Ryazan didn't expand. I said the
lands. If you'll recall, we're all Rurikoviches.
I wrote up a small AAR post from Ryazan's perspective. Enjoy!
We played a total of 12 years, 5 months, 11 days in the first session, from January 1, 1074, to June 12, 1086. In that time, Novgorod (Rakona), Polotsk (Drakale), and Rostov (Dutchling) all engaged in a series of wars with the surrounding pagans, expanding their territory quite rapidly. Polotsk now has ports on the Baltic Sea, while Novgorod is pressing into Karelia and Finland and Rostov is moving north, having annexed the pagans there, and is preparing for a war with the Muslim Bulgars.
Ryazan, however, did not manage to expand. The duke, Vsevolod I, was forced to fight against a number of enemies, internal and external. His son, Vladimir, the ambitious, motivated, highly intelligent Count of Vyazma and holder of more than a third of Ryazan's total realms, grew tired of his father's rather incompetent rulership. He declared that Vyazma no longer swore fealty to Ryazan. His father, of course, disagreed, and so the war of Vyazman Independence began. The war lasted nearly two years, however it was effectively over after the very first battle, in which forces loyal to the duke crushed Vladimir's armies. Vladimir escaped with barely two hundred men.
As Vsevolod laid siege to Vladimir's holdings, however, trouble brewed on the border with Kiev. The duke of that realm, Sviatoslav II, Vsevolod's brother, looked on towards Ryazan's internal struggles and saw... An opportunity. Vsevolod's armies, drained by the battles and sieges, and only half of their initial strength due to Vyazma's rebellion anyway, could not hope to stop the Kievan invasion. Sviatoslav's armies crossed the border and laid siege to the castle Chernigov.
Meanwhile, the civil war continued in the northern third of Ryazan. Vsevolod, understandably furious with his son, intended to capture, imprison, and execute him for treason. The invasion from Kiev, however, had changed things. Vsevolod realized that Ryazan could not survive if the war continued. Emissaries sought out Vladimir's army--barely 200 men and still on the run--and proposed a return to the status quo. Vladimir, too, realized that he could not be selfish in such a dire situation. Begrudgingly, Vladimir reaffirmed his fealty to his father, and Vsevolod pardoned him for his transgressions, chalking them up to "youthful rebelliousness".
Now reunited, Ryazan's armies returned to their home provinces to recuperate. Vsevolod, under the advice of Vladimir--who was a far more brilliant martial mind than his father--allowed his brother's armies to continue their siege of Chernigov. Some 1100 strong initially, their forces were gradually dwindling, to just over 800 following the end of the Vyazman Independence War. Following a period of four months of recuperation, the levies were once again called to arms. Nearly 1200 men converged on Lyubech, just beyond the perimeter of the Kievan forces. Once mustered, they marched to engage, and defeated Sviatoslav's forces in a bloody, two-week battle. Three hundred Kievans escaped with their lives, pursued by some nine hundred men of Ryazan; they were soon cut off, encircled, and annihilated to the last man.
Faced with the annihilation of his armies and armies sieging the city of Kiev itself, Sviatoslav sued for peace. The terms were generous for Ryazan--the aging Sviatoslav would renounce his claims on the duchies of Ryazan, Smolensk, Chernigov, and Novgorod-Seversk forevermore, and would pay war indemnities of over 170 ducats.
Vsevolod was not satisfied, however. The betrayal by his brother boiled his blood. He knew that he could not let him off so easily. And so, just a few months later, Ryazan declared war on the duchy of Kiev, declaring that Kiev would be incorporated into Vsevolod's realms. Kiev had no army left and laid prostrate, helpless as once again Ryazan's forces crossed the border.
It was not to be, however. Just months after the city of Kiev fell, Sviatoslav fell ill and died, and the lands of Kiev passed to his sons--the dukes of Novgorod and Rostov. The dukes sent a missive to Vsevolod that further assaults on former Kievan lands would not be tolerated and, faced with pressure from the two realms--each greater in size than his own--Vsevolod relented and fell back to his own lands.
The next few years were ones of recuperation and reconstruction, expanding the infrastructure of the cities and castles of Vsevolod's demesne. Unfortunately, the duke was growing old, and sickness became the norm for him. Before long he could barely leave his chambers, his mind and body frail and ill. Soon he'd lost all capability and his son, Vladimir, the one who had rebelled so violently against him just a handful of years ago, was named his regent. Preparations were made to divide the realm between his three sons. Vladimir, the oldest and primary heir, at thirty-one years of age, was to be bequeathed the title of Duke of Ryazan, and would maintain his titles as Count of Vyazma, Smolensk, Mstislavl, and Mozhaysk. Rotislav, only 14, would take ownership of the Duchy of Novgorod-Seversk, while Andrei, the youngest at only two years old, would inherit the duchies of Smolensk and Chernigov.
Vsevolod died barely a month later. Vladimir had hoped for more time to secure his ownership of the other duchies besides Ryazan proper, but his father's swift death didn't allow time for it. Rotislav and Andrei, now Rotislav II of Novgorod-Seversk and Andrei I of Smolensk respectively, were moved to their new capitals, with the courts that had been assembled for them. It was then that Vladimir's cunning and diplomatic aptitude became most useful--he'd befriended the men that would become the advisors to his young brothers, under the guise of "advising" them. Using these connections--and a healthy dose of blackmail--he convinced Andrei's Chancellor-Regent, and his Spymaster, to become complicit in a plot to kill the toddler. As Andrei lacked any children--after all, he was only two--Vladimir was still the titular heir to Andrei's holdings.
On March 1, 1084, Andrei was found dead in his chambers by a young maid. He was on his back, eyes wide, limbs stiff with death, a toy lodged in his throat. It was, by all appearances, a tragic accident. Only three men knew better.
The duchies of Smolensk and Chernigov, then, passed back under Vladimir's control. Novgorod-Sveresk remained out of his grasp, but that would not be the case for long. Rotislav's council was just as thoroughly compromised as Andrei's had been. Less than a month after Andrei's death, the fourteen year old Rotislav slipped off the battlements of the castle he called home and plunged to his death, and his titles passed to his brother--by all appearances bereaved by the loss of both of his beloved brothers.
Yes, your count is still alive. He was my vassal, but during the Vyazman independence war, he too declared independence. I couldn't spare troops to face him so he managed to break free. Additionally, he inherited one of Kiev's provinces when Duke Sviatoslav died.
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2: Rurikovich Multiplayer. Turn 5: Good game! (Read 37989 times)