Dismal area for a feudal lord to expand into, and remarkably bad compared to many other regions, especially those surrounding it.
Dismal area for a feudal lord to expand into, and remarkably bad compared to many other regions, especially those surrounding it.
(Unmodded Ironman) Charlemagne starting date:
Thought I was the main character of this run, found out I was wrong.
Was playing a chill city-maxing England run, noticed the Green blob had conquered Aquitaine and West Francia from the Karlings. Didn't think much of it until I zoomed out and saw it was a country name, not dynasty, so I assumed they converted to Christianity.
In actuality, it seems a Hindu adventurer had conquered Baetica (Andalucia) from the Umayyad's in 852, and had been steadily conquering and consolidating Iberia while I was distracted. He's even converting a sizable population to Hinduism.
This God-King guy is crazy successful, has tons of crazy modifiers on him including the speciality bloodline that emulates Alexander the Great. I've never seen such a faraway adventurer do so well. Even has a single county in India because his son inherited his mothers county.
And I mean all. Courtiers who know of my spree have either been imprisoned and killed, or they've fled to try to warn of the mad Swedish king. After clearing out the court of anyone who knows, I can simply invite new guys in for $1, and fill out the lands with more amicable folks. The new guys don't care at all about my previous tenants, and family doesn't care about my behavior as well. It's like nothing happened but I gained 400 gold and 26 counties.
This is now my main strategy for securing a tribal realm, and getting rid of all those pesky bad borders at the start 🥰
I always enjoy finding little anomalies that make me try to understand how they got there. For context, I thought these guys were fully wiped out 2 centuries earlier in England. While looking for claims in Lotharingia, I see an independent Norse barony in the middle of Christendom.
Makes me ask, how did the barony remain Norse inside multiple Christian kingdoms, how did it remain independent, and how the hell did it even get there. I can't see the history of baronies, and the county itself shows no Norsemen, though a Eskild fellow was in control of a Brittany settlement that he conquered, but that was as an adventurer, so he somehow got the barony afterwards, was he gifted the barony or something?
Very strange, I'm going to keep them as pets.
A lot of the "empty" regions of the map are packed with detail, rather relaxing to stop and appreciate them.
Turn 40 of the destruction of Norsca. Army of Bastonne.
The fact the Dwarfs, who are 2nd power on the map, will accept vassalization from me, the number 7 power, just because I'd give them a mountain region (colored in red), is pretty game breaking.
I like to trade settlements for alliances on my border, but this is too much of a forbidden fruit to not click.
Hadn't really tried the nemesis crown before. Paired with the relatively bad "Accursed Armor" for -50% movement speed, mostly for the meme, partly because I don't have a better piece yet, Vlad just waddles around taking no damage and passively winning by draining everyone. Excellent for siege battles or any other clumping blobs.
The unusual location "Covenant Laboratory" gives some great effects for your faction, though some might be worried about the potential plague. Aside from the 2 less likely outcomes which are probably more damage than is worth it, the first one can actually be quite nice for your military campaigns.
Having the plague spawn in one region, in this case on the New World near the Dark Elves, it is quite disastrous for any armies that receive it and wish to campaign, considering it halts replenishment for at least 10 turns. I let the Dark Elves conquer the province first, and they quickly spread the plague themselves to each of their armies and provinces, which began taking attrition and whittling away.
For yourself, the High Elves have a powerful rite, the "Invocation of Isha" that stops the plagues attrition from taking effect, allowing for your replenishment as usual. This creates an incredibly lopsided conflict in which the enemy is struck by a near never ending plague that continues spreading into their regions and armies, and you have 10 turns of non-attrition to capitalize on it.
To note, after the Isha rite is done, you're back to suffering. But in my campaign this was a powerful bunker buster to break through the multiple stacks of Dark Elves. Is this worth it in the end? Maybe not if you're world conquering, but if you want the bonuses from the building while using it's downsides, this can be a nice strategy.