[M2TW AAR] The Dragon Stirs- A Welsh AAR

[Vertinari]

The Dragon Stirs- A Welsh AAR

Hello to whatever unfortunate soul happens to have stumbled across this AAR, I hope you enjoy it and it is not too awful for a first attempt at an AAR, as this is, and first post on TWC.


The ARR details
Campaign Difficulty- Medium
Battle Difficulty- Medium (I know it may seem like I am a wuss but I have a grudge against the harder difficulties after I suffered the worst defeat in all my time playing Total War on Hard difficulty against an inferior force with a weaker general and poorer morale using a tactic which worked in every other battle of that campaign.)
Mods- None
Manage all Settlements- On


This AAR does not seek to be true to history. I have no intention of being conquered by June 1283, just because Wales was actually conquered at that date, nor do I intend to make peace with the English no matter how hopeless the situation or in any other way negotiate with the English. However I do intend to keep it realistic to some degree and will accept diplomacy, even vassalage, from factions other than the English. I intend to tell the story from the perspective of a chronicler, called Cadyryeith, who is the official chronicler toLlywelyn ap Gruffydd and the line of Gruffydd, through him or his brothers’ descendants. This will not be graphically intense, with pictures at least, for I hope my writing will do the job just fine, until I have experimented fully with Fraps and worked out how to take the screen shots well or at least get it so I do not just view a black square when I try to access them.


Prologue January 1258

I am Llywelyn, son of Gruffydd, son of Llywelyn Fawr. My grand-father united the realm and now I have done so again, my two brothers have been defeated and their power broken at Bryn Derwin and now Dafydd, the youngest accepts my lordship over Wales and rides with me and the oldest, Owain, rots in prison. I have defeated the English too and driven from Wales in all areas, with the help of Dafydd and the Principalities who have acknowledged my lordship, bar Cardiff which is still a mighty bastion of English might in Wales. But I dare not march against it yet for my armies must be strengthened first and even with all the might of Wales behind me it will to be weakened by a long siege before it can be liberated from the rule of the despicable English. But where to attack next, I do not know, for my spies in Shrewsbury and Chester have fallen silent of late and I fear they have been found and slain or worse still sent to the Tower. Should I be fighting at all? That question is a plague to me for the Welsh are a valiant and dour people but our might is hardly enough to break the English. Nay, we shall merely sting the beast and a thousand stings from one wasp will merely make the stung seek the wasp so he might have his revenge but what of the two other wasps that my also sting the beast? Will they join the first wasp so the blows of the stung must be constantly divided and weak and easily avoided? My greatest orator, Madoc, is readying a ship to take him to Ireland and then the land of the Scots to speak with them and to seek an alliance in arms against the English so the beast may be ended by the countless stings of three wasps. I must order the raising of a new garrison of Montgomery for I intend to march out with my full force and devastate the border towns of England. I must also order the recruitment of new spies so that I might learn of the border towns before I choose which to assail. Fare you well scholar and stay close for the history of our people has entered a new era. The end of the tyrant is neigh or our end as a free people. I hope it is the former.

The words of Llywelyn on my first meeting with him as the official chronicler of the King. My name is Cadyryeith, meaning well-spoken, and I intend to set out the life of the King, Llywelyn, without error nor exaggeration and I endeavour to tell the story with the words of the King as much as I may so this account may be considered his and only scribed by I; however I will clarify matters when I deem the account of the King to be lacking in detail and I shall add my own commentaries if I feel the need to comment on the actions of the King.




Feel free to post comments, tips, criticism, encouragement or frothing-round-the-mouth rants or whatever else you fancy posting. Just keep it vaguely civil.

[Seleucid king]

Add some Screenies and it'd be awesome!

[Vertinari]

Fraps doesn't work (just shows a black square not a nice picture of some Saethwyr massacring the foolish English longbow men in a duel to the death) and for some reason I cannot find the screenies I took using the print screen function. I will see if I can find some nice images off google once the first actual update is done, hopefully tonight.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Fraps doesn't work (just shows a black square not a nice picture of some Saethwyr massacring the foolish English longbow men in a duel to the death) and for some reason I cannot find the screenies I took using the print screen function. I will see if I can find some nice images off google once the first actual update is done, hopefully tonight.

If you installed the game in the default folder, your screenshots would be in:
C:/ > Program Files > SEGA > tgas

They will be in TGA format, so you'll have to convert them to JPEGs. This can be done with programs such as Adobe or Print Shop.

If you don't have either of those, there is a wonderful little program called Irfanview that you can get (free) online. Very nice; I use it myself.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Oh, and based on the beginning of your first post, you must have a very low oppinion of yourself! Really it's a nice style; keep it up.

Another good thing is that I've not seen a Welsh AAR around, and it's always good to see minor-faction AARs.

[Vertinari]

Volume One

Anno Domini 1258-1262

Anno Domini 1258
In the year of our Lord 1258 Llywelyn became lord of all of Wales bar the Principality of Morgenwg, which had been in the hands of the English since A.D 1091, and his first act as King was, having already ordered the training of a new garrison for Montgomery, to march almost the entire army from Montgomery to Shrewsbury. I remember fearing greatly for our young King when he announced this because he had no idea of the forces in and near Shrewsbury and for all we knew, at that time, he could have be marching thirty seven score and two (722) to their end. Such a loss so early in our campaign would have broken the kingdom, especially if Llywelyn himself died at the hands of the English. I tried as did others to steer the King away this course of action. But he replied:

“Audaces fortuna iuvat! Fortune favours the bold! We march and win or lose in noble battle with our oppressor or we cower in our homes and give the English time to muster their strength. Which would you have me do?”

Thus the King refuted all arguments that we should hold back and send out new spies, so that we might learn more of the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, and he marched out of Montgomery on May 10th and reached Shrewsbury, without opposition, on May 11th. Upon his arrival his army was beset by a group of Welsh brigands, about ten score and ten in number. These brigands had followed the King all the way from Montgomery and wished to survive the King as soldiers in his army for the right price. The King gladly accepted their offer and offered to pay them generously once the battle was done and to pardon them of their crimes. The brigands accepted this most generous offer and became one with the King’s army. The assault began on May 12th, not long after the brigands had joined the ranks of the King’s men. First Llywelyn gave the
following speech to his troops:


Llywelyn, the great King of Wales

“Men of Wales! The tyrant lies ahead of us and behind lies oppression. Behind us lie the children and womenfolk of Wales. If you falter, if you run or fail to win this day the much of the power of our kingdom will falter and die with you. If you falter, if you run, the tyrant will have free reign over our kingdom. Ahead lies the tyrant and it is time to throw off his yoke. We will fight men of Wales for freedom, liberty, glory and no doubt some of you fight for wealth and power and the joy of the fight. It is a glorious thing battle against a tyrant but remember if you run, if you falter, if you fail, then your womenfolk and daughters will be playthings and your sons slaves and your fathers and your mothers will be corpses. For them we fight and whilst we fight for them we must not fail them. Do not run, do not falter, do not fail, if not for my sake as your king then for the sake of Wales and your womenfolk and your sons and your mothers and fathers. Do not run, do not falter, do not fail.”

Llywelyn then ordered that the walls and gates should be ripped down by the catapults and gave the order to fire. Not long after the gates and towers guarding them lay in ruins and the archers forced back by the force of the onslaught. With the archers, who were village hunters in truth, driven back, though few died, the saethwyr could begin to advance in relative safety. The sheriff of Shrewsbury and his fellow sheriffs, who had come from the surrounding area to support the folk of Shrewsbury, for if Shrewsbury fell they would have no choice but to surrender, decided to move up to the breached gates with the men of Shrewsbury, who had been given spears and padding for their clothes and told to fight for kin and home. They reached the gates just as the saethwyr stood ready to shoot any who came up to defend the gates. The men of Shrewsbury fell in a great number before the gates and soon they were clogged with fallen bodies. Nearly all were slain and the sheriff of Shrewsbury fell with a Welsh dart in his neck, but four of the sheriffs managed to escape death and ordered the remaining men of Shrewsbury back. Nine score of men they sent against us, seven score and ten militia and thrice ten sheriffs, barely three score and ten militia and four sheriffs made it back. Six score of archers had been kept in reserve in the centre of the town and three score of these men marched to duel with the saethwyr. The English learnt that day that the pathetic serf bow of the hunt is no match for the Welsh longbow and many of the archers were wounded or killed without them shooting a single arrow.


The saethwyr at work

By now the saethwyr had spent their arrows and the king, reluctant to risk brave Welsh soldiers on determined enemy, summoned the captain of the brigands and the following conversation ensued:

“Assault the enemy position and capture the town.”

“Yes milord. I shall pass the orders onto my men and your own captains…”

“Did I say you were a messenger boy? Obey your orders captain or be executed for mutiny!”

“Milord it would be the death of me and my men to assault the town unsupported!”

“Hardly the death of all your men and you, captain. Certainly most of you will die but if you disobey your orders you will still die. Which is better: dying with honour as a free man or dying a rouge and shaming your family?”

“I shall begin the assault at once milord.”

“May the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on your souls. “

Thus orders the brigands launched a ferocious assault; javelins soured; spears were thrust; men screamed; men fell. I was told after by the few survivors of how the stench of fear and death assaulted them almost as badly as the desperate English did! The captain, whose name was Anfri Aberthol Wild, did not survive the assault along with about four score of his men. Only one of the skirmishers was still fighting at the end of the battle and he was made captain of the brigands, though fourteen of his fellows survived their wounds, and has since been known as Arth, the Bear, to his men. The English dogs died to a man, ever faithful to their master even in death, for several bodies had fallen into the main well of the village and several soldiers were taken ill and died. I walked across the square with my master and I will not say what I saw in this book. The stench and the blood, so much blood and the cries of the dying. The twisted bodies lay so thick you could walk from one end of the square to another without touching the ground. Not a single English man had surrendered. The sight was ghastly. Llywelyn ordered that all the bodies, English or Welsh, be given a proper burial. His older less impulsive men obeyed but the younger men, who were drafted from village raiders that went over the border to rob the English, urged on by the brigands, began an orgy of violence, sacking the settlement of all it was worth. Llywelyn could only watch in horror and disgust as his men tore the settlement apart. Before too long the saethwyr joined in the rape of the town until only Llywelyn, his nobles and the veteran spears of Meirionnydd retained their morals and stood outside the city waiting for it to end.

When the orgy finally ended, several days after the battle had been fought and won, and the spent men finally stumbled back into the camp, Llywelyn strode to the centre of the town and laid down to die of shame and fear of what he and his army might become. He lay there for a whole day and night and neither ate nor drank. Many a noble, even I myself, tried to rouse the King from this deathly stupor but none succeeded. Till the young daughter of a minor nobleman came to the King, Iwerydd was her name and, I believe her, to have been of thirteen years in age and well known for her kind and wise heart, and she spoke to the King:

“Your Majestic the actions of your young and impetuous soldiers are not your own. Their hearts were stirred by brigands and filled with lust and greed. Your heart was naught but pure and filled with a burning passion to save our people from thraldom and death. No man blames you for the actions of your soldiers and to die because of their sins is to deny Wales her last hope of freedom. Stir yourself ! Or will I have to tell the women of Wales to ready their knives and escape to a paradise land?”

The King rose, in awe of this girl, who had the courage to speak thus to the King.

“I am King Llywelyn, lord of all Wales! What girl believes they can speak thus to their king!”
“
I am Iwerydd, daughter of Brac, and I shall speak my mind to any man or woman Milord, no matter their titles, for I am the daughter of a free man and thus am free myself!”
Thus the King met his wife and they were wed the next year. It was a happy union and both married for love not gain.

As the year drew nearer to winter and the summer campaigning season end was near Llywelyn send out his raiders to take an English fort, near the under defended keep of Gloucester, so that nest year’s campaign might be easier but they failed to reach it and made camp a few miles to the north of the fort they were to take. The foolish men but they learned of their mistake soon enough when the men of Gloucester sallied. The raiders ran but the English hounded them down in a wooded copse and filled them with arrows. Eight English died in the last desperate charge of the raiders and only score and eight raiders managed to escape the field of battle with their lives.

Anno Domini 1259
Revenge came swiftly for the fallen raiders for Llywelyn led an the army out into the field, leaving behind his nobles, to rule in his stead and keep the brigands in line, and the all ready bad bloodied brigands and raiders. Thus the Battle of Red Snow, as it is known, began on the 4th of December 1259. The battle was over before it had even been joined for the saethwyr duelled with the longbows of the English and won, slaying the enemy captain. It might had gone the other way if the English captain had not decided to move his men to a new more exposed position close to the saethwyr. His army was decimated and the two hundred or near enough of the English fell compared to a score and four Welsh. The spears of Meirionnydd and the guard of Llywelyn fell on the English and blood poured onto the white snow turning the entire site of the conflict red, an island of violence amongst the clean purity of white snow. Ten spearmen fell in the initial charge on the English, then the English broke. All the routing men were caught and ransomed back to the English. The garrison of Gloucester lay dead and now only the Robin de Gloucester, a minor noble ruling Gloucester for his king, and his thirty knights stood in the way of Llywelyn. At this time new far more extensive fortifications at Pembroke, better paved roads around Montgomery and a new greatly improved archery range at have had their first year’s work finished on them. It will still be several years before these projects are completed.

Anno Domini 1260

On the 1st of April 1260 Gloucester fell to Llywelyn after a Welsh agent infiltrated and opened the gates of Gloucester, the King and his men marched into the castle. Llywelyn strode up to within shouting distance of Robin de Gloucester and called out:

“Will you surrender knight of England?”

“And let you monsters savage my county? Never! Kill me or leave!”

“Make your peace with god knight for you will die”

So, with those words spoken, Robin de Gloucester and his knights died to a man in a brutal melee with the King and his guard, dragging four brave Welsh knights, Hugh, Arian, Ardwyad and Bedwyr, with them. Llywelyn was so dreadful and terrible in that battle, in his rage at the death of his knights, that many men now love and respect and fear the name Llywelyn, for he is our deliverer, our King and a brutal warrior.

Madoc, the orator ordered by the King to gather support for our cause in distant lands, has finally assembled a fleet and found a captain willing to lead it on the long dangerous voyage to Ireland. But as soon as the fleet put out from port, on the 12th of June, it gained a following of English ships. Admiral Brockwell knows his craft well though and his trio of ships stay out of range and sight of the English trio following them. Battle would be joined but not this year.


The Welsh cogs out at sea. On their sails they bear the heraldry of the King (the lions) and the Kingdom of Gwent from which Madoc and Admiral Brockwell come.

Finally a nobleman approached Llywelyn asking if he would not adopt his son. Llywelyn declined the offer.

Anno Domini 1261

Llywelyn’s first child, a son no less, was born this year to him and his now seventeen year old wife. His name is Meilar. Llywelyn is not slowed down by the babe or his wife though, for having heard from spies of the poor garrison of Cardiff, hundred and score archers, two hundred and score spearmen and thrice ten knights, he feels strong enough to take the city and begins the long march to it. The Prince of Deheubarth ordered almost all his garrison, leaving only one saethwyr band to garrison the castle of Pembroke with him, to march on Cardiff from the opposite side to Llywelyn, thus flanking the city. Llywelyn summoned Arth and his men to Gloucester so the castle will not rebel without a garrison. The defences at Pembroke have been completed, mines are planned but as of yet the funds have not been gathered to begin the project, and so have the new better roads around Montgomery, a new siege workshop is now being constructed, and the market square of Shrewsbury has also been rebuilt. Scotland and Norway have gone to war so we can expect limited help from the Scots, if any, but the Irish may still be able to help us. Madoc safely made landfall and is staying in a small village near Downpatrick whilst negotiations take place, as of yet no agreements have been made. Admiral Brockwell and his ships pulled into a small bay not far from Downpatrick, the English box them in.

Anno Domini 1262
This year the King has decided to found an elite organisation of spies to train future generations to watch the English borders. The archery range at Caernarfon has been completed but a lack of funds prevented the training of new soldiers or a new building project from being built. Meanwhile the English finally seem to have organised themselves so that they might resist the might of the Welsh, for an English army, larger than any seen before, has been sighted near Gloucester ready to retake the settlement. It is commanded by Anselm Hasting, a relative of the King. If Llywelyn can turn around and defeat this army it will be a stinging blow to the English that they will remember for a while yet. Llywelyn ,of course, has turned back and summoned the men of Wales to march to his banner, almost every soldier in the realm now marches to Gloucester and the King!

Finally Madoc has come to an agreement in the Irish. We shall stand as brothers in arms until the English fall and then we shall see which kingdom shall take their place as lords of the British Isles and Brockwell wins a victory greater than any yet won on the land for he beats back and destroys the entire, superior English fleet and thus freeing up the Irish Sea from English tyranny for a little while.

OOC Notes: Sorry for the gradual decline in quality as the update continues but to be honest not too much has happened. I will probably make up some filler for the next update as towards the end this update feels barren to me. What do you guys think? Sorry for the length as well. Do you want me to shorten the next one? I will add pictures in the next half hour or so BTW so please don’t moan about that. Anyone got any idea what’s going on with Fraps?

[Seleucid king]

I almost beat the game as Wales.....but then when I tried to load it, it just showed a screenie(Templar Cavalry charging Turk Spearmen) and a quote(no Shield or Date), and loaded back to the Main Menu.