The epic saga of Normandy-Anjou

[Manager12390]

My first campaign with this mod has been unbelievable. Here, I present to you all the great tale of the rise of the Angevin Empire. Hope it doesn't bore you.

I went with my usual English opening, which is to conquer as many rebel territories in France as possible before the Capetians get to them. I took Bruges, but as I was preparing to invade Rennes something amazing happened. I was shocked and amazed to see a full stack of rebels come out of Wales and take Stafford. I rushed north and crushed the Welsh at Stafford, and then I knew I would have to invade Wales to prevent this from happening again. By the time I was within the borders of Wales, another Welsh stack spawned and attacked me. This battle didn’t go as well as the one in Stafford, but I did win and began to siege Garth Celyn. After a four year siege, a depleted and exhausted English army just barely took the capitol of Wales. Rufus took the Welsh crown the next turn, and I figured that an invasion of southern Wales wasn’t necessary at the moment. Since I had taken its capitol, I figured that Welsh armies wouldn’t be spawning and presenting a major threat. Oh God, was I wrong.
I loaded the army into some boats and sailed down to Brittany only to realize that I was too late. The dirty Capets had already taken it. It was around now that Bruges became my first minor city. It was making an insane amount of money and growing ridiculously fast. By the way, you might want to look at that for the next release. I don’t think the riches pouring into Bruges are natural. Anyway, I deposited the army in Rouen to keep an eye on my French border and decided to enter a period of stagnation and economic growth. I ignored the first crusade to Jerusalem and waited a few turns, when to my horror a full stack of Welsh soldiers invaded my Garth Celyn and took it without hesitation. I even lost a family member in the assault. I rushed the army and landed in Gwynned, taking it and beginning my march on Garth Celyn. I reinforced the army with knights from Norwich and longbowmen from Durham and won a heroic victory just outside Garth Celyn. The Welsh threat had been neutralized, but I am happy to say that it occurred with difficulty, something unheard of in vanilla.
Shortly after the Welsh Wars, Rufus’ son Henry took the throne and I decided the time was right to invade Ireland. My first campaign would end in disaster. Since I had an excess of family members, I loaded about five of them plus a full stack of longbowmen, mailed knights, and spearmen into my three unit navy. I was horrified to see my fleet completely destroyed and my army drowned at the hands of rebel pirates. After the surprise wore out, I was determined to wear the Irish crown and take revenge on those bloody pirates. I created a great ten unit fleet and raised another army, now using Sherwood archers and better longbowmen as Rouen had grown into Europe’s first citadel. Edmond Le Bretagne, grandson of Princess Cecilia and her husband, was selected as the general to lead the Irish campaign. The Angevin army landed in the south of Ireland and proceeded to take Corcaigh with little resistance. I Anglicized it to Cork, which in my opinion made sense. I then marched north and took Dubh Linh with little resistance. Renamed Dublin. I had already won the Hibernian crown and I hadn’t fought anywhere near the war I fought against the Welsh. But when I tried to invade Connacht, this all changed. I fought and won a heroic victory against the Duke of Dublin’s army of Irish Kerns and Gallogaich. I then won a less incredible battle just outside Gallimh and took the city. Since I couldn’t think of a real world city anywhere near the location of Gallimh, I decided to make one up. Gallimh became Edmonshire, named after the general that conquered it. Now only Ulster stood between my path of controlling the entire island.
The Irish put up an unbelievable fight. I marched on (damn it I forgot what the name of the original Ulster settlement was, so let’s call it Belfast) and was attacked by two full stacks. I lost. I actually lost. To rebels. I was as surprised with the fact as I was with the amazingness of this mod. The Irish armies proceeded to retake Edmondshire and Dublin, although they didn’t make an attempt on Cork. This gave me time to get two full stacks going. Edmond Le Bretagne himself had survived the Irish struggle, so he was put in command of a full stack headed straight for Ulster. The other stack was divided as I tried to blitzkrieg Edmondshire and Dublin. Belfast and Dublin did fall, but the Irish armies defeated the half stack attempting to take Edmondshire. But by now, the Irish were too depleted to survive Edmond’s attack, and Edmondshire fell. After a bloody, costly, and insanely fun almost fifteen year campaign, all of Ireland was firmly under my control.
After about ten years (twenty turns) of recovering from the war and Catholicizing and building up Ireland, I decided it was time to oust the Dunkelds. Despite being my allies since turn two, I saw no reason to allow their continued existence. Edmond Le Bretagne had, sadly, died during the interval, as had King Henry, who was succeeded by his son-in-law Ralph. I did find it funny to imagine Ralph I of England, but onward. I selected Martin, a direct descendent of William the Conqueror, to lead the Scottish Invasion while Guy Saint Germain supported with a second stack. I crossed the border and immediately took Edinburgh, which was, surprisingly, the largest city in the island. Not after I was done with it. London soon became a large city and has stayed in front of Edinburgh ever since. Taking Edinburgh was rather easy, but the rest of Scotland wouldn’t be. The Scottish attacked my army sieging Inverness and defeated me just barely. I had to starve out Whitthorn, but it did fall eventually. Then the Pope stepped in and asked me to stop shedding the blood of my fellow Catholics. Since it’s that much harder to control a vast empire, as my land was becoming, I decided that getting excommunicated might be a bit dirty and cause rebellion within my lands. I had already dealt with a rebellion in Edmondshire after I turned it into a city and I was forced to exterminate the population to avoid further problems. So, I built a little fort right on the new border between my realms and those of the Dunkelds, which had been reduced only to Inverness, and waited for eight years. As soon as the Pope was done whining, House Dunkeld came crashing down. The King of Scotland died at Inverness, and he rather reluctantly named Ralph his heir. I was now King of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Norway, which I had invaded for the heck of it.
I let another ten or so years go by to rest from the Scottish War before deciding my next course of action. I realized that a massive rebellion had occurred in northeastern France, and Paris, Rheims and Tours had all wrenched themselves free of Capetian rule. I took all three of them. But then I decided that I would be loyal to history and gave them back to France in exchange for Rennes, Bordeaux, Angers and Poitiers. The Angevin Empire plus Scotland, Wales, and Norway, was now created. This tense state of peace between myself and Capet did not last long. The Capets got excommunicated for God knows why, and they managed to get a crusade called on Toulouse. I thought a crusade called on a Catholic faction, even an excommunicated one, was ridiculous, so I didn’t join. The Holy Roman Empire ended up taking Tolouse, and I wasted no time in getting it from them in exchange for Norway, which was showing signs of rebellion anyway, and some money. I now had one of the three cities necessary for the French title. Only about five years later, another crusade was called on Beziers. I was not intent on joining it, but an assassin that I was trying to train by killing a French captain got caught and killed. Moron. War had now broken out between myself and my former allies. Capet was now at war with most of Christendom anyway, so I decided to join the crusade and took the castle. I quickly mobilized the armies I had waiting and took Paris and Limoges. The former I only sacked, but the latter I exterminated, allowed to rebel, and exterminated again. It had a population of about 400 now and a population growth of 16.5. Being the largest city in France, I knew it would rebel if I left it as crowded as it was.
The French title would soon be mine, just when the current French king died. Having all I needed, I made peace with the Capetians and gave them back Beziers in exchange for Tours, which just looked weird on the campaign map in French hands. The King of France was in his fifties, and soon died, leaving the great title to Ralph. Ralph died soon after that and was succeeded by his son in law Edward, who now sits on the thrones of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and France. And that’s where I’m at now. I have never had more fun in any other game than I am with this mod. I feel I must congratulate you, Re Be, for creating a brand new game from vanilla.

[bobulus]

Great story i really enjoyed it. Hope to read more. Now I started a campaign as Scotland but I wanted to load it today and it showed me that an error occur and it said that MTW2 couldn't be loaded. Sigh

[SickBoy13]

How did you make enough money to support this campaign? I'm playing as Dunkeld and I can barely stay at about 400 fl a turn.

[RivieraKid]

what difficulty you playing it on (campaign)?

[Mikel]

You'd be amazed at what Bruges and the Flanders province did for Medieval Europe. It was the cause for the Burgundian Duchy to be able to actually do some damage to France, as an ally to England, in the 100 years war - basically all their money came from that province; its the initial seat of power of the Hapsburg dynasty which propelled them into Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Castille, Navarre, Aragon, Leon, Portugal, the Two Sicilies and the ENTIRE American Empire; in order to defend it the Spanish fought the 30 years war against the Dutch and the French, while fighting the English as well; hell just for that province is the entire reason why the Spanish empire buckled under centuries before everyone else.

The Flanders province made the spanish monarchy too powerful and rich. They were constantly at war against France, which severely outnumbered them in terms of population, England, Northern Italy and the Ottoman empire. Being unable to reform, due to a lack of peace, eventually made the iberian economy collapse to such a degree that it took Spain out of politics altogether until the war for Spanish succession where Spain didnt really contribute that much but as a follow-up to France who won the war but lost lower Italy and Flanders, which was most important of all. Iberia and Sicily were backwater places..Flanders and furthermore Bruges were, and still are, a massive economic and in the medieval ages a textile center for western Europe.

As the Spanish said in the 30 years war: "Flandés lo es todo." "Flanders is everything."

[JimmyCanada]

Huh
makes sense

[Rugin84]

I thought a crusade called on a Catholic faction, even an excommunicated one, was ridiculous, so I didn’t join.

Ever Heard of the Albigensian Crusade? It was a full blown Crusade, with full crusade indulgence (remission of all sinces for any who took the cross) Which was called by Innocent on heretics (although they were still christians) of southern france, Centered around Languedoc Area. The crusade was fought from 1205-1207AD

[el_dude]

pics please