outgoings are currently rather pushing things, hopefully a little break from recruiting soon though.

Armies from Caen and Caen't will converge on Angers - they should win depending on reinforcements from other areas.

Turn 10

An interesting turn. HRE appears to have been excommunicated and sent me a weird message saying how he expected Milan (a very small nation still) to attack him and some other bits like that.


I'm assuming that him telling me that means that either he's trying to work out who I tell and see if I'm loyal (a very long shot and ultimately pointless) or (more likely) that he's planning to attack me. We'll see what happens in 2 turns time...

The Moors and Milan still seem to be friendly, again, lets see what happens in a couple of turns.



I attack the French! (which I don't have a picture of - but the ones from last time should show it) I expect to lose at Toulouse (yes, I still find that funny) as the French reinforcement stack is bigger than mine. Oops. At least if I'm beaten during the French turn then the other forum players won't have seen how much I lost in the attack :0)


Wales falls finally to the mighty force assembled against it - which then pops over to Ireland - but some of the chaps couldn't quite get there so the attack waits another turn (unless they sally).


Finances are still grim but that's life heh? I may want peace with the French after/if I get their two settlements and they may want it too (possibly if they're sensible) - if I'm lucky they'll pay for it too...

Turn 11
I've forgotten the chap's name, but he's possibly the most useless general to have been put in charge of anything - yet again Mr Gormless (as he shall now be known) fluffed up an assault with a nice large army on a rebel town. So, Ireland will have to wait for another couple of turns. Pah.


Elsewhere, things seem to be getting more cordial with the Moors. Bandito is pushing for an alliance - that wouldn't go down too well with HRE - and whose to say I'm decided on which side I should sit.


Milan is chirping peacefully, like a happy little lemming about to fall off a cliff and be eaten by a killer whale

Hoppy has stated that he's going to attack Milan - as noted above - I'm not entirely convinced that's how its going. Still, I taunted Milan a little and wished Selifator good luck.

Another message from HRE, more believable this time but still the same message - so probably still a fib.


I've got a small fleet moving into the North sea to try and spot and maybe stop any invasion - Denmark has fallen so there may be some spare HRE troops looking for a new home...

The attack on France went some what better than the one on Ireland, with both Angers (now Placates) and Toulouse (now Touwinn) falling. The pope had asked me not to attack, so was a touch annoyed - hopefully he'll let me stay within the fold for a little while, there are about 3 churches to finish building next turn and that should make him happier. The Angers battle was very onesided, the one at Toulouse was quite close - both armies had generals, both had lots of knights and the French spearmen are better than the English levy. Still, it's the result that counts.

There's also a huge French stack near Caen, which is a trifle worrying. I think I may have shown my hand too early maybe and over extended - time will tell

Turn 12
Yep, over extended. Doh. The French stack is almost on Placates - I'm rather thankful it didn't choose to take Caen instead, since that's my troop production centre in France. Hopefully reinforcements can be there in a turn or two and between that and the pope telling them off maybe it'll be safe. Still, probably rather silly of me to have attacked them.
My diplomat will hopefully reach someone soon and be able to ask for peace, even if I have to give up Placates again to get it (it's quite rubbish anyway as settlements go)

HRE sent a message talking about how he'll attack Milan in 5 turns or so. Because I trust him so much, I've been scouting the North Sea with a few ships - not found a sign of him yet though. I'll try to get a spy out there at some point soon, may make it easier.

Mr Gormless turns out to be Prince Rufus, he was reinforced with a couple of units from Wales and attacked the Irish again. With more units (and good enough ones to win, easily if it had been on the battlemap). He lost. Again. Mr Gormless will once more get off of the boats and besiege the Irish village, he may have to pick up a few mercenaries too.

We now have borders with the Moors at Marseilles and with HRE above that. Blighty really could do with a dozen turns or so to stabilise before more fighting - all this blasted blitzing by Hoppy and Bandito is too fast for my tastes.

Post turn important development
HRE attacked Milan in its next turn, not waiting for the 5 turns noted in his message.

This seems to cement the alliance of England-Milan and probably Russia and possibly the Moors. I still have doubts about being back-stabbed by Bandito, no matter what he says.

The plan is thus -
1. encourage Milan to attack HRE vigorously - this is both because it's the best policy I can see and also because it'll make it easier for me.

2. if the French have attacked me (they probably have) then I'll need to see what I can do to get them off of my new regions. If I can reach them by diplomat then I will - if not then there is another plan...

3. The Glorious Crusade! If France attacks and the pope excommunicates them (fingers crossed) then I'll launch a crusade to Antioch and the first move for that will be to gather all my forces and swat the French. Yes, they aren't Hoppy, but they're in the way.

The crusade may then continue through Hoppy's lands - let's see how he likes that.

4. The back-up - More forces can be sent down from Ireland towards Toulouse. Both to go across the land at southern France as that's where the fighting is, but also just in case Bandito gets tricksky

more update
Selifator seems to have gone for the airyfairy option of retreating his forces and hoping that Hoppy won't just take Genoa by force. Which is highly foolish in my view, particularly given the strength of army Selifator could have used to besiege Milan, trapping Hoppy's forces inside.
Pah, now HRE will be all the more powerful.

[This message has been edited by SwampRat (edited 05-14-2009 @ 07:04 AM).]

High time for a bump I think, since I'm writing this purely for my own benefit (not that there is any) I'll bump it myself...

Turn 13
Hoppy does seem to be remarkably not attacking me yet, no sign to be found of him in the North Sea. Odd.

The Moors and Milanese seem to want to go slow in their response to HRE. Good for them I suppose. I joined in and didn't make any obvious moves against HRE, but there's a half stack ready to crusade to Denmark and then down towards Antioch - accidentally treading on some feet on the way.

Alternatively, they could avoid attacking HRE if I so choose. Same to be said of the stack led by Mr Gormless that's headed down on crusade to Spain before turning towards Antioch.

Time to see who our friends are I think.

Before setting off, Mr Gormless finally beat the Irish using the crusaders. About time really.

It's sort of a shame that Scotland wasn't pressed before moving troops out, but then time seems to be of the essence, hopefully I won't regret that too much. The absence of upkeep should help income which therefore should replace the forces quite quickly. Huzzah

pictures to be placed more sensibly later...






Oh and I wrote a load of angry rude messages to people too reluctant to attack. Oops.

Turn 14
I was absolutely flumoxed to find that Hoppylyte had actually kept his word to Selifator - which had been met by the beseiging by Milan of a couple of settlements.

Several English crusading armies have made long trips towards HRE, including the one going via spain to pick up mercs - could be interesting how bandito reads that - hopefully it'll discourage any plans to attack me in the near future.

I'm quite tempted to try and keep HRE on-side, although Arhus is quite a tempting target, as I think once HRE is a few settlements down the Moors will be a much larger threat. The trouble is that I doubt HRE will trust me, which is unfortunate.

If the crusade ends on Milan's turn, I'll face money trouble, if it doesn't I may face other troubles when certain armies need to move onwards (mainly the one I have near Arhus). On that note, the army near Arhus couldn't quite make it to the trees with enough movement left to hide - so HRE can probably see the army and will be quite angry. Still, Russia will probably attack there anyway so I won't be taking anything that wouldn't fall in the natural course of things.

Turn 15
Another general - handy as we're running low...


Messages:



rankings:



Quite an interesting one, my forces besieged Arhus and I split a few pilgrims off to beseige Hamburger (Hoppy's joined in the renaming game) - which could work as there's only a single unit of peasants inside. Further south, armies moved within striking distance of two other settlements.






Hopefully Hoppy won't get wise and gift the settlements I'm threatening to the pope - that'd scupper things rather as he could buy re-communication with a couple of nice towns.

I plan to press for peace I think, but I don't quite know how far to take my demands...

Post turn update
It sounds like Hoppy did get wise (hopefully not by being a dirty cheat and reading this thread) and buy back the pope's love - from what he's said he's given up something (probably settlements?) and is hoping that the reconciliation will break the siege of Arhus. I'm hoping it won't, especially as Selifator will be finishing the crusade. There are rumours too that the Moors and Milanese will both allow HRE to have peace. This wouldn't be at all good for Blighty - time to move an army or two back to the left and scout for enemy ships...

Turn 16
Well, Hoppy made his peace with the pope but we press ahead anyway. The end of the crusade hit the coffers as hard as expected:


Fortunately, through taking Arhus and entering into a few battles to reduce my army (as well as HRE's) and cancelling a load of building work (probably a bad plan, but it was in a couple of the French castles) and stopping the training of the 3 or 4 priests that were lined up (the pope will hate us anyway, so why bother?) it looks like profit next turn.



We'll probably end up excommunicated, which means France will probably attack. Still, if I can afford to gather the troops, then Scotland and France can both be paid a visit...



Bandito is probably the biggest threat presently, he's taken the border settlement and is has a full stack somewhere south of Touwinn. He and Milan will probably strike soon :0(

Still, there's enough time to send him stupid messages.



post turn update
It appears Hoppy has now taken my idea and gone mad with it - according to the main thread anyway - he's apparently gifted most of his settlements to the pope. The question is - assuming there are a couple still under siege by Blighty that belong to HRE, do we want excommunication to take them. Better, do we want war with the pope to take those lands? If they've been levelled as I suspect, I'm thinking of leaving them until he's rebuilt it a bit. I'll also check to see if losing my faction leader would end a war with the pope - hopefully it will, William is sort of old and dodery but would like one last fling (9 or 10 turns until the next crusade can be called, by my count)

between turn update
I've tried running a hotseat campain quickly with just acouple of factions playing both sides to see what happens in retrofit if you war with the pope (just in case) - it wasn't too pretty as even when my faction leader expired the war continued, even several popes later. Combine that with the pop refusing to accept fairly generous peace terms and it was quite a long and problematic excommunication. I think that I'll risk excommunication against hoppy, france, scotland etc but not threaten the pope's lands - for now at least. It's a bit of a pain though that Bandito and Farkse will be more able to take those lands. Pah.

Turn 17
Reverse order from usual - here are pictures, write up will follow

[This message has been edited by SwampRat (edited 06-25-2009 @ 05:11 PM).]

Nice job, but I didn't see anything about you taking over Scotland. Did you?

Also, are you going to be a more active player in the human wars or will you sit back a little after attacking the HRE?

I would wait and try to tempt Selifator to attack Hoppy and maybe get Farske involved.

Scotland is still independent I'm afraid. I was about to attack it when the HRE issue popped up. Given how low my papal standing is I may be excommunicated soon - which whilst bad would remove obstacles in attacking Scotland (and France). From personal experience I usually have quite an arse of a time trying to get reconcilled with the pope so I'd still like to avoid excommunication if possible (although King William is a bit on the old side...)

Farske is a little involved - I'll reveal more later on in my delayed write-up of turn 16 - he's at war with HRE having responded to my request that he attack a fleet. Otherwise he'll be fairly ineffective against HRE since all of the German lands above Milan have been given to the pope, cutting off Russia's approach route.

I think I'll pull back a little, but keep a little pressure on Hoppy in the hope that I can encourage Selifator into action that way - there's no incentive for him to singlehandedly fight HRE. The Moors are a very loose cannon and I don't know where or who they'll strike.

[edit] also, thank you for posting - it's always nice to see someone has read this from time to time

[This message has been edited by SwampRat (edited 06-29-2009 @ 04:07 AM).]

It's a very interesting campaign, and I'm enjoying reading.

I think that's a good game plan and that was pretty clever of Hoppy by cutting Farske and you off like that, but in the long run I would think of who would be easiest to beat one-on-one. Despite all of the land that HRE has, I think the biggest threats in the end are Bandito and Farske, as they are the only ones with missile cavalry. They could be trouble in the later game battles.

why don't you attack scotland and give a piece of land such as Dudlin or something to the papcy. With dublin you could easily make sure no one comes out without your sayso by blocking off the single passway meenwhile you kill off scotland

I'll consider giving land like that to the pope, but only at a time it'll suit me. Now isn't quite that time I think - I've a couple of churches soon to be finished and that should increase the old rating a little.

Turn 18



The pope has ordered me to cease attacking HRE - I sort of saw that one coming. I think I will though and have sent messages of peace to Hoppy - which he'll probably ignore. It would be very costly for Blighty to crush HRE singlehandedly, and I think that the Moors are getting rather big for their boots...


HRE's northern army is besieging Frankfurt and will, I suspect, take it next go (unless the pope has asked them to be nice).


Milan was asked nicely on turn 17 (ok I know that I've not written that up, oops) to provide reinforcements as it had a large army within distance - but no they won't.


Sometimes I wonder why we joined in this war to help out the others when they don't help us - then I remember the extra lands we now have...

One of the lands given to the pope has rebelled and I sent the remnants of my southern armies to go and liberate it from the shackles of excessive freedom. Parking some cavalry on a watchtower gave me rather a nasty view of the HRE western army though - it looks somewhat larger than mine. Could be tricky (let's hope he wants peace then...)


That said, it looks horribly expensive too given the number of cities. With Milan, Genoa and Venice, Hoppy should be quite well off I suppose, but still, expensive armies.

I should take the other Belgian settlement soon, giving me a nice continuous coast from the bottom left of France to Denmark.

Ever thought of using a southern city of yours to make Boats and attack HRE from behind? If timed correctly it can mean victory against another player who puts all its forces up front. Also another way you could get Milanese help is if they attacked weak settlements far back. Of course something like that will take careful planning and a few spies to watch the garrisons on cities.

Quoted from Hoppy:

I've decided to accept your peace offer, and as such have moved away my beseiging army from Frankfurt. However, if you could I ask that you attempt to restrain your ally Milan. I have no wish in booting him off of central Europe as he serves as a useful buffer between me and Bandito. Thanks. Also, have you any plans for Bandito? He's growing awfully big.

It looks like the pope ordered Hoppy to not attack me (me, cynical of motives? I don't know what you mean).

The problem with attacking "around the back" of HRE is that it isn't very big any more, so whilst I could sail around Italy to land in Venice, if Hoppy got wind of it he could move is forces there much faster - indeed he could probably march across his lands fast enough to recover from any attack or possibly even break a siege. The further problem comes from the Moorish presence in southern Italy, they'd probably not like me passing with a large army, or would use the knowledge that my army had moved out to move on my lands. I wouldn't be suprised if Milan and the Moors between them can kill off HRE - although that'd be one less potential opponent for the Moors so not a huge benefit to England.

I half suspect that HRE would happily work with the Moors to strike at me at the same time, but personally I think I need to build up forces a bit more and consolidate so might welcome peace. In a few turns time, maybe the 'round the back' idea would work again.

I plan to start pumping out a few ships to watch the seas near Spain for any sort of armarda - I don't like the prospect of a suprise attack

Turn 19



England is large, but has a smaller tax base than the Moors. The size also means we're spread out and more vulnerable to attack

Bandito is keen to crush HRE, probably he's more keen for me and Selifator to crush HRE while he gets ready to stab us in the back, but who knows. I've got a watchtower up near the coast and may start getting some boats out to protect the shore from surprise attacks (e.g. siege equipment coming up from Sicily)


Interestingly, Milan has a cardinal in Spain - I wonder what will happen there.

I'm still keen to side with HRE against the Moors - Hoppy however seems to be having none of it. He may have stopped attacking me, probably at the pope's behest, but he's gone and assassinated a general in Belgium. The cheek of it all.


Still, I took the city in Belgium from the rebels and can move some forces downwards. Whether or not I fight France is an interesting question - they have quite a large army for their size. It could be better to just trade with them for a bit - particularly if they'll pay for peace (they probably won't).

I should hopefully be able to take a town that rebelled from the Pope to have a nice set of French cities. I plan to turn Placates and maybe Bored o' into cities to get better trade. That'll leave a few castles - Caen, Touwinn and Roastingham to supply good archers etc. Hopefully it'll work nicely.

[This message has been edited by SwampRat (edited 07-19-2009 @ 03:20 PM).]

can i please ask how you sent a message? that seems very very "cool"(couldnt find a more formal word) is it a ability of the diplomat only available to hotseat campaigns? or may there be some other matter to send a message? is it possible to assasinate messengers >=D? thank you and please respond. other than that, england is my favorite faction and i really hope you win =D.


Edit: ok i saw one picture which answered my question on the messenger thing. i still think its cool though. once again good luck!

EditEdit: ok checked again on more pictures and noticed something weird on one..... pork?.....how did you rename your citys? is it only in hotseat too? if it is im jelous already.

EditEditEdit: ok i figured out (yet again) that you renamed your factions altogether!? how?! please respond. and if theres anythign else out of the ordinary that i havent noticed please do tell me about it too =D.

[This message has been edited by Demigodseer (edited 09-01-2009 @ 09:41 PM).]

In Retrofit (and I think Vanilla, too) you can rename cities.
When you double-click on them in the building screen, a little bar comes up so you can rename it.

Also, in multiplayer Retrofit, you can rename your faction in the Diplomacy screen. (Same concept with the cities)

[This message has been edited by Glacier_Girl (edited 09-01-2009 @ 10:23 PM).]

oh , thank you. going to go try it out.

Thanks for answering the question Glacier Girl - but aren't you currently being sub for HRE? If I'd been keeping this a bit more up to date (it's only one or two turns behind) then seeing it would count as sneaky...

That never occurred to me. I don't read this write-ups anyway. But I'll stay out from now one.

HRE's gonna be dissolved though. They're so much in debt, have such weak troops and small army, they wouldn't last.

shouldnt be telling him that =P. anyways good luck once more. i hope your overrated victorys will help you.

Oof, I hadn't realised how far behind I'd gotten in this write-up.

Well at the end of turn 24, Blighty (still lacking Scotland) was excommunicated. Naughty Blighty. Here's a brief summary of Blighty's not very naughty naughtiness.

Turns 20 to 24
The route to excommunication was a slow and lingering one - the pope really didn't like us for quite a long time.

As has been noted above, HRE was dissolved and its territories scattered to the winds. This consisted of them being given one to the Moors (Florence) one to England (Milan) and the rest to Milan.

So that Milan isn't confused with Milan, I renamed Milan to "Baby Bern" in the spirit of renaming things. I don't care that Milan had previously renamed itself to the Trade Confederation of Antioch since that's too long and just means 'Milan'.

Despite a heartfelt plea, Genoa doesn't look like it'll be renamed to "Disco Inferno". Some people have no style, or maybe the problem is that they do have style, whatever it is they have a problem :0(

Anyway, the naughtiness. France started it all, they've been wandering around in Blighty's French holdings for some time and frankly it was not right. France's two settlements Rheims and Paris were beseiged at the same time on turn 23 (or was it 22? I hope it was 23 or I wasted even more time than I thought).

During turn 24 I decided that enough was enough and that papal missions didn't really count for much so I took those cities and got excommunicated. The really annoying part is that King William, who would have led the attack on Paris, died between turns. There goes the get out of excommunication free card.

As it is we have a unified France but very weak military and a number of rebels around. The Moors probably know that as they've got spies and assassins throughout my lands.
If they don't attack (a fairly large 'if' unfortunately) then the priority is to sort out the coffers (which are getting better quickly) and train spies and assassins aplenty.

A small force will work its way up to Scotland with the aim of making use of the excommunication if it doesn't end soon (e.g. pope dying). Other than that it would seem prudent to build up some more force to try and prevent the Moors from having too easy a ride - hopefully Egypt and Milan (see you didn't get confused with Baby Bern did you?) will keep the Moorish attention for a little while.

Unless Bandito is a little cheat and reads this not that'd I'd accuse you, err I mean him, of that.

Nothing too dramatic has happened other than that. The Russians even seem to have paused a bit against the papal states in Germany - that could just be the old fog of war though.





Turn 25

Things are looking ok for Blighty at the moment - the Moors are looking east and there seems to be a moment for a bit of a breather.

London is or is about to be upgraded and forces are gathering a bit in the centre to bash some rebels up a bit. I plan to construct a watchtower chain too - firstly to keep an eye out for rebels etc but these days it seems very important to keep an eye out for assassins and whatnot.

Most, if not all, of my cities seem to have that little bit of unrest and corruption that looks like the work of a spy - not a mean feat if it's all Bandito's doing. The consolidation phase seems to include not only sorting out rebels, building and converting a few castles to towns but also now flooding everywhere with my own spies.

We've taken Oslo (well something over that way) and there's a small army heading back to newcastle to move against the Scots.

Turn 26

Blighty really does seem a little light on cash currently - which is odd, particularly given the way that its military strength has been allowed to dwindle rather.

Still, a few more rebels are cleaned off and more spies are hired.

Looking east, Russia is still nibbling through papal grounds. Russia is incredibly weak militarily given it's expansion and number of small border settlements. If it wouldn't mean that the Moors would kick off in the south I'd be very very tempted to put together a couple of strong stacks and send them deep into Russian lands. His main army is in Breslau and many of the settlements seem quite weak.

Milan isn't expanding very fast in the middle east. That could prove highly awkward if it gives the Moors too much headroom.

Oh and the pope has changed or otherwise found reason to reconcile us with the Church. The could have waited for a few turns so that Scotland was taken care of, couldn't he? Such is life - it just means that Scotland needs to fall on the same turn it's attacked. Not an impossible task.

All this feeling cocky is going to go badly - the Moors are overtaking in some areas (inc. military) and catching in others.

Turn 27




Ahh interesting, the chap heading up to Scotland has been assassinated - it can fairly much only be Bandito unless Scotland has been getting good. Fortunately the start of the turn saw me being offered a new general. Until I manage to flood the place with spies and find the blighter I'll make do with putting up lots of watchtowers and leaving generals in ships in port where possible.

A rather good assassin is moving up through France too - unfortunately I got the better of me and let Bandito know I knew where he was...


The Moors are gaining a lot in Greece at the moment I hear, the Italians are being far too weak to give comfort that they'll be any opposition at all. It's possible though that if they call a crusade (the pope may have forgiven England but still doesn't like us) then we can get a couple of armies into Russia quite quickly... That'd suit our greed nicely.

Countering the spies in France and rooting out all of the assassins is a key target currently. Cash is still somewhat scarce which is meaning I can't really make lots of nice gifts to the Italians - not sure if it'd help anyway.

Turn 28


Building is just about on progress in most areas, soon Blighty will need to bolster its military. There are the Scots to deal with as well as Russia (see below) and the Moors are always a threat. I'm not sure what to do with Milan as I'll be giving it to the Italians at some point, but does that mean I shouldn't bother building? I've decided to run it on a short term strategy with high taxes and am putting up a town hall etc to help with that and cut corruption.

The Moorish assassin found in turn 27 was found again - our freshly trained assassin had a 49% chance of killing the experienced Moor. For comparison, the two spies in the area would have had a 9% chance of checking his traits.

The first foray into subterfuge in this hotseat (by England anyway) was a success, although it did reduce the King's chivalry. Oops.

Russia is growing and will soon become a proper nation as well as a threat on our borders. Perhaps the earlier plans of flattening them were too late, or perhaps we really need the Italians to call a crusade.

Any Papal territory they take is obviously then something we could potentially take (without excommunication) but given the state of the college of cardinals (currently standing at two old men) the pope may cease to be a factor shortly.

Turn 29


There is a crusade on to Egypt, fitting interestingly with Moorish plans (according to their message - telling me is almost a sign that it's a fib). Fitting with, clashing with, it's just how you look at it.


The current target is for Scotland to fall in around 3 turns, which is a bit of a long time given that Bandito is racing around hovering up settlements.



Selifator (Italy/Antioch) is worried about losing ground to the Moors, which is a very real threat for him. I'll have to work on building some countermeasures that could help, but that don't currently threaten Bandito. If that's too difficult then I might have to try and afford a stonking great army or 3...

Turns 30 to 33 inclusive

Hmm, I thought I'd already noted what had happened here. Looks like I didn't then.

Well, not much happened really. I've been running a couple of spies around England looking for Bandito's assassin(s) without achieving much. He's got one there as I've had a couple of buildings sabotaged recently. Maybe it's just a matter of time or luck.

Scotland fell to a single blow (well two blows as they had two regions) on turn 33.

[This message has been edited by SwampRat (edited 12-31-2009 @ 01:07 PM).]