[SS AAR] Nordic Empire

[BReal]

EDIT: Oh my god I totally forgot to tell one thing. The story has been updated!

Information
I've been ghosting around the forum for a while now and reading some AAR's. It actually made me want to write my own story, which I haven't done for a while now ( about 2 years ). This story will tell the campaign of Norway. As their main goal is establishing a Nordic Empire. I'd like to point that this is most definitely not realistic. I really don't know much about Norway in medieval times, so this will pretty much look like fantasy to those who love history. I will try to update this AAR every thursday. And what comes to battles, I have always used autoresolve, so I can assure you that this conquest will truly be hard and losses will be massive, but at least I'll get some experience
One chapter will tell the story of 1 to 10 turns ( orginally 10 to 20 )
And last but not least: Constructive critiscism is always welcome!

Settings
Campaign Difficulty: Hard
Battle Difficulty: Hard
Manage all Settlements: On
No time limit on Battles: On



Warning! Boring prologue ahead. Make sure you have a pillow before you start reading!

It was a rainy and dark night in the settlement of Lund. The siege of the Danish army had continued for six months now and it seemed that a great battle between the Danes and the Swedish rebel would come soon. The Danish generals were in their yellow striped tents on the eastern side of the settlement. A high ranked general held his hands on the sides of a map drawn by the spy who had been spying in the town before the siege started. The general looked at the map, planning his move for tomorrow. Why tomorrow? Because tomorrow was a day when norse celebrated their gods and that meant alcohol, alcohol meant drunken soldiers, drunken soldiers meant easy targets. While the general was drawing lines which indicated where each group would attack two captains entered the tent. A long conversation started. The captains thought it was a bad idea to attack the rebels as the army in the mainland was on low numbers and Holy Roman Empire was growing stronger all the time. It was matter of time when they would reach the borders of Danes.
It didn't take long when shouting started. Few guards entered the tent just to find the captains dead. "They were on the side of the rebels. We can make it without them" the general said and ordered the bodies to be burned. Guards did as commanded as they wouldn't dare to say anything to the general after seeing his reactions.
"Tomorrow is a big day. I better get rest" general thought and fell asleep.

Music was playing around the town and people were celebrating. Alcohol was pouring down the streets and soldiers were so drunk that they couldn't even handle their weapons. All the sudden a loud bang was to be heard. It was the Danish rams. Eastern and southern gates were being rammed down and 450 soldiers were ready to kill every single inhabitat in the town. Soon the masses of soldiers slayed the population, leaving only few alive. Blood was shed in name of Denmarkian Kingdom and christendom.

That same day in Bergen, the royal castle of the Norwegian Kingdom, a spy who had been following the moves of Danes arrived in the castle. He had terrible news for the kings.
The spy ran through the corridors of the palace, pushed the massive doors of royal room open and shouted "My highness!".
King Haakon was just writing a letter to his son when he saw the spy entering the room. He kept his quill pen in air and stared at the spy, one brow raised and other lowered. He put the pen a stack of papers which had documents and maps, moved the papers on the side of the massive table in front of him made from birch.
The spy walked towards the king. He was exhausted from running and was gasping. He saw how the king put his hands together into the praying position and put his head on the hands. Spy bowed in front the king and started talking. "My highness. I have arrived from the Kingdom of Denmark and I have breaking news. Unfortunately, they aren't so great."
The king's interest grew. He ordered the guards to close the doors and make sure no one enters. "Please continue" he said.
"The Danish army has grew massively in size lately and they have sent half of their army to conquer the settlement of Lund. If they succeed in this mission, it might mean that the possible plans of ours regarding the expansion of kingdom might be threatened" the spy said.
King Haakon's look turned suddenly. You could see from his face that he was angry, but his speech didn't tell it. "I see. You have done great young man. Your work for the kingdom shall be not forgotten. You may claim your reward, Knud here will show you where" he said. He turned his head down and waved his hand giving the order to leave the room. He had a lot to think about.

But why was Haakon so angry? The reason to this was that Haakon's dream had always been to unite Scandinavia under one flag, Nordic Empire. If Denmark was to expand their borders to north then Norway would have to confront army as powerful as theirs sooner than they had thought.

Haakon took a paper from his desk and the quill pen. He dipped the feather's tip in a bottle of ink and started writing a letter. This letter was a command to join the conquest of Oslo which was to be sent to every garrison in the kingdom.

The battle for Scandinavia had begun. For the first time people once united was fighting against their own. Only time will show what will happen in the future.

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I'd like to apologize for my English if there is something wrong in the text. I don't speak English as my native language.
Chapter one will be available on Thursday.

[Irish King]

Looks good, Will you be adding pictures? Also if anybody could tell me how to take pictures without using photobucket or anything like that it would be greatly appreciated. And again good start.

[tuore]

Really awesome start! Please add pictures.

@irishking: take pictures using FRAPS and then upload them somewhere. You don't need to use Photobucket. Personally i like www.pict.com

[BReal]

Thanks guys. I might add pictures to the prologue a bit later, but the chapters will most definitely have pictures

[Irish King]

this might be a stupid question, but what is FRAPS and how do i get it?

[BReal]

"Open the gate!" a guard shouted from the top of the watchtower. King Haakon sat on his horse and watched as the gate of the castle Bergen slowly opened in front of him. He had ordered the defences of the town to join him on his conquest of Oslo. 200 soldiers, all spearmen, joined this mission. Those were only from Bergen. "Onwards my men" the king shouted and pointed his sword towards south. Rows of soldiers started marching, leaving the comforts of the castle behind.

At same time general Thorgils was moving with his army towards the meeting point, predefined by the king. Thorgils was the most succesful general of the Norwegian army and was originally supposed to lead the battle with prince Magnus. It was later decided that prince would be needed more than his old father and the king drew him off from the plans, replacing the prince with himself.

Two weeks passed. The king's army was finally ready to move on. The 200 spearmen from Bergen and other 200 from Eikundarsund made already a massive armed force, but then there was Thorgils 200 Viking Raiders and his recently obtained light cavalry unit, which he had been training for few months with his best bodyguards. The total amount of soldiers in the army was 675 soldiers, 75 of those cavalry units. The long trip to Oslo was to begin, but first the men needed rest and drinks.


"My highness! It's a pleasure to meet you" general Thorgils said and bowed to the king. "I am general Thorgils. I think we haven't met before?" he continued. "Ah, so you're the great Thorgils. I've heard a lot of good about you my son." the king answered. "Thank you" the general replied with a small smile on his face. They started walking around the small village where they were keeping camp at. "Say my friend, what do you think about our army?" the king asked curiously. Thorgils thought a bit then stopped. "I think this is the best army in the world. We all have good team spirit and together we can beat anyone who's opposing us my lord" he answered proudly. The king laughed a bit, not because he was amused, but because he knew that the general would say something like that. Then he tapped Thorgils shoulders and said: "You're a great man and your loyalty to the people of Norway has really flattered me. I don't know if the regions you patrol in would even be in our control if you weren't to be". Thorgils once again smiled and was flattered. He nodded and listened what the king had to still say. "It will be honour to ride with you and if I die in the battle, I will be happy that you were taking care of my back. I truly, TRULY appreciate you." the king added, then turned around and walked to his tent on the hill on the eastern side of the village.

All the sudden general noticed, that there was no people anywhere anymore. It was literally too quiet when you think that 5 minutes ago everyone was drinking in the streets. Then he noticed a dark figure. He grabbed his sword and started chasing the person. The mysterious stranger hid in an alley and few seconds later Thorgils came, searching for the man. He had no idea, that the man was a Danish assassin who had came to kill him.
"Get ready to meet your god!" someone shouted from the back and suddenly there was a rope on Thorgils throat. He still had the sword in his hand but he couldn't think in this kind of situation. He was quickly losing oxygen as he was struggling against. Just when it seemed his life would end his best friend and bodyguard, Otto, noticed the situation and assaulted the assasin, slashing his body and killing him.
"Thorgils? Thorgils? Are you okay?" Otto asked. He was truly worried about his friend, as they had known eachother since the age of 9. Thorgils slowly stood up rubbing his hands on the throat. "Y-yea... I guess." he replied and continued, "I wasn't prepared for this kind of hospitality. Throat massage and everything" he said and both started laughing. "Let me escort you to your tent. I think it's better that I follow you more closely now, right?" Otto said and Thorgils just gave him a nod.

3 Years Later

The long winter in north made the army to jam for months, slowing their trip greatly. Finally when the snow had melted away the trip to Oslo could continue.
"My highness! Stop! I have excellent news for you!" a messenger shouted and rode to the side of the king. "It's about our foreign policy and your son, Magnus..." he started and the king listened carefully. "Your son has married princess Cecile. Their marriage happened few weeks ago. Also, the diplomat you sent to that massive island in west has managed to get us the first alliance of ours and also trade rights. Our economic situation is getting better daily now that the road system is also updated.". "But my son, that's excellent! Tell to my son that I congratulate him on behalf of his marriage and I hope the best for the rest of their lives. It might be that after we take Oslo, there's no going back to old land." the king said. The messenger turned around and headed back to Eikundarsund.
The king was happy for his son. It was about time he got a wife, after all, he was already 20 years old for god's sake!

The army stopped in the last village before Oslo. Although it was first not intended to use mercenaries, the king finally decided to pay for the band of mercenaries in the town so they would join the conquest of Oslo. After all, this was quite a big thing as Oslo would become the next capital of the kingdom due to its perfect position near the sea and not too open for the enemy.

When the army finally arrived to the western side of Oslo camp was built and the army stayed stationed until the order to attack was given.


King's trusted spy, Leofric, was sent into Oslo a year earlier and he had vital info for the king. With his information, Thorgils military mind and king's influence on morale, no one could beat them.

Next chapter: The battle of Oslo
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So, I decided to release it already today as I'm not sure if I'll get to the computer tomorrow. So, tell me your thoughts.
EDIT: Hmm, on smaller screens the pictures seem to be a bit blurry. I'll change them to resized ones later.

[Irish King]

Very nice I look forward to reading this AAR.