Viking Adventurer Run-867 Start-From the Golden Ravens to the King Of France
Apologies that I don’t have any pictures to share from this run. I had to share with someone because it’s been one of the most fun playthroughs I’ve done in a while. (Also this is my first time posting on Reddit, so I hope I do a good job of writing this and making it easy to follow along).
I started off in Denmark 867 as an adventurer. Balder leads the band of the Golden Ravens. Obviously, starting out I as an adventurer I took low level contracts for a few years to build up my camp and MAA. Once I gained enough MAA I started participating in every war in Scandinavia during that time. I helped Bjorn Ironside form Sweden, Sigurd Snake in the eye form Denmark, and a random Norse lord form Norway. After building more prestige and MAA I shifted my sights to England, as I noticed that the Vikings were losing their grip on the region with Alfred leading the charge.
I assisted Ivar the Boneless take all of Alba and solidify his grip on Scotland. This is where things get fun. Ivar’s son is a Jarl of East Anglia, and I notice that he has the Conquerer trait. I assist him in taking the southern part of England as I now have all Varangian Vanguards in my MAA stack. We wipe out all of the Christians together and he becomes the new king of England. I shifted my focus to taking criminal contracts as I need more money for camp upgrades. Balder gains a nasty reputation as a marauder, but he gains lots of gold to keep bolstering his troops. At this point I participate in a few more wars to wipe out the Irish Insular Queen. Now all of Britannia is controlled by the Norsemen, as Ivarson is continuing to dominate. My travels now took me to France as there weren’t anymore wars for me to participate in.
At this point in time I’m about 50 years old and have had 7 daughters with 4 different wives. I was worried about not having a male heir, but I’m a wanderer so I figured it doesn’t matter if a female takes over the band of the Golden Ravens. It was at this point that I was going to keep focusing on terrorizing the French Christians. I go around the French countryside committing criminal acts everywhere that I go, until I notice that the French crown has been won by a random Dutch lord. (I was not planning on taking any land during this run as I wanted to continue learning the adventurer mechanics) This Dutch lord had been in many wars and his army was only sitting at 1000 soldiers. I have 4000 battle hardened Varangian Vanguards, so I couldn’t resist unleashing war on this weakened France.
At 60 years old I launch an adventurer war to seize the kingdom of France. The war was easy to win as I defeated their main army and sacked Paris. Balder of the Golden Ravens now sits on the throne of France. I had to shift my focus to forging alliances and controlling the realm. I have the gallowsbait trait as Balder has a very shady criminal past, so I asked every vassal to convert to Astaru to improve my relations. I then marry one of my daughters off to Ivarson now Emperor of Brittania. I married another daughter to the King of Norway (also has the conquerer trait) and I marry my last eligible daughter to Bjorn Ironsides son who is now the king of Sweden.
Feeling good about my Viking alliances I focus on my succession. I marry Gyda who is a descendant from Ragnar Lothbrook. She finally delivers me my first son who will inherit my throne when I die. Balder ll has the quick trait and the hale trait. I’m 70 and worried about my heir becoming old enough to handle a succession crisis, so I marry him off to the Jarl of Nuestria’s daughter. Gyda wasn’t finished giving me male heirs though. She ends up having twin baby boys, but unfortunately they both had bad congenital traits. I murder one of my twins as I have the sadistic trait. The second murder scheme on my twin gets discovered and I’m forced to imprison and execute him.
Now everyone REALLY hates Bolder. I don’t care because I want the Catholic vassals to rise up against me. I take the imprison decision on the count of Anjou knowing full well that I won’t succeed. The Christian lords rise against me in rebellion and I crush all of them. I revoked all their titles and replaced them with Norse lords. The last decision Balder takes is forming the culture of Norman. Now the entire kingdom of France is Norman, with alliances formed through Scandinavia and Brittania. My character is 79, my heir is 6 and I’ll try to hang on for a few more years until he’s ready to take over the realm.
It’s been such a fun play through starting with nothing and helping make Viking kings throughout the north. As well as taking a kingdom for myself. If you read through this whole post I appreciate it! I hope you enjoyed reading about Balder from the band of the Golden Ravens to the King of France.