[M2TW AAR] Pickle my Herrings - Its a Danish Campaign!

[Cardinal Roland]

It was quite late at night (or is that Knight? sorry a little Danish joke there!) and we were pretty heavily into the Beer, Aquavit and Pickled Herrings (my favourites are the curried herrings, if you haven't tried them you're missing out!) when the King announced that it was 1085 and he was bored of living in Aarhus. He was a modern King and wanted to export Danish furniture designs across the world, he wanted a trading Empire where everyone was nice to each other and an extremely expensive social system cared for the needy.

We all thought he had eaten a bad herring or something until one of the nobles piped up and said instead of that why don't we just invade our neighbours, slaughter their men folk, abduct their women and drink their booze. I must say that this second idea had more appeal to the assembled nobility, this is 1085 after all. The King, still wanting to export Georg Jensen design to the world, said: ''You know this will mean Total War?'' And we all said ''Precisely!'' So the campaign began.

Our troops were marshalled together and off they went, in two opposite directions. A captain led army of 2 Spearmen regiments and two Archer units to take Stockholm and a General led army to take Hamburg. Hamburg swiftly fell to the Norse invaders and the campaign was off to a great start. Magdebourg rapidly followed much to the chagrin of a Polish army (with whom we have a trade agreement, more of the King's Georg Jensen stuff I am afraid) who obviously wanted this town as well. The Poles sat on a bridge looking at Magdebourg for some time looking sad a wistful. Quite funny.

Then our first reverse - the Swedes rejected our advances and defeated us in battle in the city of Stockholm. Stettin was captured (again from under the noses of the Poles - they must want to fight me soon) and Antwerp too a General was dispatched to Stockholm with a more appropriate army and Stockholm, Oslo and Brugge fell to the Danish Sword. The Dannebrog now flies of many cities and Danmark is poised for glory.

The Scots attacked us in Brugge! Once I had stopped laughing I dispatched them with almost careless ease. The English and the French are both salivating over Brugge and Antwerp but fearing my might or the Popes wrath they have kept back. No such worries for our German neighbours who have waded into a war with us, they attacked Hamburg but were cruelly repulsed, then they attacked my army in the open and I crushed them twice - I had a really good defensive position and both times their army was wiped out. The Pope has called for me to stop attacking the Germans (with which I have complied) he also asked me to go on crusade, I told him I was washing my hair - I hope I never meet the Pope because I am pretty bald!

So things are bubbling nicely, trade agreements all over the place and some decent cities but I am short of cash, oh and by the way the crusade to capture Jerusalem was a success, it never happened when I was Sultan of Egypt!

Fun being a Western Faction again and the Danes are quite good in soldiery but a little low on cash, its really is nice starting off a campaign again, the game moves so much more swiftly. Right, now to polish off those Germans!

[Demon]

The Pope has called for me to stop attacking the Germans (with which I have complied) he also asked me to go on crusade, I told him I was washing my hair - I hope I never meet the Pope because I am pretty bald!

Hahah lol!

I loved your Egyptian AAR, I'm liking this one. You have a good style of writing AAR's, I'm extremely interested and there is no pictures, that's skill mate
Keep it up!

Btw, seems like the AI are pretty dumb though Taking Brugges/Settin etc, these should've been taken by the time you arrived :hmmm:

[Cardinal Roland]

The successful Danish expansion continues apace. The King with a taste for Georg Jensen died after presiding over a large and wonderful expansion of his realm. He was succeeded by Charles - a wonderful warlike, stern young man who also presided over the glorious expansion of Denmark.

Denmark (it appears) has some problems in expansion in that it can quickly expand North (Oslo and Stockholm) which is nice but has France, Germany and Poland to prevent Southern expansion (which is not nice). So you can tend to end up (as I am) stretched like an elastic band from Brugge to Smolensk! But no deeper than the width of an elastic band (got the image in your mind?).

So to expand (and not up set his Holiness) we have entered into a war with the Russians who are charmingly easy to defeat. I had a really lovely battle against their King (I caught him on his own) and surrounded his Body Guard unit with scouts on all sides then I selected charge for all units and '' Good - Bye King!'' In the East I now own Helsinki, Vilnius, Riga, Smolensk and Novgorod. I have an army marching toward Moscow and another ready to take Ryazan. I feel a faction Elimination coming on. But that then gives me a large Empire producing little money (lack of money is a bit of a Danish curse) its not too bad but dull at times (bit like the English weather!)

Talking about the English (Don't talk to me about the English) they have been a real pain this Campaign. I own Brugge and Antwerp, two very nice cities thank you very much. When along comes an English Army and attacks Antwerp. I swiftly move into attack mode pulling together a rather fine army from my ONE castle in Western Europe (Hamburg) and I have a star spangled general go off to smash him. Job done!

So I reason that as the Pope let England attack me he will let me attack the English, right? So I take my star covered general and the good army and I get 2 average Generals to lead up an pretty average army (I call it my replacement army as I fight with the good one, merge units after the fight and fill the gaps with spearmen from the supply army so that we can still field a reasonable army for 2/3 battles) and we line up for the Boats to take us to England.

Low and behold, just before I embark for the boats one of those terribly nice inquisitors turned up and and enquired of my best general how he liked his Stake and as he replied ''Well done!'' so ... off he went to the bonfire! Can you believe the luck of it? Those inquisitors have set me to building churches like a good little boy I can tell you, yessir we are always in church every Sunday bending that knee and praising the Lord.

So now I have two armies one good/one average and 2 average Generals to lead them. We land in England. London is very well defended so I wait outside and hope the English will sally forth and we can fight in the open, no such luck. Then I besiege London and the Pope says naughty naughty, be a good little Dane and stop attacking those nice English chaps. So I comply and leave my soldiers in the open hoping the English will attack me - which they do and they attack my good army, Ho Ho! thinks I we will really smash them now and then take London - I got absolutely trounced! My General was killed and my army melted away. A little word to the wise - Norse archers, they have a bow range of about 2 feet and then they do not use arrows to attack but try to poke out the enemy's eyes with the end of the bow!! (or so it seems).

So I was now in troubsville, one average army in England, luckily I saw that Wales was still rebel (very odd) but off I set and took Caernarvon. So I had a home and a Castle, a place to build my armies and plot my revenge. I also took Dublin (which was also rebel) things were disjointed - I had lands in Wales and Ireland, Western Russia and Northern Europe and nothing was linked but still ... things could be worse.

There is something about Wales - a large English army turns up and attacks me and I really really had to fight a desperate battle (game is set to 1 turn = 1 Year and gameplay is M/H) it was really amazing, they climbed the walls and I looked done for but my brave little Danes fought well and stubbornly and eventually we saw them off, goodness knows how, but we did. Now another English army has turned up and is looking all proprietorial towards my castle and a small Spanish force has turned up and has stood in the mountains of Wales looking at me as if to say ''Oh I'd like that but I don't quite have the army to take it!'' I find it amusing that a Spanish army should spend so long in the wet Welsh mountains (We come for the rain! But we stay because of the way it rusts our armour!!)

The Scots have attacked Dublin - come on Popey can we have a few excommunications here!

So its Russia, England and Scotland against me with the Spanish hoping that there is something left after the others have finished with me so they too can hate me!!

Still, I have the power houses of Brugge and Antwerp and hopefully they will start pumping out the money soon. Brugge revolted on me. It was surrounded by heretics and when I sent out my priests to burn them mine turned into heretics too! Great! Where are the inquisitors when you need them!!? I had religious unrest in Brugge, there was a run on mussels and fries, the mayo ran out and that was it the Flemish revolted. I have recaptured and burned the heretics and another English army has landed. I need to knock out the Russians to allow me to concentrate on my Western front - sounds familiar??!

So you are all up to date now and I am about to take it to the next phase. Lets talk soon! Heck! Lets do lunch! I'll bring the Herrings and Beer!

[Demon]

I'm following this still

But, man your Empire is stretching very wide and far, however, in all the wrong directions The Steppes lands of Russia are a place of infertile, frozen lands which bring in fairly poor harvests due to the freezing winters.
Shame really.

Your situation on the Western Front seems like it's becoming very dire. You cannot risk excommunication, so whats your next plan after the destruction of the Rus?
I would've moved into Poland to secure a hefty Eastern Front, while having huge garrisons in Hamburg/Brugges/Antwerp to keep those vital cities. Also this will most likely get other factions ex-commed

Good luck mate, hope to hear more info!

[Gen_Phalanx]

Hey Cardinal Roland, just wanted you to know that I absolutely LOVED your AAR on Egypt. In fact, it inspired me to play a longer, harder game, and has given me a new way to look at the game so I can go longer without getting bored. I have played a good number of campaigns now on E/E and gotten bored, you got me to play one now on H/H and i'm gonna play it as long as I can (till the end if I must), no matter what happens. And you also inspired me to do my own AAR (on France) which is similar in style to yours (since I wasn't planning on doing it and don't want to do pics). I'm already loving your Danish one here as I had just started a campaign as the Danes, can't wait to read more!!

[Cardinal Roland]

My Russian Campaign need to be of the Blitz Krieg variety there was no let up I just needed to push on from city to city and Fortress each time wrong footing the Russians. This is not my preferred way of play but I was up against it and I sensed that the Russians were weak with just one or two cities to take before they were eliminated. If I did not eliminate them they would just keep on attacking and draining my economy. So a small army left Helsinki and went to Novgorod and my main army that had taken that city pushed onto Moscow. I ignored the small Russian armies milling around Novgorod as I presumed that they would follow in my wake if I moved the frontline to Moscow, my ploy worked. The Russians milled about a bit, then too late realised my goal was Moscow and followed, by then I had built all my siege stuff and had taken the city. A similar tactic was employed with my army in Smolensk as that made for Ryazan brushing opposition aside and then I moved from Ryazan onto Bulgar. With the fall of Bulgar the Russians were eliminated and peace decended on the Eastern front. My Empire was huge and all of Russia was producing ... ooo I should say about £5.50. What a bore having all those Steppe lands are, nothing to exploit and they never seem to grow into much. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I might do to make Russia viable? Turn it into a huge Vodka Themed park? There will be no rides (we cant afford them) but you will be so blind drunk on the vodka you won't miss them anyway! Suggestions on a postcard.

At this stage the Scots attacked Dublin and the English started to really take an interest in Brugge. In fact everyone is interested in Brugge and I constantly have a mass of German/French Assassins making life in Brugge as hellish as possible together with a load of heretics also upsetting the good burghers of that city, in fact Brugge rebelled again (for the 2nd time would you please!)

So finally, I had to face the Scots in dublin. Dublins fair city was walled around with a wooden fence and I was outnumbered. An heroic defence led to a narrow victory - I had 56 survivors and the Scots had 23. What a battle but the Scots were seen off. The English sent numerous amphibious armies against me to take Antwerp or Brugge, each one was defeated and Brugge was recaptured. Eventually I felt strong enough to take Rennes which was England's only city in Europe. As I marched a really nice army towards it I was attacked by the English and .. wait for it.... their SCOTTISH allies who had taken Caen. Thats right the English and their bosom buddies the Scots joined to attack me. It was another lovely battle. I quickly moved to defeat the one good English Army, whilst the Scots bore down on my rear. The English ran, just in time for me to divide my forces to take on the Scots and rout them and then finish off a 2nd English army coming onto the field from my right. It was a lovely battle and really enjoyable, the AI co ordinated the forces well and we were left with Caen and the Scots were eliminated! Hurrah!

Rennes swiftly followed and the Empire stretched from Rennes in the west to Bulgar in the East. The Germans and Poles started attacking me - what a bore and the English attacked me in Dublin with a really weak force. It made me wonder what was going on, so I quickly defeated the English in Ireland and pushed into Scotland and landed an army in London area and moved my army from Caernarvon to attack an English army in the open. I took Edinburgh, London defeated my assault but I in turn defeated the English army in open combat. My defeated London army attacked Nottingham Castle and was supported by the victorious Caernarvon army. Nottingham fell, London then fell, Inverness was taken and finally York. Faction elimination. The English had exhausted themselves in attacking me at Brugge and were so run down my armies could quickly steam roller them. I now had a really nice economic base from which to expand.

The Mongols arrived and I chuckled to myself as I thought of the poor old Egyptians having to defend Jerusalem and Antioch from them. Nothing to bother me I just carried on and took Caffa, (rebel) Halych, Prague and Breslau from Poland and Nurnberg from the Germans. The Germans were being a real pain and the Poles were annoying me, but nothing too bad, still money was coming in and the Pope really did mind his own business. One trick if you are a Catholic faction is to create lots of priests, lots and lots, they get made up to Cardinals and in Papal elections you either vote in your own faction or you have the controlling vote to vote in another faction so the Pope likes you. In the last 6 Papal elections I have had a Dane as Pope or have voted in the Pope of another faction so he likes me.

Just when all was looking rosy and I was moving on Kiev to remove it from Polish rule who turns up but the whole Mongol horde. They take Kiev and settle in Kiev as their homeland. They then spread out from there, they were quite slow to respond so I could build up the garrisons in Smolensk, Vilnius and Halych. But Ryazan has fallen - I took 70% of the Mongol army with me though and they failed to take Halych (I wiped out the whole Mongol stack)and then they are besieging me in Smolensk and Vilnius. Both Fortresses I expect to keep but what blessed luck! They move from Yerevan where they entered the map to where I am! Thanks very much! They are spread out so I expect to beat them faily easily, but I am also fighting the Germans and the Poles who have allied with the Mongols. Thats a good bit of Catholic solidarity for you! I am moving in on Thorn and have taken Kracow from the Poles, but I have every hope that I will soon eliminate either the Poles or the Mongols, as always the Mongols are a bit of a priority, there does seem to be an awful lot of them this time and my economy is not so wonderful that I can afford too many defeats, hopefully they will exhaust themselves against my mighty fortresses.

Or perhaps they will put my head a top a pike, out lander scum!!! Only time will tell.

[Cardinal Roland]

Just a couple of observations on the Danish Campaign so far.

Firstly it is a bit of an odd anomaly that the Danish sailors are all Russian! Whenever you click on your fleet they always answer Da! Obviously a Dane would respond Ja! It seems that the Danish Mediaeval Fleet was made up of Russians!! It might well explain why my sailors are useless - been at the old falling down water too many times!! This will probably be fixed later.

The other (rather annoying) thing I have discovered is about Ballista Towers. We all know that Ballista Towers actually fire Cannon Balls once we have the gun powder age bit. Right? Wrong! In my Danish Campaign I have built Ballista Towers and we have had the Gun Powder bit but to my astonishment when the Mongols attack my cities/fortresses there are no cannon balls. This led me to wonder - I have built few if any gun smiths, alchemists etc etc I wonder if they influence the out put of the Towers. Also we have all experienced slow firing Towers and rapid firing Towers. Some cities just pump out the Cannon fire and others fire so slowly you wonder if they have to caste each cannon ball before firing. Again I wonder if the fire rate is influenced by the gun powder buildings within the city/castle. If you have any experiences/knowledge you want to share on this matter please post me.

In the meantime, I feel as though I am about to get on top of the Mongols (so to speak), next post will let you know how I got on.

[Seppuku]

I love Danish in this game. Add some juicy pics there and it's perfect
But good read still

[Cardinal Roland]

So the campaign continues. And now its the Mongol threat to the Danish Empire that has to be addressed.

The Mongols were quite plentiful and I almost wondered if there were both waves of them present because every so often out of the mists of the Steppe yet another army would appear. Most of them were led by the usual fabulously starred Generals but there were more than a few Captain led armies.

Thank the Lord I had my trusty Danes and not those Egytian troops fighting for me. We repulsed a couple of bloody assaults on Halych which had been kitted out as a Mongol killing Fortress. So this was good. The Mongols did not seem to really know what to do. They besieged a few Fortresses but then lifted the siege they made as if to move on Thorn but thought better of it and retired. I was pretty strong, militarily, and I think that this confuses the AI a bit. Still flushed with the success of taking Kiev and Ryazan the Mongols attacked my Fortress of Bulgar. After a really heroic battle my garrison was overwhelmed. I was really sad as the battle was so close that I think 3 more units for me would have seen the victory but still ... it was not to be.

By now I had been sorting out Generals and fitting out armies and had moved them to the Eastern Front. I had 3 armies descending upon Kiev from the North and a fabulous all cavalry army coming from the West and it was all going to be curtains for the Mongols. One of their many starred Generals attacked Halych (a triple defence fortress) and I must admit I was a bit casual in its defence. I decided I had enough to stop them at the first wall, so I did not defend in depth, big mistake. Always post one unit over the main gate to activate the towers), post 1 unit over the main gate of the 2nd defensive wall and defend in depth the final wall. That way the enemy is almost always so depleted by the final effort that they lose. On this occasion my confidence was misplaced and my army was defeated and Halych was taken, my Triplex defensive line of Fortresses (Halych, Vilnius and Smolensk) which had contained the Mongols so well was breached. But they had paid very dear for their victory and my all Cavalry force was nearby to attack the Fortress next turn, hiring a couple of mercenary spearmen to carry rthe rams we attacked and recaptured the city, killing the General.

Halych was garrisoned and my Cavalry army moved forward toward Kiev, too rapidly as it turned out. My 3 Northern armies could not arrive in time to co ordinate with the Cavalry force and my Cavalry were caught in the open and after a bloody battle they were routed and my General was killed. I was really sad about that, but hey ho! he took loads of Mongols with him. Now my Northern armies descended and attacked Kiev defeating Mongol army after Mongol army, Kiev fell and reinforcements were brought up for the push on to Bulgar and Ryazan.

The Mongols attacked Moscow and I really felt that I was going to lose this battle. Moscow looked so beautiful when I panned over it when we were defending it. I was going to be really sad to lose it. But the Cannon Towers shot like machine guns and really blew away the Mongols my defensive army sallied out and sorted out the remains and Moscow was saved. That was a real turning point. Another large Mongol army was defeated and I kept a city. We moved into the big wide Steppe (it was a giant steppe for the Danish army but a huge leap for the Mongols!!!).

Ryazan was re taken and I captured for the first time Sarkel. This was a really important conquest as I needed to have a Fortress to produce soldiers locally as my lines of communication were too stretched over the plains of Central Russia and brining up troops was a reall chore. Then Bulgar was recaptured. But still no Mongol elimination. So I sent a spy in to look at Tiblisi and Yerevan.

Imagine my horror! They were Mongol. In fact the Mongols were in the Middle East and were spreading into Asia Minor. This was going to be a long one! I was too spent to fight any more and my armies contented themselves with defeating every Mongol army that came through the Caucasus to attack Sarkel. Eventually the Mongols sued for peace and I got them to give me the Castle of Tiblisi in return. So now I have a castle in their lands ready for the next phase. By the way the Mongols did not take too kindly to the ceasefire and I suspect they will attack me soon.

Meanwhile back at the ranch in Western Europe all sorts of fun was being had!! The HRE and Poland were against me and Spain decided to join in. I married my Faction leader to some ugly bint of a Portugese Princess which gave me a good alliance with them. Spain only had 1 city - Paris (of course!!) so I relieved them of the burden of administering that city and took various other places off the HRE: Metz, Bern, Dijon, Staufen and then I pushed into Northern Italy, by now my economy was fantastic (far better than my Egyptian economy had ever been) and several fabulous armies (6 fuedal foot knights or Norse axemen, 6 Norse archers and the rest cavalry) attacked Northern Italy. Milan fell, Genoa fell and the Pope called a crusade on Toulouse (held by HRE) which I bravely volunteered to go on and captured Marseille into the bargain. On the other side of things Vienna, Thorn, Prague, Budapest, Bram, Bucharest etc had all fallen. In fact after I took Iasi I wondered why the Poles were not eliminated - they hold Damascus it turns out. So I doubt they will be a threat for long - bit of a long way to bring your armies!!

Then Venice upped and attacked me. Really odd this. They own Constantinople and must be fighting with the Mongols but instead of uniting against them they attack me, I have never attacked Venice!! It wasn't me ... honest!!!

The HRE was now down to Bologna and Florence so risking all, they attacked and took Venice. I then defeated them outside Venice and took the city. I love Venice, my most favourite city in all the world and now I own it!! I might say that to the staff in the Gritti Palace when I go to stay later on this month - may be I will get a discount!!?

Then the Portugese attacked me. Two of my most lovely armies swept them away and now I own all France down to the Pyrenees. But I need Spain too. Next thing will be to eliminate the HRE. I am also sending out lots of family members to Russia to run the place and to hopefully populate it with their sons then I can re ignite my assault on the Mongols.

I wonder what effect the Timurids will have on the game when they arrive, not long to wait.

I just want to share with you a battle that took place between myself and the HRE. I had a lovely army and the HRE were obviously going to lose but I want to share with you the beauty of the scene. I can play the game on its highest settings and so I can really get down on the smallest detail on the battlefield. As my Danes were toiling toward the enemy I inspected the HRE army two lines of troops on a hill side. The first rank were Pavise bowmen and the second were sweihanders. The sweihanders stood there in the morning sun their armour glinting in the suns rays, their huge swords were resting on their shoulders. I panned the camera round and there out of the mist came my Danish army - it was really magical. This game has some nice touches - roll on M III TW! As the HRE saw my army appear they started to move up the hill and got disordered, sensing my chance I sent my cavalry forward catching them in disarray. It turned into a rout. The small, but beautiful HRE force was eliminated and the magic of the battle scene had gone.

Timurids next.

[Cardinal Roland]

So the campaign continues. And now its the Mongol threat to the Danish Empire that has to be addressed.

The Mongols were quite plentiful and I almost wondered if there were both waves of them present because every so often out of the mists of the Steppe yet another army would appear. Most of them were led by the usual fabulously starred Generals but there were more than a few Captain led armies.

Thank the Lord I had my trusty Danes and not those Egytian troops fighting for me. We repulsed a couple of bloody assaults on Halych which had been kitted out as a Mongol killing Fortress. So this was good. The Mongols did not seem to really know what to do. They besieged a few Fortresses but then lifted the siege they made as if to move on Thorn but thought better of it and retired. I was pretty strong, militarily, and I think that this confuses the AI a bit. Still flushed with the success of taking Kiev and Ryazan the Mongols attacked my Fortress of Bulgar. After a really heroic battle my garrison was overwhelmed. I was really sad as the battle was so close that I think 3 more units for me would have seen the victory but still ... it was not to be.

By now I had been sorting out Generals and fitting out armies and had moved them to the Eastern Front. I had 3 armies descending upon Kiev from the North and a fabulous all cavalry army coming from the West and it was all going to be curtains for the Mongols. One of their many starred Generals attacked Halych (a triple defence fortress) and I must admit I was a bit casual in its defence. I decided I had enough to stop them at the first wall, so I did not defend in depth, big mistake. Always post one unit over the main gate to activate the towers), post 1 unit over the main gate of the 2nd defensive wall and defend in depth the final wall. That way the enemy is almost always so depleted by the final effort that they lose. On this occasion my confidence was misplaced and my army was defeated and Halych was taken, my Triplex defensive line of Fortresses (Halych, Vilnius and Smolensk) which had contained the Mongols so well was breached. But they had paid very dear for their victory and my all Cavalry force was nearby to attack the Fortress next turn, hiring a couple of mercenary spearmen to carry rthe rams we attacked and recaptured the city, killing the General.

Halych was garrisoned and my Cavalry army moved forward toward Kiev, too rapidly as it turned out. My 3 Northern armies could not arrive in time to co ordinate with the Cavalry force and my Cavalry were caught in the open and after a bloody battle they were routed and my General was killed. I was really sad about that, but hey ho! he took loads of Mongols with him. Now my Northern armies descended and attacked Kiev defeating Mongol army after Mongol army, Kiev fell and reinforcements were brought up for the push on to Bulgar and Ryazan.

The Mongols attacked Moscow and I really felt that I was going to lose this battle. Moscow looked so beautiful when I panned over it when we were defending it. I was going to be really sad to lose it. But the Cannon Towers shot like machine guns and really blew away the Mongols my defensive army sallied out and sorted out the remains and Moscow was saved. That was a real turning point. Another large Mongol army was defeated and I kept a city. We moved into the big wide Steppe (it was a giant steppe for the Danish army but a huge leap for the Mongols!!!).

Ryazan was re taken and I captured for the first time Sarkel. This was a really important conquest as I needed to have a Fortress to produce soldiers locally as my lines of communication were too stretched over the plains of Central Russia and brining up troops was a reall chore. Then Bulgar was recaptured. But still no Mongol elimination. So I sent a spy in to look at Tiblisi and Yerevan.

Imagine my horror! They were Mongol. In fact the Mongols were in the Middle East and were spreading into Asia Minor. This was going to be a long one! I was too spent to fight any more and my armies contented themselves with defeating every Mongol army that came through the Caucasus to attack Sarkel. Eventually the Mongols sued for peace and I got them to give me the Castle of Tiblisi in return. So now I have a castle in their lands ready for the next phase. By the way the Mongols did not take too kindly to the ceasefire and I suspect they will attack me soon.

Meanwhile back at the ranch in Western Europe all sorts of fun was being had!! The HRE and Poland were against me and Spain decided to join in. I married my Faction leader to some ugly bint of a Portugese Princess which gave me a good alliance with them. Spain only had 1 city - Paris (of course!!) so I relieved them of the burden of administering that city and took various other places off the HRE: Metz, Bern, Dijon, Staufen and then I pushed into Northern Italy, by now my economy was fantastic (far better than my Egyptian economy had ever been) and several fabulous armies (6 fuedal foot knights or Norse axemen, 6 Norse archers and the rest cavalry) attacked Northern Italy. Milan fell, Genoa fell and the Pope called a crusade on Toulouse (held by HRE) which I bravely volunteered to go on and captured Marseille into the bargain. On the other side of things Vienna, Thorn, Prague, Budapest, Bram, Bucharest etc had all fallen. In fact after I took Iasi I wondered why the Poles were not eliminated - they hold Damascus it turns out. So I doubt they will be a threat for long - bit of a long way to bring your armies!!

Then Venice upped and attacked me. Really odd this. They own Constantinople and must be fighting with the Mongols but instead of uniting against them they attack me, I have never attacked Venice!! It wasn't me ... honest!!!

The HRE was now down to Bologna and Florence so risking all, they attacked and took Venice. I then defeated them outside Venice and took the city. I love Venice, my most favourite city in all the world and now I own it!! I might say that to the staff in the Gritti Palace when I go to stay later on this month - may be I will get a discount!!?

Then the Portugese attacked me. Two of my most lovely armies swept them away and now I own all France down to the Pyrenees. But I need Spain too. Next thing will be to eliminate the HRE. I am also sending out lots of family members to Russia to run the place and to hopefully populate it with their sons then I can re ignite my assault on the Mongols.

I wonder what effect the Timurids will have on the game when they arrive, not long to wait.

I just want to share with you a battle that took place between myself and the HRE. I had a lovely army and the HRE were obviously going to lose but I want to share with you the beauty of the scene. I can play the game on its highest settings and so I can really get down on the smallest detail on the battlefield. As my Danes were toiling toward the enemy I inspected the HRE army two lines of troops on a hill side. The first rank were Pavise bowmen and the second were sweihanders. The sweihanders stood there in the morning sun their armour glinting in the suns rays, their huge swords were resting on their shoulders. I panned the camera round and there out of the mist came my Danish army - it was really magical. This game has some nice touches - roll on M III TW! As the HRE saw my army appear they started to move up the hill and got disordered, sensing my chance I sent my cavalry forward catching them in disarray. It turned into a rout. The small, but beautiful HRE force was eliminated and the magic of the battle scene had gone.

Timurids next.

[Gen_Phalanx]

I really love reading this thing, it's great, definetly by far my favorite AAR (hey that rhymed). Quick question...how are you keeping the pope happy while attacking all these Catholic factions? I attacked one in mine and after 40 turns i have a 4 star rating, despite the many churches and priests (unfortunately, none of them seem to be improving even though in foreign lands, and my one cardinal died)

[Cardinal Roland]

A quick up date and something on the Pope for General Phalanx.

I have been slowly (oh so slowly) building up my Eastern armies ready to re start the campaign against the Mongols. The difficulty in the far East is Generals, pure and simple. If you build up Captain led armies and have them standing around for any period of time in the Steppe then you run a high risk of them going rebel - this happened twice to me.

If you are Denmark you get all your Generals in Aarhus, so I put them in a ship and run them up to Helsinki and then via land they go across the top to novgorod, Moscow, Ryazan and then along the Bulgar-Ryazan road and then down to Sarkel. Wow! quite a journey. I know I could move my capital to Sarkel but that would hardly be realistic and Aarhus is very central for the Empire.

A funny thing happened on one shipment of Generals! I took loads with me and populated various cities of Russia in an attempt for them to have children more locally to give me a more ready source of Generals in the future so by the time my small force arrived at Sarkel I had my King and one General left. Who was waiting for me outside Sarkel - an Inquisitor, in the space of two blistering turns he had tried, found guilty and burned both my General and my King!!! I tell you that made me laugh!

Still I have got a nice shipment of Generals on the way and I have re ignited the Mongol campaign and I have taken Yerevan, Trebizond and Edessa. Then the Timurids arrived. Got to say this worried me a lot and has set me to frantic Cannon Tower building in all my cities out in Russia. It turns out that the Timurids have arrived on the map just around Baghdad. Typical, just when I am moving into the Middle East so the Timurids turn up. I think that I will just let things cool for the moment and see where they go and who they attack. It is going to be really interesting to see if they fight the Mongols, that will be a battle Royal.

Meanwhile in the West I am the Pope's favourite son, more on that later. The HRE are wiped out and I own the North Italian cities of Venice, Florence, Genoa and Milan. I helped the Pope take Ajaccio and I am currently in a bit of a dull war with the Portugese. I have the Knights Templars Headquarters in Inverness (of all places) and I have a 100% full stack Templar army fighting in Portugal. They have full armour and they are magnificent. But now the East is looking a bit hot at the moment I think that I will defeat the Portugese and build up my armies to take the new World. Black Death (Plague etc) has occurred which was dull but we have all recovered now! Venice and Denmark are no longer at war so all looks good.

Now. Why am I able to get away with blue murder and the Pope does nothing against me (well apart from frying my King with his inquisitor!) The short (but unhelpful answer is ... I do not know) the longer and more accurate answer is that I own the Pope. We are now in the later 1300s and I have always voted for the winning Pope, in fact, after the first election where I had to guess which one to vote for (correctly as it turned out), the Pope has always been Danish. So every election I get the vote right so my relations are perfect. Of course the relationship goes down but then I will build a cathedral or something and the Pope - he loves them Cathedrals!!!

I got an alliance with the Pope from day one and always try to do the Papal tasks he sets me (apart from wasting time in the Holy Land! on Crusade). But the main trick is to build priests, just build loads and loads and loads of them. I set them to preach in non christian lands but mainly they just sit around and hopefully help keep the people happy. After the last Pope died we did not have an election as the only candidates for election were all Danish so the computer seemed to elect one for me - I was relaxed. So the trick is to stuff the college of Cardinals with your guys and the raw material for the college is Priests, to begin with you will be in competition with other Western powers but as time presses on and you build more and more Priests then the other factions' influence in the Vatican goes down and Bob's your Uncle, unless of course he's been on reality TV recently to have had an operation whereupon of course he could be Fanny your Aunt, but you get what I am driving at!

Also obey the Pope. When he says do not attack a certain faction - don't, pull away be sensible bide your time. Eventually, he will excommunicate someone and that someone better not be you. Let me tell you I got into a fight with the Pope late in one campaign and it was awful really awful! Do not go there, anyway I think obeying the Pope (mostly) adds to the fun, complexity and realism of the game). Let me know how you get on, remember lots of priests - whatever your present build is double it and add 20!! Just joking, but you get my drift.

Right I am off to get those Portugese! Will need some shades so ...

[Cardinal Roland]

Another quick post in addition to my mornings up date and this is mainly to get this off my chest.

I was attacked in Toulouse (a Fortress) with Cannon Towers. I was waiting for a smashing of the enemy with my Cannons which I think work rather well. What did I get ballista bolts that what I got! Now I know that we all know that Ballista and Cannon Towers are bugged but I am really confused with this - some ballista towers just fire ballistas some fire cannon balls some cannon towers fire cannon balls and some ballista bolts. So I am conducting a little experiment on this one and I have destroyed the Cannon Tower and have rebuilt with Ballista Towers now we wait for the Portugese to attack again.

My all Templar army took on and defeated 3 Portugese armies simultaineously and has returned to Inverness for a refit. I tell you that little baby is going to the New World to give the Aztecs some fun!!

The Venetians have attacked me again and the Pope has declared a crusade against Constantinople which I have bravely volunteered to go on!! The Timurids have arrived and there are loads of them!!! They are like the stars in the midnight sky. They are at war with the Mongols and have taken Antioch and are currently besieging me in Edessa (lets see if my cannon towers fire dainty flowers in the vague direction of the enemy or if they actually fire shot!)

In the confusion I have taken Caeserea from the Mongols, so when I have Constantinople I will be in a position to take Asia Minor and link up my Balkan possessions with the Middle East through Asia Minor. That will make Russia a real back water as I will no longer need to trek across the Steppes of Central Russia.

Oh and Caffa has rebelled! Right I tell you when I re-take they are getting it big time. I am really fed up with that settlement, about 3 Generals have died running that place and they produce nothing!! Extermination here we come.

Asia Minor, the Venetians and Iberia are next!

[Cardinal Roland]

Ok the experiment has been conducted and the results are in and they are, wait for it ... hopelessly confusing.

Toulouse - has Cannon Towers gets attacked it fires Ballista Bolts. So I down grade to Ballista Towers and they fire, yes thats right Ballista bolts. I will up grade back to Cannon Towers and see if that makes any difference.

Bordeaux (also a Fortress) also gets attacked it has Ballista Towers what do they fire Ballista Bolts.

I give up the bug is simply not consistent. I really am a little peeved with this as I really like my Cannon Towers and would love to know how to ensure having them. Answers on a Post card please to this address.

Lost Edessa, by the way, to the Timurids, but made them pay heavily for it. The Mongols and the Timurids are really going at it hammer and tongs and I am sitting in the cheap seats eating pop corn and letting them get on with it!!

Constantinople is mine! Have a nice weekend one and all!

[Cardinal Roland]

Things are really hotting up in this Campaign. We have discovered, much to my amazement, that the earth is round. Armed with this news we built 4 fleets of 3 Carracks each, built up 4 wonderful armies each one led by a General and went off to sail East by sailing West, its a Danish thing do not worry about it!! I have 2 armies on board ship which are predominantly made up of Knights of the Temple and an awsome sight they are.

We came to the New World and quickly took Micosuckee which is now being turned into a Christian power house (the power bit might take a bit of time but its the thought that counts). The Caribbean quickly followed and my 2 remaining armies were landed on the North shore of the Aztecs lands. I sent off 2 Merchants which I had brought from England to do some discovering and some trading. 3 of my Carrack fleets have returned to England/Northern France where they will re load with new troops and return to finish off the Aztecs, last time my Egyptians were too late in the New World and too few in number and, frankly, their soldiers were too poor compared with the Aztec warriors. So I have high hopes of my danes and of seeing what can be done with the new World as I have about 100 years left to develop it.

I decided upon an attack on Tlaxcala, a bit early but in all honesty I need to beat the Aztecs and get their gold because my Western economy is faltering badly. Tlaxcala fell easily to my 2 superb armies. A 2nd Aztec army arrived and again it was quickly dispatched. Things look good. There is the city of Chilula to take and I presume there will be one more after that but I have not discovered it yet.

Another army is on board with a cannon to support my two armies attacking the Aztecs and I think 2 more armies should do it. One to take Fortaleza and the other to help out in the Aztec campaign. I might transport over a couple of average armies to garrison Micosuckee and the Caribbean as the garrisons there are really prime units and could be fighting the Aztecs rather than doing town guard duties. We will see.

Back in Western Europe I think the Portugese have rather exhausted themselves in their war against me and they seem to be quiet for the time being. Although I am concerned that they will suddenly turn up in the New World for a ''remember me?!'' continuation of our war!

The Venetians have launched a series of spectacular attacks against me, where do they get the money from? I have replused them all and I think I have turned the tide against them. They have lost Zagreb, Sofia and Thessalonica. They have just Ragusa, Durazzo and Corinth left, plus whatever islands they have taken. If I can take the 3 cities then they will be crushed beyond recovery.

In the East things are a bit like the curates egg - good in parts. I have lost the cities of Yerevan and Edessa to the Timurids. You simply cannot defend a city against these monsters. One line of defence is not enough. However, they attacked my 3 layered Fortresses of Tiblisi and Trebizond and that was a horse of a different colour altogether. At Trebizond the first army they sent against me was massacred. The 2nd lost 25% of its troops and failed to get past the 2nd wall. At Tiblisi we killed 30% of their army (including a Unit of Elephants! Hurray!) and again they did not get beyond the 2nd wall. How I play the Fortress defence is to put say 1 or max 2 units on the first wall, just to activate the towers and to take some of their men down and to make them exhaust their supplies of cannon shells. I put all my cavalry in the inner keep of the 3rd wall and then try to man the 2nd wall quite heavily. I find the AI is not so brilliant at getting beyond the 2nd wall. Still the Timurids are back and are besieging Tiblisi for a 2nd time. Come on you Georgians!! (Georgian Danes that is, of course!)

So it is quite finely balanced at the moment. My economy is really quite poor at the moment. My New World expedition is ruinously expensive and is absorbing most of my cash and military unit building capability. The Venetians hang on because I simply am too stretched to finish them off and the Timurids are truly awesome in battle in the East but if I can contain them with my Castles long enough to finish off the aztecs then we might see what we might see.

Its hard to call at the moment, but I think I am going to squeak it!:hmmm:

In addition to my last post above, does anyone have any sure fire winning tactics with the New World? I mean with regard to the economy? How many cities do the Aztecs have? Can you wipe them out and what effects does having these lands have on your economy?

Any help is gratefully received.

[Cardinal Roland]

Things have improved immensely for the Danish Empire.

In the New World the Aztecs have been subdued and all 3 cities have been taken. They are an unruly lot and I have frequent revolts and rioting but I hope that I am getting on top of the situation. My Merchants are more plentiful than the trees in the rain forest and I am sure that I have a good economy just because of their activities in chocolate, gold and tobacco etc etc

Fortaleza is also mine and is going smoothly. I continue to grow the Caribbean and Micosuckee but no transatlantic trade yet. Maybe I need deeper Naval Docks for that. Lets wait and see.

The high tide for the Portugese has been reached they took Toulouse and Marseille when I was concentrating upon the New World. These have been restored and for good measure I have taken Valencia, Pamplona and Zaragoza. I have 3 superb armies moving in to take Toledo, Leon and Lisbon which should remove their ship building abilities somewhat. They are a real pain blockading my ports and cutting down on my economy. I have cleared them out of the English Channel and that whole area is now a forest of little trading vessals (trade away my lovelies trade away!). The Meditteranean is a sea (of course its a sea!!) of Mongol, Portugese and Timurid shipping each one bent on blockading my ports. Slowly I am turning the tide (sorry for all these puns!) and we will see how my economy really performs when I own the 7 seas!! Haar! Haar! Jim Lad!!!

The Venetians are eliminated and I own all of Europe upto Constantinople and all of Russia up to Tiblisi. The Papacy is pretty keen on taking Jeruslaem and I have not helped them do this because I would then ''win'' the game but there is a Papal army on its way and I just thought ''What if they were successful?'' for me to win I would then have to take the city off the Papacy, so I might join the crusdae and take Jerusalem and then just continue the game on.

The Timurids have really exhausted themselves in battering themselves against my Fortresses of Tiblisi and Trebizond. They are so worn down that they are really no longer a threat to me - or so it seems. I do not know what they have been up to in the rest of the Holy Land.

Its those Mongols that have really posed me the threat. They have obviously decided that Caeserea should become Mongolian. To begin with I repulsed them with ease but then they put a spy in the castle and he opened the gates and then wave after wave of Mongol amies attacked me. My city resembled a Swiss Cheese at one stage there were so many holes in the walls and no sooner had I defeated one army than the next attacked not allowing me to rebuild or recruit. It has really been tough and that little spy has really caused me harm. I have rebuilt the walls now, I have 3 spys in the Fortress hopefully doing some counter spying and I have a small garrison left but - you guessed it they are under siege again and this time if there is a spy in the walls and he can open the gates I am done for.

I must levy a large army in the Constantinople area and attack the Mongols in Nicea, but before that I have ships to build and fleets to sink and the Mediterranean to conquer! An insane meglomaniac King's work is never done!!

[Duke Lysander]

just a hint for you..
when you notice all your fighting is done far from your capital... and you need new generals...
pick a new city you have that is well defended and change your capital to that city its a tab on the city menu... this way presto new generals in your remote regions where you need them now..

you can always change it back to aarhus later...


your AAR is fantastic btw...

[Cardinal Roland]

The Portugese were simply brushed aside as my magnificent armies smashed into Iberia. The New World really does give you that economic edge to win in the latter stages of the game. I built large Carrack fleets and slowly swept round from the English Channel around the Western coast of Spain and on in to the Med. slowly I pushed back the Portugese and then the Mongols and the Byzantines. As the waters became freer of enemy shipping so my economy picked up even more.

Now I built 6 full armies each one led by a general and prepared for my Mongol advance. My huge army pushed into Asia Minor and in fierce fighting took Nicaea. I got the Pope to declare a crusade on Nicaea and all 6 of my armies joined it. Then we pushed onto Iconium taking that from the Mongols. This obviously put too much strain on the Mongols, they could not keep rebuilding their fleets and their armies to the same high degree and their army units suffered.

At this stage I noticed that I was running out of time to ''win'' the game so I put together 2 army units from Spain (one was my King) and in a grand flotilla sailed toward Jerusalem. Every inch of the way was fought over but my fleet was more than a match for the Mongols. Eventually, we got to the Holy Land and we besieged Jerusalem (Mongol owned) and my King led the assault that took the city. We had 80 provinces and Jerusalem. Not too bad. The fireworks went up and the game was won.

I have saved the game and may return to it to continue various conquests from time to time but frankly I want to start a new game, perhaps the Sicilians ( I was on holiday there last year and the locals were very nice indeed). Lets see.

Playing Denmark was a blast. It is an unremarkable Western European faction and one that really is in the hub of it all. I think that the Sicilians may make for a quieter time of things. I am not too good with my navies and so Sicily may well prove to be a bit of a challenge. I will try it on hard and very hard as well just to see.

But for the moment the Dannebrog flies over most of Europe and everyone is settling down to learn Danish!! What a very comforting thought... Good luck everyone and see you in Sicily.

[Lord Salvo]

man u make some good reading.
keep it up.