Betrayed!! : A Spanish AAR

Ok, I wasn't allied with the Reino de Galicia y Portugal. I'm playing with León y Castilla and they were occupying MY LANDS (yes, Iberia is mine! ). So, I was expecting the right time to attack them and get my kingdom expanded. Then I would go for the moors.


It is year 1208, and my cities are going pretty well. I have León and Toledo as main cities, recruiting there many soldiers with armor and weapon upgrades. I have wiped the rebels out of my lands, although there are sometimes rising armies that disturb my trade routes. I have never started a war against another nation. I have never participated in crusades. My reputation is VERY RELIABLE, my king is chivalrous, I have no other generals than the royal line ones.

I own León, Toledo, Pamplona, Zaragoza, Santiago de Compostela, Burgos y Valencia. I have many knights of Santiago, both mounted and dismounted. Many troops are garrisoned in the forts to help my nation to save money. My merchants are keeping my vaults full of florins. The pope favours me.

Suddenly, I see a moorish imam preaching outside Valencia, causing some unrest. I direct some priests over there to counterattack their religion. From the south, from the road leading to Murcia, a little moorish force appears, advancing to Valencia. They do not attack, just stay outside.

I order a generals council and our mutual impression is that the moors prepare an attack. So, foreseeing my first war, I decide to take advantage and I send a diplomat to Oporto, to speak with my neighbours. I start the diplomatic relations and offer them a tribute of 300 florins for 13 turns + 2500 florins if they attack the moors. They agree, and I feel confident of my security.

But my thoughts are darkened by a worrying feeling. Will they honor their word? I feel like I could be their objective, after all...

Some kind of nightmare disturbs my king by night. The portuguese attack every region of my domains. They kill and ransack and pillage everything. They are trying to enter in the very king's room, striking its door with some kind of object.

BOM!... BOM!!... BOM!!!...

My king! Awake, my lord! The portuguese are attacking our country!!!!



I HAVE BEEN BETRAYED!

Elvallie,

That's Deus lo Vult for you!

Sounds like a great build up to inevitable conflict - and what a way to start a war! Let's hope His Popeliness will Xcommunicate them for their behaviour. Hope though you can reach a peace agreement and commence trading again (trade - that superior form of warfare)

If the pope excommunicates them... I'll use it to drive them off the peninsula. Go away, traitors!


A lil quote to one of my pics. ^^

Betrayed!! A León y Castilla AAR.

- My king, it's time to show those portuguese who the true King of León y Castilla is. I'll follow you to death if needed.

- Thank you, my young squire. Please, bring me my horse and my sword.

After putting his armor on, Enrique el Caballeroso headed to the courtyard of his palace in León. Once he appeared in the yard, his men began to chorus the Leonese slogan. "¡Por Santiago y por el Rey! ¡Viva el rey Enrique, viva León y Castilla!" It was a wonderfull sight for the king, all those brave and loyal men yelling all at once, like if they were a giant. Enrique rode his horse and took his sword and then he said this to his men: "¡Hoy partimos a restaurar el honor que los viles portugueses han mancillado, honor de todo Leonés y todo Castellano, mi honor y el vuestro, y el de nuestros hijos! ¡Su rey, al frente de dos ejércitos aguarda en la ribera norte del Duero, cerca de nuestro arrebatado fuerte! ¡Dios, que nos guía siempre, ha marcado ese lugar como el de la batalla que habrá de designar al vencedor de esta contienda! ¡Por Dios, por León, por Castilla!" "¡Vivaaa! ¡Viva el Rey!" (Dramatization )

After the speech, all the troops departed to confront the enemy army.



And the King of Portugal, after the battle, was lying in the field, under his horse, surrounded with many Leoneses. The Leonese army had no more than 20% casualties, and so the brave soldiers won the battle and killed the evil and treacherous king who betrayed and dishonoured them.

There's is no mercy for traitors, but it is a king who sins, and not his people. The captured men were released. After that battle, the king leaded his army to beat the rest of the invading portuguese force, winning again with few losses. It was time to return to León to finish the job. While they were out, a portuguese army returning from the crusades besieged León. Then, gathering all the troops in the surroundings, the King Enrique fought his last battle before his death, two years later. There is no need to say that he won, and broke the portuguese armies. In fact, his son, the prince, had inflicted equally important losses in the south, near Toledo, to the portuguese. After this short war, a diplomat from León achieved a peace and established trade rights again. But the offense should never be forgotten. Revenge would imply to take every portuguese settlement.

Now, there is a crusade in march, and the portuguese are in it. The leonese are resting and filling their vaults again. War will come. First, Portugal. Later, Andalucía.

A few turns after the ceasefire, while the crusade was taking place, and the portuguese were participating in it, they decided to attack me again.



Several thousands of portuguese men, mostly cavalry, invaded my kingdom again. From Oporto, they headed to Santiago de Compostela, defended by few men commanded by a very member of the portuguese royal family, Rui de Portugal, who joined my forces after marrying a Leonese princess some time ago. From the north riverside of the Duero, another big cavalry army advanced to León, stopping just in the surrounding area. Two big armies from Badajoz invaded the province of Toledo. One from the south and the other by the north, reinforced by a lesser army.

The Leonese hegemony was threatened again. I asked my councillors how the Pope of Rome was behaving about this. "Your faith is unquestioned in this war, my lord", was their answer. Confident of the papal favor, knowing that the Leonese forces were superior to the portuguese, the young king Felipe, son to Enrique el Caballeroso, leaded his army, like his father, to repel the traitors back to their own lands. Felipe needed to gain the loyalty of the nobles of León y Castilla, who, after the death of Enrique, were a little dubious about the new king. But the courage of Felipe was more than everybody could know, for he was a superior tactician and a noble commander and son to greatest king the Leonese had had until now.

The portuguese army faced the Leonese forces the same year, in a foggy and fresh morning. The men of Felipe, a mix of light spearmen with the better armors from Toledo; foot knights of Santiago, impressive in their close formation and terrible in battle shouting "¡Por Santiago!"; three squads of archers and three squads of almogávares, ready to weaken the enemy from behind and between the lines; about 360 peasants, wearing light mail, behind two thick lines of stakes; and the true King of León, the King Felipe, the one who would lead the Leonese to conquer Portugal.

The enemy army was a huge amount of jinetes, around two hundred mailed knights, three hundred foot mailed knights, and six hundred or more javelinmen, lusitanian javelinmen and amlogávares.

The portuguese skirmished the Leonese forces, but suffered many casualties under the fire of the archers.


All the spearmen of Felipe were forming in schiltroms, so the cavalry could not charge them with ease, while supported from behind by the foot knights of Santiago and the almogávares.


Several hours passed until the final approach of the two armies. For that time, the portuguese had suffered the loss of a quarter of their men, while the leonese were stying in formation and awaiting the precise instant to attack. It was not necessary, because the portuguese attacked first.


And they lost. The schiltromed spearmen decimated his cavalry, aided by the almogávares. Their javelinmen succumbed to the arrows, and their infantry was overwhelmed by the charging and fresh knights of Satiago. Felipe took care of the enemy cavalry that tried to gain the back of the leonese, and after two hours of fight, the routed portuguese army retreated and fled. Felipe contained his men, leting the enemy to go away. After the battle, they took their wounded comrades and traveled to León again, to rest before the next step in the war. León was safe, but there were other fronts in this war.

The fight for Santiago de Compostela. This was the weakest point of the Leonese: just a few spearmen and javelinmen protected the city, leaded by Rui de Portugal. Needless to say, they were slaughtered before the arrival of the reinforcements from León, commanded by the very King Felipe, arrived. Rui died fighting their old brothers, fighting for the King Felipe, until the last man. Santiago fell and the portuguese army occupied it.


The next month, the king arrived and besieged it.

The battles in the province of Toledo were in charge of the leonese heir Guillén. He was protecting the bridge leading to Toledo, waiting for the portuguese to come. They would come without any doubt. And finally the portuguese army arrived, deplying their men in the other side of the river. But there was no battle, as the enemy army just turned and went back to Badajoz. Then, the prince left the bridge and faced the north invading army. They battled, and the portuguese were beaten.


The Leonese forces regrouped and departed to Toledo to reinstruct and replenish their army.


After one month, a messenger arrived to Toledo, with news of a war: "I need a fresh horse, my lord. I must take this message to your father, the king". "What message?", said the prince. "The message of the war between Portugal and the Moors!" The heir of León y Castilla smiled. But soon his face turned more serious. "Give this man one of my horses!" And the courier exited the castle like the wind, carrying the news to king Felipe, in León, of this new and unexpected war. The moors could be allies... Or a serious threat.

^^ time to move this to AAR section!

nice ongoing campaign there man =)

Yeah, it's becoming an AAR. xD

I'll post some screenshots of the battles later.

The lift of the siege of Santiago.

The king Felipe himself, leading a powerful army was besieging Santiago. While the troops were constructing the rams to take down the wooden palisade, a reinforcement force from Oporto appeared by the horizon, threatening king Felipe's position. But he was not unaware of this, and Felipe immediately ordered his men to lift the siege, pretend they were leaving Santiago and attack this new enemy army by night and by surprise.



The portuguese army had deployed his men aside Santiago, but far enough for the king to battle them without alerting the garrison of the settlement. By night, cautiously, Felipe commanded his men to the battle. They waited until the dawn to move.



The enemy were mostly the feared jinetes. More than a thousand of them were expecting the day to attack. Before Felipe's army could get close enough, the portuguese spies in the woods gave the alarm and the thundering sound of thousands of hooves filled the air. Both armies took their positions and waited.


The leonese were on top of a soft hill, with three lines of infantry, proyectiles and cavalry. The portuguese were in the slope of that hill, skirmishing the tight enemy formation with their javelins.


Many of them died under the missiles of the crossbowmen and javelinmen, and their morale was dropping with every death. And then, without any real battle, having lost a third of their men, the portuguese retreated and abandoned the battlefield. Felipe suffered a minimal loss, and his men acclaimed him at the end. After that, Felipe marched to Santiago again and set one more time the siege.


In the region of Toledo, Guillén, son to Felipe, was commanding the other armies of the leonese. He marched to the north to confront another huge army made up of jinetes, mailed knights, javelinmen and crossbowmen. Guillén was very confident, having with him a solid army and very loyal to the crown.



The two armies were very close, both on the top of a steep hill. The portuguese had a little advantage due to the little higher place they occupied, so Guillén ordered his men to advance until fire range. Spear militia in the frontline, flanked with knights of Santiago. To the right, backing the knights less than three hundred peasants. To the left, backing the other knights, more than four hundred almogávares. Behind all them, the archers and crossbowmen. And behind everyone, Guillén himself.


The portuguese began skirmishing the leonese army, inflicting some casualties in the frontlines. Guillén had to advance his army even further, because his missile troops did not have a clear line of sight and could not shoot the portuguese jinetes. By the time they established the final position, more men were dead or wounded in the battlefield. Guillén was serious, but calmed. He talked to his men, ordering to stay together and hold the line. They held the position for two hours, under the constant rain of javelins that the jinetes were throwing, while the arrows of the leonese were harming the enemy too.


After that time, about ten percent of the leonese were incapacitated or dead, and the portuguese had lost about an fifth of their forces. The battle was going well, after all. And then, suddenly, the portuguese captain ordered a full attack against the leonese. It was so fast how they attacked, that surprised the leonese forces (me -_-). And the battle became bloody and chaotic. By the right side they broke the leonese formation, crushing all the knights of santiago who defended that flank. The jinetes and mailed knights attacked every side and the front of Guillén, and they passed throught the lines seeking the prince himself, who then moved his bodyguards to fight their cavalry. Pure chaos invaded every inch of the hill. Despite this disorder, Guillén managed to carry his men where there was a weaker position and shouted over the roar of the battle the orders to the infantry. Heavy casualties were dealt to the leonese army, but the portuguese were suffering tremendous losses too. More than a half of the bodyguards of Guillén had fallen, and he tried to keep them together to charge and retreat.


Three hours lasted the battle until the portuguese, severely decimated, fled for their lives. Guillén let them go, worried only for his own men. They regrouped, took the wounded and retreated to Toledo, with victory but at a high cost.

Once in Toledo, he sent a messenger to his father asking what he should do with the prisoners. When the messenger came back, 10 days later, he brought the answer that the prince should ask for a ransom for the portuguese troops. The same messenger was sent to Badajoz, and the portuguese accepted to pay the ransom. And the released portuguese troops, before marching, showed gratitude to Guillén for his chivalrous behaviour.

This is very good Elvallie.

I have started my own Spanish GC (In the early stages of about 1186) I hope it turns out at least half as interesting as yours.

Keep it up

Four months passed and the winter knocked on the door of Europe. The Picos de Europa, the famous mountains around León were covered in snow, and so were the Cordillera Ibérica, Los Pirineos and the Sistema Central. The plateau of Castilla acquired a blueish splendor and the valleys saw how their rivers froze.

"This is not time to wear a cold armor far from home and from the fire in the hearth", said the King Felipe to their men, still besieging Santiago de Compostela. They knew that the portuguese were waiting for them to attack, as the leonese forces were mostly infantry, and the portuguese mostly cavalry. "They expect we to attack the city with full force and disorder. If we do that, we will lose the battle and our lives. But we know that they can not win because God is with us and Santiago is in our heart. ¡My leonese men, my sons, the words of the history approve our cause! ¡Two times the portuguese attacked our cities, and invaded our land! ¡It's time that we take back the land that we own by right! ¡Today, the portuguese will suffer our anger, and they will be annihilated! It's a battle to death, as they will not retreat, so entrust your souls to God, ¡and follow me to victory! ¡Por Santiago, por León y Castilla!" "¡¡Por el Rey, por Felipe!!", shouted the men.

It was a cold morning, one hour after dawn, and the feet of the men walking on the crystallized grass filled the air, mixed with the howling of the winter wind. The men were nervous, but they truly and completely trusted Felipe, so the army was perfectly in order. Three rams were ready to take down the wooden palisade of Santiago, handed by the mercenary spearmen who took an oath to Felipe. They advanced closely to reach the walls, while the king itself, flanked by two units of knights of Santiago, moved around the city to engage a small force of reinforcements that was trying to reach the gates of the city.


By the time those reinforcements were wiped out, the rams had breached the wall.


The spearmen then followed the orders they had, and fastly retreated to the core of the army. The portuguese were covering the breaches in the wall from inside, waiting in their favourables circumstances. But Felipe knew that attacking in that moment was defeat, and he had taken precautions. While the spearmen arrived to their positions, the crosbowmen advanced to use the breaches in the wall to use all their ammo. Two hours later, after a constant rain of arrows, they finished their ammunition.


Then, the javelinmen advanced close to the walls, hoping the portuguese not to come out of the city and stay where they were. And it worked. The javelinmen used all their ammo to kill the infantry behind the walls and then ran back.

Half of the portuguese army was down, and only a small amount of leonese were laying on the field. But the battle was not over nor won. Still the portuguese had a huge amount of jinetes, waiting along the streets of Santiago for the final attack of their enemy. After some rest, this attack started. All the infantry of Felipe advanced to the breaches. The spearmen first, schiltromed, to deal with the cavalry.


Backing them, the heavy infantry, ready to inflict severe wounds to every enemy.


They entered the city and the battle began. And it was terrrible. The portuguese, knowing they had to fight to their last man were imbued with a scaring ferocity. Horses and men, and blood and dust, mixed with the snow and the battlecries.


That was the battle of Santiago. Many men died there that day. Many portuguese and many leonese laid together irrigating the ground with their blood. When the battle ended, it was a terrible sight for the survivours to see the battlefield. Some cryed, others fell to their knees, many of them ran to help the wounded. Even the King himself dismounted and helped their men, those who bravely followed him to death. It took a whole day to clean the city of corpses, to carry the survivours to the infirmary, where many more of them died. But the history would not remember that. The history would remember the defeat of the portuguese and the victory of king Felipe, the greatest king of León, the true lord of Santiago.



¡Hail to the true king!

sorry to interrupt but cool story plus rep i need to play a game as casttel leon now

and for readers page 2 is full of chit chat

Thanks! It wasn't supposed to be an AAR... but it is now. = )

Moved to the DLV AAR forum

It was the summer of the year 1229 of our Lord. Still, the leonese were at war with the portuguese, since they invaded León y Castilla in a treacherous manner some years before. The king Felipe and his son Guillén had led the defense of the leonese lands with ferocity and efficiency, finally taking the war to the enemy gates. There was little left of the formerly proud portuguese army. His daring in defying the leonese had costed them dearly in human lives, and they had no much to fight for now. The almuwahiddun had declared war over them, conquering Badajoz in their advance to north. Only Oporto and Lisboa remained as their bastions, and the prince Guillén and his father Felipe had yet planned the strategy to take them conquer of the new kingdom. Everything was prepared. Felipe awaited in Santiago de Compostela with his veteran army ready to attack Oporto for the arrival of the reinforcements coming along the path from León, and Guillén was rapidly marching from Toledo to meet his father before the very walls of Oporto. They did not want to give the portuguese a single chance to fight back as they had done enough harm already. Guillén marched with nimbleness all the summer, crossing the recently acquired by the almuwahiddun lands of Badajoz, since he reached the province of Oporto. Meanwhile, Felipe left Santiago heading south with his army to meet the reinforcing army, that carried the necessary siege machines to break the walls down. They could not afford a prolonged siege since they had spent almost every florin in the army the last years, and the treasurers of the kingdom warned Felipe of the necessity of ending the war the sooner the better. But some things would not go as they had figured out.

In 1229 winter, father and son met before the castle of Oporto. They had not even said hello to each other when an emissary arrived, heavily panting and asking for permission to see the king. “I bring an urgent message for our lord Felipe”. When the messenger passed inside the king's tent, where the prince Guillén were as well, said: “mi señor, it's war! The loyal population of Mallorca has revolted against the almuwahidd governor and the citizens have killed part of the garrisoned troops and thrown the rest out of the city! Leonese loyal troops have seized power and await a new christian governor. The almuwahidd califa has called this an outrageous treason and has defied his majesty declaring war upon our kingdom!” A shadow was casted over the face of Felipe and Guillén remained in silence, aside his father. The messenger awaited, hungry and thirsty, for the king to give him an answer. After several minutes, the king spoke: “abandon the city. Let the infidels retake it. But, before that, destroy every administrative and military building in Mallorca and evacuate those who want to leave. We can not scatter our troops and treasure more by now, when we are still fighting the portuguese. Leave immediately to Valencia taking my orders and, from there, sail to Mallorca in the first ship available”. The messenger left. “Father, these are dark news”. “Indeed they are, my son, terrible news. We have lived in peace many years, and now God is testing our faith. We did not trust the infidels when their troops marched near Valencia and asked our christian neighbours for help. They infamously betrayed us and the war broke out. And it is just now, when that war is almost over when from the south comes a new menace. And, my dear son, the almuwahiddun are a powerful empire, mucho more than the portuguese. This war will be terrible. Come”.

The king stood up his armchair and came out the tent placing his crown on the head and putting his sword around his waist. Guillén followed him and both mounted their horses and made their way to where the army was, already in formation outside Oporto and waiting the attack order. King and prince rode until they placed theirselves in front of the army.


Felipe straightened up on his horse and, raising the voice, spoke to his men: “Men of León! Men of Toledo, of Pamplona, of Santiago! My warriors from Burgos, Zaragoza and Valencia! All of you are leonese, like me, your king! And not in vain we are sons of León, having the lion ferocity, his strength and his temperance! Today, a battle between kings will take place, as the king Artur himself awaits behinf the walls of his castle! I promise you that today's battle will be quick and easy! We exceed his troops in 3 to 1, but that is just in number of soldiers, because, and bear this in your minds, if we speak in terms of courage each leonese counts for ten portuguese! In less than a year Lisboa will fall, and finally we will have avenged the offence they did to us! But, my sons, fateful news have arrived from the east. When this war ends, , we won't be able to go back to our homes, to warm our hands with our women... Because it will be the conquer of Córdoba, Sevilla, Badajoz, Murcia and Granada what will warm our blood!! We will throw the infidels out of Iberia once for all, and we will let them never come again!! Now, follow me to this battle! ¡Por Dios nuestro Señor, por Santiago, por León y Castilla!” “¡¡Hurra, hurra, viva el rey Felipe, viva el príncipe Guillén!!”

When the speech finished and the men began moving to Oporto, Felipe ordered his son to take the command of his own army in the other side of Oporto and wait the signal to advance, when the gates on that side were opened by the king himself. Guillén left and the catapults began to take the gates down.


Not one single soul was on the walls. Entering the castle would be a simple task and the leonese troops were very superior to the portuguese. Today there was no possible defeat. The gates broke and the leonese infantry advanced and trespassed the castle threshold, facing the light and missile portuguese infantry that blocked the streets.



After them the king entered, moving along the wall to the gates of the other side, where the army commanded by Guillén was waiting. The men of the king opened the gates and then Guillén advanced.


After that, the bodyguards of the king moved through the streets and reached the rearguard of the defenders, charging against them and annihilating every one.


Then, he commanded his men along the walls again, and hid behind the buildings while the infantry continued his moving to the castle's courtyard in which the king Artur was dismounted and praying and repenting of his sins and asking for God's forgiveness. The infantry inexorably advanced and the two leonese armies joined their forces, forming an impenetrable crowd of men at arms, of dust and metals. Then, they leant out to the courtyard and the king Artur charged with his bodyguards.


And this was the end of the king Artur of Portugal, who bravely fought to death in a battle that was lost since it began. He was buried like a king, with all the honours, and prayers were lifted upon his soul. Oporto had fallen, and now, it only rested Lisboa.



It was in the beginning of 1230 when Guillén, commanding his now full army with artillery, embarked his men and put prow to Lisboa. They had to advance slowly due to a mix of storms, pirates and minor flaws in the ships hulls. Finally, they reached the shore of Lisboa and disembarked, laying siege to the city. In the meantime, another messenger arrived to Valencia with orders for his governor, a member of the royal family, to immediately gather an army and take the almuwahhid castle of Murcia. Spies had informed that the castle was ungarrisoned and thus this was an excellent oportunity to begin the conquer of the rest of Iberia. So, a little army composed mostly by light infantry, catapults and mercenary crossbowmen advanced to the south from Valencia heading to Murcia. Along the road they encountered an almuwahiddun war party formed by infantry, who presented a little fight before fleeing. Then, they continued and reached Murcia, taking the city in a quick battle. At the same time, another almuwahiddun war party invaded Valencia from the north of Sierra Morena. Valencia was unprotected due to the movement against Murcia, but a clever and skilled diplomat of the zone succesfully bribed the men and the menace was taken care of. It costed many florins of the leonese vaults, but that allowed them to lighten the pressure in the east when the rest of the army was in the west.

And then, the battle of Lisboa began.


Again, it would be an unfair struggle favouring the leonese men, although they suffered many casualties. They destroyed the gates and a section of the wall and penetrated in mass with the infantry. They gradually killed the defenders, mostly of them were light infantry or missile.




But there were around three hundred foot feudal knights who opposed a tenacious resistance.


The bodyguards of the portuguese general charged against the leonese men but, one by one, they fell under the spears and the swords, and the only survivour, the general, retreated to the center of the city.


When Guillén saw through the breach in the wall that his men were being attacked by the portuguese heavy cavalry, he ordered his own cavalry to attack the enemy infantry.


His bodyguards and the knights of Santiago that went with him made their way through the portuguese lines, killing those who were attacking from the back of the leonese infantry, who was focusing in wiping out the feudal knights.


The rest of the portuguese withdrew to the center of Lisboa to make the final fight.


There was no salvation for Portugal. This was the last one of its days and, when the battle ended, Guillén ordered to take the enemy general before him and let him go with all the portuguese survivours.

During the year 1230 there was a great exodus of lusitanian and gallaecian men, who congregated in several territories, marching with course to new lands where settle. They still would give some troubles to the leonese, but history would not again mention them until much more ahead in time.

is it over or wil you ight the moors

I'll fight the moors!!!

Originally Posted by Elvallie

I'll fight the moors!!!

Hoorah! I love those screenshots, keep 'em coming.

incredible screens! nice storytelling!

this aar is making me mad i wish vista worked i want to copy your campagin

I'm flattered! ^^

I just use XP for playing, my main operative system is Linux Ubuntu Studio 8.04 LST Amd64. =P Vista is a system I don't know at all. There are, however, guidelines to install the game in vista, although it seems to be more complicated than in XP. I hope you can finally install it, and be prepared to read the conquer of Al-Andalus.