I hadn’t seen this thread until today. I tried the game for the first time yesterday, my god this thing is complex. It makes me miss on more casual gaming, like starting the A10 from cold and dark…
But the AAR is terrific! Will be keeping updated on Sigurd’s adventures.
Alright… tons happened last night, and I got a little lax on screenshots, but I’ll try and fill in the blanks… so.
By declaring the Kingdom of Denmark I have the option of adopting Scandinavian elective as a succession type, which essentially lets landed vassals vote to nominate the heir from my extended family. I’m not convinced this is what I want, since I’ve been distributing titles to try and craft a succession that won’t fragment everything when I die. I’ve made a few mistakes that make things a bit messy, but it’s still better than potentially having the wrong son/grandson/nephew whatever voted in, instead of relying on the plans I’ve had (though it’s still possible my heir can die before he inherits, in which case BLAH). As it is, he’s going to be on the older side when he takes over unless something happens to me, so who knows. We’ll hold off for now.
In an effort to improve the game of siege tag we’ve been playing, we’re upgrading our holdings to improve the fort level, levies and garrison contingent. It will take more men to wage the siege, and hopefully take longer as well.
My spymaster went and got himself killed, so I had to appoint a new one.
I declared war on Slesvig except I accidentally declared it take to take the Jarldon of Jylland instead (the territory owned by Slesvig) … didn’t realize until I won the war. Total oops and wasted a lot of time, which allowed East Francia to come in and grab parts of it while I was busy conquering extra territory to get the war score up. Super dumb of me. I’ve told my scribes to erase that part from the history books. Alfgeir is getting to be as irritating as Bagsecg and his kin. I’ve started executing the entire Jute line when I take them prisoner unless they pay me good amounts of coin. Then I just capture them again and then execute them. Some might say it’s cruel - I find it rather effective.
The Sigurdr dynasty is so renowned we are considered a House of Warriors (my choice based on what my focus is at the moment… .these are some cool trees). Ignore the tooltip, that’s for another tree. First step of House of Warriors grants extra prowess and knight effectiveness.
Bagsecg II died of internal injuries. At this point, I take less pleasure in it, and more a grim satisfaction. I will take their lands, and ensure there are not enough of them left to cause a problem in the future. The line will die.
We capture some prisoners, one of whom I release in exchange for becoming my concubine in the hopes she’ll birth me some kids with the potential to be a new spymaster. My ally by marriage (one of my kids or something, there’s so many!) wants me to hop on over to the isles and help him take some land from my cousin - obviously we have better things to do and his messenger on his way empty handed.
We’re starting to have a peasant problem in some of the occupied territory in the south (I’m not entirely positive how my son inherited these lands to be honest… .we didn’t conquer them, so I’m guessing his wife or something had a brother who owned them and that brother died and the holdings passed over to us? I don’t know… but I’ll take them). We’re going to have to send our steward over to spread the norse culture to fix this. I estimate a decade worth of work.
Sverker, my long-time coompadre and warriior, has been slain in battle at the age of 64. He was a beast on the battlefield and will be missed.
My daughter… ugh. I don’t know what to do with her. I should probably imprison her and be done with it, but she’s my eldest child and a father must be forgiven his fondness. But my daughter and this damn priest can’t stop falling into bed and popping out babies and it’s driving me bananas.
We finally put a cap on the war against Slesvig / Jylland resulting in… 1 territory gained. Again, this mistake will be wiped from the books. So we disband the army for a short time, and immediately declare war on Jylland proper to take over the entire Jarldom. This shouldn’t take long. Unfortunately, Asbjorn, another of my longtime and successful warriors, is sent to Valhalla in the process.
Now somewhere in here, the gods of ancient warfare decided to play games with me. Jylland had a small territory tucked over in Ireland that I had to go take, and as soon as I did, it cancelled the war with Jylland and gave me the option of ending things or continuing, but now I’d be conquering the Duchy of Ulster. LIKE WHAT? I don’t care about Ulster. It’s too far away. I want Jylland. UGH.
Seriously, the Jutes have to go, they are nothing but a thorn in my side. Anyway we obviously are frustrated and tell Ulster to get in line, promptly dismantling their army, and the army of their ally from somewhere in Wales or something. At this point, I just want to get my army home so I can fix this nonsense. So, disband the army, and voila, declare war on Jylland for the third time. But this time, we will not be denied. The third Danish conquest of Jylland ends in success. And a short time after, so does the third Danish conquest of Slesvig. You have been a persistent foe, House of Jute, but I will not be denied.
!! I need to look into a mechanic here, because I expected I could execute the leaders after I won the war, but it seems they get released from prison… I’m just not sure if I execute them before I enforce demands whether I still get to enforce demands… I think so, but I wasn’t willing to risk a fourth conquest… haha !!
Now my son is getting it on with people he’s not married to (like… take a concubine dude, it’s legal)… I’m not interested in losing a level devotion in the eyes of the faithful because my son has no brains, so he’s off to prison for a tiny bit so I can say I dealt with it. The hit to his own reputation is his problem.
And my daughter has gone and gotten pregnant by that damn priest again.
!! I stopped taking screenshots here, but I think I imprisoned that dumb priest so this stops, and I put someone else in the spot. Or maybe I just felt like it, I’ll have to check !!
In the meantime, I took the final parts of the Jarldom of Slesvig that were owned by East Francia and in doing so, also conquered the duichy of Ostfallen (or something like that). Have some titles to distribute to fix up the fact I look like I’m a power hungry tyrant and ensure the succession. But while I’ mdoing that, some upstart in the west wants Ulster, and now I have to sail my army over there to defend my son Knut …
I’m 50 now… I could live another 20 years, or I could die tomorrow. WHO KNOWS. I’m hoping there is a lot more time with Knud before I have to take on my son’s role, though that will make my son approximately 40-50 when he takes over, so that has it’s own complications, as I won’t have much time necessarily to mess with the succession. I may have to swap to elective to fix things so I get a ruler who will be alive for a while. Right now, Torgeir looks ok. It’s taken me a while to get my own martial skip up so high, and none of my children are even close. That might change when they’re ruler, we’ll have to see. But everyone is decidedly average right now. So much to do!
PS. That Overseer trait means I completed the middle martial lifestyle tree (I’m half done the other 2), and am getting some good control growth bonuses for when I conquer territories (if I’m interpreting it correctly).
If there are parts of these that you guys find interesting and you’re wishing I was putting more focus on or providing more detail on, let me know and I can be sure to slow those parts down and take screenshots. There was a LOT of decision making last night and I could’ve had easily 40 screenshots showing certain parts and explaining my thought process. I’m trying to keep this interesting for everyone while also just telling the story, so knowing what you guys are interested in will help too.
It’s fine as it is. I am greatly enjoying you exploits!
Same here. 
My sister died. It’s traumatizing, but I must be strong and resist the impulse to deflect via coping mechanisms. The war against the Westerners trying to reclaim Ulster is causing me to hire mercenaries to ensure we win.I’m not keen on spending the gold, but I’m less keen on letting it be known I can’t defend my own territory.
My wife has died… It pains me greatly, but I hope she finds peace. She has been a wonderful companion and lover. I suspect she drank herself to death due to the adulterous nature of our children. I should find myself a new wife to assist with ruling the realm. I am tempted to claim Alfgeir’s 18 year old daughter, but I simply cannot lie with a Jute. That I have a grandson of the line is painful enough.
Amidst all the sailing and running through the countryside chasing the westerners army, I apparently had time for a pleasant tour of the countryside… and got lost. And ate the horses. I can’t bring myself to eat another human being. I’ll have to starve.
The battles against the westerners are beginning to take their toll. My champions begin to take severe wounds, despite us handily routing the enemy armies. Our court physician has been slain, and whilst I would love to replace him, I have no time to search for someone qualified while leading an army. Wounds begin to fester.
On the bright side, that adultering fool of a priest managed to get himself slain, so hopefully my daughter will stop contributing illegitimate children to the dynasty. Sadly, his replacement is even worse at being a priest than he was… and I can’t replace him for several years. He might need to have an accident…
But my most skilled champion, Einarr, has also departed this realm. At 66, his age caught up with him. Though I’m sure he would have preferred to be felled in battle, gloriously achieving our goals, his life was full of incredible moments, and he will be remembered as a faithful companion.
The wounds of battle have proven too much for Torgeir, my heir. My carefully laid plans already laid to waste. His son, Knud, will succeed him, and eventually me. We must ensure he is properly educated. Meanwhile, I must focus on the task at hand - the war. The stress of family dying is beginning to get to me.
My nice Grima seems to have been hanging out with my daughter too much, because now she has a lover out of wedlock and is pregnant. Honestly, what did I do to deserve such sinful women in my life?
My second son Gododufdofdurdufd has died. Despite keeping him home following the loss of his arm, the injuries proved to be too much, and I have now outlived my two eldest male children. The mental toll is too much. But I must press on, lest the stress of it all kill me.
Apparently one child with her lover wasn’t enough, Grima got to work on a second even faster that my daughter Mojmira did it to me. I should just disinherit her, seriously. So many criminals in my realm!
Finally having chased down the Moravians and occupied enough of their territory, I force their surrender, earning some nice fame for myself, and a bit of coin to boot. Between the prize money, and the treasure from sacking their holdings, the mercenaries were nearly free.
For my troubles, I have stressed myself beyond all reason. The death of my sons too big an ordeal to overcome, I have died of old age.
Exalted among men. Well respected for my faith. A veteran of 17 wars. King Knud I will be remembered as the Viking to create the Kingdom of Denmark.
Now is the time of King Knud II, his grandson. Still a youth, there is much to learn. The boots are big. An empire awaits. Long may he reign.
The king is dead! Long live the king!
That man has done a lot in his 55 years, no wonder he didn’t live longer.
I admit I was already surprised that so many of his aides lived to over 60, given that life style.
Especially when you consider he really didn’t start until what… 14? So it’s more like 41 years aside from potentially having been a champion in his father’s wars as a youth?
So begins the rule of King Knud II.
Step 1 - marry off my sister. Currently she is acting as my heir. I’m not particularly concerned with alliances as I’m not interested in fending off interest from people having my army win their wars, so we’ll find someone with some talent and hope they pop out some af Sigurdr babies that will be useful to me.
!! There’s currently a bug in the game that processes the appointment of the dynasty head before the appointment of the player successor, so we lost dynasty head for a little bit, but got it back in short order. This is important as I get to control what legacies are selected for the dynasty, and I can also claim titles from my dynasty members if I want !!
Naturally, being a youth and only just come into power, everyone needs to learn to love me. What better way than honouring the most amazing Knud I with a runestone. It is important to honour our ancestors in any case, but my grandfather was an amazing man, and even more deserving.
My sister… oh my sister. Though we are good friends, and I have learned to rely on you, I cannot tolerate your criminal inclinations. You and Styrbjorn shall be arrested, though I might forgive you in time.
While walking with my Marshal Turo, we come across a puppy. I am thrilled to have a companion such as he, and name him Winston. We will be best friends, I’m sure.
Lacking in experience, I am unable to properly expand our borders, and so I send our men out raiding for coin and fame. They are massively successful, and soon my name is being whispered in courts far and wide.
Winston is a constant comfort, and our daily walks will surely be good for my long-term health. I am determined to live a long and fruitful life.
My main aim for the future is to claim the remaining territories missing from our De Jure duchies. Some are easier to come by than others for various reasons (including needing to stomp across the entire continent just to convince some foreign half-wit to give me the county next-door). So first we turn our eyes on Namalfylki for the Chiefdom of Rana, just south of us. This is part of De Jure Nordmark, of which we are missing several chiefdoms, but it is the easiest to take at the moment.
My dog is a real hit with the ladies. We have a bright future together.
The same can’t be said for my cousin Yngvar, who was being groomed for greater things ahead of the death of my father and uncle. We are not even remotely friendly. Such are the trials of being a ruler, I suppose, and now that I have come of age, I will keep an eye on this much as I keep an eye on the rest of the realm.
To that end, we will start by improving our Marshal’s opinion of us. Despite having been my tutor the past couple years, we have differing points of view on many things. I must win him over. My steward will continue to spread the Norse culture into Ostfallen to settle the unrest there.
The King of Frisia is trying to pretend we’ll be friends since he knows he has a couple of my territories, but his silver tongue will get him nowhere, especially now that Rana has been conquered.
I’ve taken my priest as my concubine, and am about to marry my betrothed. We are related, but this was set up by my forebears, and I will respect their decision. Hopefully nothing bad comes of it.
Winston is a wonderful dog, and has taken it upon himself to torment Yngvar on my behalf. He already dislikes me, and defending my dog hasnt’ helped change that. Yngvar continues to pose problems, and I don’t for a minute believe him when he denies plotting against me.
Lacking a proper heir, I am determined to solve this problem as quickly as possible, and set about romancing my wife. While is not entirely receptive at first, I am undeterred and will win her over.
Winston is a total rogue, and seems lack all sense of decorum and loyalty. Others keep finding him and bringing him back to me.
Part of my efforts to keep an eye on Yngvar have resulted in enough experience at intrigue to gain a boost in that department, and I take the opportunity to ensure I am quite fertile. I am young, and require an heir! Or 5.
The vultures come looking for my superior army to dig them out of the hole they’ve climbed into trying to wage war. I decline - I have my own priorities and Obran-Osh is in the wrong direction.
My cousin Kjartan is boring my wife to death at a dance, and while I could step in and save her, I cannot bear the thought of talking to the man and listening to him prattle on. Romance must wait.
The winter has gone well, and it is time for a hunt. While I’m out, Yngvar starts a faction to replace me. Unlikely, dear cousin, unlikely. Watch your step. During the hunt, my vassal Zbigniew is injured, and while I could take the time to help him, we will lose the fox we are hunting if I do so. Onward! Somehow while on this hunt I still have time to romance my wife at home (lol). I catch someone climbing into her chambers from the outside, and I clamber up behind them to intervene! But my wife is a capable woman, and has solved the situation herself. My dedication and concern have won her over, however, and we are now soulmates.
More to come (was a long play session…)
Winston wants to follow me everywhere, but he’s not allowed in the council room. I must focus. Thankfully, my sisters are quite capable of locating the pup when he inevitably takes off.
After much effort, my wife is pregnant! Let all rejoice!
We have finally taken Slesvig and are lacking only the final chiefdom of Jylland to claim the final de jure part of Denmark. Sadly, it belongs to Italy, and I am not prepared to go traipsing off across the countryside just yet.
My wife gives birth to a boy, and suggests naming him after me. Perhaps we will have King Knud III for a few years!
My faith and devotion are to be heralded, and in a moment of weakness, I take too much pride and let it be known far and wide. I must do better in the future.
We turn our sights to the nearby territory of Opplond, hoping to take enough land to slow the spread of the Swedish King. In time, I must take his lands as well, but at present, he is too powerful, and growing still.
My concubine has given me a daughter, and I couldn’t be happier with how things are going. My son is already growing to be a rowdy by, and I have taken him under my tutelage.
I settle a squabble amongst my commanders, and gain their respect.
Our culture has learned Mottes from the neighbouring Saxons, and we can now build mightier walls. Such knowledge has me yearning to learn more, and I study a tome I have recently acquired, attempting to translate its words. The translation goes well, I will reap the benefits of its teachings for many years to come.
My wife is pregnant with our second child. And with joy, a couple months later I can say the same for my concubine. My wife bears me another son, and then becomes pregnant again and bears me a third. We are blessed by the gods, to be sure.
After much time together, Winston has passed away. Thankfully, I spent his final hours with him, comforting him until he drew his last. Be safe in the afterlife, my friend.
The war against Oppland has become irritating to say the least, thanks to their allies in the west who have decided to join in and besiege my holdings in Ireland. I have had to split the army into two forces just to keep up with the constant back and forth. We outnumber them greatly, so the only problem here is distance.
Meanwhile, Count Radoslav of Obotritia has been posturing for independence. I have kept him contained, but should become too troublesome, my spymaster has earned her pay, for I have learned he is a sinful deviant, and can use this secret to keep him in line.
The conquests of my house have brought great glory to the Sigurdr dynasty, and we now benefit from the knowledge that we have noble veins. Future generations will be the pride of Scandinavia.
The final victory for us to be so recognized was the successful conquest of the Duchy of Vestlond, taking the territory from the Jarl of Opplond.
Through new children and further conquests, the Danish kingdom grows. My chancellor has been hard at work and convinced all that the truce between Opplond and Denmark should end.
I have won out in a contest between myself and Jarl Yngvar. The pleasure it brings me is immense, not only that I beat him, but that I can proclaim to others that his opposition’s argument had merit. While we are on better terms, I have not forgotten the trials he has put me through over the years.
I finally committed to claiming the final part of Denmark proper, a long and unnecessarily enduring war for a small territory they could not defend from the first moment. Some people just really need to be convinced. In any case, we plundered the Italian settlements all along the way, so all was not a waste of time.
In the meantime, my women continue to provide me children much like rabbits multiply - the Sirgurdr dynasty will be deep.
As we have many titles now, the more sons there are the better, that they might be granted lands of their own, and my heir might retain proper control of the Kingdom.
All of Denmark should be ruled by Sigurdr.
There’s so much that’s happened, but it’s coming to an end.
I messed up and got greedy, and then some bad luck came to bite me and I’ve nearly lost everything haha. The Sirgurdr dynasty still controls me, but my bloodline is reduced to next to nothing (or will be shortly).
Essentially I declared a war to take a set of duchies to the south, and they bought a bunch of mercenaries making it harder than it should have been. Many of the family died, and then smallpox started to ravage the entire Kingdom. And I mean ravage. Most people of the notable people who contracted it lived, but King Knud II was not one of them. And his heir was slain in the war, so his grandchild took his place (I really don’t think this is how it’s supposed to work… shouldn’t one his other sons assume the mantle of heir???). That kid was 2 years old when Knud II died. I think you can see the problem.
Yngvar and Torgeir were all LOL a 2 year old and they’ve used the air age and claims upon the kingdom and the jarldoms to steal pretty much everything from me since I’m not old enough to put any resistance. I’m losing title after title without being able to do much since I’ve only reached about 5 years old now.
I -could- continue this and try to steal the titles back over the next couple generations, but I think I may move on to another play through. This was a ton of fun. If I hadn’t gotten greedy, it may have turned out differently. But the smallpox… who knows. Might’ve caused the same result anyway. So brutal! I should’ve changed succession types to elective as soon as Knud died, but I wasn’t paying enough attention. Chances are Yngvar or Torgeir would’ve ended up being player heir and while it wouldn’t have been what I wanted lore-wise, they were both capable skill-wise. A 2 year old heir in that situation… not ideal.
Victim of my own success haha.
Well, that’s pretty realistic. In real life there are lots of examples for lines ending in such a way.
Thank you for telling the tale of the rise and fall of house Sigurdr. It was great.
Oh totally.
I may still try and salvage something, but the game is still so new, I’m not sure I want to spend time right now sitting around trying to build back up from a single holding haha. Also I’m not sure the kid I’m playing as right now will actually reach 16 before everyone steals all his titles and he’s left unlanded, which will be game over.
