Vanilla Venice Victor: Strong Spears Succeed (III-1)

[Alwyn]

Nicely done, it sounds like Venice's armies have an effective spearmen/crossbowmen combination - even so, it would be good to see some Venetian Heavy Infantry taking their war-hammers into action, if a suitable situations arises. It sounds challenging for Venice to deal with hostile nations from both the west and the east. I like the way that you include general's speeches - I wonder if the last line of the speech in this chapter indicates that Doge Bartolomoleo is fond of wine (or has some other trait). I agree with attias!

[Alavaria]

Phalanx Projects Power
II-9: Not A Hero



Gaston wanted to be first in the French assault on Venetian borders. He carefully selected a small fort which had a "minimal garrison", claiming that the fort was transgression French territory.

It was, but...






As the peasants came out to face him, Gaston led his knights in a mighty charge. But wait, something was wrong...






Gaston was captured by Councillor Banasuto's men.




Hoping to escape with his life, Gaston proposed a ransom, which Banasuto surprisingly accepted.

It wasn't a particularly generous sum, though.




This disagreed with Gregorio the Warmonger, who was known for rabidly preaching that the faithful must cleans the Earth of all heathen and blasphemers, by means most gruesome if possible.




It was very possible. No sooner had Gaston returned to his place at Castle Metz than he suddenly met a violent end.






There was little doubt that a Malevolent Leader had tasked his Killer, a Master of Assassins to carry out the deed.




Henry, who had seen the whole affair, launched an investigation into "malevolent Venetian influence" on French soil.

He also met a violent end. Most gruesome.

[Alwyn]

Wow, the actions of Doge Bartomoleo caused a dark twist for Gaston's story. Good update!

[Alavaria]

Strong Spears Succeed
III-1: Royalty?



While Gaston's story was distracting us, the Romans swept in and assaulted one of our forts. The sheer terror of so many Romans appearing on our new border caused a hasty retreat south.




We also found evidence of a Roman terrorist plot when one of their operatives was caught and killed by border guards on patrol.

Though very devious, it seemed the Romans lacked a good training program for their agents.




There was more than enough for us to persuade the pope of Roman aggression. Obviously, this caused his demanded peace to be not so demanded.




It probably also helped that the Romans didn't even pause before laying siege to Large Town Staufen. Yes, though it was a castle when the last Roman emperor we killed was killed there, it was converted into a town because we don't even recruit anything from castles.




Unfortunately for Captain Sifridus, we had arrived! After a modest march from Venice, westwards to Milan and then north to Staufen. Nothing to think about (except the last bit where there were no roads at all, dirt or paved).




It was a day best described as "more fog than air". However, if there's one thing we could see, it was the large unit flags of the Romans. Given the range of our crossbows, and lack of precision when shooting at that range, this was good enough.






The Romans would not take Staufen if we had anything to say about it!



======================================================================



In rather serious news, Antono Selvo disappeared, leaving behind a message.

[i]"Please understand my lord, I leave you to join the royalty..." (actual voiceover when this occurs)




Indeed, he had married a Roman princess (who had somehow avoided getting killed on the way south) and now become the Prince of the Romans!

That actually doesn't bode well for the Romans, if someone who just married in becomes heir to the whole empire.




Of course, when this happened, Antonio was now deep in Venetian territory and a clear enemy. As a result, his cousin Cristiano Selvo set out to make things right before there was any time to escape.








We caught "Prince" Antonio easily. The men were astonished that his bodyguard had already switched their tabards and even horse bardings to Roman colors. They must have been planning this for some time!

Except they clearly hadn't planned how to get to safety.




We sent a message to the Roman emperor (no idea who it is, but it was labelled "TO: Roman Emperor") asking for a princely sum to "return" his prince.

Perhaps ironically, the Romans were broke and so Antonio was not returned.

[♔atthias♔]

death to the traitor

[Alwyn]

Ah, when Antonio deserted, I thought that this wouldn't end well for him.