I had the usual share of minor feudal conflicts where my allies called me. I had an adventurer attack me. I lowered feudal taxes, and instead forces Pisa and Venice to give me tribute as their overlord.
Once Kaiser died, his disconnected possessions it Italy all seceded, and me and Pope both tried to get some of that diplomatically. The new Kaiser was my nephew, so our relations definitely improved.
One of my vassals somehow got herself a lot of land in France, so I started a small war to connect that.
In 1152 we heard rumors of great Mongol Horde with 126k horsemen. They started by invading China, and the Steppes simultaneously.
The Pope called the third crusade, and that was the dumbest one possible - on high chief of Finland with his 6 counties, 5 of them tribal. It was like the 4th target in the region, winh kingdom of Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania being far better targets. And none of them even close to something half-decent like Syria or Iraq, or even India.
Well, I was not going to miss the action, and inevitable rewards, so I had my troops on the boats ready to land the day it started. I ended up having 72% participation, and my kinsman Manfred got to be a king of this worthless frozen wasteland. I had plenty of gold, and had full intention of spending it to build up the realm just like my father did.
Oh and due to dynastic stupidily, heir to kingdom of Egypt, Jerusalem, and Arabia - is a Sunni Turk. So all those Catholic gains might get reverted really quickly (unless his vassals depose him, or succession gets fixed by stab in a back).
There is nobody who can stop the Mongols from reaching our borders. Ghaznavids, Georgia, Hungary, and Croatia can levy 10k troops each, of much lower quality than the Mongols, so they'll get swept aside in a single battle.
HRE, Arles, and Egypt can maybe do 20k-30k each, and supplement it with some mercs and holy orders. U-Tsang can do 25k in mountains, and Indians can offer some resistance as well, so if the Mongols somehow go South there's a chance they'll burn through most of their troops by the time they conquer India.
If Pope didn't waste Third Crusade on some minor high chief, we could maybe gather whole Christendom to take a stand around Ruthenia or Georgia, but next crusade is very far away - also I need to ask Pope for the target, instead of letting him choose.
Then again, epic AI stupidiy is always a distinct possibility.
No comments:
Post a Comment