So /pol/, I've been playing Crusader Kings for the last couple hours and I have conquered many territories for the Byzantine Empire.
>The story:
First, I did not begin as the emperor, but as the Argyros family, that ruled over Athens. As a loyalist, I crushed the enemies of the Doukas family and helped them to stop the Seljuks, but they were stupid and kept losing wars, over and over again. Eventually we had lost all of Anatolia but Abydos, Nikomedia and Trebizond. The situation was looking really ugly, and some vassals took advantage of it to break free.
>Pic related is how low the Empire went. Orange is the Seljuk Empire. Lighter Purple is my demesne (part of Byzantine Empire but ruled by me)
>Continue?
yes its always nice to see an interesting and succesful playthrough of an paradox game
After all the losses the Emperor got depressed and commited suicide.
His heir, Michael, inherited the throne. After that, Michael was killed in battle with the Seljuks. His son Andronikos became Emperor and was forced to accept a new unfair peace, which made Cyprus and all of the Byzantine possessions in Anatolia with exception of Trebizond part of the Seljuk Empire. Afterwards, he faced a rebellion and was forced to accept a new system, which completely changed the face of the empire - the most prestigious male vassal would now inherit everything.
>From now on, pic will show the empire at the end of the events described.
>>70499472
rip trabizond
The Doukas child Andronikos died mysteriously only a couple months later and the most prestigious vassal, the Prince of the Aegean Islands, a noble by the name of Matthaios Phokas, became the new Emperor. A cruel man, he declared war on the Seljuks and, against all odds, he destroyed the Seljuk army and imprisoned Sultan Dogan I of the Seljuks. The Sultan was forced to accept a humiliating peace which returned most of the Aegean Coast back to the Empire. After that, Matthaios I looked at the west, and he saw the traitor family Choumnos, who had broke free during the fall of the Doukas. They ruled over Dyrrhacion, nowadays known as Albania. Matthaios issued a war declaration, asked for his vassals for banners, and destroyed the Choumnos in the battlefield. He blinded and then castrated the lord, but the heirs were able to flee to another Byzantine state that had broke free, the Principality of Tyrnovo (west Bulgaria). Matthaios, in anger, declared war against Tyrnovo, destroyed them in the battlefield, and did the same to their lord.
Is anyone reading this?
>>70499633
just type it up anyway and use it to shitpost a stupid thread when the time comes
Matthaios I however, due to his cruel nature, started to upset and make the faction of the Dukes worried about his popularity and power. He pulled the move that sparkled the civil war - he abolished the elective succession, and named his son the heir of the Byzantine Empire. They tried to assassinate him but were discovered, and when he tried to imprison them, they declared independence. I stood with Matthaios in his struggle and invaded one of the rebelling factions, the Principality of Achaea.
>Red represents rebelling factions
>>70499633
I am
t. fellow autismo
I crossed the border and started to siege the capital of the Principality, Korinthos. Prince Adrianus Paleologus of Achaea met me in battle to lift the siege, but I defeated him. After a month, the siege of Korinthos ended, and I marched against the last Achaean province. The Achaean army was nowhere to be seen. After a quick siege, I annexed the Principality, and then invaded Crete with support from the Emperor's forces and the forces of the Count of Smyrna. I grew enormous in size and became the leading Prince in the faction of the Princes. Soon afterwards we fought a small war for the Principality of Cherson in Crimea and the Empire grew a bit more.
we was romans an shit
For the next 6 years, the Empire was at peace. My Georgian wife gave me 4 beautiful sons, one of them who identified more as a Georgian than a Greek. I gave my first son and my second son provinces to rule as vassals of mine, and obtained prestige. Matthaios started to get old and frequently sick, and eventually he was struck with a strong pneumonia. He would die of it 4 months later, and his son Isaakios would become the emperor. He was weak-willed and a coward, and I easily forced him to change back the laws of succession to elective, decision that made me the apparent heir. Isaakios's brother Ioannes was no longer the heir to the throne, and rebelled against his brother for changing the succession laws. I crushed Ioannes and gave his principality (located in the Aegean Islands) to my third son, Bagrat, who identified as Georgian. And some weeks later, Isaakios *mysteriously* fell out of a bridge and got severely wounded out of it. It was only a matter of time before I became the emperor of Byzantium.
keep posting pls
im reading for at least 10 more minutes while i wait to shitpost the new trump threads
This is the most fucking autistic thing I have read tonight.
I love it
>>70500313
((mere coincidence))
Eventually he died, and I became the new Emperor. The Seljuks had been going from bad to worse, as Dogan died and his son identified more as an Armenian than a turk (his mother was Armenian). The vassals were not happy to serve under an Armenian and began to declare independence. I took advantage of it and invaded the Seljuks, occupying much of Anatolia forcing upon the young sultan Adnan a peace that connected Trebizond back into my Anatolian provinces.
The rest of the Seljuk Empire quickly fell, with the remaining loyal provinces being too spread across. I started to deal with some provinces that had been converted to Islam in Anatolia, and then set my eyes to the North.
>From now on, Purple provinces are the one owned by my vassals who are part of the Byzantine Empire, and light purple are provinces owned directly by me.
>>70500374
It's not a story I made up, that's how my campaign in Crusader Kings II ended up. It's a game you can buy and play, and yes, it's pretty autistic. There is even a chance you can get a lesbian daughter.
>>70500618
No, I play they game all the time and love being an autist in it.
I just think that posting your entire campaign on pol is very autistic.
Good thing I love high-quality autism
By the time I started to look for northern lands to conquer, Georgia had already been under Cuman sovereignity for at least 20 years. I did not see when I first attacked it, but the Cuman Empire owned many lands in Ukraine and Russia. I quickly destroyed the small armies in the Caucasus, but in the north the cumans went apeshit with my crimean possessions. I had to take units from Constantinople to fight in Crimea, and once I was done with the Caucasus, I sent units to reinforce the battle there. The Cuman Empire accepted peace losing many lands, and the Black Sea was almost completely owned by me. I also took some
time to destroy weak Turkish states (remains of the Seljuk Empire) that were laying around in Anatolia. Since my demesne was too big, I started to make vassals (part of the Byzantine Empire) in some of the provinces I controlled directly.
did you guys buy the jew expansion 4 israel shekeling?
>>70500781
>Byzantine Ukraine
WEW LAD, looking for alternate farming sources?
>>70500856
>he pays for Paracuck dlc
>>70500856
Sons of Abraham? I didn't, but I was looking forward to. Is it bad?
(Last part) I led my armies once again, this time I invaded Italy. It was ruled over by the norman King of Sicily, Guillaume de Hauteville. I landed in Lecce while my heir landed his forces in Reggio, and we pushed north; sieging Bari for 6 months. Then, the worse: a battle for Napoli caused me to get severely wounded. Despite that, Guillaume accepted peace and all of the greek-speaking areas of Southern Italy returned to the Empire. Fearing that I would die, I changed the policy of the Empire to make sure my heir would take power once I died. Nobody important objected it, since most of my vassals were actually my sons and my grandsons, and that would benefit them in the line of succession.
And at last, at the age of 68, Emperor Nikephoros I Argyros died, receiving the name of "Nikephoros the Conqueror" and beatified by the Patriarch of Constantinople. My son, Nikephoros II, would be crowned the following month Emperor of Byzantium. Now, the rest I still have to play.
>>70500934
M8 just go to /gsg/ on the videogame general board. They have an archive in the first post that has all the DLC for free
>>70499325
More autism pls
>>70501240
>>70501002
keep going
i really wanna see an ottoman caucasus and ukraine, as well as even further east
>>70501281
oops i meant byzantine xDDD
>>70501240
>tfw you've only been playing 50 in-game years and you were able to mine this much content out of such a short span of time
>>70501281
I could play the rest of the game, but that would probably take 12+ hours and it's 3:10 AM here. Huezilians also need sleep.
>>70501530
sleep tight, crusader
>>70501339
I'm pretty impressed 2bh
Reminds me of my first and most eventful playthrough where I became King of Frisia as a duke of Holland in the Charlememe start. CK2 is truly a magical game.
>>70499325
It's so triggering how perfect Constantinople's location is for a city. T*rks don't deserve it.
top autism
>>70501530
>>70501339
This is awesome- you should compile your entire campaign and put it on a tt, and then make a new "Pol-Approved Games" thread and post it.
>>70503268
"Pol-Approved Games" turns into a "/GSG/ Grand Strategy General- /Pol/ Edition" thread
I can dig it
Nice anon.
The funnest games are when they are really hard initially, then domination later.
