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.