The Long-Suffering Adventures of King Mihangel
((Picked up WoL and Horse Lords. Nomad government won't show up, but the Silk Road will.))
22 May, 906 Anno DominiThe Crusade for Aquitaine is won.
Speaking of the Crusade, I have chosen to focus on expanding the realm through War. My plan is to get a Sanctioned Invasion of Mercia, and then Holy War Jorvik as much as possible. To accomplish the first, I need more Papal Opinion. I fire off a quick Indulgence letter.
He still doesn't like me enough, even at 94 opinion. Well, I have my priest pretty much permanently camping Improve Religious Relations in Rome. I'm sure we'll get there at some point.r
My uncle Arthfael is worried, as he isn't married. My leper uncle. However, he is my favorite uncle, so I marry the guy to a similarly-warlike Princess of Slavland or wherever. Hopefully his dong doesn't fall off before the wedding. Also, interesting side note. My grandfather was so prolific in popping out children that this guy is younger than I am.
And then he asks for a county of his own. Whatever, he's my friend. I give him Leinster.
My mother is worried about Arthfael and his requests. I tell her there's no way Arthfael will ever betray me.
On the home front, we camped relations with the Pope enough to ask for an invasion of Mercia.
Mayor Meurig and I are both convinced someone is trying to poison me. I am honestly unsurprised by this turn of events.
Excellent. The Welsh Reconquest has begun. Wait, did I just say "excellent" when a plan went my way? I'm turning into my father.
Well it turns out my cook is a lying asshole. I feel better.
Well, they have more soldiers than expected from our recon, so I borrow money from the Jews again. And I had just paid that off. My army of Welshmen and mercs marches into Perfeddwlad to deal with the Mercian army.
We win.
My plan is to siege baronies until I run out of money, due to the way the Invasion CB works. If I siege all the holdings in Mercia I can replace the holders with Welshmen who like me. Like those exist. My main plan is to take the King of Mercia's demesne first. We march on his Worcester barony first. Also, my mother just died.
Well, the King of Mercia called the King of East Francia into the war. The King of EF has a whole 7 boats. I'm terrified. That was sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell. Most people in Wales are illiterate moron peasants. Wait, why are you reading this if you're an illiterate peasant?
Also, this is the woman my father betrothed me to. She's a genius, beautiful, a wonderful person. There's just one problem: She's my cousin. And I need a male heir.
Well, she's preggers. This kid better be a boy, and he better survive. And he better not be inbred.
Aand its a daughter. And gavelkind is taking effect if I die now. At least she's not inbred.
The Saxons keep countersiegeing things faster than we can kill their army and reinforcing from nowhere. I'm going to get peace as soon as we have the King's demesne and the two Welsh-cultured counties on the border.
Alright. 2000 Welshmen have died in this war and we've taken the King's demesne and one Welsh cultured county. We have 100% warscore, it's time to sue for peace.
Ok, a bit of demesne management later, my favorite uncle Arthfael is Count of Worcester and Duke of Mercia. As you can clearly see from the attached map, Wales is great. I think I'm going to start call myself "The Victorious".
In addition, the Vikings are in a bad way. The only Viking realms in Britain are Jorvik, the Jorvik Revolt, a tiny county owned by Smaland, and Mann. Scotland chills like it always has and Strathclyde is getting steadily bigger. Hwicce kills everything, but Wessex is back from the brink and steadily ascendant. In addition, Wessex and Jorvik are in two separate defensive pacts against us, because religion, but they're each the only one in them, so they really aren't working as intended. The Irish are beginning to coalesce into larger petty kingdoms.
A map of the wider world:
Everything north and east of Germany is a mess, per usual. Karlings are Karling per usual and Kebab is Kebabbing per usual and slowly pushing into mainland Sicily. In exchange, Karling wound up with Barcelona after the Crusade and two counties in Africa. I'm not sure how that one happened. The Byzantines haven't done much except fight with the Aghlabids over Sicily. Bulgaria, as usual, turned back the Magyar invasion and is far larger than it has any right to be. I have no idea how ahistorical India has gotten because I know nothing about India circa 900 CE. Asturias broke into 2 kingdoms and a duchy. Don't let the brown color fool you, Toledo is Muslim. Brittany was unified by Haesteinn and then got hit with a Liberation Revolt.
It is 27 March, 914.
PROGRESS TODAY: Conquered Mercia. Gave self cool nickname.
STATUS:
Cash: 18
Prestige: 1463
Piety: 767
Ruler age: 37
Heir age: 18
Vassals: A lot low-key dislike me for general Welshness. Some hate my guts with a passion. A few like me. I have too many vassals to give exact numbers now. All seven bishops give tax to the Pope. Or the other pope.
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Topic: Let's Unify Britannia: House Aberffraw (CKII) (Read 28795 times)