Crusader Kings II: Good Job High Chief Piast, 10/10 A+

Unit One, Chapter One: The Eagle of Konugardr

It was in the middle of the ninth century AD that the nobility of Holmgardr found themselves with a bit of a problem. A young warrior by the name of Ulfr had shown considerable promise as a leader of raiding parties, but he possessed a worrying ambitious streak, and they feared that his eye might turn inward were his lust for power and war not sufficiently sated.

Their king, Rurik, spoke with the warrior, and saw that the nobles were right; his presence would be a continual threat to the stability of the realm. But being a calm and understanding man, he did not wish to take drastic measures. Instead, he gave the young man control of a small army and a simple challenge: in twenty years, to establish dominance over one of the southern Slavic tribes. The king's journal gives an interesting reason for this decision:

I wholly expect that [Ulfr] shall fall - likely conquered by King Almos, when he inevitably turns his eye upon our majesty in the next several years - but his ferocity should buy me time to assemble a strong army and fend them off. His boldness will almost certainly lead him to be captured or killed in battle, which will tie things up quite neatly.

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He did it in less than ten, cowing the locals with a ferocity that would quickly become legendary. Anyone who still defied him after he took over would be promptly executed, often by being tied up in a sack and tossed into the river nearby.

I went with Sanzh’s suggestion of Dyre the Stranger, setting him up with a military education and a wife/son.

(For starting with a high-quality military education, we get a free trait that gives us a bonus when leading troops. Ulfr being Ulfr, I went with Aggressive Leader, which ups damage and increases army ability in the Pursuit phase, but lowers defense. We’ll get to phases later.)

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Though his hold over the area was established for the time being, his army was depleted, and his subjects quickly grew to resent him for his cruelty and strange, foreign ways. To ensure the stability of the realm, he saw to it that his spymaster (one of the lesser chieftains of the area) was heavily compensated, and spent all his time seeking out any hint of insurrection in the realm.

Never, ever let your spymaster be angry with you, for reasons that are hopefully pretty obvious. It's better to have a kind of shitty spymaster that loves you if your only alternative is a great one that hates your guts, but honorary titles and gifts of gold tend to be a very good way to get them to remain loyal if they're on the fence.

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This having been accomplished, he began establishing positive relations with his other vassal. But it was not long before Ulfr began to get the itch for battle; and so, he hastily established a raiding party, leading them to Pinsk in the northwest.

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Yet, before his men could even begin to count the spoils of their venture, war erupted to the west. It seemed that a couple of the chieftains of the Lendians felt he had more right to lead than the avaricious high chief Lechoslaw. No sooner had they risen in revolt than Ulfr had ordered his men to return and regroup.

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He sent a scouting party to wait until Chief Ctibor's army had departed, and, the instant they had done so, to declare war against him. Stubbornly refusing to recall his army, and not believing the Norseman any harm to him, Ctibor ignored Ulfr's warning.

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There's two major aspects of war in Crusader Kings - Battles and Sieges, the former of which we'll talk about in more detail once we get into a sizable confrontation. Sieges automatically happen if you have an army in the same province as an enemy-controlled holding; if your force outnumbers the defending force (a permanent garrison, plus any unraised levies from the holding), they will slowly lower the population and morale of the defenders. Once the morale hits zero, the holding is taken over, which grants a certain amount of "Warscore." At 100% Warscore, the enemy will always unconditionally surrender, but they may offer surrender earlier if they're in a particularly bad situation or they know they have no chance at victory.

A siege can also be turned to an Assault after a certain set-up period, usually a couple of weeks at the most (this is reduced with a larger force). This is not recommended unless the attacking army considerably outnumbers the defenders, as it's far less safe than a siege and the defenders have the home team advantage. With an attacking force around 9-10 times the size of the defending force, casualties become minimal and there's basically no reason to bother with a drawn-out siege. Otherwise (barring special circumstances, typically attrition penalties), sticking out the siege tends to be wiser.

Also worth noting: Cities and temples are a lot easier to besiege than castles, particularly when they aren't the capital of the county (which, usually, they won't be).

This was a mistake. One year later, the county had been totally taken over, and the former chief Ctibor sent running. Ulfr took Castle Beresty for himself, and distributed Kobryn and Bielsk to a couple landless soldiers who had distinguished themselves in the battle.

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Note to self: Start hoarding human cattle.

Ulfr celebrated his latest string of victories by holding a particularly extravagant Yule blót; records claim that, rather than simply hanging the men they purchased for sacrifice, he "personally strangled three and killed a fourth by beating his head against a boulder."

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This isn't really relevant to anything yet, but it's worth noting. At the beginning of the game, only the Sunni Caliphate exists; the Rise of the Shia Caliphate occurs randomly later on, though it tends to happen near the beginning of the game.

Predictably, Ulfr - wishing to recoup the cost of the sacrifices - quickly put together another raiding party, heading eastwards to Chernigov. They quickly found themselves disappointed by a castle far too well-guarded for them to make off with much, and so headed north in search of better riches. The high chief of the Radimichi, frightened by the interlopers, quickly put together his own army in an attempt to beat back the now-infamous Viking.

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Ulfr's runestone claims that when he and his army returned home, "the towns [of Mstislavl] were more ash than stone or wood, and nothing would grow there for years." While likely an embellishment, other sources not only mention the considerable damage to the area, but also that Ulfr was somehow even more brutal than when he had left. It seemed that, where some men might have their thirst for battle quenched, Ulfr - now known as "Blodigørn," the Eagle of Blood - became more insatiable every time he sallied forth.

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Castle Towns are probably the most important thing to build in the early game. Your personal holdings (as opposed to counties or individual holdings you delegate to vassals) pay 100% of their tax income to you, rather than only a portion; while you don't quite get the +2.00 a month it claims, presumably due to expenses and the like, it does give a boost to income that's crucial to building a strong army later on.

Naturally, our ambitious and impatient chief isn't going to waste any time figuring out this book (or failing to do so)... which is actually probably a good thing, as the alternate path gives us the Mystic trait - +1 to our Intrigue score, which isn't too useful at the moment - instead of Scholar, which grants us a quite lovely +2 to Learning. There's also Scholarly high chiefs to our north and west, so we get relationship bonuses with them (not that we really need it, considering our might, but it's nice).

Both Mystic and Scholar are "Lifestyle" traits, indicated by the blue shield (the only different-looking one is the Muslim-only Faqih). You can only have one at a time; they all grant a stat bonus of 1 or 2, and an opinion bonus with anyone else of a matching Lifestyle (again, except for Faqih, which grants +10 to vassal opinion and apparently doesn't grant the "matching lifestyle" bonus? why is it even a lifestyle trait what the heck). Mystic is probably the worst one; it gives you +1 to Intrigue, but Impaler does the same and increases your Morale Damage bonus when leading troops.

tl;dr don't worry Ulfr that book wasn't worth it anyhow.

In a baffling turn of events, while the Blood-Eagle had not become any less brutal towards either his subjects or his neighbors, he was seen becoming extremely interested in books, often rereading some that he had brought from the raids on the north but been unable to sell. It's somewhat unclear when he learned to read at all, much less in the unfamiliar scripts of the Russians and Byzantines; it seems to have simply happened one day, as if by magic.

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The Magyars, who had previously controlled that big ol' blob due south of us, have now conquered Hungary and relinquished all their titles to the east of it. There are now independent counties all around us, most of which are a de jure part of the Kingdom of Ruthenia which I currently have my eye on.

You can see where this is going.

Also I got attacked by accident and then I kidnapped a guy in a siege, but I failed to screenshot those. WHOOPS.

Despite what the local Norsemen had believed, the king of the Magyars had no interest in the territories to the north (at least, not for the time being); he and his people were quite content with an end to the war, as were the peasants of Russia (who, as soon as their conquerors had gone, reestablished their hold on the land with little resistance, voting amongst themselves upon new local rulers). Ulfr, of course, saw this as weakness; he quickly took the opportunity to snatch up what Almos had forsaken.

The news is believed to have reached Rurik around the 19th of September, as his journal for the day reads:
Almos did not hurry North as expected. It seems the Magyars have ceased their onslaught, and now lie dormant. Already, word from Konugardr is that Ulfr is massing his armies.

Perhaps this was not the wisest decision I have ever made, but if nothing else, he may drive out the followers of Perun in favor of our own faith. I hold out hope that he will not seek to harm his brethren, particularly the man who helped put him on the throne to begin with.

Immediately, Ulfr attacked two chiefs to the south (known as the "Brothers Vasiliy" due to their close friendship). Despite initial difficulties, his army quickly crushed the defenders of both counties and began besieging Korsun.

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Mainly showing this so you know about the Warscore bonus for Total Control. That is, if someone totally controls the disputed territory of the war (or, in a vassal revolt, all the holdings of the traitors), they gain a steadily increasing Warscore bonus. This is particularly useful when fighting a larger enemy, as a 100% occupation score will require besieging more than just the holdings you're actually after.

Though it took longer than some of his previous conquests, it proved a worthwhile endeavor. The peasants who ruled the land quickly fell to their new ruler.

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Ulfr commemorated his successes by bringing Igor - an officer of the local armies, who he had captured in battle and now regularly tormented - to his future runestone. It is unclear what happened from there, but it allegedly provided the materials for the bone chisel used to carve said stone.

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The way technology works in CK2 (as of this LP) is that each province has its own tech level; sometimes the local tech level is important (most notably when building improvements in your holdings), other times your capital tech level is the only thing that matters (as is the case with most, if not all, Cultural Technologies). Tech increases slowly if the province has neighbors with a higher level in a given area of research; your capital can also gain technology, in the same way, from a province you send your spymaster to Study Technology in.

You also gain technology points based on your stats (Learning, plus either Stewardship, Martial or Diplomacy based on the tech group), rank (higher rank gives a small multiplier to your tech growth rate), battles (military tech points only, obviously) and any schools in your Demesne, or collection of personal holdings (Universities give economic tech points, Monastic Schools give cultural points). Enough tech points, and you can instantly rank up a technology.

Here I chose to go with Military Organization, since it applies to all troops (rather than only one class) and is quite practical, particularly if the Norse faith becomes reformed later on.

In the aftermath, Ulfr wrote a book on military strategy, but as it basically boiled down to "retreat is never wise" and "make sure your men are as angry and excited as possible," it was mostly disregarded (it is somewhat unclear how Ulfr managed to be as successful a commander as he did, but perhaps his tendency to tie any naysayers or failures to a rock and whip them kept the men motivated). That said, it did contain valuable advice for keeping soldiers motivated when supplies were low or enemies fierce, which was often referenced in more well-thought-out tomes written later.

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Satisfied with his progress, the Blood-Eagle finally had the torment-boulder built into his legendary runestone; not wanting to spend money on paint, he instead had it decorated with the blood of his victims (which, interestingly, is actually the final act enshrined on said stone).

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Up to the Northwest, Lithuania is becoming united by their own charismatic High Chief.

WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL NAMED VASILIY. From here, you can also see that Rurik of Holmgardr has been expanding eastwards.

OH NO HE DOESN'T HAVE PARENTS (nah, they're just not historically noted. that's the case with a lot of petty nobles around this time period, but since I ruler designer-ed his dynasty of course he's not going to have parents programmed in!

Partly motivated to gain more blood for the stone, Ulfr began the conquest of Pereyaslavl, held by "Cousin Vasiliy." Here was the first difficulty he had in carving out his slice of Russia, for just as he had finished off the defending army...

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Important note: Only the leader of the siege gets warscore once it's completed, and you can't "take over" a siege so long as their army's still around, nor can you besiege occupied territory under normal circumstances. Not a problem if it's an ally of yours, very much a problem if someone else has captured the territory you need so they can win their own war.

Ulfr's no quitter.

So, battles. Here's all the information on them (most of it is pretty unnecessary to learn, so feel free to skip ahead):

• A battalion's morale automatically goes up when not engaged in combat (including when besieging a holding, but NOT when assaulting one).
  
• An individual levy (from a single holding) has only one flank; a merged battalion has up to three flanks, each of which can have one general assigned.
  
• Generals increase damage of their flank by 2% for each point of Martial they have. More notably, generals provide bonuses (and penalties) based on traits, amplified (or reduced) based on Martial ability - traits are first added (e.g. if someone is both Patient and an Aggressive Leader, the base becomes +10% - 20% = -10%), and then the multiplier is applied.
  
  In Ulfr's case, he started with Aggressive Leader and picked up Flat Terrain Expert along the way. His Martial is above 20, which completely negates most (if not all) penalties. As a result, he gains, a bonus to damage (from Aggressive Leader, which doesn't reduce Defense because its penalty was negated), a bonus to morale damage (from Cruel), and a bonus to damage and defense (from Flat Terrain Expert; it appears to apply after other effects, since otherwise Aggressive Leader ought to negate the defense bonus). He'd also gain an additional damage bonus (from Aggressive Leader) were he in the Pursuit Phase, on which note...
  
• The three phases are Skirmish (archers excel), Melee (infantry and pikemen excel), and Pursuit (cavalry excels; one flank is retreating from the other flank, which happens at about 25% of total morale).
  
• All the damage of the attacking flank (a combination of the base attack strength of the units involved, and any active modifiers) is divided evenly among the unit types of the defending flank (e.g. if a flank is 60% light cavalry, the cavalry will receive 60% of the damage), then reduced by defense strength (similarly calculated). The final result is the casualties of that flank subgroup.
  
  Every time a soldier dies, the other soldiers in the flank take morale damage. Once one flank has fled or been slaughtered, their attacker will join up with an adjacent allied flank.
  
• Certain Generals' traits, combined with the makeup of their army, can lead to special tactics. Some are good (e.g. Clever Ambush), some are bad (e.g. Hesitant Commander), most are tradeoffs. There are so many of these that I honestly wouldn't even bother learning them, just remember that generally, an unambiguously beneficial trait (like Inspiring Leader) leads to good tactics.

SHORT VERSION: Archers skirmish, infantry melees, cavalry pursues; pick generals with high martial and good bonuses; deaths in a flank lowers that flank's morale.

Took 169 casualties, inflicted 318 and routed the enemy. 41.4 Warscore, 3.1 Prestige (but no piety) to my generals, and .1 military tech points. One of those is a loooooot more useful than the rest.

Berimir, of the Severians, undertook his own attempt to take the province. Infuriated by his impudence, Ulfr ordered the Severians crushed and their land brought under his rule. Their army was hastily dispersed, and Pereyaslavl easily taken over.

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BRINGING THE BOY UP RIGHT

Spymaster discovered a plot against us. Looks like it got quite a bit of support, unsurprisingly.

Looks like we have a good shot at tossing him in jail for the next Blot...

Well, fuck. He fled to a court outside our jurisdiction, but thankfully he's powerless and terrified of us, so he knocks it off anyway. All is well.

Meanwhile, Ulfr's son was brought along for every military engagement, observing from the sidelines and being put to bed with a slab of ham and gory tales of battle. The apple of his father's eye, he was easily steered to grow into a quite similar young man, and both the nobles and peasants of Konugardr lived in fear that he would grow up to be even worse than his father.

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THAT'S more like it.

As you can see, fully occupying the disputed territory isn't the only way to win a war; obliterating the enemy army can work, too. In fact, sometimes (particularly with peasant revolts) it's the best way to go about it.

Though he attempted to repel the invaders, Beremir had awoken a rage in Ulfr that was great even by his already-high standards. His armies folded like paper, and it was only through public begging and a tribute to Odin that he avoided being publicly executed.

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With his dominion over the Severians established, the Blood-Eagle's realm now extended to the southern border of his former liege. The news reached Rurik only three days later.

Dreadful news reaches me again on this date; I cannot wonder if it is some sort of curse. Ulfr grows ever stronger, and is now at our very door. He has sent envoys claiming he means no ill-will. I do, in a sense, believe him; he is doubtless focused on the locals.

But what will happen once there are no heathens left for the armies of Konugardr to so easily lay waste to?

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As an interesting side note, the standard Dyre the Stranger is my courtier since I used the ruler designer to set someone else up as king, and the History of the Petty Kingdom of Konugardr shows him as a previous holder (though he doesn't despise me for usurping his title). This seems to be standard procedure if you use the Ruler Designer.

Having already played as Denmark and Bavaria in the unmodded version, I'd kind of like to see a game take place a little further away. How about someone from Eastern Europe, Africa, or the Middle East?

For traits, let's go with an ambitious military strategist to start off with.

Also let's have our first leader be female, because why make things easy for ourselves?

If not for the fact that ladies can’t do much in CKII unless it’s modded (in particular, they can’t be generals, which would mean all our Martial bonuses would be going to waste), I would definitely have done that.

If you're partial to using the ruler designer, the hellenic faith is an option I've found interesting lately. I've only tried playing as a hellenic dude in a really stupid way, but I imagine it's still a moderately interesting challenge. Any pagan would be quite interesting though.

I actually was looking into the Hellenic faith earlier, but it seems that (since it mainly exists for historical reasons, similar to “generic pagan”) it can’t be reformed and doesn’t have any interesting mechanics. Curiously enough, it is apparently considered “Reformed Pagan” despite lacking a religious head and retaining conversion penalties.