Hardcore Casual

An endless war, shaky moral.

As I last left off, I had lost a battle and had my companions captured. Getting them back was priority one, and in one siege I was able to recover all of them, plus add another castle under Nord control. Unfortunately as soon as I left the castle, it was taken by the Rhodoks; the start of a very tiring trend.

With almost every other kingdom having declared war on the Nords, armies were spread thin and cooperation was lacking. While my personal force (100+ men now) was more than enough to strike down almost any army, there was only so much we could do, and every siege included a ‘downtime’ while the engines were built. Usually while I took one castle, two others fell, and multiple times I had to abandon a siege just to save one of my own holdings.

I reasoned the only real progress to be made was to finish off Swadia, as with them eliminated I could afford a ‘rest’ period and simply protect against the other kingdoms. Eliminating Swadia proved rather difficult however. For starters, two of the remaining castles they owned were siege tower-required ones, meaning a very lengthy (40 hours with Eng 6) prep period. In 40 hours a lot of bad things can happen, and if you abandon the siege, the timer resets. Multiple times I would try to get other lords to help me, and while they initially agreed, they always seemed to wander away before the fighting actually happened. I managed to capture one of the two at one point, but whenever I went to siege the other something always came up.

The other worrying thing was that the other Nord lords were losing the war in the east. First Denim was captured, then it’s surrounding castles. This left Uxkhal and my own city of Suno in Nord control. The Veigar cities of Curaw, Khudan, and Reyvadin had also been lost. In essence, things were almost back to square one in terms of territory control, with the major difference being that other nations controlled the north, rather than the Veigar’s themselves.

The backbreaker came when Swadia dropped a siege on Praven. I moved my forces inside the city to defend, yet then the battle finally got underway it was my 112 against 483 Swadians spread across seven different lords. Their first push was crushed, as my archers rained down on the men climbing the ladder, and those who made it up were quickly cut down on the walls. However, as wave after wave kept coming, my archers were slowly picked off the walls (or simply ran out of ammo), and the ladder defenders were getting thinned out. Each time the ladder got cleared, I hoped that was the final wave, yet every time another came, with fresh archers to pepper us and more men to throw against us. Ultimately I was the last man standing, cutting down enemy after enemy until I was surrounded and defeated yet again.

Not only had my companions been captured once again, but Swadia also managed to retake its capital city. At this point the war had broken spirits, and a retreat back to the Nords original home seemed inevitable.

(At this point I retired the character)

I’m sure I could have recovered and continued, but I’ve opted instead to stop here and go all out with the Floris mod pack for the next game. The biggest killer was the lack of diplomatic options and any real way to influence my allies. Once a kingdom reaches a certain size, there is only so much you can do, and without help, it’s very slow going.

The mod pack fixes many of these issues, along with generally expanding the game overall with more items, more/different units, and a host of other additions. This time, rather than joining an existing kingdom, the goal will be to start small and slowly build up wealth and power through mercenary work. Then, when the opportunity presents itself, start my own kingdom and see how that goes. With that in mind I’ll try to stay friendly to all other lords, and only pick on one nation in terms of combat and plunder.

I won’t be doing story-style write-ups, but should something of particular interest happen, I’ll be sure to mention it. This little mini-series has been enjoyable to write however, so perhaps I’ll do another in the future. If I do, I think I’d like to go all out and include more detailed week-to-week progression, along with screenshots and other info. For now though, I’ll just play out the next game and get a feel for what the Floris pack brings.

The war with Swadia has been an interesting one. Our alpha strike on them was devastating, as we took Curaw and Denin almost immediately (I sieged Denim myself, and was later awarded the city). We also took various castles and their associated villages. They were shortly cleared from the north. They also suffered heavy losses in a number of large (300+ soldiers) open-field battles, and collectively we captured a half-dozen or so of their lords.

I captured the king of Swadia myself when his 200 or so lesser-trained army came across my 100+ elite force. At the start of the battle I positioned my archer on a hill overlook the rest of the field, with my infantry hidden behind and my cavalry to the side. The king slowly moved his forces towards us, but I had my archers hold their fire until the enemy was well within range to conserve ammo. As the king did not do the same, most of his early fire missed, and I believe towards the end of the ranged exchange some of his forced could no longer fire.

As he finally advanced, he was peppered with arrows and bolts, and then I had my infantry charge. As the two meet, myself and the cavalry came in from the side, crushing his weakened melee units and then turning to make quick work of his remaining ranged force. His reinforcements would arrive only to find the initial force decimated, and they would soon break and attempt to flee. Most did not make it, including the king himself. With their leader locked away in a dungeon, Swadia was battered and ready for elimination.

Unfortunately right after this battle the Khergit Khanate declared war on us. Due to most of our forced being positioned near the middle of the map, their strike from the west was meet with little resistance, and along with some castles, they successfully sieged the city of Khudan from me. The city of Reyvadin also fell, and along with it my hamlet Ulburban.

What followed was a half-hearted defense, were we would engage with the Khans long enough to push them back, but could never muster enough power to take back significant territory. Whenever a force was raised, some Swadian lord would lay siege to something, forcing me to return to the center to deal with them. This stalled war would continue until the Sarranids declared war on the Khans, which resulted in their attention being split and allowing us to return our focus to Swadia.

As I was training up a new force to reclaim Khudan, our king declared a truce with the Khans, meaning their territory was temporarily safe from our assaults. While their presence in the north was unfortunate, it would at least allow us to return our full focus to Swadia.

I gathered two lords and together we sieged the city of Suno. Suno and Denin are perhaps the two most centrally located cities, and due to this they are economic powerhouses. I already owned Denin, and I wanted Suno. The siege itself was rather easy, as the defense was light and my 30+ Nord Huscarls made short work of them; first using their throwing axes to clear the walls, then storming up the siege ladders protected by their giant shields. En-mass, they are a very difficult force to stop, and they chew up lesser units with ease.

I was shortly awarded Suno, but it proved very difficult to control. Whenever I would travel outside, some Swadian lord would lay siege to it and force me to return. This back and forth, cat and mouse game meant I could not push further or assist in other conquests. To further complicate matters, the kingdom of Rhodoks declared war on us, and they picked the area around Denin to focus on, quickly capturing a castle right next to the city. As I could not afford to lose Denin, I spent the next week or so doing nothing but traveling back and forth between the two cities, breaking up one siege after another. While always successful in combat, the casualties started to pile up, and I never got a chance to visit some villages to recruit fresh troops.

One battle in particular was extremely costly. Just outside Denin, I fought a large force of Rhodok lords and ended up having more than half my force killed, with most of the casualties being expensive elite units. The garrison in Denin was getting weak, and contained a mixed collection of mercenaries and various soldiers from other kingdoms; certainly not the building blocks for a solid offensive force. With some desperation, I attempted to venture back towards Nord lands and quickly recruit from some of the villages. I went out with just a few elite mounted units and my companions, and soon had over 50 fresh recruits headed back to Denin.

Unfortunately we got caught by a strong Swadian force, and the fight did not go well. The fresh recruits were butchered, and one by one my companions were swarmed and taken down. With no escape, I took as many as I could, but soon my horse was shot out from under me, and then it was only a matter of time before I too was surrounded. Captured, we were taken to a nearby Swadian castle and put in the dungeon.

Luckily during this time the other Nord lords protected both Suno and Denin, and when I finally escaped I was able to head to Suno and pull its garrison out. Only three of my eleven companions made it out with me, and the rest were still locked up.

With a force gathered, it was time for a rescue.