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

[Nijis]

As usual, first the map, then the narrative, then the turn file...

1312 map.jpg (160.29 KiB) Viewed 1303 times

[Nijis]

France and England both dispatched armies to Normandy to back their contending allies. In both cases, the Normans prevailed. But while the French-allied duke won a fairly convincing victory over the English, the pro-English barons' defeat of the French was more of a Pyrrhic outcome, with a great slaughter of the nobility on both sides. In the end, the bloodied barons pledged their allegiance to the duke, hoping for a short respite to refill their treasuries and father more sons before the contest began once more.

France fared worse in its contest with the Emperor for the loyalties of the Welsh chieftains. The venerable imperial captain Augustus Bach, now so old that he needed to be loaded onto his horse but still capable of inspiring and directing his men, defeated pro-French Welsh forces while guiding his own allied chieftains to victory, encouraging them to make use of woods and their feared longbows to even the odds. The pro-French Prince Owen is deposed and replaced with his distant cousin Grufydd, who leads the Welsh in an acknowledgement of the Emperor as the universal sovereign of Christendom. A few are heard to tell each other afterwards that he is the best kind of sovereign, the kind that is several hundred leagues of sea away. Troubadours compose lays celebrating German valor that gain popularity as far away as the Balkans, although any resemblance to actual events in Wales is purely coincidental. In Flanders, however, the count and the prince-bishops ruling in the Emperor's name send reports back home of rumors that pro-French rebels have begun to stockpile pikes for a rebellion.

Sweden's attempt to settle its theological differences with the Empire by force of arms fails, as the lords of Saxony put together a force that checks the Nordic host before it can do much damage to the countryside of northern Germany. The king of Poland, however, aggrieved by German encroachment on his domains, inflicts a significant defeat on the imperial marcher lords of the east. Pro-Polish factions emerge in the previously solidly pro-imperial margravates of Brandenburg and Pomerania, and even the pagan tribes of Prussia take sides - some impressed by the tales from far-away Wales, others by the Poles' triumphs closer to home.

The Hungarian king Batur runs up an impressive series of victories in his wars with the Empire and with Venice. Hungarian horse archers slaughter an imperial raiding force that ventures onto the great Alfold plain, while its Italian allies defeat the Venetians in the rocky hills east of Tuscany and a raiding force chastises the duke of Dalmatia for allowing his territories to be used by Venetian merchants to undercut Hungarian commerce. The diplomatic rewards reaped by Hungary are comparatively modest, however - a pro-Hungarian faction emerges in Serbia, and the post-Byzantine despotate of Morea in Greece sends a princess to marry the Hungarian heir. One Hungarian noble family, newly enriched by booty and ransoms, manages to marry its way into a claim on the throne of faraway Georgia. Batur's advisors however point out to the king that he must soon secure a route to the sea if he is to hold onto his new alliances.

To the southeast, the Emperor Epiphanios the Grim deals the final blow to the upstart Ottomans. A huge force descends on Bursa and scatters the sultan's horsemen. All of Anatolia is now either under direct Roman rule or sends tribute to Constantinople, and the Black Sea is well on its way to becoming a Roman lake. Some in the imperial court argue that the New Rome should now push westward to the Italian peninsula liberate the Old, others call for a push southeast to free the Holy City of Jerusalem, while a handful of unsentimental but land-hungry archons suggest that easier pickings might be found to the northeast.

The Golden Horde's new capital of Saray on the Volga grows richer and richer, but the empire reels from repeated blows. The distant province of Rostov falls finally to the Muscovites, while an expeditionary force comes to grief in the Crimea fighting the armies of the local Greek city-states. The vastness of the steppes however is the Horde's greatest defense, and it will be difficult for any of its enemies to gather an army that can strike at its heart.

[Nijis]

And here is the latest turn:

It's fogsavexml_0, which should appear as "Load multiplayer game 0."
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ghnlfksi ... f3m4z&dl=0

As always, if you have trouble with the app I can go over orders with players by email. Two more turns of this campaign to go.

[anderarcos11]

I think we should look for some more players.

[Nijis]

I'll put up a posting, though I'm not sure people will want to come in this late in the game...

For what it's worth, the big tangle in central and northern Europe is mostly covered by humans, especially if SnuggleBunnies can continue to fight for the Poles. Castile and Aragon, both non-player, are mostly fighting each other.

[SnuggleBunnies]

For what it's worth, the big tangle in central and northern Europe is mostly covered by humans, especially if SnuggleBunnies can continue to fight for the Poles. Castile and Aragon, both non-player, are mostly fighting each other.

I can keep playing OpFor

[Nijis]

Great to hear that!

Here are the orders so far...

Ex-Ottomans - gort7078 - IN PROGRESS
French - Indibil - ORDERS IN
Germans - anderarcos11 - ORDERS IN
Swedish - doyley50 - ORDERS IN
English - wzfcns - ORDERS IN
Hungarians - LachieMac - ORDERS IN
Venetians - TomoeGozen - ORDERS IN
Golden Horde - Kongxingav - ORDERDS IN
East Romans - LuciusSulla - ORDERS IN
Aragonese - Heidipie - IN PROGRESS
Castilians - angusosborne, ORDERS IN

[Nijis]

I need to travel for the next week or so, so I'll make the deadline for orders tentatively Oct 20. I'll probably send out emails though in the next few days for those who don't want to use the app and try to get them in before that.

[Nijis]

Two new players, heidipie and angusosborne, have just joined, so I'll need a couple of days to work them in.

[anderarcos11]

Two new players, heidipie and angusosborne, have just joined, so I'll need a couple of days to work them in.

Ok, good notice. The more players, the more interesting.

[Nijis]

I am having a great deal of difficulty sending messages with the Slitherine server. Angusosborne and heidipie, if you see this, could you send your emails to stephennegus@yahoo.com?

[anderarcos11]

How are the shifts going? It's been a few months

[Nijis]

Spoke to Aragon, who needed a couple more days. I'll go ahead and do the orders randomly if I haven't heard from them by Friday.

[Nijis]

All orders are in so I'll process the turn tomorrow morning.

[Nijis]

Two weeks after the initial deadline, the turn is processed!

Sorry about the delay...

Here is the map of battles. List comes next, then the background/justifications...

1312 AD battles.jpg (157.2 KiB) Viewed 1075 times

[Nijis]

BATTLES OF THE YEAR 1312

As always, side 1 should issue the challenge with a 1200 point evenly matched battle using the listed terrain, and can choose an ally if he or she wants. If side 1 gets awful terrain they can have one redo, but the battle results are shifted 10 vp in the defender's favor.

Venice (TomoeGoezen), the English (wzcfns) and the Golden Horde (kongxinga) neither attacked nor were attacked, so I gave them some neutral realms' battles to fight. Let me know if you're not interested.

For some reason my first run of this did not process the German orders, so let me know if you see anything missing...

The Germans have eight(!) battles to fight, so let me know if you want another player to take any of them.

Next up, background and casus belli.

German forces try to subdue French-allied rebels. GERMAN VICTORY
Map: Northern European Hilly
Side 1: German (Imperial) (1200CE to 1319CE) (anderarcos11) RL11
Side 2: French (1155CE to 1319CE) (Indibil) RL 47

Marinid-allied High Atlas attack Castillian-allied Qusantina - MARINID VICTORY
Map: Middle Eastern Agricultural
Side 1: Berber(Marinid) (1244CE to 1319CE) Reconquista (TomoeGoezen) RL20
Side 2: Granadine (1232CE to 1319CE) Reconquista (angusosborne) RL47

East Romans attack Hungarian-allied Morea - Challenge sent
Map: Mediterranean Agricultural
Side 1: Byzantine (Central) (SS) (LuciusSulla)
Side 2: Byzantine (Epiros) (LachieMac)

Germans intervene against Polish allies in Pomerania GERMAN VICTORY
Map: Northern European Agricultural
Side 1: German (Imperial) (1200CE to 1319CE) (anderarcos) RL55
Side 2: Polish (1265CE to 1319CE) (TomoeGoezen) RL65

Lithuanians attack German-allied Estonia LITHUANIAN VICTORY
Map: Northern European Woods
Side 1: Lithuanian (1300CE to 1359CE) (SnuggleBunnies) RL 39
Side 2: Teutonic Order (1226CE to 1319CE) (anderarcos11) RL 64

Swedish attack German-allied Norway GERMAN VICTORY
Map: Northern European Hilly
Side 1: Swedish (1155CE to 1319CE) (doyley50) RL45
Side 2: Norwegian (1155CE to 1319CE) (anderarcos11) RL13

Castillians attack French-ruled Loire CASTILIAN VICTORY
Map: Northern European Hilly
Side 1: Castilian/Leónese (angusosborne) RL12
Side 2: French (1155CE to 1319CE) (Indibil) RL44

Germans attack Hungarian-allied Bohemia GERMAN VICTORY
Map: Northern European Agricultural
Side 1: German (Imperial) (1200CE to 1319CE) (anderarcos11) RL25 (derived)
Side 2: Bohemian (1200CE to 1399CE) (LachieMac) RL50

Castillians try to pacify French allies in Portugal CASTILIAN VICTORY
Map: Mediterranean Agricultural
Side 1: Castilian/Leónese (1200CE to 1319CE) angusosborne RL6
Side 2: Portuguese (1200CE to 1319CE) Indibil RL46

East Romans intervene against Hungarian allies in Colchis Challenge sent
Map: Northern European Mountainous
Side 1: Byzantine (central) (Lucius Sulla)
Side 2: Georgian (1145CE to 1450CE) (LachieMac)

Aragonese attack German-allied Naples ARAGONESE VICTORY
Map: Mediterranean Agricultural
Side 1: Aragonese (1275CE to 1319CE) (Heidipie) RL 21
Side 2: Neapolitan (1301CE to 1319CE) (anderarcos11) RL 56

Hungarians try to conquer German-allied Croatia GERMAN VICTORY
Map: Mediterranean Hilly
Side 1: Hungarian (1200CE to 1319CE) (LachieMac) RL40
Side 2: Serbian (1040CE to 1319CE) (anderarcos11) RL0

East Romans attack German-allied Serbia Challenge sent
Map: Mediterranean Hilly
Side 1: Byzantine (Central) (LuciusSulla)
Side 2: Serbian (1040CE to 1319CE) (anderarcos11)

Muscovites try to pacify East Roman allies in Zaporizhia Challenge sent
Map: Northern European Agricultural
Side 1: Rus (1265CE to 1379CE) Medieval (kongxinga)
Side 2: Cuman 1180-1394 (Medieval) (LuciusSulla)

Lithuanian-allied Upper Daugava attack Polish-ruled Volhynia LITHUANIAN VICTORY
Map: Northern European Agricultural
Side 1: Lithuanian (1300CE to 1359CE) (SnuggleBunnies) RL5
Side 2: Polish (1265CE to 1319CE) (wzcfns) RL42

[Nijis]

On the Iberian peninsula, longtime rivals Castile and Aragon appear to have reached a detente. Both must handle internal unrest - in Castile, dissident nobles complain that the king's Muslim allies have bewitched him into incorporating Islamic rituals into church practices, while in Aragon, knights frustrated by the lack of any newly conquered lands start squeezing indebted freeholding farmers, prompting a small uprising. Both monarchs choose to crack down on their critics, beheading a few and frightening the rest into submission.

Castile answers the call of its ally, the king of Portugal, who faces opposition from French-backed nobles. King Nadal demands that the Portuguese swear him allegiance as the price of his intervention, and marches into Lisbon to meet the rebels in battle. Meanwhile, a small fleets sets sail from Navarre to the mouth of the Loire and then turns inland, with raiders fanning out on all sides to ravage French territory to prevent any support being sent to Portugal.

King Ricart of Aragon for his part stakes a claim to Naples and sends an army to pillage the lands of the imperial-allied duke. The subsequent campaign is known as the War of the Sausages, although there is disagreement about the source of the name. Some claim that it stems from the Duke's response to the Aragonese ultimatum - that the dynastic forebear cited by King Ricart was no lord but a sausage-maker, while others say it comes from the foodstuffs brought by the German knights who venture south to help their emperor's ally.

The two rival heirs to the Roman empire launch campaigns on all fronts. Epiphanios moves to snuff out Hungarian influence in the eastern Mediterranean, sending one force to attack a rebel despotate in the Morea and another to faraway Colchis. A third army meanwhile raids the empire's new ally in Serbia, bringing the Greek East into its first direct conflict with the German West in many years. Money and moral support, but not many troops, meanwhile flow north to rebel tribes on the lower Dnieper, who are resisting Russian attempts to expand southward to the Black Sea.

The double-eagle of the West, for its part, sends an army to Bohemia for another campaign against the Hungarians and all their works and allies, while also trying to clip Polish ambitions in Pomerania and crushing French-backed rebels in the Low Countries. But a behemoth like the Empire must necessarily suffer attacks from all sides, and Germans and their allies find themselves fighting on the defensive in Norway, Naples, Serbia, Hungary and Estonia.

The Hungarians have long seen Croatia as a thorn in their side, sometimes allied with the Empire, other times with the Venetians, but always an annoyance. King Batur moves to cauterize the Ulcer of the Adriatic, as it is known in court circles. Having husbanded his resources he sends forth a huge army. One city after another falls, but eventually the passage of time and a hard winter bring it down to the level where the Croatians feel they can meet it in pitched battle on equal terms - although defeat will almost surely spell the fall of their kingdom.

Sweden, constrained on its south by the empire and suffering from the perennial problem of bored nobles looking for trouble, takes up its old quarrel with Norway. The Norwegians send an envoy to the emperor, praising his long commitment to the rights of smaller states - at least those that do not defy him in any way. They leave with his blessing but little else.

England, Venice, France and the Golden Horde are all exhausted by earlier wars and settle in for some years of quiet. England is able to enjoy its peace, focusing on reaching accord between the archbishopric of Canterbury and the Scottish and Irish churches. Venice suffers a bout of internal dissent over the Doge's alleged disregard for Grand Council procedure but the dissidents are cowed by a couple of treason trials. The khan of the Golden Horde, also the sultan of Saray sits in his pavilion by the Volga and takes pleasure in reports from the war between his two rivals, the Emperor of Rum and the prince of Muscovy. France, however, gets no respite, as a Castilian fleet sails up the Loire, burning chateaux, to dissuade French knights from rallying to the assault on their allies in Portugal.

[angusosborne]

When attacking can I chose whatever allies I like? Or do I need to filter them by Geography?

[Nijis]

The attacker can bring them from anywhere. If it's not local then assume you hired mercenaries.

[anderarcos11]

On the Iberian peninsula, longtime rivals Castile and Aragon appear to have reached a detente. Both must handle internal unrest - in Castile, dissident nobles complain that the king's Muslim allies have bewitched him into incorporating Islamic rituals into church practices, while in Aragon, knights frustrated by the lack of any newly conquered lands start squeezing indebted freeholding farmers, prompting a small uprising. Both monarchs choose to crack down on their critics, beheading a few and frightening the rest into submission.

Castile answers the call of its ally, the king of Portugal, who faces opposition from French-backed nobles. King Nadal demands that the Portuguese swear him allegiance as the price of his intervention, and marches into Lisbon to meet the rebels in battle. Meanwhile, a small fleets sets sail from Navarre to the mouth of the Loire and then turns inland, with raiders fanning out on all sides to ravage French territory to prevent any support being sent to Portugal.

King Ricart of Aragon for his part stakes a claim to Naples and sends an army to pillage the lands of the imperial-allied duke. The subsequent campaign is known as the War of the Sausages, although there is disagreement about the source of the name. Some claim that it stems from the Duke's response to the Aragonese ultimatum - that the dynastic forebear cited by King Ricart was no lord but a sausage-maker, while others say it comes from the foodstuffs brought by the German knights who venture south to help their emperor's ally.

The two rival heirs to the Roman empire launch campaigns on all fronts. Epiphanios moves to snuff out Hungarian influence in the eastern Mediterranean, sending one force to attack a rebel despotate in the Morea and another to faraway Colchis. A third army meanwhile raids the empire's new ally in Serbia, bringing the Greek East into its first direct conflict with the German West in many years. Money and moral support, but not many troops, meanwhile flow north to rebel tribes on the lower Dnieper, who are resisting Russian attempts to expand southward to the Black Sea.

The double-eagle of the West, for its part, sends an army to Bohemia for another campaign against the Hungarians and all their works and allies, while also trying to clip Polish ambitions in Pomerania and crushing French-backed rebels in the Low Countries. But a behemoth like the Empire must necessarily suffer attacks from all sides, and Germans and their allies find themselves fighting on the defensive in Norway, Naples, Serbia, Hungary and Estonia.

The Hungarians have long seen Croatia as a thorn in their side, sometimes allied with the Empire, other times with the Venetians, but always an annoyance. King Batur moves to cauterize the Ulcer of the Adriatic, as it is known in court circles. Having husbanded his resources he sends forth a huge army. One city after another falls, but eventually the passage of time and a hard winter bring it down to the level where the Croatians feel they can meet it in pitched battle on equal terms - although defeat will almost surely spell the fall of their kingdom.

Sweden, constrained on its south by the empire and suffering from the perennial problem of bored nobles looking for trouble, takes up its old quarrel with Norway. The Norwegians send an envoy to the emperor, praising his long commitment to the rights of smaller states - at least those that do not defy him in any way. They leave with his blessing but little else.

England, Venice, France and the Golden Horde are all exhausted by earlier wars and settle in for some years of quiet. England is able to enjoy its peace, focusing on reaching accord between the archbishopric of Canterbury and the Scottish and Irish churches. Venice suffers a bout of internal dissent over the Doge's alleged disregard for Grand Council procedure but the dissidents are cowed by a couple of treason trials. The khan of the Golden Horde, also the sultan of Saray sits in his pavilion by the Volga and takes pleasure in reports from the war between his two rivals, the Emperor of Rum and the prince of Muscovy. France, however, gets no respite, as a Castilian fleet sails up the Loire, burning chateaux, to dissuade French knights from rallying to the assault on their allies in Portugal.

I think I'm going to try to play all of them. There are some armies I want to try out and some players I haven't played against. I am going to do challenges and accept challenges, if before a challenge I feel overwhelmed, I will ask for help.