[TLR AAR] Imperator de Basileia Ton Romaion

[Darkarbiter]

Imperator de Basileia Ton Romaion-A "The long road" M2tw AAR
First of all a few comments. I did a Spanish AAR quite a few months ago on anno domini 0.92 and then my computer crashed. After trying out the latest
version of anno domini I was disappointed with the number of bugs, lag of continued developement and the incredibly frustrating turn time. I've found a mod that is epic and doesn't have a frustratingly long turn time and I'm still pretty impressed by everything so I was inspired to write an AAR.
I will be playing the Medieval Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium on medium/medium.
Rules and general guidelines
-Roleplay lots
-No cheating or reloading
-If your winning too much do something stupid (although from the looks of it I don't think I'm gonna have to be doing that too much with this mod)
-In general fight out battles... don't look at things too tacticly. If they're islamic there can only be war (and temporary peace)...
if they're Orthodox or Catholic then weigh out the situation but favour Orthodox.
-Most important of all... don't stick to the game if you don't feel like it... just because someone has died doesn't mean some photo editing can't fix it
-The Byzantines are patriotic... do not let the enemy take one of your cities... do not allow any nearby orthodox towns to become Catholic or Islamic!
-Picture before text ALLWAYS. It looks much better. *Picture of fight*
"Our men attack the castle"
I prefer people to evaluate things for themselves then see what I have to say about it. This is mainly refering to battles.
-No Adoptions
-Prefer not using mercs. ESPECIALLY ones of another religion.
-No warning 56k thumbnail crap... I really hate having to open a new tab just to look at stuff

Introduction:

Imperator Alexius is a man of effeciancy and battle. He is neither particuly bloodlusty or agressive nor peaceful and empathic. Usually weighing things out. That being said... although he is intelligent on the field of battle he is neither a very good trader or governer. Battle however is his expertise.
He is allways talking to the men and his officers about tactics and what the current state of the army is. If there is a chance where he can strike the enemy when they are weak he will take it. He does not concider such situations as cowardly.

That being said the empires borders are not exactly expanding at the moment. However Imperator Alexius has sworn that he will retake Asia Minor before he dies... it is rather unlikely but every man has his dreams. He hates the turks most out of anything in this world. Claiming they have corrupted the good
people who used to be part of the empire.



Prince Adronicus is very much like his father, who he greatly respects. He however prefers governing to the field of battle much to his fathers
dissapointment. Because of this and also because he sometimes has a few too many to drink the feeling of respect is not allways mutual. Still things recently have been rather good although I cannot say it has allways been that way. Andronicus is just as religous as his father. He wishes that the empire were larger but he fails to do anything about it. Sometimes when Alexius is in need of another general he will ask Adronicus but Andronicus will reject his offer and go back to governing a town or province. I think his father may be slightly unsure of whether he is the best option for the crown.


Isaac Comnenus is a noteable brother of Alexius who Alexius usually gets to command his armies if he does not. He is quite talented in politics,
commanding and everything in between. Isaac is a very loyal general and rarely expresses his true views on anyone. Although I do think we can trust him and that his motives are similar to ours. If it were another situation however I wouldn't want him to be on the other side. Alexius recently sometimes feels that Adronicus should be more like Isaac. Although I don't really think many members of the caught and especially not Adronicus have caught on. Adronicus can be sometimes a bit naieve.


Nikeforos Comnenus is the youngest brother. He is usually ignored by the others but he doesn't really mind. He's the most astute of them all and would have made a great trader. Although he is shaping to be a great goverener even though he has only started recently. I'm sure after he gets accustomed to the job he will make many governing innovations.


Gavriel Branas is perhaps Alexius's most trusted advisor. He gives advice on all things from where we should expand our borders to who to trust and who not to. He is disliked by Nikeforos mainly due to a rather unfortunate event that happened a while ago but very few people know about that and not even Alexius. Gavriel Branas is usually brought along with the army to "englighten" those towns which we take or just to brighten up the army. He is a key person for the army and he most defenitly hates catholics. Fortunately Alexius does not share this view with him. Gavriel is of Kieven descent and has recently been ushering Alexius to make an Alliance with the Kieven Rus'. Alexius will bring this issue up with us soon. Gavriel most of all hates the Sicilians.
They have recently taken Naples from us and that will not be forgotten... Alexius thinks this is a lost issue though. He believes we cannot afford a war against both the turks and the Sicilians at the same time. Gavriel however usually does not think of things praticly which Alexius is well aware of.

OOC: This is the kind of detail I wish to go with in terms of character developement. Economic terms I prefer to have more roleplay though as well as Battles.
Not: Athens, Constantinople and Naples are getting roads
Yes: Alexius has brought up with us recently the declining state of roads. We have decided that it would be best if we built a few roads in some of the towns. Further construction may go on later.
Chapters will be divided by a King change or a battle. I will probably release stuff weekly or bi weekly. Chapter 1 release date approximately saturday.
General comments?

Status:
Intro: Comeplete-Posted
Chapter 1: Comeplete-Release pending
Chapter 2: Comeplete-Release friday

[bomberboy]

Good start can't wait for the next bit.

[Darkarbiter]

Good start can't wait for the next bit.

Thanks for reply. Just finished chapter 1. I think I'll post it later tonight
hopefully I'll get another few chapters done today as well. Heh AAR writing is fun more people should try it.

[bomberboy]

I know I've made five of them already.

[Darkarbiter]

Chapter 1:
1080:
"Now is the perfect time to strike!".
Emporer Alexius agree's to his officers comment.
"Officers send out word to gather more men... we will attack Nicea as soon as enough men are ready. Let us take back Asia Minor and show the Muslums the power of Byzantium. In order to pay for this I will be scrapping the fleet. Since we own no overseas provinces apart from Cyprus it is hardly necassary anymore. Should the need arise for a fleet again we can allways rebuild"
"Here here"
"It is done then. Soon we will have a sizeable army in Constatineople to attack the evil turks. I will lead our army personally"
Later that year:
A rather impatiant looking messenger burst in through the door of the house we were communing our meeting in.
"My Emperor... we have not heard from our spy in Nicea for quite some time. It would appear he has been captured or killed"
"This is most troubling... we will need to starve them out or attack them directly then. Still the plan to attack will go as planned."
1081:
A turk just entered our commune. "My master wishes to talk peace". "Peace... there can be no peace tell your master about your arm"
"I am sorry I am not very good at speaking Greek what did you mean by arm"
"Guards show this man what having one arm feels like"
I doubt that the Turkish will send another emissary for peace talks again. Certainly Alexius has shown to them that he means business.
Later in 1081:
Alexius and the council are passing their time while Alexius waits for the last of the troops to arrive for the assault.
1082:

Clearly the turks had not learned the lesson from last time. Alexius was quite enraged by this proposal. "You are threatening the might of Byzantium?
We have god on our side and the biggest army on earth. Tell your master to see that he does not send another diplomat and guards... let this man walk
home blind". Most people in the court tried not to look disgusted as to get on Alexius's good side. Alexius was not really watching anyone else however.
Later 1082: Alexius and the council are still waiting for the last men to arrive. Reports say they should be here in a week.

Emperor Alexius marches towards Nicea with his men.
"Emporer Alexius our scouts report that the enemy outnumbers us 3 to 2."
"I do not care... we shall besiege their castle anyway. If dare rally we shall fight them. If the siege continues we can allways use extra reinforcements.
Do not forget that god is on our side."
1083: I don my armour as I hear the call for arms. We march the last mile to Nicea and begin setting up trench and fort networks. So far the enemy
has not made any signs of responding apart from manning the walls. A group of Armenians approach the council and Alexius. "Emperor Alexius we are mercanaries
from Orthodox Armenia and we wish to join your fight against the Turks. We hate the Turks nearly as much as you do. For a small sum we will fight by your side and join your army".
"Yes alright that seems fair. We can use any extra man we can get... if only to reduce losses. We will capture this City I assure you."
After 6 hours pass Alexius orders the stand down and only keeps a third of the army ready at any one time. It would appear the Turks are either waiting for reinforcements or for us to break off the siege. I don't think Alexius will give up until the city is taken however.
Later 1083: More men from Constantineople arrive to back us up. If we were outnumbered before the odds are very close now. Either way Alexius's commanding
will get us through.
1084: The siege continues... Gavriel has arrived to convert the populace when we break through to the city.
Later 1084: The siege is still on... with no sign of Turkish reinforcements the Turkish inside are getting anxious.
1085: A messege bearer comes in and tells us that mail armour is now relatively common throughout the technologically backward Europe. We will need to be more vigilant when fighting our foes now.
Later 1085: The turks are running quite low on food and water now. A few of them have died or given their lives away allready. We've seen a few soldiers jump off the walls due to disease and madness. We suspect that they won't last another year of this before surrender.
1086: The turks are now on half rations and have little water left. Alexius claims their surrender is just around the corner.
I awoke at 6am to the sound of shouting. The officer from our council on duty had awoken Alexius and he said that there is much sound coming from the city.
The front gates just opened and there are now men pouring out. I quickly don my armour and get into my cavlry battalion amongst the chaos.

Only time will tell the outcome of this one. Until then I shall wait.

[MCM]

Nice to see you writing D

keep this up

[Darkarbiter]

Eye that reminds me. Next chapters due and yes well... ever since the RTR forums went down theres been a distinct lack of good AARs so I thought I'd have another try. My next AAR will be either RTR platinum 1.9 Germany or Iberia. Or maybe AE Elysium.
Chapter 2: The siege of Nicea

Our men are nearly formed up now. We will be ready in time for the enemy.

Alexius has ordered the men to take up a more defencible position further up the hill.

The archers are at the front ready to retreat should the enemy get close and Alexius the
other officers and me are located behind the main line ready to flank the enemy. The enemy are forming a line
just outside the gate as well now.


The enemy heavy cavlry attack one of the Armenian battalions of spearmen who didn't form up with the main line
quickly enough.

Alexius is angry with the Armenians letting him down. He does however want their losses minimized and orders a
counter attack seeing a chance to attack the enemy heavy cavlry when they are weak.
[/URL]
The startled enemy take many losses and I take my chance to kill a couple of Turks myself.

Our main line being of superior quality and significantly larger holds steady. A lot of the Turk army is made up
of archers and other Auxillaries. They have not had their chance to shine in this battle and will probably end
up being wasted.

The enemy general obviously believes his life is in danger. He is running away! "Clearly the enemy general
had far too much Hash if he believed he could beat any army of mine!" Alexius is in a rather good mood at the
moment partly due to drawing turkish blood and the fact that the enemy general is running.

Alexius orders us after them!

Although Alexius has lost many of the novice members of the guard in doing so the enemy General is down to his
last few guards.

I have just killed the enemy general. Alexius will be pleased!

With the death of the enemy General most of the Turk army is routing... the battle is pretty much won! Just a bit of
a mop up job now.

We now own Nicea! This is the first step in taking back Asia minor! The turks will not recover from this loss easily!

[bomberboy]

Good read once again Darkabiter

[Darkarbiter]

Act 1 Chapter 3: The Byzantine Empire Redux

As we rejoiced in our victory in the town of Nicea we decided as of what to do next. Gavriel rather demandingly suggested that we build a church in Nicea to
convert those who would follow the word of a false prophet. Alexius agreed ofcourse and went further by vowing to build a church in every new town we
conquer. The next day Alexius went back with allmost all the army to constantinople for new weopens, armour and recruits to make the army stronger for more
conquests. "The turks may have lost one battle but the war is not over yet. We must be cautious."
1087: Alexius once again demands more troops from each of the provinces including newly conquered Nicea. Luckily able bodied men are not a problem for the
Empire at this time.
Later 1087: Not happy with the quality and speed at which troops are being trained, Alexius has ordered for better training facilities to be built in all
of the provinces starting with Nicea.
1088: Barracks upgrades in Nicea have been delayed due to a lack of funds. Constantineople has also much lowered it's taxes in order to attract more people
to the city... who will end up in the army.
Later 1088:

A Kieven diplomat has approached us offering an alliance and co operation in many matters. Alexius is delighted to accept the proposal and Gavriel is
delighted when he finds out the news.
1089: The barracks building program in Nicea has commenced. With the recent alliance with the Kievians things are defenitly going well for the Empire.
The Turks have not shown themselves recently either. Perhaps they are dealing with internal strife or another enemy? Either way Alexius and Gavriel do not
fear them. Alexius sometimes comes down to Nicea to see how Gavriel is going with his convertation of the populace and running of the church. They usually
talk about political matters. Although interestingly Alexius has not talked to Adronicus or any of his other sons recently. I am not sure how they are
feeling about this.
Later in 1089: Gavriel has started training a young priest in the ways of god from the populace in Nicea. I have not had the chance to meet him yet and
neither has Alexius. Gavriel has started feeling like he is lacking meaning in his life. He hopes that this will fill him where he is empty.
A few weeks after that I overheard Alexius getting rather angry at a messenger. The messenger brang news that Gavriel has started spreading heretical views
to the populace. He was thrown out by the local governer there however and has been trying to get back in. Luckily Anthanasios Lascaris his apprentice did
not feel the same way. Anthanasios is currently trying to track him down and have him killed for preaching blasphemy. Anthanasios had a priest from cyprus
fill in for him in the church.


1090:

"My Emperor Alexius dire news... A large army matching the size of which we have garrisoned here in constantineople has attacked Thessalonica...
the goverener there is in a panic about what to do about it. He controls but one battalion of men. They bear the colours of the princeipality of Venice"
"We will leave at once. The greedy venicians were fools to so stupidly attack one of our towns. Do they not know that we are the true heir of Rome?
The Italians may claim that but that is not true. We have had only backstabbing from the Italians. Now we will show them that their ways are wrong.
I will muster the forces and lift the siege of Thessalonica. I doubt the Turks will bother us when we beat them so readily last time."
"A rather smaller army has been seen near where Isaac and John Comnenus are stationed in Arta."
"Good... I know in his wisdom he will rally some men and if needs by hire some mercanaries to fight them. I trust in Isaac's ability to command."

[bomberboy]

Thats one huge army of venitians how are you going to destroy them.

[Darkarbiter]

Thats one huge army of venitians how are you going to destroy them.

As you see in the next chapter when they assault the city... the guard captain finds a rather unorthadox way to defeat them.

[bomberboy]

oh I didn't notice.

[Spartan_Shame]

Nice.

[Darkarbiter]

Hey Spartan... I thought you were one of the ones who didnt make the move from the RTR forums. Good to see you here!

[Spartan_Shame]

lol, I came here when the forum started to have a bit of trouble ages before it shut down. It's a shame it's still down, but yeah, it's good to see some buddies from way back, huh?

[Darkarbiter]

Chapter 4: The massacre of Thessalonica

The Venetians attack before we have time to reinforce the city. Pelekanos will need to show some pretty good skill as a general to win this one.


The enemy lines up for attack, they have brought a siege tower, 3 ladders and a battering ram. We have our archers strategicly placed on the walls.


Our archers target the men the enemy soldiers carrying the ladders. They will be the first to reach the walls and could possibly try and attack the archers
when they get there.

As the hordes of enemy men draw ever closer Pelekanos wonders "How will I get out of this alive?"... I'm sure many of the men are thinking this at the time
as well.



The enemy are at the walls climbing the ladders! They are left to roam are walls undetested while our archers merely fire upon them. Pelekanos is getting
rather nervous now of the fight that will ensue when the enemy break open the gates and storm through.

The last of the enemy siege equipment is now in place. The enemy have put their siege tower adjacent to where our archers are. Likely they are trying to
get rid of our archers.



Meanwhile our archers keep on shooting at the enemy. A moment later Pelekanos' worst suspicions came true and he was killed. The rest of the army routed shortly after. Alexius will be furios when he hears that Thessalonica has been taken!

[bomberboy]

I bet that guy will be angry. Whens the next AAR.

[Darkarbiter]

now if you mean the "next AAR" as in the next AAR not the next update then probably soon.
Chapter 5:
"My Emporer Alexius, Thessalonica one of our most prized cities has fallen into the hands of the greedy Venitians. One of our men managed to get out alive
and reports it was a mere massacre. They showed Pelekanos and his men no mercy, burn't down the church and butchered the priests there."
"I am furious at the Pope for allowing this to happen! We are not the enemy despite what the Venitians may think. They will pay for this!"
1091:

Alexius and his men are now near the once mighty Byzantine city of Thessalonica. Many of the men came from there originally and are still rather upset that
it is in Venitian hands but no matter... Alexius has promised to retake the city and none of the men think that anything else will happen. Despite this loss
the men are very confident in Alexius.
Later 1091: Alexius and the men are now taking up defencive positions around Thessalonica. The enemy have shown no signs of reinforcements or them
counter-attacking as of yet.
1092: The enemy still show no signs of rallying. Their army near Arta is still loitering around. The possibility that they are waiting for reinforcements is
something that Alexius has had to concider
Later 1092: "Our scouts report that there has been significant Venitian activity in the nearby meditarannean... we should be expecting reinforcements from
them soon my Emperor"
1093: The enemy are starting to show signs of starvation... they should give out in lessn then two years.
Later 1093: The enemy army near Arta is reported to have left. We did not have any agents within them so we do not know their current location.
1094:
One of Alexius's diplomats has been approached by the Novgorod Russians with a very generous proposal of alliance. Alexius immedietly told them to accept
ofcourse. Our enemies now equal our allies. An important move. The enemy are now on their very last supplies in Thessalonica. The question is will they
surrender or will they rally?

At the break of dawn I hear the sound of shouting once again. There is sound of marching and shouting coming from inside the city. They must be rallying...
I don my armour and prepare for the battle that awaits me!

[bomberboy]

This looks good, oh and sorry for saying AAR I was ment to say update.

[Spartan_Shame]

Great update!