Share your campaign here!

[verity_blues]

This is the thread to share the ups/downs of your campaign's! Feel free to tell us about how you turned the insurrection, threw your heir into the dungeon (man, I wish something like that would happen on my campaign) or beat the snot out of those persistent Sicilians!
:tacticalw

[verity_blues]

ME first!!!!!!!

I just took jerusalem on the first crusade! On the way I dropped anchor on some Byzantine settlements (my archenemy) and torched them and gave them to my allies! To bad I wasted alot of time doing this causing my units to desert me while mid-voyage... I finaly landed with only 500 men, thought to march right at-em but there was an army of about 1000 right where I made landfall! defeated them then moved my remaining 400 to target, laid seige, watched Jerusalem (Egypt) garrison-script in an extra 8 units or so and threw caution to the wind. Figured they would sally out, but an all-cav army of about 150 came down from the north and attacked causing the city-dwellers (about 1300 or so) to come out after me too. This was good though, it meant I could destroy this little cav-army first and let the city dwellers march all that way in the scorching sand! Nearly lost my to generals in the first skirmish, but managed to pull back behind my line of 300 crusader knights/unhorsed frankinsh knights just in time for the 1300 reiforcements. Charged in before their arrows-shooters (at least half their forces) could pepper me to good, this works to my advantage for my two generals (about ten men each) as they flanked around the engaged infantry and routed the archers. Oh yeah, my mounted sergeants and mounted frankish knights quit their own rout and slayed a couple hundred archers to!

All said: my losses, about 150, thiers, about 1400! Plus I got my Jerusalem!

Now, if I can just keep it!!!

[missu]

it would be kind of helpful to know which faction you are playing- y'ken?

[verity_blues]

Venice. The only faction I have played yet. At first I was switching mods, then I became a DLV enthusist and since have not achieved my goals before reaching no-save compatible updates, so I keep playing them.

[repman]

@verity_blues
nice read... how about some screenies ?

repman

[gewehr36]

Here's mine:

I like the scenery and protection of the Scandinavian Peninsula, so I decided to move the Holy Roman Empire there while keeping Bologna as an embassy to the other nations. I started building my cities from there and kept improving until I was at the maximum level. I decided that I needed some huge cities, so I took back Frankfurt from the Rebels and annexed Rome from the Papal States.

Shortly after that I noticed several Milanese armies moving towards the border between Genoa and Bologna, each of them about 1000 strong and about 10000 in total. I then assembled something I like to call the Bologna Wall, a line of 5 armies of over 12000 men. Milan's forces decided to retreat and start what I named the Italian Wars, Milan's conquest of all the Italian states. Meanwhile, I had a small army of 300 assembling watchtowers all over Bologna to keep enemy armies out, when a rebel army of 600 attacked them. My 300 men were victorious with only a small amount of deaths, truly a movie-style battle. Venice started to move in towards my embassy after that, so I sent the Wall back to surround Bologna. After that, all enemy forces left my soil as Milan continued to take the rest of Italy.

Meanwhile, France took a settlement near Trebizond in Turkey and began attacking my allies the Byzantines with the help of the Turks. I sent in an army 2000 strong to help fight back Byzantium's enemies and that's when my computer crashed. I saved right before it crashed though, so I'll continue whenever I have the chance.

[Nicollo da Conti]

Byzantium, 1160. The empire begins a massive restoration, looking back to its past greatness, forward to what it again might become. Relations are opened with the new nations of Europe. One by one, Venice, Hungary, Poland, and the Holy Roman Empire send dignitaries to the Great City, in awe of its spectacular grandeur. Long ago one of our ancestors found a city in brick and left it in marble. We have championed that same spirit.

Relations opened, we chased away the rebels from our border cities and granted them our patronage. The Comnenus family is fair, kind, pious, and efficient, re-building what was once thought lost to antiquity. The great cities of Thessalonica and Athens become great once again, protected by the stone walls and men of Corinth.

We heard rumblings on our Eastern shores, out past Nicaea in the realm of the Turks. Our instable indifference was long based on the mutual benefits of trade, but our scouts began to sight their armies on the move, consolidating their power. Our great Emperor Alexius knew they would soon rival even the great power of Constantine's descendants, and would turn their attention towards Nicaea and beyond the Hellespont.

It took nearly a decade for our armies to train, years for our invasion plans to ready. Our nation suffered greatly, the men tapping the very golden Roman soul while our citizens sometimes went hungry. Restlessness grew, but beneath it was the great calming of our beloved Emperor. His plan would make the hardships worth our noble efforts.

When all preparations were done, when every detail was attended to, the men said their goodbyes and departed for Asia. Our Emperor's first-born son and a favoured cousin lead the way, sailing ahead to take Cyprus from the rebels and build with it a forward base. The time to strike a decisive blow was at hand.

Alexius crossed the Hellespont and marched on Smyrna. Our great armies of Cyprus landed and seiged upon the Turk castles of Adana and Caesarea. In one fell swoop, the Turks were cut off from military supply lines.

The ensuing years were chaotic, as army after army from the East came to challenge, but our heir held strong. It took decades to subdue and sure up the settlements west of Adana. We stole Trebizond and Antioch from the lesser rebel factions and built them into rich cities. It was a prosperous time. Peace was made with the Egyptians, and save for the near-constant remnant armies of Turks invading haphazardly, the Empire was safe. Alexius smiled and closed his eyes, content for the last time.

Bless Alexius, for he never saw the turmoil that was to come. Egypt turned on us, and the never-ending battle of Antioch had begun. Our supply ships ran full, our generals grew with experience, lead by those boys who became men in the first great invasion. The banners waved, though bloody, forging on relentless. City after Turkish city fell beneath our boots, forging on towards the Eastern end of the world. Stories came from that frontier, horrible stories of genocide that even reached the Great City, but they were tempered with the news of victory.

Always we appealed to Egypt, and always our dignitaries were refused. Our armies growing thinner and more reliant on mercenaries, our purse lightening, it was then the grandson of Alexius cemented our place in Asia.

He realised it was not our place to overextend; rather, with clever diplomacy our allies could hold the frontier while we grew strong within. Our dignitaries were sent out. Heroic victories were won at Aleppo, Tyrus, and Damascus, the blood of many spilled for a common good. We gave these cities to our allies, who happily accepted, but spoke anxiously of European affairs.

We'd heard rumours of the ruthless Milan. We sent our scouts to the great Venetian castles of Ragusa and Durazzo, only to find them in Milanese hands. Again, a power grew on our borders that necessitated intervention. We bid our time, until a Catholic crusade was called on their African holdings. It was again time to strike. Armies gathered in Corinth.

The Duke of Milan never saw it coming. His surprise was only overshadowed by that of our allies. Durazzo was given back to the hapless Venetians. Hungary fell to its knees in our praise. Word was sent from all our allies - even the Catholic pope - ever thankful for our intervention.

It is now 1246. Milan is a fragmented shell of its past glory. Egyptians are rebelling from under their traitorous rule. The Turks are reduced to Baghdad and a minor frontier castle. The empire has remained, vigilant, in good standing, ready for the next battle.

For now...


/entirely too much time on my hands
//sorry about the length

[verity_blues]

@verity_blues
nice read... how about some screenies ?

@Repman Done.
By the way, took me a few hours to figure out how to change format on these TGA screenies (downloaded Irfanview to do so) and set up a worthy battle for picture-taking! Well, it was supposed to be worthy... So enjoy!

About 8-10 turns ago my heir payed a visit to his father, whom he scorns, in the Great City of Venice. Stupid Doge Bartolomee didn't lower taxes to ease to people during his stay, the serf's were not overly pleased to see the traitrous son so close to their beloved King. And there pretty little green faces turned quite red, turn ended; massive rebel faction spawned. Oh, my.

Well, I saved game and quit, had other things to do. When I loaded later this force didn't do what it was intended to, it moved away towards Millan, good riddance, almost. Meanwhile sent son away to Zagreb while stupid Byzantines landed massive force on Irakion and sieged, of course I repelled them easily but my pretty little 1500-2500 florians/turn went into the red. Oh, dear. And nearly every turn there after another of their forces landed, seiged, was defeated... causing me no end of money woes. Also, my pretty little galley fleet's (about 12 ships) were pirated turn by turn, ship by ship, to an ocean grave. No money to build another fleet either, or move my armies from my islands or from southern italy to the northern settlements without crossing HRE's lands.

Remember that rebel-faction-venice-taker-spawn-roaming-westward-for-some-unknown-reason? Well, it never reached Millan, it turned north to the moutain pass going to HRE's castles, then came south again, then stood across my Venician bridge... you get the picture. I needed that damn thing to siege! All I had for garrison was two merc crossbowmen and three italian spear's plus the Doge, of course! So, I took a piecemeal army from ragussa-zara-zagreb and met them up with the heir, his fault anyway, and marched them into venice... this took a year or so...

meanwhile... I am now about 9000 in debt, not good. Irakion is now killing me in it's constant sieging, I gotta do something.... hmmm. I'll talk to the Pope, maybe he wants Byzantines stopping by for visits every 6 months, I don't... they're really expensive guests! First I offer it to him for 5000, the offer is considered "balanced." He states, "What says you won't take this back after I give it to you? No, not with your reputation!" I am considered "untrustworthy" by the way, even though me and him are "perfect." So, I give it to him in return for my armies having military access, he accepts, I disband that army that was posted there, gotta save some coin.

next turn I am gaining money again, still in debt though.

Now, the rebels.... My heir meets his father on the field, relinguishing command over to his Doge they face this rebel "faction leader" together.

Heres those screenies I was talking all about earlier...



Army Details here



I started the battle in the woods, with my generals and 11 merc frank knights
in the front, to scour those "arrow throwers" when they advanced to far ahead of the pack. Thing is they didn't know where the rest of my forces were and positioned themselves all askew, waiting for me to move. I did.



After advancing the stupid AI, which is sad because this AI general was pretty sweet in his traits, never swung their line around, they just let me walk right up to them, full flank!



Since they were completely sleeping, a swung my cav around behind, with a dead-on bead for this "great general."



Infantry, FORWARD!



Cavalry, FOLLOW ME!



Lets, get in close for the impact now. Check out them Venicians in full regalia!



EDIT: this one here is from another battle, oops... Damn, I tried!



And the rout begins...



Well, got a notch on his belt for this one.

On a side note, when I was changing this last screenie to JPEG I actualy tried to click on the green check-mark after I was finished with the image, as if it would close it for me. I might need to negotiate for peace, apparently I need a break!

And thats all for tonight, folks!

[Nicollo da Conti]

Thanks guys. I'm a writer by trade, so it's not too difficult to tell a story, but here in DLV... it's like you live that alternate life, and makes it entirely easy to tell the tale.

My problem, like many other players, and almost all other writers, is that the final chapters are the hardest to write. The storyline is already set ('yeah, I win') so it gets a bit tiresome to complete the log of it.

Though someday, I do want to sit down with a bottle (or 2) of wine and complete the Byzantine tale. A few threads mention DLV should be a major mod. To me it's just a semantics thing, though it logically belongs there, but maybe it even deserves its own AAR thread, as they seem so easy to tell.

But always, these are fun to read when written by any DLV player. The excitement (and sometimes, heartache) is always evident. Kudos all...

[Shadrach]

Wow, Nicollo, excellent read!
You really have a talent for this

I think what DLV does so good is it makes it much easier to craft stories like these, because of the slower gameplay that needs much more planning than the regular game.

-S

[verity_blues]

Double post, sorry...

[verity_blues]

@Nicollo da Conti:
Now, that is a role-play campaign. Thanx for the excellent post, I enjoyed reading it. Almost made me want to play a round as my arch-enemy, Byzantine!

[missu]

Now check this out!

This noble ruler has conquered all of Britain, his oldest son is already dead and his oldest grandson is currently conquering Poland, to give it to the hre.
i'm sorry that i cannot write more, or more detailed, but -

this ****ing mod is so ****ing addictive! i'll have to play another twenty turns to see if he get's one hundred years old.

[gewehr36]

Wow I've never seen a character get that old.

[Nicollo da Conti]

Ha ha. Awesome Missu. I can just imagine a new unit - the General's bodyguard/male nurses.

[verity_blues]

91 years old, wow, nvr seen that before... congrats!

[andrey_90]

sometimes you get a 50-60 year old general with the "young" trait

[repman]

there is no exact trigger to count the age so there will be errors

repman

[repman]

there is no exact trigger to count the age so there will be errors

repman

[verity_blues]

@repman
You've got, like, lots of threads in here. And its kinda cool that you are checking in on what all you and DD's DLV enthusists are posting in here... but. This thread is for the glory of sharing your illustrious campaigning. If you are gonna post here, show me what your faction can do!!!!!

Just joking, I know that yall are always tweeking and scripting away. Hey, whatever it takes to make DLV above and beyond is cool with me.