By Victoria and HOI2 (or even EU3), it would be possible to implement some form of event detailing an elective government. HOI2 already has alternative history events for elections (the USA's in particular are very specific), but you could conceivably write something with some randomness based on [x] factors to choose if the current elected leader stays in power or if they're ousted in the next election. You'd just need to determine how long you want a term in office to be (and if you want to follow the eventual US example of "no more than [X] terms" and then modify the event's firing timeframe.
...could lead to potential power grabs by the playing individuals attempting to establish a dictatorship (if that'd be allowed) lasting longer. But then, that's about 750-ish years away from our present temporal situation.
In a country with elective gov't, all you'd have to do is agree that every 2 elections you switch players, or switch as soon as a different party comes to power. Elections fire regularly.
Or we set a period of years or whatever. We need to get there first. The biggest issue will be the conversions, frankly. I think I can probably set up EU3 well enough, but all the events and what not for Victoria I'm probably a little shakier on.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
Even though I'm in the middle of my own CK game, I wouldn't mind taking some time off to be a part of the succession. I have all of the games on your list, so just throw me in when ever there's an open spot.
Lowlander on
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kaliyamaLeft to find less-moderated foraRegistered Userregular
By Victoria and HOI2 (or even EU3), it would be possible to implement some form of event detailing an elective government. HOI2 already has alternative history events for elections (the USA's in particular are very specific), but you could conceivably write something with some randomness based on [x] factors to choose if the current elected leader stays in power or if they're ousted in the next election. You'd just need to determine how long you want a term in office to be (and if you want to follow the eventual US example of "no more than [X] terms" and then modify the event's firing timeframe.
...could lead to potential power grabs by the playing individuals attempting to establish a dictatorship (if that'd be allowed) lasting longer. But then, that's about 750-ish years away from our present temporal situation.
In a country with elective gov't, all you'd have to do is agree that every 2 elections you switch players, or switch as soon as a different party comes to power. Elections fire regularly.
Or we set a period of years or whatever. We need to get there first. The biggest issue will be the conversions, frankly. I think I can probably set up EU3 well enough, but all the events and what not for Victoria I'm probably a little shakier on.
I'm down to futz with it when the time comes. Googling reveals an EU3:IN to Vic converter in existence. Vic2 is coming out August 13th, so there's a plausible chance that by the time comes to play victoria we'll have that to play with - I think it's going to come with a built-in EU3 converter.
Even though I'm in the middle of my own CK game, I wouldn't mind taking some time off to be a part of the succession. I have all of the games on your list, so just throw me in when ever there's an open spot.
Follow along with the thread and request a dude when you feel like playing.
Should note: I'd like you guys to fill me in via PM or in the posts on the succession order so people can claim characters and I can keep the second post up to date.
So I was fooling around with this game continuing it, and I took most of Flanders. And Ile de France in a bid for independence when Burgundy declared such. France has absolutely fallen apart as Aquitane followed Burgundy and it's ugly.
Also, my Henri has 7 kids by 24 and they're all female.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I imagine he declined a direct request from the Pope to go after Jerusalem out of fear of losing Alexandria/because I got him in that war with Lower Lorraine (oops).
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I have EU3 Complete (that'll teach PI to use that suffix again :P), but not HTTT - I'll keep an eye on this and maybe join in if I get HTTT while you're still in EU3.
I continued screwing around. Went on a crusade to re-take Burgos, ended up killing a bunch of Muslims and made myself King of Portugal. The Dutch-Portuguese empire begins!
I have a claim on the King of France (175 prestige!), which I should enforce at some point.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I decided just to finish up tonight. It went a little longer than I had intended because Odo (I'll call him Eudes in my typing) lived to be 70. It is now 1120 AD, and shit is different.
It all turned out way too long, so here's a quick summary of what happened.
We spent a year or two as good vassals, but France was falling apart. Burgundy broke away, and we went with them. We represented 90% of France's armies at that point, so I was comfortable with that. I underestimated France, and they came back and stomped our faces in. We whored ourselves out to England if they would save our asses, and God Himself sent some dutchmen to hold off the French. Then England totally saved our bacon.
Our son Charles became Duke of Flanders. I don't know if that's good or bad for us.
France at this point has totally disintigrated. They control a few counties. Norway owns pretty much everything in the world. England owns the rest. Then a border skirmish started by some overzealous old duke sparked a world war. Oops.
Here's the long version.
In 1085 Odo (or Eudes) took up control of the Duchy of Valois.
Eudes was a simple man, who only wanted simple pleasures. His immediate goals were to get married and continue the work his father had begun in improving the Duchy. The quiet, honest, young man was not to get his wish.
Shortly after inheriting the Duchy, he was wed with Adelinde Capet, the beautiful eldest daughter of the King. The Kingdom had been denied the sacrements of the Church, but Eudes considered this a real wedding all the same. Over the coming years of strife, she would bear him a number of children, only two sons surviving past childhood.
But there was trouble in the realm. The King's excommunication weighed heavily in the minds of his vassals. There had been a few local uprisings, all of which had been brutally put down. Members of Valois' court clamored for rebellion, but temperate Eudes stressed calm.
By the end of 1085, the situation had grown beyond the King's ability to quell with his personal armies. He called upon his most loyal vassals to field their troops in his defense. Eudes, ever loyal, finally brought his men to the field.
With the added might of Valois, Eudes expected the rebellions to be over quickly. As the months dragged on, it became clear Philippe could not hold his realm together alone. Over the course of 1086, Valois was beggared by the cost of fighting.
Eudes' son, also named Philippe, came of age, was married to the youngest princess, and was made Count of Amiens. Amiens had smallpox out the ass, so it wasn't the best place to get, but it was still a county.
At the beginning of 1087, the powerful Duchy of Burgundy broke away from the increasingly feeble French Crown. They asked their close ally in Valois to support them. Eudes waited, knowing now that Philippe could not salvage the situation, but afraid of plunging his Duchy into war.
The King rode to Burgundy with half of his army, leaving the half commanded by Eudes to follow him. When the King and his army was defeated in Burgundy, that left Eudes commanding the only remaining loyalist army. With a heavy heart, Eudes sent the Burgundians a message of support, and followed them into rebellion.
Luckily, Eudes had the opportunity to levy harsh taxes against his peasantry. He regretted the burden he would place on the working classes, but he had no choice. In one stroke, he dug himself out of the debt France had forced on him, and gained a decent surplus. This tax was the only income Valois would see for years.
Valois and Burgundy ran roughshod over the French for months. Those were heady days, when the war seemed easy. Eudes eyed the rich coastal lands of Yperen and Brugge. His ambitions were not as grand as independence. He had helped his allies, and was prepared to take some land and go back to being a vassal.
It turns out that being stabbed in the back was a very powerful emotional trigger for King Philippe. The betrayal of two of his most powerful Dukes was more than he could bear, and he vowed to exterminate them.
The tide turned in a dramatic reversal in a muddy field near Paris. Valois had all but beaten the French army defending the capital, but a last-minute group of reinforcements beat back the exhausted rebels.
This next image is big, I apologize, but this was a heck of a turnaround, and it cost us the war.
After the battle of Paris, Eudes turned his men towards a series of easy victories, conquering the coastal lands he craved. In the South, massive new French armies crushed Burgundy, throwing them into disarray. Burgundy ceased to be a major player in the war. Phillip turned his vengeance then towards Valois.
Eudes led a number of valiant charges, throwing back the loyalists at every turn. But he couldn't keep it up. He was down to about a quarter of his original strength, and the French just kept coming. After one last disastrous attack towards Paris in August, Eudes swallowed his pride and sought terms.
Philippe would hear none of it. Even the most abject surrender was too good for Eudes.
French armies rolled through most of the Duchy. Eudes and a few survivors dug in for a suicidal last stand at Gent. All seemed lost, and there was only one place the battered Duke could turn for help. He sent his swiftest messenger across the channel to seek an audience with the English King. If he couldn't make peace with Philippe, he would have to turn to the legendary William of Normandy.
The English were glad to rule an enemy of the French, and thus the independent Duchy of Valois became an English vassal. This gave Eudes hope, but it didn't change anything on the ground. French troops marched North, ready to end the lineage of Charlemagne.
Then a miracle happened. The Duchy of Lower Lorraine chose that moment to combust. I don't know who declared war on who, but suddenly Holland existed and was battling French troops shoulder to shoulder with the dregs of our army. Impossibly, and at great cost, France fell back. That wouldn't happen again. By this point the troops were clamoring to go home, all few handfuls of them. Only piles of gold kept the survivors in the field.
In the end their sacrifice was worth it. France never again mounted an offensive, and in the Spring, the men of Valois had the strange situation of rejoicing to see the three lions waving at the head of an approaching army. Ten thousand fresh English troops led by their new King Robert marched through Valois. The French, bled white by the staunch resistance of Valois, were scattered like sparrows. Within a few weeks, Philippe gave up and made peace, ceding Yperen and Brugges to Eudes.
That war really was almost the end of it. Holland was the only thing that kept us from extinction. By the end we had contrived to lose something like 30,000 men, which is a neat trick since we only raise around 8,000 at a time.
Over the years, some normalcy returned to the Duchy. By 1094, Valois had settled into the role of English vassal, and again mourned with the rest of the Kingdom the death of Robert, and prayed for the success of their new King, Louis de Normandie.
Robert had some trouble taking the throne, and by 1095 was engaged in a series of petty wars with his vassals. Eudes had seen that before, and wanted no part in it, refusing to furnish the King any soldiers. Peace and prosperity had come to the Duchy. The marshes and fens had been drained, creating rich farmland in Valois. That October, Eudes found himself dragged into another series of wars by his son Charles, Count of Yperen.
The war was mercifully brief, and Charles instated himself as the new Duke of Flanders. In addition Ile de France was yielded to Eudes.
By the end of that brief dispute, France was all but finished. It had been badly hurt in the great rebellion, and after losing the capital a third Duchy, Aquitane, rose up, taking nearly all the remaining vassals with them. The only area of France left answering to the King was Brittany, and even there they were plagued with rebels.
The following years were relatively peaceful, marked by consolidation. Ireland and much of Eastern France swore fealty to Norway. Burgundy swore fealty to Scotland. Eventually Aquitane and Flanders bent the knee to England. No rebel managed to stay independent. The great rebellion had accomplished only an exchange of masters.
By now Eudes was determined to settle down. He would finally continue his father's work. Over the next few years he instituted a number of public works, the greatest of which was a huge palace in Brugges. Besides a wave of sickness at the turn of the century, times were calm and peaceful.
Years of work produced a comprehensive road system throughout the Duchy. Other Counts began approaching Eudes for permission to be his vassal. He agreed to two Counts that were close enough to be useful.
There was a brief period where England requested the armies of Valois again, and put them to good use, capturing Egypt and liberating the Holy Land. The Crusade didn't go away, I don't know why.
Eudes also married his third wife at 61, who bore him two daughters in the years to come.
In 1118, the County of Liege joined the Duchy peacefully. Or not so peacefully. The Kingdom of Norway was at war with the tiny County, and the new vassals pleaded for help. Eudes, by this time the ripe age of 68, raised his demesne on final time, and marched two counties over.
By the time the army started fighting, Liege had already surrendered.
God damn vassals. Eudes made peace with Norway, gaining the county of Brabant.
Eudes' youngest son, Raymond, also has a bit of an incest problem. His son Renaud was the product of him and his sister.
The Duke of Flanders, who if you'll remember is also our son, keeps insulting Eudes at tournaments. Eudes bore the insults without comment twice, but the third time he demanded retribution and laid claim to the Duchy of Flanders. Maybe some day that'll bear fruit.
The next two years were marked by massive warfare raging across the continent. I don't really know how that was going, because we sat that one out. My attack on Norway dragged England into a fight with their biggest rivals. I've got no idea who will come out on top of that one.
For Valois, the few years before 1120 were happily calm. Eudes made good his vow to never again take up a sword, instead devoting his remaining years to personally raising two beloved daughters.
In 1120, at 70 years of age, Eudes went to sleep in his palace at Bruges, and never woke up. His eldest son Henri inherited the Duchy of Valois, the world a much different place than it had been when his father stepped up. Hopefully Eudes will be remembered as a peaceful, temperate, and kindly man, devoted to raising a family, and not as a constant thorn in his King's side.
And here's the state of Western Europe, and our little corner.
Sorry I didn't include more on the development of characters, I meant to, but I found myself with my hands full just trying to avoid getting a game over.
I was also trying to write a family tree, and because I'm lazy I was looking for some kind of free family tree maker program or something. I gave up on that, but I didn't want to deal with text formatting, so I started a really barebones one on mindomo. It's just the living males in the line. Here's the link: http://www.mindomo.com/view.htm?m=6b1b8a6c6112456780b51f532e63590b
Anyone can edit that if you want. You might need an account, but they're free.
You gave away the ancestral seat of Vermandois? You bastard!
That being said, it looks like you did a fair job. When I continued playing from my save, basically the exact same events happened (except Henri could not produce a male (0 for 7!) and committed suicide over it eventually) until the war with France. I just grabbed Ile de France and made peace while he was distracted in Burgundy. So England hasn't yet become a continental power. Which made things much easier stability wise and allowed me to go crusading.
Check my list, send the save to Rhan9 if you haven't already. And people sign up to be Henri's heirs!
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I hated to give it up, but it was by far the poorest of our lands. I figure we moved up in the world by going from our country bumpkin estate to Paris.
It's probably going to take me a day or two to get my turn done. How old is Henri by now? If he's around 50 I doubt my turn is going to last long, seeing how most of my characters tend to die of old age before they turn 60. The write-up is likely the part that'll take most of the time.
Gotta admit I'm not quite following the color scheme. Is all the orange England or vassals of England? And we're the deep red (whatever that color is called) of ile-de-france and the other county a bit to the east?
With all the varying changes that happen ALL the time in this game, it can be a little confusing to follow, which is why I'm trying to keep at least our titles correct in the OP (well, second post).
It depends on what color the ultimate ruler of a province is. When we were a vassal of the King of France, we appeared in the dark blue of France. When we were independent, the Duchy of Valois' color is that burgundy red. Also burgundy colored: the Kingdom of Burgundy who are currently centered in Luxembourg to our immediate east. Of course, the Duchy of Burgundy is brown, for whatever reason. At the moment, we're vassals to the King of England, which makes us orange.
We own directly the Counties of Vexin, Ile de France, Hainaut, and Brabant (Coincidentally we should be able to form or usurp the Duchy of Brabant). Then we have some vassals, but I'm not 100% who they all are.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
Good Lord, France. That's even worse than what happened in my continuation of that game. Where I had a vassal inherit the Emirate of Granada which was awesome.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
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kaliyamaLeft to find less-moderated foraRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
all this is such foreplay for my bohemia game. back to it!
Just so you lot know, I'm retaking my turn, as on the first attempt the ruler died of old age two weeks in and CK promptly crashed afterwards, so I wouldn't have a save to pass on anyway. I don't think I'll get a lot done in the update, but we'll see when I get home.
Pollo, the relations between the ruler and the vassals are ridiculous. Like, Germany level ridiculous, what with the treachery and lack of loyalty and constant backstabbing. I don't know what the hell you did to get it this way, since I've never had issues with loyalty, but it'll prove interesting to see how Henri deals with the mess of a realm he was left with.
(Also, sending your troops along with your liege when the realm is on the brink of rebellion, and you're disloyal to begin with doesn't help. I foresee an imminent collapse as a real possibility.)
Well, once England collapses... if we don't collapse. I sort of enjoy playing this game, I love reading about this game. It's Dwarf Fortress with less complete absurdity.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
Just so you lot know, I'm retaking my turn, as on the first attempt the ruler died of old age two weeks in and CK promptly crashed afterwards, so I wouldn't have a save to pass on anyway. I don't think I'll get a lot done in the update, but we'll see when I get home.
Pollo, the relations between the ruler and the vassals are ridiculous. Like, Germany level ridiculous, what with the treachery and lack of loyalty and constant backstabbing. I don't know what the hell you did to get it this way, since I've never had issues with loyalty, but it'll prove interesting to see how Henri deals with the mess of a realm he was left with.
(Also, sending your troops along with your liege when the realm is on the brink of rebellion, and you're disloyal to begin with doesn't help. I foresee an imminent collapse as a real possibility.)
I'm here to introduce incompetent chaos into what otherwise might be a meteoric rise.
It's unlucky, because Henri is probably the worst possible guy that could have inherited. I think the only thing helping me was Eudes' very high diplomacy, and a bunch of positive traits. It helped keep everyone at 100% loyalty. Then suddenly the ancient Duke is gone, replaced by his son with no diplomacy at all. I don't envy you, it's probably a nightmare trying to hold on.
Eh, we're not that big and he personally owns the biggest province in France (and depending on the ruler, I think in Western Europe?), unless you utterly destroyed it.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I think I built nearly everything we could. Even buildings that I'm not sure are so good. We usually always had money for construction.
When I play, when ever I have excessive amounts of money flowing in, I usually drop my scutage. Even if my vassal's loyalty is at 100, it has the added benefit of making their armies larger for when I want to use them, plus when ever they get an event that lowers their loyalty towards me, it rockets right back up. With a very small kingdom, it might pay to hoard massive amounts of money so that you can field your personal armies for a long time.
Speaking of money, what is up with certain events not accurately displaying how much gold it will cost? Specifically, when ever I get the disloyal courtier event it will say something like 30g for a small bonus, and like 90 for a large one, but when I actually select the option, I pay them 3000g, causing me to shit my pants, and reload the last autosave. Is this a known bug? Is there some fix?
I hate it when that happens. I think it must be like in EU: Rome, where personal money translates differently to kingdom money.
When I was playing our game, we got an event where some tutor offered to maybe teach our heir an extra point in intrigue or something. The options were to pay him a year's salary, four month's salary, or tell him to fuck off. I figure, sure, let's hire him for a year. It cost 500 gold. Why the fuck would I pay that one guy the same amount our entire duchy makes in a whole year? It would be like being an intern at the white house for a year, and getting paid 15 trillion dollars. That's not how shit works.
Just so everybody who's actually participating in the succession game knows: I love reading this thread. Of all Paradox's games, I've only ever played HoI2 (and I was never really very good at it) but I really got hooked on the style of play. And it's almost like these games were seriously designed with Let's Play* in mind.
Yeah, I'm working on mine right now. My old character lived longer than I expected, and with many surprising events combined with his... extreme personality, a lot of things have happened. The update will be quite long, I'd imagine.
EDIT: I found an easy way to make the family trees! http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=164782 has a familytreemaker program, that generates a file that can be read with GenoPro free from http://www.genopro.com/free/ to generate a complete family tree easily. I'll post an example in my update, with explanations. Also, this is going to be a mega-long update, so I will make a tl;dr portion before it. A lot happened, Henri lived for a long time and the world was in constant turmoil.
I'll write an outline, and see where I could split it. The whole thing will be up during this weekend though. I've been a bit busy, so it's taken a while.
Posts
Make him proud.
Or we set a period of years or whatever. We need to get there first. The biggest issue will be the conversions, frankly. I think I can probably set up EU3 well enough, but all the events and what not for Victoria I'm probably a little shakier on.
I'm down to futz with it when the time comes. Googling reveals an EU3:IN to Vic converter in existence. Vic2 is coming out August 13th, so there's a plausible chance that by the time comes to play victoria we'll have that to play with - I think it's going to come with a built-in EU3 converter.
Follow along with the thread and request a dude when you feel like playing.
Should note: I'd like you guys to fill me in via PM or in the posts on the succession order so people can claim characters and I can keep the second post up to date.
So I was fooling around with this game continuing it, and I took most of Flanders. And Ile de France in a bid for independence when Burgundy declared such. France has absolutely fallen apart as Aquitane followed Burgundy and it's ugly.
Also, my Henri has 7 kids by 24 and they're all female.
Make him proud as well. I wish I could join in, I did enjoy EU and EU2... just never got around to purchasing EU3. Or crusader kings.
I have a claim on the King of France (175 prestige!), which I should enforce at some point.
So watch this space for Odo Pt. 1. I need to come up with a name. Maybe "A Comedy of Errors" or "I Accidentally the Whole Kingdom."
It all turned out way too long, so here's a quick summary of what happened.
Our son Charles became Duke of Flanders. I don't know if that's good or bad for us.
France at this point has totally disintigrated. They control a few counties. Norway owns pretty much everything in the world. England owns the rest. Then a border skirmish started by some overzealous old duke sparked a world war. Oops.
Here's the long version.
In 1085 Odo (or Eudes) took up control of the Duchy of Valois.
Eudes was a simple man, who only wanted simple pleasures. His immediate goals were to get married and continue the work his father had begun in improving the Duchy. The quiet, honest, young man was not to get his wish.
Shortly after inheriting the Duchy, he was wed with Adelinde Capet, the beautiful eldest daughter of the King. The Kingdom had been denied the sacrements of the Church, but Eudes considered this a real wedding all the same. Over the coming years of strife, she would bear him a number of children, only two sons surviving past childhood.
But there was trouble in the realm. The King's excommunication weighed heavily in the minds of his vassals. There had been a few local uprisings, all of which had been brutally put down. Members of Valois' court clamored for rebellion, but temperate Eudes stressed calm.
By the end of 1085, the situation had grown beyond the King's ability to quell with his personal armies. He called upon his most loyal vassals to field their troops in his defense. Eudes, ever loyal, finally brought his men to the field.
With the added might of Valois, Eudes expected the rebellions to be over quickly. As the months dragged on, it became clear Philippe could not hold his realm together alone. Over the course of 1086, Valois was beggared by the cost of fighting.
Eudes' son, also named Philippe, came of age, was married to the youngest princess, and was made Count of Amiens. Amiens had smallpox out the ass, so it wasn't the best place to get, but it was still a county.
At the beginning of 1087, the powerful Duchy of Burgundy broke away from the increasingly feeble French Crown. They asked their close ally in Valois to support them. Eudes waited, knowing now that Philippe could not salvage the situation, but afraid of plunging his Duchy into war.
The King rode to Burgundy with half of his army, leaving the half commanded by Eudes to follow him. When the King and his army was defeated in Burgundy, that left Eudes commanding the only remaining loyalist army. With a heavy heart, Eudes sent the Burgundians a message of support, and followed them into rebellion.
Luckily, Eudes had the opportunity to levy harsh taxes against his peasantry. He regretted the burden he would place on the working classes, but he had no choice. In one stroke, he dug himself out of the debt France had forced on him, and gained a decent surplus. This tax was the only income Valois would see for years.
Valois and Burgundy ran roughshod over the French for months. Those were heady days, when the war seemed easy. Eudes eyed the rich coastal lands of Yperen and Brugge. His ambitions were not as grand as independence. He had helped his allies, and was prepared to take some land and go back to being a vassal.
It turns out that being stabbed in the back was a very powerful emotional trigger for King Philippe. The betrayal of two of his most powerful Dukes was more than he could bear, and he vowed to exterminate them.
The tide turned in a dramatic reversal in a muddy field near Paris. Valois had all but beaten the French army defending the capital, but a last-minute group of reinforcements beat back the exhausted rebels.
This next image is big, I apologize, but this was a heck of a turnaround, and it cost us the war.
After the battle of Paris, Eudes turned his men towards a series of easy victories, conquering the coastal lands he craved. In the South, massive new French armies crushed Burgundy, throwing them into disarray. Burgundy ceased to be a major player in the war. Phillip turned his vengeance then towards Valois.
Eudes led a number of valiant charges, throwing back the loyalists at every turn. But he couldn't keep it up. He was down to about a quarter of his original strength, and the French just kept coming. After one last disastrous attack towards Paris in August, Eudes swallowed his pride and sought terms.
Philippe would hear none of it. Even the most abject surrender was too good for Eudes.
French armies rolled through most of the Duchy. Eudes and a few survivors dug in for a suicidal last stand at Gent. All seemed lost, and there was only one place the battered Duke could turn for help. He sent his swiftest messenger across the channel to seek an audience with the English King. If he couldn't make peace with Philippe, he would have to turn to the legendary William of Normandy.
The English were glad to rule an enemy of the French, and thus the independent Duchy of Valois became an English vassal. This gave Eudes hope, but it didn't change anything on the ground. French troops marched North, ready to end the lineage of Charlemagne.
Then a miracle happened. The Duchy of Lower Lorraine chose that moment to combust. I don't know who declared war on who, but suddenly Holland existed and was battling French troops shoulder to shoulder with the dregs of our army. Impossibly, and at great cost, France fell back. That wouldn't happen again. By this point the troops were clamoring to go home, all few handfuls of them. Only piles of gold kept the survivors in the field.
In the end their sacrifice was worth it. France never again mounted an offensive, and in the Spring, the men of Valois had the strange situation of rejoicing to see the three lions waving at the head of an approaching army. Ten thousand fresh English troops led by their new King Robert marched through Valois. The French, bled white by the staunch resistance of Valois, were scattered like sparrows. Within a few weeks, Philippe gave up and made peace, ceding Yperen and Brugges to Eudes.
That war really was almost the end of it. Holland was the only thing that kept us from extinction. By the end we had contrived to lose something like 30,000 men, which is a neat trick since we only raise around 8,000 at a time.
Over the years, some normalcy returned to the Duchy. By 1094, Valois had settled into the role of English vassal, and again mourned with the rest of the Kingdom the death of Robert, and prayed for the success of their new King, Louis de Normandie.
Robert had some trouble taking the throne, and by 1095 was engaged in a series of petty wars with his vassals. Eudes had seen that before, and wanted no part in it, refusing to furnish the King any soldiers. Peace and prosperity had come to the Duchy. The marshes and fens had been drained, creating rich farmland in Valois. That October, Eudes found himself dragged into another series of wars by his son Charles, Count of Yperen.
The war was mercifully brief, and Charles instated himself as the new Duke of Flanders. In addition Ile de France was yielded to Eudes.
By the end of that brief dispute, France was all but finished. It had been badly hurt in the great rebellion, and after losing the capital a third Duchy, Aquitane, rose up, taking nearly all the remaining vassals with them. The only area of France left answering to the King was Brittany, and even there they were plagued with rebels.
The following years were relatively peaceful, marked by consolidation. Ireland and much of Eastern France swore fealty to Norway. Burgundy swore fealty to Scotland. Eventually Aquitane and Flanders bent the knee to England. No rebel managed to stay independent. The great rebellion had accomplished only an exchange of masters.
By now Eudes was determined to settle down. He would finally continue his father's work. Over the next few years he instituted a number of public works, the greatest of which was a huge palace in Brugges. Besides a wave of sickness at the turn of the century, times were calm and peaceful.
Years of work produced a comprehensive road system throughout the Duchy. Other Counts began approaching Eudes for permission to be his vassal. He agreed to two Counts that were close enough to be useful.
There was a brief period where England requested the armies of Valois again, and put them to good use, capturing Egypt and liberating the Holy Land. The Crusade didn't go away, I don't know why.
Eudes also married his third wife at 61, who bore him two daughters in the years to come.
In 1118, the County of Liege joined the Duchy peacefully. Or not so peacefully. The Kingdom of Norway was at war with the tiny County, and the new vassals pleaded for help. Eudes, by this time the ripe age of 68, raised his demesne on final time, and marched two counties over.
By the time the army started fighting, Liege had already surrendered.
God damn vassals. Eudes made peace with Norway, gaining the county of Brabant.
Eudes' youngest son, Raymond, also has a bit of an incest problem. His son Renaud was the product of him and his sister.
The Duke of Flanders, who if you'll remember is also our son, keeps insulting Eudes at tournaments. Eudes bore the insults without comment twice, but the third time he demanded retribution and laid claim to the Duchy of Flanders. Maybe some day that'll bear fruit.
The next two years were marked by massive warfare raging across the continent. I don't really know how that was going, because we sat that one out. My attack on Norway dragged England into a fight with their biggest rivals. I've got no idea who will come out on top of that one.
For Valois, the few years before 1120 were happily calm. Eudes made good his vow to never again take up a sword, instead devoting his remaining years to personally raising two beloved daughters.
In 1120, at 70 years of age, Eudes went to sleep in his palace at Bruges, and never woke up. His eldest son Henri inherited the Duchy of Valois, the world a much different place than it had been when his father stepped up. Hopefully Eudes will be remembered as a peaceful, temperate, and kindly man, devoted to raising a family, and not as a constant thorn in his King's side.
And here's the state of Western Europe, and our little corner.
Sorry I didn't include more on the development of characters, I meant to, but I found myself with my hands full just trying to avoid getting a game over.
I was also trying to write a family tree, and because I'm lazy I was looking for some kind of free family tree maker program or something. I gave up on that, but I didn't want to deal with text formatting, so I started a really barebones one on mindomo. It's just the living males in the line. Here's the link:
http://www.mindomo.com/view.htm?m=6b1b8a6c6112456780b51f532e63590b
Anyone can edit that if you want. You might need an account, but they're free.
I just wanted to build some roads.
That being said, it looks like you did a fair job. When I continued playing from my save, basically the exact same events happened (except Henri could not produce a male (0 for 7!) and committed suicide over it eventually) until the war with France. I just grabbed Ile de France and made peace while he was distracted in Burgundy. So England hasn't yet become a continental power. Which made things much easier stability wise and allowed me to go crusading.
Check my list, send the save to Rhan9 if you haven't already. And people sign up to be Henri's heirs!
And Henri should be 52.
It depends on what color the ultimate ruler of a province is. When we were a vassal of the King of France, we appeared in the dark blue of France. When we were independent, the Duchy of Valois' color is that burgundy red. Also burgundy colored: the Kingdom of Burgundy who are currently centered in Luxembourg to our immediate east. Of course, the Duchy of Burgundy is brown, for whatever reason. At the moment, we're vassals to the King of England, which makes us orange.
We own directly the Counties of Vexin, Ile de France, Hainaut, and Brabant (Coincidentally we should be able to form or usurp the Duchy of Brabant). Then we have some vassals, but I'm not 100% who they all are.
I outlined our Duchy in black. Besancon is the other county that signed up at the same time as Liege.
As of the end of my reign, our vassals are:
The County of Artois. The current count is a second cousin of Eudes'. He's the son of Pierre's daughter Etienette.
The County of Gent, ruled by another second cousin, son of Eberhard.
The County of Amiens, ruled by a grandson of Eudes'.
Our old base Vermendois, ruled by another grandkid, son of the current Duke Henri.
And Besancon, ruled by some other family entirely.
Pollo, the relations between the ruler and the vassals are ridiculous. Like, Germany level ridiculous, what with the treachery and lack of loyalty and constant backstabbing. I don't know what the hell you did to get it this way, since I've never had issues with loyalty, but it'll prove interesting to see how Henri deals with the mess of a realm he was left with.
(Also, sending your troops along with your liege when the realm is on the brink of rebellion, and you're disloyal to begin with doesn't help. I foresee an imminent collapse as a real possibility.)
I'm here to introduce incompetent chaos into what otherwise might be a meteoric rise.
It's unlucky, because Henri is probably the worst possible guy that could have inherited. I think the only thing helping me was Eudes' very high diplomacy, and a bunch of positive traits. It helped keep everyone at 100% loyalty. Then suddenly the ancient Duke is gone, replaced by his son with no diplomacy at all. I don't envy you, it's probably a nightmare trying to hold on.
When I play, when ever I have excessive amounts of money flowing in, I usually drop my scutage. Even if my vassal's loyalty is at 100, it has the added benefit of making their armies larger for when I want to use them, plus when ever they get an event that lowers their loyalty towards me, it rockets right back up. With a very small kingdom, it might pay to hoard massive amounts of money so that you can field your personal armies for a long time.
Speaking of money, what is up with certain events not accurately displaying how much gold it will cost? Specifically, when ever I get the disloyal courtier event it will say something like 30g for a small bonus, and like 90 for a large one, but when I actually select the option, I pay them 3000g, causing me to shit my pants, and reload the last autosave. Is this a known bug? Is there some fix?
When I was playing our game, we got an event where some tutor offered to maybe teach our heir an extra point in intrigue or something. The options were to pay him a year's salary, four month's salary, or tell him to fuck off. I figure, sure, let's hire him for a year. It cost 500 gold. Why the fuck would I pay that one guy the same amount our entire duchy makes in a whole year? It would be like being an intern at the white house for a year, and getting paid 15 trillion dollars. That's not how shit works.
Please keep up the updates!
*: okay okay, After-Action Reports
EDIT: I found an easy way to make the family trees! http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=164782 has a familytreemaker program, that generates a file that can be read with GenoPro free from http://www.genopro.com/free/ to generate a complete family tree easily. I'll post an example in my update, with explanations. Also, this is going to be a mega-long update, so I will make a tl;dr portion before it. A lot happened, Henri lived for a long time and the world was in constant turmoil.