Winter 1258

The Venetian Empire is now recognised as the most Glorious Empire in the Western World.
Palmerio the Crusader has taken the Rebel Castle in Dolonga and Rheims fell too. The Fall of Marseilles was a very tame affair compared to the previous two battles and I had to wait for the French reinforcements to see the Handgunners in action.
Over in the East the Mongols have retreated back into the Turkish Lands so I will have to plan the next stages like a game of Chess, moving units forward enough that it may provoke or finally catch up with the Mongols but not so that they are in any danger of being swamped by the remaining hordes of Mongols. What does surprise me a lot about the Mongols is the Faction Leader. He has a Command rating of 2 stars and leads half a stack of in-experienced troops. The lowest rating of the other Generals is 6 and not one of their command have less than 3 silver chevrons. The horde that just defeated me only has it's 5 units of Mongol Infantry intact. All but one of the Mongol Foot Archer units and Heavy Cavalry were wiped out and those two units are half strength but have a Gold Chevron of Experience.
Back to the French and I had a lovely surprise when I sent an Assassin after a French Family Member. A completely different Assassin film Sequence. Wow!! And there was me thinking I had seen just about all of the Successful Assassin sequences.

1256 AD - The Mongols : first contact

1st Contact with the Mongols, not quite the way I would have hoped which meant that I came of worst however considering the experience they are running around with I was quite chuffed I managed a close Defeat.
Subsequent waves of Mongols meant that my entire force that was involved in this conflict was subsequently annihilated but that serves me right for not setting the encounter up on my terms.
My Ideal encounter is still a Fort half-filled with Catapult and Archers with Cavalry (and possibly Heavy Infantry) coming in as re-inforcements. This way I should pound the enemy Cavalry element before my Cavalry appear on the Scene. I shouldn't require the infantry really as the Artillery should be safe within the Stockade however I have a few bombards on the Scene and they will need to deploy from the safety of the wall so some Infantry to provide protection from Cavalry Charges would be useful.
So begins the opening Gambit and it remains to be seen if I can mange to set up the next encounters on my own Terms (and win them). Though the Mongols now have more money than me (yes, I'm second in financial terms now) I am aware that they are a horde with no Territory and so can't recruit/retrain more of their own. It was also satisfying to see their Military Rating taking a dive while mine continues to rise. Two of the Stacks of Mongols will prove very hard nuts to crack as they contain both a couple of Trebuchets and Rocket Launchers- both artillery with long range and area effect characteristics. This is all proving to be a very challenging part of this campaign
Capturing 45 Territories was always going to be easily possible on the default setting, though the appearance of the Mongols in Turkey and the Poles subsequently declaring an Alliance with the Turks did slow down this goal quite considerably.
However the Pope has listened to my request to Crusade against the Den of Heathens residing in Paris (otherwise known as French). With Armies besieging both Marseilles and Rheims, ready to assault the walls/gates I will take them and then declare both Armies for the crusade after leaving Garrisons in each city.
I may even declare one of my armies in the east for the Crusade (one the cost of upkeep is free while on crusade, two the movement is doubled so can move the army very quickly from Jeddah up to Caesarea, three the Pope tends to give each unit one point of Experience) but I will have to make sure I take Paris by the time the other army reaches Caesarea otherwise desertions may occur.
Two units of Handgunners will be present at the Storming of Marseille and Bologna is halfway to upgrading its Barracks ready to produce Arquebusiers. Have a couple of Mortars and Ribaults making their ways East and West, some to Paris and some to either Turkey or assist in an assault on Hungary (if the Popes mission to leave the Hungarians alone runs is completed before the artillery reaches the Hungarian Border)
The Poles have allied with the Danes, who then decided to attack me so I have lost my Alliance with the Poles which is a shame. Having said that if I can wipe out the French I should have a better opportunity to make an Alliance with the Scots and it also gives me the opportunity to see if I can woo the Poles back diplomatically before I annihilate the Danes.
Watching a Heretic appear on the border between France and Denmark I resisted the urge to send an Assassin after him as I realised the strategic importance of letting a heretic loose among my enemies. More ammunition for me to help keep the Pope on my side.
Have taken Jeddah with a true Assault the Walls siege, no Spies to help open any gates, and so the last of the Egyptian forces have now turned Rebels. The rebel castle to the south of Cairo is ready to be taken and I'm looking at the possibility of taking either Baghdad and or ... on my way north from both ... and Jeddah, though Baghdad is quite westerly and both towns have a fair no. of Troops. It would however boost my economy infrastructure to have these settlements and wouldn't cause any more friction than already exists with the Rebels (it's a thought and I may even gain some experience for my Troops heading North to fight the Mongols)
Money is a bit tight so one of my Generals with an Architect is currently doing a circuit of Europe to build the Huge walls that are needed for a couple of Cities that require them (10% of 9,600 florins can support quite a few troops or provide extra building work elsewhere)
Noticing and starting to assimilate information about Merchants and how the income for each varies with each commodity and the commodity location. Some of my Top Merchants are earning 90+ Florins and can easily 'acquire' newbie merchants trying to start up trade for other nations. Having said that I was impressed when one of my up and coming Merchants resisted an Acquisition from a Foreign Merchant and actually turned the Tables on them, earning himself the Secure Asset trait in the process.
Having Gunpowder means more of my Assassins are earning the Explosives Ancillary after completing Sabotage missions which now means that what ever they attempt to blow up takes more damage if they are successful.

1240

Some pics to accompany my burgeoning empires glorious history.
MTWIIfaction59V.jpg - 3 Princesses, two of which have/had Subtle knives for personal security. Venice has upgraded to Huge city and is home to the Explorers Guild HQ. Doge Bartolomeo has lost his 'Tyrant' honorific and picked up Cunning after an Assassins successful mission.
By MTWIIfaction61V.jpg he has deterred the Danes from being serious about attacking Staufen and picked up some Brutal Scarring (adding +8 to his hit points)
He then went down to Milan, Bologna and Venice recruiting Spies, Assassins and Merchants as well as implementing a huge building program for some of these cities (including a 25+ turn one for Venice, mainly for Trade enhancements) as well as handing the Crown of Lombardy to a Family member so that it stayed in the Family. The Danes are emerging as the second most powerful Faction and are at war with my Polish Allies, though they sued for peace with me soon after their encounter with Bartolomeo at Staufen.
Took Antioch by MTWIIfaction64V.jpg and so moved my Capital to Thessalonica which caused a huge jump in the Merchant trade from about 300 florins to over 800. My first Heavy Armourer, upgrades to Partial plate is finally built in Budapest and both Governors who have been there subsequently have picked up a Master Smith in their retinue.
MTWIIfaction66V.jpg is after Bartolomeo died and his son took over, treasury is increasing despite construction costs each year of 12,000+ florins
and is just before I took Jerusalem (I have a Knights Hospitallier Chapter in Caesarea and hence the 2 lots of Knights Hospitalier in Antioch -Big black shields with white Cross)
Noticed a sharp increase in Population happiness at the end of that turn.
There is a 15% population happiness from Glory (which has been constant since taking Jerusalem) and a Triumph bonus (starting of at 25%) which has decreased by 5% per turn. Not sure if this is from Defeating Sicily or taking Jerusalem as they both occurred on the same turn.
The Sicilian Capital Palmero has a Sword Smith on it and was also ready to upgrade to Citadel when I got it.
Fought this castle siege on the Battlemap and didn't encounter any problem with the spies opening the gates at all so I felt I've been robbed a bit uptil now as I was believing the 'Bug fix' comments and realised that I may have made an error on my first outing with a castle spy/Spy which lead to me believing the comments about a bug.
At Naples I had to fend of a relieving army and so fought a battle which was weighted strength wise 6:7. It was bloody and had one more General bodyguard Heavy Cavalry unit than I was expecting which wasn't so good. However the Sicilians are no more and the French are now receptive to Diplomacy.
The rumours of Genghis Khan reached the west in 1212 and the Film sequence of their arrival played in 1214.
Was down to Hungary, Egypt and the Rebels being my enemies however by 1216 the Danes couldn't help themselves and attacked Nuremberg. Sallied forth, was helped by a relief force comprising of scattered remnants of different encounter with the Danes. The Archers from this 'relief' force (they were making their way back to some relative safety after their defeat) shot the Generals body guard to pieces and I managed to use the missile units from the City to cause enough damage during this to cause the rest of the army to start moving off, which then became a rout.
Economic warfare isn't enough now for the Danes, either that or they are getting desperate for money and are looking to loot a city or tow
Over on the East one of my spies has spotted two Mongol stacks surrounding the eastern most Turkish town. One stack is FULL, with 3 silver Chevron rated troops (every single one), and the other is 2/3rds full with no experience at all. Not sure if this is all the Mongols or just the first wave. Good Job Caesarea is currently upgrading to Citadel, as are at least two other Castles (Staufen and Palmero)
The road between Jerusalem and Antioch looks a bit like the Appian way with the no. of Crosses being carried about by my priests. Several Imans are trying to make up for lost ground but I'm building Churches as fast as I can to support the priests. A couple of Cardinal are in this crowd making sure that any who lose their faith repent quickly
Implemented an even bigger building program across the Empire when my reserve cash was reaching 80,000 florins and so I'm making a slight loss of about 3,000 florins with a Turnover of 90,000 florins at present.
The Scots and the English have declared war however from what I can see of their Territories the Scots have the upper hand.
The Night Scenery shot was me trying out one of my Generals night fighting ability to see if I could get an actual night fight (rather than a Dusk setting on my previous attempt). Full moon is visible in amongst the clouds (between the flag and the Tree) and the rain made for a very atmospheric battle chasing some rebels of my lands. I realise that my saving of these pics to jpeg format hasn't always been great. However the Full moon in the Battle looked just the same as the Full moon that appeared just above the horizon earlier this week as I made my way to work.