Tides of Conquest Late Medieval campaign, turn 4, 1312 CE

[Nijis]

I don't think I set a deadline on this, but if we could try to wrap up all battles by Aug 5 that would be great. I'll update results shortly.

[anderarcos11]

Im on vacations now, sho mi last two battles cant continúe. I avised to player and to campaign responsable

[kongxinga]

Muscovites (SnuggleBunnies) attack Golden Horde-ruled Mordvia (Kongxinga) CHALLENGE SENT
Map: Northern European Woods
Side 1: Rus (1265CE to 1379CE) Medieval
Side 2: Tatars (1242CE to 1399CE) Medieval

Muscovites (SnuggleBunnies) beat Golden Horde (kongxinga) 0-41

Attacking massed archers in rough is a mistake.

[kongxinga]

Muscovite-allied Zaporizhia (SnuggleBunnies) attack Golden Horde-ruled Tanais (Kongxinga) CHALLENGE SENT
Map: Steppe
Side 1: Cuman 1180-1394 (Medieval)
Side 2: Tatars (1242CE to 1399CE) Medieval

Zaporizhia (SnuggleBunnies) defeats Golden Horde (Kongxinga) 10-40.

Golden horde lancers managed a charge at the Cumanian Siege camp and took it down, but were over run else where.

[rpadilla1988]

rpadilla1988 (Granadine) defeats Cuddlefission (Argonese) 8-49

Much luck on my side, with open ground ahead and a hill to the right flank.. managing to get light cav on the Argonese left to harass a battle line of steadily advancing mounted knights. With the said hill to the right taken for the most part by granadine ranged troops, irregulars and spearmen, and their heavy cavalry arrayed in battle formation close for support; both sides were able to play well off each other and allow an envelopment to occur on the Argonese cav using the light troops

Good game Cuddlefission!

[Nijis]

It's late summer, things are supposed to be relaxed, so I will go ahead and extend the deadline to the end of August, though I think the two remaining games will wrap up before that.

[rpadilla1988]

Thankful for the extension;

rpadilla1988 defeats Nijis 42-61

Both armies stood facing each other on opposite ends of a hill, with the Castillian troops masked with rough ground peppered at their foot-hold; the Mamluk with their ranged cav and trebuchet to boot. Both armies took rough passes at each other, the battle becoming desperate but the Castillians were able to pull the win.. definitely not without losses

Good Game Nijis!

[rpadilla1988]

Thankful for the extension;

rpadilla1988 defeats Nijis 42-61

Both armies stood facing each other on opposite ends of a hill, with the Castillian troops masked with rough ground peppered at their foot-hold; the Mamluk with their ranged cav and trebuchet to boot. Both armies took rough passes at each other, the battle becoming desperate but the Castillians were able to pull the win.. definitely not without losses

Good Game Nijis!

[anderarcos11]

Hello for all. I returned from my vacations and im sending mi turns to lachiemac.

[LachieMac]

We have finally finished one game!

LachieMac defeats anderarcos1 47-18

Upon its second raid arriving into Austrian territory, the Hungarian army approached a dense forest on the far left and a rocky plateau on the immediate right, with the Germans deployed in a dismounted chequerboard next to the forest. Having initially deployed their medium foot to take the plateau, the Hungarians now realised this would strand their troops, with the German position being well out of bowshot. Revising their strategy entirely, and taking advantage of the Germans' passivity, the Magyars swapped their medium foot to the left, to advance under the cover of the forest, and their light horse to the right, to flank the Germans on the open plain beyond the plateau. German mounted archers pursued, but now the lighter Magyar horse archers led them a merry chase, taking them out of the battle. Meanwhile, the Hungarian archers and irregulars chased away the few Germans occupying the forest, just as the Hungarian knights finally clashed with the Germans in the centre. Outflanked, the battle swung against the German army.

Despite the success of his risky strategy in Austria, the battle went much more poorly for the Hungarians' allies in Bohemia, and it seemed for now that the overall strategic picture would remain much the same in central Europe.

[Nijis]

Great! I'm back too and will process the turn whenever the last battle is fought.

[anderarcos11]

anderarcos11 beat lachiemac, 44 to 19


The invasion of Bohemia was carried out successfully, with a crushing victory for the imperial armies. In this way, the Bohemian rebellion was punished.

The Imperials formed abundant crossbowmen and archers on a hill and rocky ground, with the cavalry in the center. The Bohemians formed on two hills, missile troops and spearmen of various kinds, as well as light troops. At first, the front was static, until the imperialists began a diversionary maneuver on the left flank that made part of the Bohemian army move and also weakened their ranks with the superiority of missile troops. Once some important units were left unprotected on their hills, the German cavalry charged through the center, while fighting raged on both flanks. The knights turned to finish off the left flank and the Bohemian right flank was also yielding to the showers of arrows. Bohemian lines fell like a house of cards.

[Nijis]

All right! I'll get started processing the turns.

When I started there was no set end to the game. I think I will run it for three more turns. There's no set scoring system, but I can post battle win/loss and how much empires expanded or contracted.

If enough people are interested I can then fast-forward the game to 1400 AD and run another six turns or so. The fast-forwarding will change the army lists and add some variety.

[Nijis]

Battles are resolved! Here is the map.

1308 CE after battles.jpg (141.79 KiB) Viewed 601 times

Here is the turn. It will appear in the save game list as multiplayer game #5 (fogsavexml_5.xml).
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/q9qku7fj ... losdp&dl=0

Let me know if anything looks wrong. Battle outcome/random event descriptions will be up shortly.

[Nijis]

Emperor Epiphanios the Grim's victories against the Ottomans and his Bulgarian allies' defeat of the Hungarians continue the resurgence of the Roman Empire. Ionia is now an imperial province, while the independent beyliks of central Anatolia distance themselves from the Ottomans and send emissaries to Constantinople. The bey of Cappadocia, however, allies with the Ottomans to avoid absorption by the Il-Khanids.

Castile too expands its sphere of influence, although somewhat less dramatically. Crusaders seize control of Tunis, and a coalition of formerly landless second sons backed by the Order of Santiago establish the Castilian-allied Latin Kingdom of Africa. Crusading fever reaches as far as southern Ireland, where a handful of Munster petty kings set sail to augment the Christian forces in exchange for African estates. The friendly Berber emir of Qusantina, fresh from fighting off an Aragonese invasion, welcomes several of the higher ranking newcomers with a gift of magnificent Atlas horses to show his goodwill.

France strikes a blow against its English rivals as an expeditionary force lands in Wales, defeats the local English barons, and escorts its client, Prince Owen, to the Strata Florida abbey in the central highlands to be crowned king. Amid the celebrations, however, a breathless messenger bears the grim news that a German imperial army has won a victory in central France and sacked Paris. Owen's authority is immediately dented, and Welsh chiefs do what Welsh chiefs do and start casting around for foreign support to rebel against him, looking first to the Holy Roman Empire. The semi-independent duchy of Normandy meanwhile slips away from English hegemony and is once again contested following the French victory in Wales and a successful defensive stand against Gascon invaders in Provence.

Stalemate prevails in central and northern Europe, where German forays into Bohemia, Hungarian and Venetian raids on the Empire, and a Swedish attack on Denmark all produce minimal results. In one unpredictable development, however, the daughter of the King of Denmark falls in love with a captured Swedish jarl. At the ensuing wedding the two Nordic kings exchange pledges of friendship, allowing Sweden to turn military defeat into diplomatic victory and providing material for troubadours across Christendom.

Italy, formerly Christendom's favorite fighting pit for internecine wars, enjoys several years of respite.

In the north, a Teutonic crusade into Novgorod ends in an extraordinary bloody battle in the woods north of Lake Peipus. The Rus bear tattered crusader banners back to Novgorod cathedral in triumph, but the chroniclers agree that the real victors are the crows and the Lithuanian pagans. Muscovite armies and allies also inflict defeats on the Golden Horde, but a crisis of legitimacy brought about by a conflict between Vsevolod the Cruel and his boyars leads to many of Moscow's dependencies going their own way.

In the lands of the Golden Horde, a great city - Saray - rises by the banks of the Volga. Noyans are lured from their steppe yurts with the promise of luxurious palaces in the walls, beneath the watchful eye of the Khan (the scholars imported from across the Muslim world call him "Commander of the Faithful"). News from the frontiers is generally bad, as Muscovite armies press their offensives. Kazan's governor becomes independent in all but name and the tribes beneath the Urals break with the Horde completely. But the lost lands for the most part are grasslands and marshes of little value to a rapidly urbanizing realm. In the Greek despotate of Crimea, meanwhile, a pro-Horde faction of nobles schemes for control against a Muscovite one.

[Nijis]

If orders could come in by Aug 29, that would be great. I realize that with the delay some people might not be checking this regularly, so I'll send out reminder emails shortly. As always I can do orders by email or generate them randomly with the AI.

Ottomans - gort7078 - DO BY AI
French - Indibil - ORDERS IN
Germans - anderarcos11 - ORDERS IN
Castilians - rpadilla1988- DO BY EMAIL
Swedish - doyley50 - BY EMAIL, IN
English - wzfcns - ORDERS IN
Hungarians - LachieMac - ORDERS IN
Venetians - TomoeGozen - ORDERS IN
Golden Horde - Kongxinga
East Romans - LuciusSulla - ORDERS IN

SnuggleBunnies will continue to fight some of the battles for realms without players

[SnuggleBunnies]

I will again be available as OpFor if you need me.

[Nijis]

Great! Very glad to have you with us!

[anderarcos11]

Hi Nijis, I want to ask if the shift is well resolved. The difference between my victory and the loss against the Hungarians is minimal (4 points and the resolution gives them 12 points), however, the resolution gives Hungaria a whole province. My victory against Venice has no consequence, being a landslide victory (the resolution only gives me 3 vp). The victory in escandinavia not bring any point. It's a bit strange that having 3 losses (1 ally) and 4 wins only has negative consequences.

[Nijis]

You are correct. I entered the Venetian victory incorrectly and should have received 10 vp rather than 3 vp. I will figure out how to correct that.

For the other battles, I think in this case it was a combination of under-the-hood and random factors, but I'm glad to check. Sorry that this game is not as transparent as it should be.

Here's what was going on: Defensive victories bring only a third of the VP total as offensive ones. This is to create an incentive to go on the attack.

The HRE received slightly fewer VPs for an identical victory than Hungary because of internal politics. The elements of a kingdom's instability - its inequality, corruption and factionalism - all provide various maluses in the same way that institutions provide benefits. You can bring down instability slowly by reforms - enacting institutions - which trigger as a random even once your leader has a high enough stature. Sorry that this isn't well documented!

The Danish alliance with Sweden was a random event. I should probably ban those in provinces that a player has just attacked, but that would only take effect in later rounds.

Your extra VPs that did not lead to an alliance shift (in Denmark and against Venice) were however added to your influence, which increases the chance of a beneficial random event.

I sent you a list of all the bonuses and maluses that come from a realm's internal politics and institutions.