Seems to be going well so far. Do we have other people lined up for succession yet? I can't take a turn, since I've lately become quite busy with other stuff.
I have CK Gold edition (which I think is what you are effectively playing right?) and would more than happily play. My only long term CK game I played Corsica, became King of Africa and then splintered into oblivion as I attempted to recreate the Roman Empire.
2 - Grab Gent. Rich province and a direct line to Brugge, an even richer one. Is the King of France at war with Flanders? How's your reputation going?
C - Ignore the throne for now. If the King starts having a few more sons, your plans would be for naught. Wait a few years - but definitely revisit this if his only son nears maturity.
2 - Grab Gent. Rich province and a direct line to Brugge, an even richer one. Is the King of France at war with Flanders? How's your reputation going?
C - Ignore the throne for now. If the King starts having a few more sons, your plans would be for naught. Wait a few years - but definitely revisit this if his only son nears maturity.
You're sort of late on this.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
2 - Grab Gent. Rich province and a direct line to Brugge, an even richer one. Is the King of France at war with Flanders? How's your reputation going?
C - Ignore the throne for now. If the King starts having a few more sons, your plans would be for naught. Wait a few years - but definitely revisit this if his only son nears maturity.
You're sort of late on this.
Gah. Apologies. I just realised. Well that just means I have lots of pages of the LP to read through
I'm just throwing generic comments... don't mind me...
Conclusion of wars with France and Poland. Holy war in Egypt!
13 February 1150 We lay siege to Armagnac, and accept the offer of a white peace from the county. Having accomplished our objectives, King Jordan looks for a quick end to his wars. He orders his troops onto the King's personal territory in Viscaya in northern Spain, while simultaneously ordering troops to the King's seat of power in Dijon.
25 February 1150 King Jordan marries off his great Aunt Douce to one of the courtiers of the King of Italy who is quite powerful. The king wisely uses her as his Steward.
26 April 1150 We successfully lay siege to Dijon, and move that Regiment towards Viscaya in support of our other troops.
21 June 1150 The nobles in Luxembourg hold a feast in honor of the recent victories, which King Jordan kindly bankrolls.
2 July 1150 The king has a meagre army in Viscaya which is easily dispatched. The siege is successful and the province is liberated without any further interference.
23 September 1150 He offers France the following terms which they graciously accept. Forcing France to give up their claims on our lands will help us in the future by forcing them to make up false claims should they want to declare war on us.
An interesting development by one of our vassals the Duke of Alsace. He has been successful thus far in his war with the Emirate of Sicily. This is the first example of our vassals making significant headway against the heathens for a decent period of time. In the end their war fails, but I felt it was a suprisingly good effort.
19 October 1150 We send our troops into the neighboring Countly of Loon, vassal of Poland. No sooner to they see our troops do they offer up peace, which we accept.
11 November 1150 We re-route our troops to Brandenburg, where we will hopefully see a quick end to this war.
15 November 1150 Unfortunately one of their spies sabotages a lumbermill in Brabant. This is a feeble gesture, and it is inexpensively rebuilt.
27 June 1151 Eustachie is expecting a child. King Jordan claims to be chaste, but when the child is born, it is obviously his, as we shall see.
3 September 1151 We arrive in Brandenburg and they quickly are subdued and offer to relinquish their claim on Luxembourg. We accept.
16 October 1151 Like a rat fleeing a sinking ship, one of Poland's courtiers comes begging for patronage.
4 December 1151 The Duke of Swabia asks for our eldest daughter's hand in marriage. We accept and receive a healthy duty. We could have turned down the duty for a small bonus to prestige, but it wasn't large enough to turn down over 1000 gold coins.
16 February 1152 Not having received enough love from the heel of our boot, Brandenburg attempts to wage a war on the county of Sens. We've gotten everything we wanted out of them, so we do not decare war on them. Their ambitions in Sens never bears fruit.
10 March 1152 A son is born. We feel happy that now our succession is secure. Even if Serlo were to die, we still have another son. Unfortunately developments will disappoint us in the future.
19 March 1152 After a successful siege of Poznanskie and the capitulation of King Boleslaw of Poland there is peace once again in the realm of Nouvelle Burgougne!
In other news, The Kingdom of Byzantium have been successful in their wars with the Cumans, who have in turn eliminated any other threat in what we would call Russia.
15 June 1153 We offer our second daughter to one of the courtiers in the Kingdom of Denmark.
21 June 1153 While we normally put the welfare of our nobles above all others, we have a soft spot in our hearts for the church, so we decline their request to hunt on church lands.
25 July 1153 We have our prestigious Marshall set up a war academy in Yperen, a county that has served us well in our wars with the Teutonic order, Poland and France.
2 August 1153 The question of the education of our second child Geoffroy comes up when I notice there is something 'special' about him. We send him of to the monastery, where hopefully they can make something out of him.
2 September 1153 King Jordan's reign was not destined to be one of peace, as the pope called the Christian soldiers to arms to fight the heathens. Displayed are the major holdings of the al-Murabitids. They also own the coastal areas of western Africa as well. We heed the call and declare war!
29 April 1154 Young Serlo is turning out well. We have high hopes for him as our successor as he's the only one we've got.
12 June 1154 These heathens get splintered a lot. The pope has given the call to arms, and it would be unwise of us to make peace with them now.
11 August 1154 Interesting to note the current state of affairs in England. Norway has made some serious inroads onto the British Isles, as well as the remnants of Germany to our east. How this plays out could have major implications for us in the years ahead.
18 November 1154 The target of our crusade is in sight. Our first expeditionary force meets with unfortunate defeat. With the size of the enemy's armies we don't expect much success. The cost to raise and ship a sizable enough force to combat them would be outrageous and leave our homeland un-defended.
19 February 1155 Sultan of the al-Murabitids seeks to join our cause. This can sometimes be problematic when you have heathens working for you as the pope will sometimes send the inquisition after them. I have a hard time saying no though.
14 March 1155 Popular opinion is that King Jordan has been a wise and just King, and the realm is more stable for it. Realm stability is a huge deal, it ranges from -3 to +3. For the duration of my reign it has been steady at 0. If your stability is low it is much more likely that vassals will decide to declare independance and start civil wars for no apparent reason.
22 May 1155 The Highland Claymore Company has served me well in the past, so I gladly hire them again and send them off towards Alexandria.
5 June 1155 My spymaster informs me that the Count of Lyons has been muttering things behind my back lately so we quickly doctor up some paperwork. I pretend I'm none the wiser, but we have the claims should we need to force the issue.
27 June 1155 Serlo comes of age and we decide to make him Duke of Anjou, Count of Maine. he's turning out ok. Not the best attributes, but he has a reasonably high intrigue.
27 August 1155 The great War Academy in Yperen is opened. We hope it will be the fountainhead for a great string of brilliant military leaders in the years to come.
6 September 1155 I'm nonconfrontational? Go figure. There's an option of maintaining your claim for a penalty to your 'bad boy' points, or you can risk losing it for 100 prestige. I choose the prestige option, which I have plenty of.
21 September 1155 Our buddy the King of Denmark starts a war. We're clearly a bit non-comittal about the war with Alexandria, so we go ahead and say we'll help him out. Just as soon as our troops finish their drills. We do have troops on the way to the Holy land, but it is a LONG way around Spain. Maybe we should secure some good Mediterranean property to shorten the trip and lessen the expense.
23 September 1155 We notice that our loyal subject, the Duke of Holland has been doing well against the al-Murabitids on the north coast of Africa. Good job guys!
11 October 1155 The Count of Foggia decides to declare war on Germany. You're on your own buddy.
11 November 1155 Why you disloyal.... We never see them again. No big loss I suppose.
7 January 1156 So wait. I can just jump in on wars with small nations and get paid for it? I'm game.
10 February 1156 Sign me up!!
18 March 1156 The second battle of Alexandria. I have high hopes for this one. Seriously, are any of you other nations going to help me out on this?
16 March 1156 I have the option of calling the Estates General. I could always use some money, but I opt for the chance for a stability increase, which doesn't occur.
1 May 1156 The stunning conclusion of the second battle of Alexandria. Not unexpected. We send more lambs to the slaughter, er, I mean crusaders on a mission from God to liberate the Holy lands.
25 July 1156 The Bishop of Boulogne wants to become pope, something I whole-heartedly endorse!
20 February 1157 The Duke of Bosnia wishes to become my vassal. We're collecting all sorts of vassals in far off places, which doesn't sound like a good idea, but so for it hasn't come back to haunt us. Even if they rebel, they're so far away it wouldn't be a big loss.
Additionally you can see the Duke of Holland has made even more progress! By now the war that the Duke of Alsace was waging on the Emir of Sicily is over with nothing gained.
26 July 1157 The third battle of Alexandria. I have been funding these from my personal demesne which means that I foot the bill completely. Maybe thats why my vassals haven't been getting too nervous.
16 November 1157 Realizing the need for better fleets to carry our troops to the Holy lands, We commission a Grand Shipyard to be built in Brugge. This is a great achievement as it will significantly reduce the cost of sending forces overseas.
7 December 1157 Gregorian reforms are instituted in our lands. Indulgences are good. You can sell them for money, or give them to the poor for prestige and I think a chance at a stability bonus.
Now for a quick look at Serlo, our heir. Not the best stats, but he will make an acceptable heir. As you see he's already gaining prestige and piety, things that will help him when he inherits the realm.
Later today, the stunning conclusion of the reign of St. Jordan!
I'm playing what ever version comes from Impulse. I would like to think that an online distribution service would keep the patches up to date, but I don't know how they manage patches.
Paradox games are weird like that; sometimes yes sometimes no. I think the changes were honestly pretty minimal. The major fix was that one, so that when you're in France random counties in Poland or Scandinavia or the Balkans aren't asking for you to protect them.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I checked the PI forums. I am running CK Deus Vult 2.0 which is the latest official patch, that includes all of the vassal fixes. I am not running the 'beta' patch that was pushed in Oct 2008 which is 2.1
starkiller, Zedar, either of you want to claim Serlo? Lowlander tells me he's currently ill so there's a chance of a short reign. Fortunately he has fathered a couple sons so we're OK on that front.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
Norway and England competing for near emperor of Europe. England, sure, but Norway? Feh. Of course, whatever the hell our country is called is making good headway.
What are we going to call our country in EU3 anyways?
Featuring the conquest and Catholicization of Alexandria
11 April 1158 The fourth battle of Alexandria has begun! Results are as expect... what the hell? We won!
1 May 1158 Our good fortune did not last long, but at least we wiped the smug off their face if only just a little.
16 June 1158 We tell the monks that they can keep our inbred love child until they can make something out of him. Normally at this age a child would have stats of between 0 and 4, but poor Geoffroy has 0s across the board due to his inbred trait giving him a -5 to all stats.
5 October 1158 Look buddy, you keep asking for money, and I'm not seeing any results. Have another 100 gold.
5 December 1158 Fifth time's a charm? No?
9 March 1159 I'm normally a very cautious player and rarely choose options that lower my relationship with anybody, as you can still manufacture a claim and attack them if you have the prestige. France is weak though, and if we can goad them into attacking us, so much the better.
28 May 1159 A bunch of nobles want me to ship them off to Alexandria to die. I wouldn't mind, but I have to pay them while they're working for me as well as foot the bill of shipping them over. Each trip I send people is costing me between 180 and 300 gold. No small fee. This is part of why I'm not sending massed troops. I ask for their money instead, and only get the 200g, not the 3k+
26 July 1159 Well I'll be. Way to go Raymond. I am now the Papal Controller. I never use the ability. I should have excommunicated the Teutonic Knights while I had the chance.
6 August 1159 Now notice that Alexandria is green instead of brown. I'm not sure what causes this, and I've had this work out for me in a way that doesn't help me before. Basically their still the al-Murabitids, but every sieged town instantly reverted back to their control, and all of their forces were disbanded and brought back to their respective provinces. I've had this happen when I had six or seven of their provinces under my control, just to have to go back and lay siege to them all again. Its a pain in the butt. This time though it worked out for us.
If anybody can shed some light on just what the deal is, let me know. Is it some sort of change of power, like a new Emir?
20 August 1159 Unfortunately we're still outgunned.
12 November 1159 I again decline to call the Estates General and fail to get the increase in stability I so crave.
1 April 1160 My enemies have successfully used spies against me a couple of times during my reign. I should either get a better spymaster, or start slandering them myself. I prefer steel to words though.
10 April 1160 Like I said, I should have excommunicated them. Of course, I accept my vassals request for aid.
21 April 1160 Go Go 7th try
12 August 1160 The Church wants my land. Unfortunately the option is Hell yes! (lose a lot of stability), Yes (50% lose 1 stability) and No, I'm a heathen that deserves to be excommunicated. The hit on this one was bad in both piety and personality traits. I crossed my fingers and luckily won the coin toss.
6 October 1160 I'm not sure how slander works in fairy tale land, but I'm pretty sure that just because somebody calls me a coward, doesn't mean I actually am. Of course I have been sitting back here in Brugge while I've been sending my subjects off to get slaughtered.
8 October 1160 Pope Raymond has a sit down with me after I've been slandered. In order to prove myself I round up 12800 men and lead them off through the English Channel to fight the Heathens. It's expensive, but enough is enough.
26 December 1160 Omens from the sky. I pay off the local clergy to tell my troops that it foreshadows the fall of Alexandria. Those damn Teutonic knights. I swear. Their like vermin. They will be the major source of distress to me until almost the day I die.
6 January 1161 The al-Murabitids have foolishly moved their troops away from Alexandria.
2 February 1161 I seek revenge for my defeat at Brabant.
30 April 1161 Joyous news! Alexandria has been liberated.
1 August 1161 We loose another battle in Luxembourg.
20 August 1161 We triumph in Buhairya, the county just south of Alexandria. In order to reach any other provinces, I would have to send my regiment out by boat because their are adjacent provinces I am not at war with. I figure that this would be a good time to sue for peace and see what I can get out of it. As you can see, our industrious friend and vassal the Duke of Holland got something out of it too.
11 September 1161 Luxembourg is conquered by the Teutonic Knights. They offer peace if we pay them 1385 gold. This makes us laugh. Just because our attention has been elsewhere does not mean that we are threatened.
13 October 1161 Reims falls to them. This is really starting to make us look bad.
29 October 1161 Rioting in Alexandria. Not necessarily a bad thing, because it make give us the opportunity to convert them.
1 November 1161 Our attention back at home, we start pushing back the Knights. The have laid their last sucessful siege. The tide has broken.
3 December 1161 A bit of sympathy causes me to give into the rioters at Alexandria. I'm not sure what I was thinking.
8 December 1161 Reims is liberated. Hopefully the Knights will surrender without me having to go over there. I am getting old, and I'm too tired for this.
2 January 1162 Our forces are sucessful in Luxembourg, and the Knights have finally grown weary of war. I have too. I accept. Peace at last. I'm taking a piety hit every month for not being on a crusade, but I got 1000 piety for taking Alexandria, and my piety sits at 2000, so I'm not too worried about it.
22 April 1162 Poor Geoffroy has good reason to be modest.
23 May 1162 My Chancellor tells me that the Count of Derby has recently broken away from England. They hold the county of Vexin, something we have a claim on. This is too good to pass up so we mobilize our forces for one last conquest.
4 August 1162 I tell the Burghers in Alexandria to shove off and they convert in droves. Alexandria is now catholic.
also on the same day the Count of Derby recognizes my claim on the county of Vexin.
17 November 1162 The Grand Shipyard is built in Brugge. This is one of the three crowning achievements. This should prove extremely valuable in the future. The other two are the conquest via lemming of Alexandria, and the War Academy in Yperen.
9 January 1163 The Alexandrians revolt. Remembering the words of Marshall what's his name, I valiantly throw my troops in as soon as they arrive. Sure enough the tactic is a smashing success.
16 May 1163 Three of my counties attack the Netherlands. I'm not sure what provoked this, but their on their own. I decline ther calls for help.
12 June 1163 Hours late for an appointment, his Chancellor sends the maid to his chambers to get him, and finds him lying peacefully in his bed. He is beatified, and we are sure it is only a short time until he is fully canonized.
The state of the world at King Jordan's Expiry:
The British Isles are in an odd state of affairs. The light blue is Scotland, and they own most of their natural territory as well as northern Ireland. The light purple is Norway who own the south coast of Ireland and have control of portions of both coasts of Britain. The English are in orange, and as you can see they have lost significant portions of their home territory. At some point their aggresive expansionism got the better of them and their empire began to crumble. You would think the green in Ireland would be the Irish, but you'd be wrong. The Polish have vassals everywhere, and a large consolidated chunk in what we would call Poland proper.
The Iberian Peninsula is nothing like you would expect to see. It is overrun by the Heathens in green and purple. France has the majority of its holdings in Iberia (dark blue) The lone Red county is Murcia which is controlled by the Duke of Holland, as won in our crusades. The light green counties are owned by the Kingdom of Italy.
Speaking of Italy... The two white provinces are owned by the Papacy, we control the County of Foggia and Duchy of Bosnia in red. The dark Blue is Serbia, and the purple is the Byzantine Empire.
In the North we have Sweden in Dark Blue, Norway in pale purple, and our allies Denmark in Red. The white provinces have just recently (as in the last few months) splintered off from Norway. The green provinces are our nemesis Poland.
To the east we see large green swaths of land controlled by the Cumans, and a pretty sizable chunk that has been carved out by the Byzantines. The other green is Poland. The greyish country is Hungary, and the light green is Bohemia
Here's a better look at central Europe. Same colors as before. The parchment colored nation is Mecklenburg.
Anatolia and Greece: You can see that the Byzantines aren't doing so well on their home turf. You can see by the flags that they are reclaiming some of Anatolia from the Emir of Derbent.
The Holy lands: The three red counties to the bottom left are us. Poland is green and owns the other three colonies on the Nile delta. The other various green countries are all heathens. You can see the Templars (they only own that one province) and the Kingdom of Jerusalem which still stands.
France: We have a good centralized blob up north including Holland and Belgium. France has reclaimed some of her lands from the Norwegians who are light purple. Again, the somewhat lighter blue, but still dark blue =D is Sweden and the orange is the English. Green is Poland and the light green is Italy.
The Kingdom of Burgundy. Our personal Demesne is in dark green (not pictured: Alexandria) the light green is our vassals, and the orange is what we currently have claims on.
So was King Jordan successful? If you look at the big picture, King Jordan didn't really expand the Nation too much. His early years were involved with pointless wars that devolved upon him from his grandfather King Henri. He lost a county or so in the south of France, but took three or four when he had settled the initial war with Poland and the Teutonic order. He had a startling success during the crusades, but really that was just a stroke of luck. Really his main achievements were his building projects which I didn't go into into too much detail as its boring and repetetive capped by the War Academy and the Grand Shipyard. (In my game as Castille I don't have either of those as of the mid to late 1200's) We own the two most valuable counties in the game, Ille de France and Alexandria, which give us an excellent economic base. History will also never forget his misadventures with the bastard Serlo.
Unfortunately his son Serlo is seriously ill, but we have high hopes that he can recover. Serlo has two male heirs, and should fate be so unkind there is always poor inbred Geoffroy should both of those die off.
In two successive Kingships the Kingdom of Nouvelle Bourgone has led the way in liberating the Holy lands.
EDIT: starkiller asked next, so unless he's busy he will take Serlo's heir, followed by Kayne Red Robe. Which will hopefully get us at least to the 13th century if not at our current average closer to 1225 which is roughly the halfway point.
EDIT2: Also, 1/9 centuries complete!
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
Did we independently choose that phrase or did you see my episode title for part three of your reign when you wrote that?
Heh, I saw your title. I found your titles to my updates pretty humorous and informative. By the way, I just finished editing. The computer went a little wonky for a while, so there may be something you've missed. Included is a geographical update and a summary of King Jordan's reign.
I'd also like to offer a tip to anybody who is doing one of these after me.
Since the date is in each screenshot when you take them, I recommend renaming them in the following format: YYMMDD. If you do this, then they will automatically sort correctly when you alphabetically sort them. In this way I was able to just play the game and not write down any notes.
At first I tried writing notes and it was a painstaking and un-fun process. If you do it my way and just keep your fingers ready to hit the F11 and Pause Break keys, I found it to be much more enjoyable.
This may be plainly the obvious thing to do, but if it helps anybody else out in their enjoyment, its worth saying.
The Pope had asked us to go crusading (actually still is, despite much of northern Egypt being under Christian control). If you're powerful you lose a bunch of piety each month for not going crusading and there are major bonuses if you're successful. However, it's also crazy expensive to ship troops down through the Med, so Lowlander was preserving our cash to continue his infrastructure build up (which is quite impressive).
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I'll happily take Serlo's heir. Sorry for not responding earlier, I had set this up for emails but I didn't receive them. Must be in the junk folder. As to Alexandria, we may have reversed the course of history. That was one of the greatest of the Christian sees and its permanent recovery would have forced a huge change in history.
Posts
C - Ignore the throne for now. If the King starts having a few more sons, your plans would be for naught. Wait a few years - but definitely revisit this if his only son nears maturity.
You're sort of late on this.
Gah. Apologies. I just realised. Well that just means I have lots of pages of the LP to read through
I'm just throwing generic comments... don't mind me...
Conclusion of wars with France and Poland. Holy war in Egypt!
25 February 1150 King Jordan marries off his great Aunt Douce to one of the courtiers of the King of Italy who is quite powerful. The king wisely uses her as his Steward.
26 April 1150 We successfully lay siege to Dijon, and move that Regiment towards Viscaya in support of our other troops.
21 June 1150 The nobles in Luxembourg hold a feast in honor of the recent victories, which King Jordan kindly bankrolls.
2 July 1150 The king has a meagre army in Viscaya which is easily dispatched. The siege is successful and the province is liberated without any further interference.
23 September 1150 He offers France the following terms which they graciously accept. Forcing France to give up their claims on our lands will help us in the future by forcing them to make up false claims should they want to declare war on us.
An interesting development by one of our vassals the Duke of Alsace. He has been successful thus far in his war with the Emirate of Sicily. This is the first example of our vassals making significant headway against the heathens for a decent period of time. In the end their war fails, but I felt it was a suprisingly good effort.
19 October 1150 We send our troops into the neighboring Countly of Loon, vassal of Poland. No sooner to they see our troops do they offer up peace, which we accept.
11 November 1150 We re-route our troops to Brandenburg, where we will hopefully see a quick end to this war.
15 November 1150 Unfortunately one of their spies sabotages a lumbermill in Brabant. This is a feeble gesture, and it is inexpensively rebuilt.
27 June 1151 Eustachie is expecting a child. King Jordan claims to be chaste, but when the child is born, it is obviously his, as we shall see.
3 September 1151 We arrive in Brandenburg and they quickly are subdued and offer to relinquish their claim on Luxembourg. We accept.
16 October 1151 Like a rat fleeing a sinking ship, one of Poland's courtiers comes begging for patronage.
4 December 1151 The Duke of Swabia asks for our eldest daughter's hand in marriage. We accept and receive a healthy duty. We could have turned down the duty for a small bonus to prestige, but it wasn't large enough to turn down over 1000 gold coins.
16 February 1152 Not having received enough love from the heel of our boot, Brandenburg attempts to wage a war on the county of Sens. We've gotten everything we wanted out of them, so we do not decare war on them. Their ambitions in Sens never bears fruit.
10 March 1152 A son is born. We feel happy that now our succession is secure. Even if Serlo were to die, we still have another son. Unfortunately developments will disappoint us in the future.
19 March 1152 After a successful siege of Poznanskie and the capitulation of King Boleslaw of Poland there is peace once again in the realm of Nouvelle Burgougne!
In other news, The Kingdom of Byzantium have been successful in their wars with the Cumans, who have in turn eliminated any other threat in what we would call Russia.
15 June 1153 We offer our second daughter to one of the courtiers in the Kingdom of Denmark.
21 June 1153 While we normally put the welfare of our nobles above all others, we have a soft spot in our hearts for the church, so we decline their request to hunt on church lands.
25 July 1153 We have our prestigious Marshall set up a war academy in Yperen, a county that has served us well in our wars with the Teutonic order, Poland and France.
2 August 1153 The question of the education of our second child Geoffroy comes up when I notice there is something 'special' about him. We send him of to the monastery, where hopefully they can make something out of him.
2 September 1153 King Jordan's reign was not destined to be one of peace, as the pope called the Christian soldiers to arms to fight the heathens. Displayed are the major holdings of the al-Murabitids. They also own the coastal areas of western Africa as well. We heed the call and declare war!
29 April 1154 Young Serlo is turning out well. We have high hopes for him as our successor as he's the only one we've got.
12 June 1154 These heathens get splintered a lot. The pope has given the call to arms, and it would be unwise of us to make peace with them now.
11 August 1154 Interesting to note the current state of affairs in England. Norway has made some serious inroads onto the British Isles, as well as the remnants of Germany to our east. How this plays out could have major implications for us in the years ahead.
18 November 1154 The target of our crusade is in sight. Our first expeditionary force meets with unfortunate defeat. With the size of the enemy's armies we don't expect much success. The cost to raise and ship a sizable enough force to combat them would be outrageous and leave our homeland un-defended.
19 February 1155 Sultan of the al-Murabitids seeks to join our cause. This can sometimes be problematic when you have heathens working for you as the pope will sometimes send the inquisition after them. I have a hard time saying no though.
14 March 1155 Popular opinion is that King Jordan has been a wise and just King, and the realm is more stable for it. Realm stability is a huge deal, it ranges from -3 to +3. For the duration of my reign it has been steady at 0. If your stability is low it is much more likely that vassals will decide to declare independance and start civil wars for no apparent reason.
22 May 1155 The Highland Claymore Company has served me well in the past, so I gladly hire them again and send them off towards Alexandria.
5 June 1155 My spymaster informs me that the Count of Lyons has been muttering things behind my back lately so we quickly doctor up some paperwork. I pretend I'm none the wiser, but we have the claims should we need to force the issue.
27 June 1155 Serlo comes of age and we decide to make him Duke of Anjou, Count of Maine. he's turning out ok. Not the best attributes, but he has a reasonably high intrigue.
27 August 1155 The great War Academy in Yperen is opened. We hope it will be the fountainhead for a great string of brilliant military leaders in the years to come.
6 September 1155 I'm nonconfrontational? Go figure. There's an option of maintaining your claim for a penalty to your 'bad boy' points, or you can risk losing it for 100 prestige. I choose the prestige option, which I have plenty of.
21 September 1155 Our buddy the King of Denmark starts a war. We're clearly a bit non-comittal about the war with Alexandria, so we go ahead and say we'll help him out. Just as soon as our troops finish their drills. We do have troops on the way to the Holy land, but it is a LONG way around Spain. Maybe we should secure some good Mediterranean property to shorten the trip and lessen the expense.
23 September 1155 We notice that our loyal subject, the Duke of Holland has been doing well against the al-Murabitids on the north coast of Africa. Good job guys!
11 October 1155 The Count of Foggia decides to declare war on Germany. You're on your own buddy.
11 November 1155 Why you disloyal.... We never see them again. No big loss I suppose.
7 January 1156 So wait. I can just jump in on wars with small nations and get paid for it? I'm game.
10 February 1156 Sign me up!!
18 March 1156 The second battle of Alexandria. I have high hopes for this one. Seriously, are any of you other nations going to help me out on this?
16 March 1156 I have the option of calling the Estates General. I could always use some money, but I opt for the chance for a stability increase, which doesn't occur.
1 May 1156 The stunning conclusion of the second battle of Alexandria. Not unexpected. We send more lambs to the slaughter, er, I mean crusaders on a mission from God to liberate the Holy lands.
25 July 1156 The Bishop of Boulogne wants to become pope, something I whole-heartedly endorse!
20 February 1157 The Duke of Bosnia wishes to become my vassal. We're collecting all sorts of vassals in far off places, which doesn't sound like a good idea, but so for it hasn't come back to haunt us. Even if they rebel, they're so far away it wouldn't be a big loss.
Additionally you can see the Duke of Holland has made even more progress! By now the war that the Duke of Alsace was waging on the Emir of Sicily is over with nothing gained.
26 July 1157 The third battle of Alexandria. I have been funding these from my personal demesne which means that I foot the bill completely. Maybe thats why my vassals haven't been getting too nervous.
16 November 1157 Realizing the need for better fleets to carry our troops to the Holy lands, We commission a Grand Shipyard to be built in Brugge. This is a great achievement as it will significantly reduce the cost of sending forces overseas.
7 December 1157 Gregorian reforms are instituted in our lands. Indulgences are good. You can sell them for money, or give them to the poor for prestige and I think a chance at a stability bonus.
Now for a quick look at Serlo, our heir. Not the best stats, but he will make an acceptable heir. As you see he's already gaining prestige and piety, things that will help him when he inherits the realm.
Later today, the stunning conclusion of the reign of St. Jordan!
What are we going to call our country in EU3 anyways?
I suggest Charlemangia.
Featuring the conquest and Catholicization of Alexandria
11 April 1158 The fourth battle of Alexandria has begun! Results are as expect... what the hell? We won!
1 May 1158 Our good fortune did not last long, but at least we wiped the smug off their face if only just a little.
16 June 1158 We tell the monks that they can keep our inbred love child until they can make something out of him. Normally at this age a child would have stats of between 0 and 4, but poor Geoffroy has 0s across the board due to his inbred trait giving him a -5 to all stats.
5 October 1158 Look buddy, you keep asking for money, and I'm not seeing any results. Have another 100 gold.
5 December 1158 Fifth time's a charm? No?
9 March 1159 I'm normally a very cautious player and rarely choose options that lower my relationship with anybody, as you can still manufacture a claim and attack them if you have the prestige. France is weak though, and if we can goad them into attacking us, so much the better.
28 May 1159 A bunch of nobles want me to ship them off to Alexandria to die. I wouldn't mind, but I have to pay them while they're working for me as well as foot the bill of shipping them over. Each trip I send people is costing me between 180 and 300 gold. No small fee. This is part of why I'm not sending massed troops. I ask for their money instead, and only get the 200g, not the 3k+
26 July 1159 Well I'll be. Way to go Raymond. I am now the Papal Controller. I never use the ability. I should have excommunicated the Teutonic Knights while I had the chance.
6 August 1159 Now notice that Alexandria is green instead of brown. I'm not sure what causes this, and I've had this work out for me in a way that doesn't help me before. Basically their still the al-Murabitids, but every sieged town instantly reverted back to their control, and all of their forces were disbanded and brought back to their respective provinces. I've had this happen when I had six or seven of their provinces under my control, just to have to go back and lay siege to them all again. Its a pain in the butt. This time though it worked out for us.
If anybody can shed some light on just what the deal is, let me know. Is it some sort of change of power, like a new Emir?
20 August 1159 Unfortunately we're still outgunned.
12 November 1159 I again decline to call the Estates General and fail to get the increase in stability I so crave.
1 April 1160 My enemies have successfully used spies against me a couple of times during my reign. I should either get a better spymaster, or start slandering them myself. I prefer steel to words though.
10 April 1160 Like I said, I should have excommunicated them. Of course, I accept my vassals request for aid.
21 April 1160 Go Go 7th try
12 August 1160 The Church wants my land. Unfortunately the option is Hell yes! (lose a lot of stability), Yes (50% lose 1 stability) and No, I'm a heathen that deserves to be excommunicated. The hit on this one was bad in both piety and personality traits. I crossed my fingers and luckily won the coin toss.
6 October 1160 I'm not sure how slander works in fairy tale land, but I'm pretty sure that just because somebody calls me a coward, doesn't mean I actually am. Of course I have been sitting back here in Brugge while I've been sending my subjects off to get slaughtered.
8 October 1160 Pope Raymond has a sit down with me after I've been slandered. In order to prove myself I round up 12800 men and lead them off through the English Channel to fight the Heathens. It's expensive, but enough is enough.
26 December 1160 Omens from the sky. I pay off the local clergy to tell my troops that it foreshadows the fall of Alexandria. Those damn Teutonic knights. I swear. Their like vermin. They will be the major source of distress to me until almost the day I die.
6 January 1161 The al-Murabitids have foolishly moved their troops away from Alexandria.
2 February 1161 I seek revenge for my defeat at Brabant.
30 April 1161 Joyous news! Alexandria has been liberated.
1 August 1161 We loose another battle in Luxembourg.
20 August 1161 We triumph in Buhairya, the county just south of Alexandria. In order to reach any other provinces, I would have to send my regiment out by boat because their are adjacent provinces I am not at war with. I figure that this would be a good time to sue for peace and see what I can get out of it. As you can see, our industrious friend and vassal the Duke of Holland got something out of it too.
11 September 1161 Luxembourg is conquered by the Teutonic Knights. They offer peace if we pay them 1385 gold. This makes us laugh. Just because our attention has been elsewhere does not mean that we are threatened.
13 October 1161 Reims falls to them. This is really starting to make us look bad.
29 October 1161 Rioting in Alexandria. Not necessarily a bad thing, because it make give us the opportunity to convert them.
1 November 1161 Our attention back at home, we start pushing back the Knights. The have laid their last sucessful siege. The tide has broken.
3 December 1161 A bit of sympathy causes me to give into the rioters at Alexandria. I'm not sure what I was thinking.
8 December 1161 Reims is liberated. Hopefully the Knights will surrender without me having to go over there. I am getting old, and I'm too tired for this.
2 January 1162 Our forces are sucessful in Luxembourg, and the Knights have finally grown weary of war. I have too. I accept. Peace at last. I'm taking a piety hit every month for not being on a crusade, but I got 1000 piety for taking Alexandria, and my piety sits at 2000, so I'm not too worried about it.
22 April 1162 Poor Geoffroy has good reason to be modest.
23 May 1162 My Chancellor tells me that the Count of Derby has recently broken away from England. They hold the county of Vexin, something we have a claim on. This is too good to pass up so we mobilize our forces for one last conquest.
4 August 1162 I tell the Burghers in Alexandria to shove off and they convert in droves. Alexandria is now catholic.
also on the same day the Count of Derby recognizes my claim on the county of Vexin.
17 November 1162 The Grand Shipyard is built in Brugge. This is one of the three crowning achievements. This should prove extremely valuable in the future. The other two are the conquest via lemming of Alexandria, and the War Academy in Yperen.
9 January 1163 The Alexandrians revolt. Remembering the words of Marshall what's his name, I valiantly throw my troops in as soon as they arrive. Sure enough the tactic is a smashing success.
16 May 1163 Three of my counties attack the Netherlands. I'm not sure what provoked this, but their on their own. I decline ther calls for help.
12 June 1163 Hours late for an appointment, his Chancellor sends the maid to his chambers to get him, and finds him lying peacefully in his bed. He is beatified, and we are sure it is only a short time until he is fully canonized.
The state of the world at King Jordan's Expiry:
The British Isles are in an odd state of affairs. The light blue is Scotland, and they own most of their natural territory as well as northern Ireland. The light purple is Norway who own the south coast of Ireland and have control of portions of both coasts of Britain. The English are in orange, and as you can see they have lost significant portions of their home territory. At some point their aggresive expansionism got the better of them and their empire began to crumble. You would think the green in Ireland would be the Irish, but you'd be wrong. The Polish have vassals everywhere, and a large consolidated chunk in what we would call Poland proper.
The Iberian Peninsula is nothing like you would expect to see. It is overrun by the Heathens in green and purple. France has the majority of its holdings in Iberia (dark blue) The lone Red county is Murcia which is controlled by the Duke of Holland, as won in our crusades. The light green counties are owned by the Kingdom of Italy.
Speaking of Italy... The two white provinces are owned by the Papacy, we control the County of Foggia and Duchy of Bosnia in red. The dark Blue is Serbia, and the purple is the Byzantine Empire.
In the North we have Sweden in Dark Blue, Norway in pale purple, and our allies Denmark in Red. The white provinces have just recently (as in the last few months) splintered off from Norway. The green provinces are our nemesis Poland.
To the east we see large green swaths of land controlled by the Cumans, and a pretty sizable chunk that has been carved out by the Byzantines. The other green is Poland. The greyish country is Hungary, and the light green is Bohemia
Here's a better look at central Europe. Same colors as before. The parchment colored nation is Mecklenburg.
Anatolia and Greece: You can see that the Byzantines aren't doing so well on their home turf. You can see by the flags that they are reclaiming some of Anatolia from the Emir of Derbent.
The Holy lands: The three red counties to the bottom left are us. Poland is green and owns the other three colonies on the Nile delta. The other various green countries are all heathens. You can see the Templars (they only own that one province) and the Kingdom of Jerusalem which still stands.
France: We have a good centralized blob up north including Holland and Belgium. France has reclaimed some of her lands from the Norwegians who are light purple. Again, the somewhat lighter blue, but still dark blue =D is Sweden and the orange is the English. Green is Poland and the light green is Italy.
The Kingdom of Burgundy. Our personal Demesne is in dark green (not pictured: Alexandria) the light green is our vassals, and the orange is what we currently have claims on.
So was King Jordan successful? If you look at the big picture, King Jordan didn't really expand the Nation too much. His early years were involved with pointless wars that devolved upon him from his grandfather King Henri. He lost a county or so in the south of France, but took three or four when he had settled the initial war with Poland and the Teutonic order. He had a startling success during the crusades, but really that was just a stroke of luck. Really his main achievements were his building projects which I didn't go into into too much detail as its boring and repetetive capped by the War Academy and the Grand Shipyard. (In my game as Castille I don't have either of those as of the mid to late 1200's) We own the two most valuable counties in the game, Ille de France and Alexandria, which give us an excellent economic base. History will also never forget his misadventures with the bastard Serlo.
Unfortunately his son Serlo is seriously ill, but we have high hopes that he can recover. Serlo has two male heirs, and should fate be so unkind there is always poor inbred Geoffroy should both of those die off.
In two successive Kingships the Kingdom of Nouvelle Bourgone has led the way in liberating the Holy lands.
I think there's already a modern name for the Frankish Kingdom.
EDIT: starkiller asked next, so unless he's busy he will take Serlo's heir, followed by Kayne Red Robe. Which will hopefully get us at least to the 13th century if not at our current average closer to 1225 which is roughly the halfway point.
EDIT2: Also, 1/9 centuries complete!
Did we independently choose that phrase or did you see my episode title for part three of your reign when you wrote that?
Heh, I saw your title. I found your titles to my updates pretty humorous and informative. By the way, I just finished editing. The computer went a little wonky for a while, so there may be something you've missed. Included is a geographical update and a summary of King Jordan's reign.
Since the date is in each screenshot when you take them, I recommend renaming them in the following format: YYMMDD. If you do this, then they will automatically sort correctly when you alphabetically sort them. In this way I was able to just play the game and not write down any notes.
At first I tried writing notes and it was a painstaking and un-fun process. If you do it my way and just keep your fingers ready to hit the F11 and Pause Break keys, I found it to be much more enjoyable.
This may be plainly the obvious thing to do, but if it helps anybody else out in their enjoyment, its worth saying.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)