United in Glory - A Portuguese AAR

[dag231]

A Portuguese AAR...

• VH/VH
• Long Campaign
• Manage Cities Off
• Advice Off
• No Battle Time Limit
• Using Regnum Dei - All Factions version 1.8.0 Iron Mod
• Modified the Portuguese Starting Position: Pamplona is given to the Rebels (castle - town size), with the same garrison as Valencia - all troops that were in Pamplona placed in Lisbon province
  

Additional House Rules:

• No Alliances with non-Christians
• Peasants and Militia allowed only in owned provinces... Note: an exception of 4 units allowed on a Crusade (some local folks might be highly religious and all)
• Must join a Crusade at first available opportunity
• Ceasefires - not allowed to attack for 10 turns - if brokered by ally (one of our allies decides to screw me over by allying with my enemy): 5 turns .. Note: exception allowed if a Crusade is called
• All non-Christians are executed from battle... all Christians are ransomed off
• Any non-Christian who steps into territory automatically attacked - if assassin nearby, have to attempt killing if 33% or higher ratio
• Assasins and Spies can be used on Christians only if at war already with them (spies can gater information)
• Assasins and Spies allowed to do whatever they want to non-Christians (they are heathens, after all)
  
• No DOW on Christian factions... can attack if they attack first - have to offer ceasefire/trade rights on every turn after invading army has been repelled if diplomat available - if no diplomat nearby, have to create one and rush it to closest enemy and start offering peace
• Diplomacy - have to attempt Alliances with all Christians factions at every opportunity
• If another faction is excommunicated, they are fair game, regardless of diplomacy status - if they have strayed from the path, then they must be punished... if they are reconciled or the Pope asks me to stop, I will do so... any captured territory has to be offered back to them within 5 turns of the ceasefire unless it is adjacent to a previously owned territory
• Not allowed to enter another Christian faction's lands unless at war or have a military access treaty in place
  
• No unescorted armies (need a general to move armies around)
• Only the Faction Leader or Faction Heir is allowed a full stack of armies - all other Generals are allowed a half stack... Note: Crusade exemption - one would assume that a crusading general would be loyal to god and country, after all
• Spies are used for information only - no opening gates
• No intentionally killing off of any heir or leader, despite how brutal their stats may be
• City Garrisons at 3 units max - all other troops have to be in a fort at the end of the turn, regardless of whether in friendly or enemy territory unless sieging or on a crusade... Note: exception is holding a bridge - army allowed to do this, if accompanied by a general
• Mercenaries can only be hired during a crusade
• Castles have to be specialized - either siege, ranged or cavalry
• Excommunication avoided at all costs - if Pope excommunicates me, game over

The biggest challenge will be the no militia/peasants outside the owned province rule - will make the going much more cautious as I have to wait for either buildup of technology, spend the money on mercenaries or wait for a crusade.

Not being able to DOW Spain unless they go first will also be interesting... :hmmm:

The brokered peace treaty could be problematic if I am attacked by a faction and just as I am about to stomp them, an ally decides to sneak in and screw me over.

Basically, in terms of my faction, I will ty to be the Good Crusader - chivalrous towards Christians, dread towards the heathens

Should be fun... Will try to update it in 25 turn chunks with a screenie (if I can find the default screenshot folder)...

[Janissary]

I am waiting

[Price]

Blimey guvnor, those are quite some rules you have. Good luck, and I shall look back on this thread in some time when it is updated for sure!

[dag231]

I am waiting

Today will be update Turns 1-25....

Blimey guvnor, those are quite some rules you have. Good luck, and I shall look back on this thread in some time when it is updated for sure!

Actually... they are tough, but they make it a good challenge. The above rules worked great for a faction like Sicily, that is easily defendable (3 forts in the Naples region basically seals off a land route to Naples) and where most of your attacking will be on heathens.

With Portugal... its a bit trickier. The Moors and Portugal can be contained via bridge defense and Crusade building, but both are much larger and greedier than poor Portugal, and Lisbon looks inviting.

[dag231]

Chapter 1

There's a lot of Spaniards and Moors out there

:hmmm:

Turn 1
In looking out over the horizon, you really cant miss all the reports saying that the peninsula is flooded with Spainiards and Moorsies (Moors? Moorish? Moor-like?).

First thing - marry our fair daughter to General Johao and ensure his loyalty. There was talk of shipping her off to Spain and ensure an alliance, but making sure Johao is loyal to us and not to the all-mighty floren is more important.

The treasury department assures us we will be bankrupt soon, so have to disband a fair chunk of the Portugeuse military. Both the Foreign Relations Council and the Council on Military Matters almost crapped a monkey when this was brought up, but it has to happen.

So, disbanded are:

• Town Militia (1)
• Peasent Archers (2)
• Spear Militia (1)
• Crowwbow Militia (1)

A savings of 550 florens. Should help out substantially.

Builds for this turn:

• Lisbon - market, diplomat

Built a few watchtowers as well... have to know when and where an army of Moorsies or Spaniards is on the more to - information is key to survival here, as a few units will be expected to hold down bridges when push comes to shove.

Speaking of which... Johao and his army march off to defend the bridge that links us to the Moors.

Turn 3
We have made contact with the Spaniards, and the standard Alliance/Trade Rights/Map Information for Map Information/Florens contract has been signed... as an added bonus, we negotiated a lovely wedding between our Crown Prince Affonso and the Spanish Princess - lets hope that blood is thicker than water.

Our diplomat boards a ship towards Rome - keeping up an outstanding relationship with the Papacy is near and dear to our hearts. It also, hopefully, will allow us to control the Crusades... which, is also near and dear to our hearts, as this is a key part of our strategy and survival.

Turn 4
Trade Rights treaty with the Moorish heathens... they wanted more, but it was all we could do to sign the trade treaty without braking into scripture. We did have to wash strenously afterwards, and the back is a little sore from the flagellation (penance of doing business with the unclean and all that).

Builds for this turn:

• Lisbon - brothel (need to get assasins to rid us of these heathen Imans despoiling Portuguese territory)

Not much happening so far... a heretic gets burned, a loval rebellion gets stomped, and reports are coming in that the Spaniards are busy sieging rebels in the north.

Turn 6
Yawn....

Builds for this turn:

• Lisbon - inn

Our diplomat continues to make his way towards Rome and the rest of us are just chilling and hanging out. Its lovely countryside, you know. Very hilly.

Turn 9
Builds for this turn:

• Lisbon - asassin, spy, church

Finally... some potential for action. Asassin Barasso is sent out into the world to gain experience.

Met the French - nice enough chaps and all. Have a thing for baguettes. Not really our goblet of wine and all, but if it gets them through the night, we wont ask and we certainly hope they dont tell. Entered into the standard Alliance with them.

Turn 10
Our diplomat lands in Italy and makes an Alliance with Milan. The Papacy is close.

Builds for this turn:

• Lisbon - spy

Turn 11
We have our Alliance with the Papacy. All is well, and just in time, as the Moors have made a move towards us.

Builds for this turn:

• Lisbon - land clearance.

We ask the Pope for a crusade on Tunis... YES.

King Henrique and Johao answer the call and hire some crusading mercenaries:

• 3 x crusader knights
• 3 x crusader sergeants

Its Moor Kicking Time...

[Molina]

Nice, I like the writing style, really funny and to the point. Looks like it's gonna be a quick rush against the moors and later on the Spanish (you know they will backstab you eventually...).

Can we get some screenshots of the battle(s) against the Moors?

[dag231]

In a nutshell (cashew)....

This was remarkably easy for Portugal... using Crusades as a cover, the Moors were destroyed (3 successive Crusades) by turn 45, and using assasins, the Spanish were wiped out by turn 60...

Going to restart this variant ("Portugal Alone", I am now calling it), using the Deus Lo Vult mod, which I am enjoying greatly... if you follow the thread, it adds a whole other degree of difficulty (particularly in terms of the cost of crusades) and allows for some semblance of relations... in this game, it was staggering the Spain decided to attack me (across a well-defended bridge) when relations were "Very Good"... the second they did, it took about ten turns for my plague of assasins to wipe the Spanish monarchy off the map...

In the new game, will refrain from assasins alltogether...

This is the thread to the new AAR...

[selenius4tsd]

"There's a lot of Spaniards and Moors out there"

Too true, too true.

[elbasto]

Funny start.

How many years per turn?

[dag231]

It was 2 turns per year...

Its was the same time-scale as United in Glory II is...