the story of emperor Valsamon the merciless AAR
this guy has a rather interesting story, at the age of 18 he left Constantinople to take control of an army and punish the turks for blockading ports.
he was only 1 of 4 generals then and not even in the line of secession.
with 3 other generals and the current emperor he left massive armies readying to smash the turks once and for all.
(4 full stack armies. )
his brothers in arms or at-least those that still live.
marched on Iconium, or brave emperor took a different route he marched the long way, up through and past Trebizoid and down into Yerevan.
where he smashed all the Turkish forces in the area, and then marched down to siege Caeserea.
that very turn a plague breaks out in Constantinople. this eventually kills all the people in the line of secession before him.
meanwhile the turks face my armies outside the wall of Iconium, 7000 turks versus 5000 Byzantines.
the populace is exterminated.
they win a chrushing victory, the current emperor decides to stay in the city while a small Garrison force comes up from Smyrna.
alas his luck turned sour, and unseen Turkish army swept down on Iconium, in the chaos that ensued the emperor found it wise to catch a ballistae bolt.
when suddenly valsamon found himself the emperor.
deciding to go thank the turks personally for his succession he leaves the siege to his brother in arms and marches his force to Iconium.
for the second time he orders the populace to the sword, this time there is no doubt left as to the folly of defiance.
it isn't long before the turks are pacified and then annihilated all together.
with peace restored in the east valsamon marched to Adana where he met up with the massive byzantine fleet and began to sail to Italy, to finish off the vile Venetians that had been pluageing byzantine trade ways for longer then valsamon had lived.
the fighting in Italy was fierce, vasalmon finally managed to take bologna just as a shipment of fresh troops was brought over from ragusa, and Corinth.
to show the Venetians there folly he of course exterminated the populace.
the venetian armies were smashed, them reeling from a string of chrushing defeats, it seemed valsamon would take Italy without much fuss.
but then Milan joined in the fight and there papacy launched an attack on Bologna, meanwhile the Venetians besiege Ragusa, cutting off reinforcements.
it seemed to all that the Italian campaign would quickly become expensive drawn out campaign.
not that this matterd back in the east before valsamon had made it halfway to Italy his brothers in arms had seen weakness in the Egyptian cities, until it drove them mad with lust.
the Egyptians had lost 5 cities in mere months, there populaces put to the sword, there Treasuries looted.
but the gold taken from the Egyptians would not be needed, a spy long in Italy and forgotten about opens the gates of Milan, and it burns its populace put to the sword. Genoa and Florence follow suit.
the cities garrisoned by mercenaries paid for by the gold taken from the corpses of valsamons victims.
many venetian nobles and Milanese scum promise great ransoms for there lives, only to find valsamon laughing as he orders them all executed.
even the doge of Venice meets this fate. although Venice itself remains to heavily garrisoned to take.
however the siege on Ragusa is finally broken.
valsamon thus turns his eyes to Rome, and to the pope who made the mistake of aiding the empires enemies.
the battle for Rome is epic fuaght over a bridge just north of Rome, a massive papal force attempting to cross and meet valsamon in the Field the pope himself leading it.
as it turns out his holiness was a leader who's ineptness knew no bounds.
he lost his entire force was captured and summarily executed along with nearly a thousand of his papal guard.
and Rome finally felt the sting of valsamons blade, the streets ran with rivers of blood for days.
this however did not satisfy the emperor, he would have all of Italy, these Catholics were weak and didn't deserve it.
Sicilian armies were marching up towards Rome, they found battle far sooner then they hoped, and were smashed Naples and Palmero were taken with little but token resistance, the populaces put to the sword.
but finally Venice had managed to muster it forces against launches armies against bologna and Milan, a general ripe from taking Zagreb sails across and breaks both armies before they so much as see the walls of the byzantine cities.
( cant remember dudes name.)
by this time in the east the byzantine armies had pushed the Egyptians all the way back to Alexandria and Cairo, where massive Egyptian armies defend there last holdings.
with no way to take the walls the byzantine soldier's settle in for a long siege, the gold they had taken from there looting making it rather comfortable.
the unnamed general takes to Venice seeking to take there capital and finish them off.
alas it would not be so, the Venetians sallied from the city, the fight was brutal and close, cannonballs flying from the cities walls and smashing the ranks of Byzantines and Venetians alike.
it tide was finally turned when the byzantine general took a lance to the chest and feel, by Byzantines managed to beat the Venetians back into the city and bring the fighting into the streets but lacked the heart to finish the Venetians off and were beaten back .
Venice still stood.
but not for long, valsamon mustered his forces once again and sailed for Venice.
this is the near end of my byzantine campaign, ill write more up as more happens.
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it turns out that no matter how much i hate giving up a city due to a bug... well its not as bad as playing oblivion.
