Friday, July 25, 2014

Crusader Kings II: Ironman Ireland Playthrough - Part 17

We return to the land of Ireland in 1349 as King Flaithbertach mac Lochlann Ua Cheinnselaig, King of Ireland, King of Scotland, King of Wales, King of Lithuania, Duke of Tara, Duke of Leinster, Earl of Dublin, Earl of Leinster, Earl of Kildare, Earl of Ossory, Earl of Gwynedd, Earl of Dyfed, Earl of Latgale, Earl of Ross, Earl of Desmond, Baron of Friuli, Baron of Conway, Baron of Trim.

We are 11 years old, having recently ascended to the throne after the death of our Great Grandfather King Mael-Sechlainn 'the Wise'. We have many pissed off vassals, a three way ware in the Kingdom of Scotland, we are underage and unmarried (so small Demesne size) among many other problems. And so we begin...

1349- A rocky start

We reduce our demesne from 12 to 9 by getting rid of the Baron of Friuli, Earl of Ross and Earl of Desmond titles. We also transfer the vassalage of several earls to their rightful Dukes to increase some more opinions of us.

England declares war on us for the County Powys (in Wales) shortly after the beginning of our Reign in 1349 - with the armies already engaged in Scotland, and little support from our vassals we couldn't hope to hold them off - so we immediately surrender the County of Powys hopeing that the 10 year truce will help us to build our forces and alliances to take back that County and more from the Kingdom of England.

We gain the Just trait in 1350, adding +10 to our vassal opinions, which is good because the factions are starting to get pretty strong.

The last son of the last King is born, Prince Muirchertach is a genius - had the last King lasted to the birth of this one I may have changed to Ultimogenture (youngest son inherits first) .

We capture the County Fife and County Atholl by the End of 1350. We are able to create the title Duke of Albany and pass that to one of our vassals. One more county (Gowrie) and we will have all of Scotland.

I almost get the trait Ambitious (which would have been nice) but my Guardian beats it out of me... too bad.

We declare war for Gowrie in early 1351, I'd love to have all of Scotland united before we even reach adulthood. The county is captured for our vassal by the end of the year and all of Scotland is united outside of English Rule.

We have the Duke of Prussia rebel after we attempt to imprison him after he is excommunicated in 1353.

We get an alert that we can create the title of 'Wendish Empire' once we have the piety - turns out the Kingdom of Poland has De Jure absorbed the rest of the Wendish empire's De Jure claims, so now we have almost all of the remaining De Jure claims to that empire. I may make it once I can, but I believe that means we would no longer be Ireland... the Prestige and Power may be worth it though.

Our King comes of age in early 1354, and unfortunately despite marrying the best Stewardship woman I can find, we are forced to give up another title in our Demesne - we grant the title of Earl of Latgale to a Kinsman.

My wife is pregnant just a month or two after we marry and in March 1355 our son Murchad is born.

We hold a Grand Tournament to celebrate the Unity of Scotland and our Son and heir (who makes it through a sickly period after birth).

Just prior to the truce ending with England (December 25, 1358) we declare war on England, this is a gamble because we are going to need a lot of help from our vassals and mercs to win - but if we can take the County Perfeddlym then the King of England will no longer desire our counties and Kingdom in wales (as he will no longer be the Duke of Gwynedd. Which should give us some breathing room. To WAR!

Shortly after the start of the conflict our daughter Aine is born, hopefully we can honor her by winning this thing!

We achieve victory in May 1362 and take control of the County Perfedwlad just before the birth of our second daughter Dub-Dil in June.

My second son Crimthann is born in December 1363.

We are able to usurp the title of Duke of Gwynedd from the King of England once he is done with his rebellions (these resulted from the aftermath of our war). I then pass this to a vassal.

Now it is time to form the Wendish Empire!

We decide to support the Duke of Normandy in his excommunication war against the County Borgous in France. 1365

We are forced to put down a peasant rebellion in Scotland. 1365

Our son Ualtar is born in January 1366.

Unfortunately the Kingdom of England attacks us in 1366 and although I had hoped we could prevail, they got in some lucky victories and we were forced to give back the County and Duchy we had gained in the last war - this will continue to draw us into wars with them that we can't afford...

And thus the Wendish Empire entered a dark period where once King Flaithbertach was known as 'the Just' he became a cruel and tyrannical Emperor, assassinations, banishments, title revokations, and other acts of tyranny where the order of the day for nearly two decades.

Unfortunately the exact history of these times is hard to come by as Emperor Flaithbertach had many records (and people) destroyed to keep the knowledge of his deeds from spreading.

It was not until late 1390 that Emperor Flaithbertach would die and pass his realm to Emperor Murchad. His story was not an Irish one but one of a healing throughout the Wendish Empire. Later the Empire would reach awesome new heights but that was far ahead in the future.

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The game got really slow and buggy towards the end (I still want to get to the last year to get the achievement for completing an entire playthrough but it will have to be later). I started to get down on my luck with Flaithbertach and had to loose a few wars, kills some folks, etc. to get him killed off. Now his son should be able to keep the Empire healthy and if not he then his son or his son's son should be able to get us to the end of the game - if I do finish it I will post one more time with some details.



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