Grand Prince Aethelberht successfully managed to topple the old Byzantine Emperor and replace him with a new Empress who was a long time ago married to a son of Belthare. The war was a lengthy bloody affair that saw the total committal of 40,000 British troops in Greece to Turkey and 6,000 in Italy, the largest concentration of British troops to be in the same theatre of war ever. The result of victory meant that all children of their coupling would be of House Fsyche and that Britannia would not just never again be backstabbed by the Byzantines like in the past, but also have a powerful ally in the Byzantines to call upon now and later when the Byzantine Throne passed to an heir of Fsyche.
With the Britannia Republic having a safe land bridge to Jerusalem and already having many troops in Turkey that were a short march away from Bagdhad, holy war was declared against the descendents of the Abbasid Empire. The war was concluded quickly when the Huscarls took the Muslim capital with 28,000 men and routed their army of 35,000 during another one of their civil wars. Fresh off this victory
another Holy War was called to continue Eastward expansion. Inevitably this turned into another battle against the nearly the entire Sunni middle east, but this was still entirely manageable and hard to lose as long as the Huscarl armies remained within supporting distance of one another.
This was not to be an easy war. The moment this new war was underway the shadows of Belthare's reign were once more up in arms; Aquitaine, Italy, Norway, Knights Templar, Karelia and some minor European states wanted independence no matter the cost. I would have given them their independence had Norway not been a part of the war -
I would not let them run their own country if they'd only fund their economy through raiding Britain.My coffers were not empty, but they were emptying, busy funding the huscarl armies in the East to keep fighting the good fight for the ungrateful fucks in the West to fight their war against me without fear of being executed for being infidels. I could not afford to support mercenaries and the order Hospitaller refused to fight Catholics, only useful for fighting Swedish raids whilst my levies were sent to fight in Norway.
The enemies were strong. The Arabs brought 44,000 troops to battle, though by the time the second war broke out they could only muster 31,000.
Some guy called Count Guy brought 2,100 troops to fight in southern France, he more importantly held Fortresses guarding one of the Iberian mountain passes and very quickly lay siege to the loyalists who controlled the other pass.
High Chieftess Kraka of Ostlandet brought 2,500 troops to fight in the Scandinavian Peninsula.
King Helgi the Just was once loyal to Aethelberht, but one day he accused one of Aethelberht's brothers of being a traitor. Grand Prince Aethelberht being quite the schemer called Helgi the traitor and gave aforementioned brother a strong claim to the Kingdom of Norway. King Helgi the Just brought 4,000 troops to the Scandinavian Peninsula and took with him Iceland and the islands I had personally given him.
Queen Irmele of Italy brought 9,000 troops to the Italian Peninsula, she had no personal quarrel with Grand Prince Aethelberht; she was from the Karling family, a well-established house who tended to be the house behind all the major central European powers, historically and in the present. Ambition runs in their blood.
Grandmaster Simon of the Knights Templar brought 900 troops; the levies from his castles dotted around Europe from Spain to Jerusalem. The Knights' main army of 7,600 was stationed in Norway.
For King Clotaire of Aquitaine the war is personal. His father King Robin of Aquitaine led the first ill-fated war for independence and his father King Robin of Aquitaine lived the rest of his life in Grand Prince Belthare's dungeon and died in Grand Prince Aethelberht's dungeon, never able to afford the ransom price of 250 gold. He is following in his father's footsteps, hoping those footsteps don't lead to captivity. He brought 6,000 troops to southern France.
Chief Totil of Pohjanma owned but a single county, but was the leader of the faction nonetheless. He called an adventure and brought 30,000 troops to the Scandinavian Peninsula. Chief Totil wants freedom. He is very Norse. It seems he does not like my attempt to stop them from raping and pillaging by instilling copious amounts of Catholic guilt in them.
The British Army was still the most disciplined and organized in the world and not to be balked at, if they wanted a fight they would get one. 30,500 Huscarls were fighting in the middle east and 13,000 levies sailed for Scandinavia, with 1,400 left behind to conquer the rebels in Scotland and Iceland. To top it all off House Fsyche had been prolific on account of three generations of Fsyche's all dedicated to having as many kids as possible. The Knights of Santiago were run by the deposed Fsyche Empress consort of Byzantine and he brought the Holy Order's full strength of 9,700 Knights to war in France. 13 Fsyche Dukes, Duchesses and Earls also retained strongholds abroad amidst the rebels; most importantly in Denmark and Jerusalem. Denmark allowed safe ports for the landing of the Norwegian invasion and Jerusalem levies swamped the Knights Templar's Fortress. In addition Sardinia and Corsica remained loyal as it was run by my Marshal who demonstrated stalwart faithfulness, fighting the Templars who also had a Fortress in Corsica to a stalemate. The Empress of Byzantine Thomais herself was placed upon the throne by Grand Prince Aethelberht and so was eager to rush to Aethelberht's aid. She had 12,000 troops but in true Byzantine fashion none of them ever reached the Middle Eastern or Italian front; she was too busy fighting other Byzantine factions to send her armies to help. I forgive her though, she gave birth to a son of House Fsyche before she picked up celibacy and her husband died of stress. Now it seems her new husband won't murder her current son since he'll not be able to conceive one of his own and a son of Fsyche will be Emperor. Perhaps most surprising of all was that a Sheikh came to my aid, bringing 1,000 men to fight in France. He was married to a woman who was the daughter of Queen Mother Saethryth of Frisia, the oldest member of House Fsych still alive and the oldest sibling of Aethelberht. Queen Mother Saethryth is a peculiar person, she is both cynical and possessed, both skeptical of religion
while she is convinced Jesus is giving her military commands and Holy Comets are falling from the sky. In any case they're a welcome addition to the family.
31,000 Muslims, 28,000 Catholics and 30,000 Norse; excluding the spatterings of rebels here and there.
Up against
30,500 Huscarls, 16,500 of House Fsyche's collective troops and 10,000 Knights of Santiago.
Sweden also deserve their own mention as they were the third actor in this war, raiding everyone with impunity whilst the chaos of war raged on (the British were going to start another Swedish campaign before this war started, just to rub salt in the wound). The largest target of attacks were the Norwegians, the French and the British.
The British successfully secured the British Isles from rebels and set sail for Denmark. They battled a Norse host of 10,000 men and routed them, killing them all at the cost of 4,000 men. This weary British force, now heavily weakened and surrounded by a numerically superior force marched forwards to the Norwegian Capital in the mountains; there they could lay siege and if they were to be attacked would have the benefit of the mountain for defence.
The middle east campaign after years of bitter fighting came to a dramatic end in the mountains; a force of 16,000 moved to engage a Muslim army of 16,00 after the siege was at last winning whilst a huscarl force circled around the desert to support, but still months away from reinforcing nonetheless. The huscarl force was losing, attacking up a mountain range was a mistake and they had already lost 5,000 men by the time I was hoping the 16,000 would arrive in time to support. Then the unimaginable happened. 9,000 Muslim soldiers withdrew from the fight altogether. They did not retreat, they simply vanished completely. I thought there was some devastating defeat dealt to the Muslim forces, but their morale was the same. Then I saw the soldiers march away from the mountain, no longer overtly hostile. The Emir had left his own side to be slaughtered after victory was within their grasp. Sultan Faruk of the Hashimid Sultanate, a homosexual and ambitious Sultan; he had just used my huscarls to slaughter the entirety of his political opposition and went home.
Well played Sultan.
The Huscarls are marching towards Italy and will eventually at some point reach the European front. It will take a while... Months... Probably not years, unless they're significantly held up like last time. 5,000 levies have been recruited and kept in reserve in case the 9,000 in Norway are horribly defeated; 16,500 huscarls are still in the middle east dealing with a major armed revolt led by professional soldiers trying to rebuild the Kingdom of Egypt (but I don't even own Egypt!) 13,000 on their way to Italy. Currently we are losing the war against the independence factions who have nearly taken all of Scandinavia bar bits of Norway and all of Denmark and have almost taken all of France and Italy. Suomensko independence factions in Scandinavia were killed by the rebels, though independence factions are winning in Italy. The Sheik Ma'n is putting in serious work; from his island of Manorca he keeps sending troops to harry the Aquitaine forces. One major point in the war is that King Adolf of Lotharinga married his son off to one of Aethelberht's daughters, forming a formal alliance between one Karling house and Fsyche house yet again. He's brought 7,000 troops to the war against Italy and France and might be able to reverse the rebel gains in the mainland.
Also Sheikh Ma'n just sent a few hundred troops to support my Scandinavia army. Man, Ma'n is a team player. I've got to put him in charge of a Caliphate some day.
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2113112 times)