Chapter 31: The Holy Grail
"So," asked Al-Rahman to a group of advisors he was meeting with, "What's the plan to attack Jerusalem?"
The date was November 29, 1251, just as they were about to finish business and wait for other people to do stuff in the next 3-year period, known colloquially as the "IBT" for some reason. They knew they would have to soon start building Galleys, and probably upgrade their military a bit to give them the most advanced soldiers and equipment possible, and enough to take Jerusalem and then some. It would probably have to be a lot, as evidenced by how much trouble the Byzantines were having taking the city. The only question was whether the Crown of Thorns was enough, or whether they should go after Burgundy's Shroud of Turin, Germany's Piece of the True Cross, or England's Holy Grail first, or perhaps just fight some surrounding nations for glory, money, and lulz.
Attacking Germany was quickly deemed out of the question- they found it likely the Turks still had the German Relic, and even if they didn't, it would probably take too much time to find it, with how large and powerful the Germans were. Attacking England would have been slightly easier in that respect, but also harder due to the inherent difficulty in getting Cordovan troops to the British Isles and probable lack of value it would be to them. And Burgundy, although an easy target, was highly unlikely to still have theirs.
Still, it was worth a shot; They'd go send some soldiers into Italy and the Netherlands to see if they still had it, and even if they didn't, it was probably better that the Cordovans get Marseilles than anyone else did. So, it was decided: They'd attack Burgundy to see what they could do, until they were destroyed, and also grab the Celtic city of Brittany while they were at it, then sign a peace treaty with the Celts. If nothing else could be gained, then they would set sail for the Holy Land and hope for the best.
1252 seemed to be the start of a period in which the nations of Europe decided to declare slightly less war than they had been doing, and sign slightly more peace treaties. There was only one that year: The Fatimids got Poland to declare war on Sweden.
A bit later, to the surprise of nobody, Orkney was destroyed by the Celtic Archers outside the city.
This was followed shortly thereafter of the news of a lot of other cities falling. It seems Europeans decided to compensate for not declaring any new wars by fighting their old ones that much more. Poland and Denmark continued their conquest of the Kievan Rus, taking the cities of Beloozero, just to the North of the rest of Polish-occupied Kiev, and Pereyaslavl, the last major city in Kiev's capital region aside from Kiev, respectively. Kiev is expected to not hold out much longer.
Bulgaria captured Naples, putting them just one city away from Rome.
And lastly, the city of Alexandria, in Abbasid Egypt, was captured, by none other than... the Danish, who for some reason had soldiers there.
To finish off the year, the Swedes built a city near where Nantes and Chartres, on the West coast of what was France, were. Cordovans find this slightly annoying, but not annoying enough to fight over.
However, it was in such a location that getting the Swedes to let them pass through it to get to Brittany would probably be helpful, if not vital. So, in 1254, the Cordovan embassy was opened in Sigtuna, the capital of Sweden, and a Right of Passage between the two countries was signed soon after.
While they were at it, they decided to sign embassies in some other countries they still didn't have one in: Pliska, the Bulgar capital, Pest, the Magyar capital, and, just because Eastern European countries like to have capitals starting with the letter P, Poznan, capital of Poland.
This gave the Cordovans an embassy in every European nation except the Celts, who they were at war with, and Norwegians, who they believed weren't long for this world. Or maybe not: The new diplomatic info these new embassies gave them showed that Sweden wasn't at war with them anymore, giving them one less enemy that was trying to kill them, and the only other ones that would be likely to cause their deaths, the Danes, didn't seem to care much, despite being at war with them.
The new diplomatic info also revealed that Poland and the Magyars were fighting a war, for all the interestingness that was.
Speaking of that, the Norwegians got one step closer to being saved in 1255, when they signed a peace treaty with Germany, probably the second biggest threat to them. The only ones then at war with them were the Magyars, who weren't much of a threat by virtue of lacking a coastline (aside from the Black Sea, which they couldn't get out of, and that one city in Finland that probably couldn't be used to invade anything), the Abbasids, who had their own problems to deal with, and the aforementioned Danes who didn't care much.
In addition, the Celts joined the crusade against the Abbasids, the Bulgarians signed peace with Poland, and, perhaps most interesting, the Byzantines convinced Turkey to declare war on Kiev again, hastening their destruction.
In 1257, the mostly-healed Cordovan army set out to take Brittany, with the not-quite-healed parts deciding to take Marseilles when they healed. Al-Mansur's army and a few Ansars were more than enough, but they suffered a couple of setbacks in the form of an idiotic commander thinking they could move farther than they could, and accidentally ordering Ansars to destroy a road in the no-man's land of Central France. (I was spam-clicking a stack of workers to mine something, then it shifted to an Ansar on a road, and I accidentally clicked "Pillage"... *facepalm*)
Norway further escaped the hole they were in in 1258 by signing a peace treaty with the Magyars, leaving them only two wars left to deal with, and Germany unexpectedly signed a peace treaty with Burgundy, opting not to capture the last few cities they could easily get. More for Cordova and Bulgaria, I guess.
A bit later, Denmark captured the Fatimid city of Helsinki in Morocco, formerly a Swedish colony, prompting many to ask why they had so many soldiers in the Mediterranean that would be put to far better use killing Norway or Kiev.
Despite the earlier setbacks, Al-Mansur's Army and the rest of the Ansars reached Brittany as planned in 1260. The city had only two units of Spearmen to defend itself with. Al-Mansur's army was all that was really needed in that situation to kill them both.
At the same time, the rest of the army was preparing to attack Burgundy. After cancelling the ROP agreement with them and signing new ones with Germany and Bulgaria so they could get through, it was time to fight. Just so they could get something out of it, they signed an agreement with the Byzantines to get some money and Silks for declaring war on Burgundy.
Sadly, most of them were poorly positioned for this, and due to terrain, Burgundian cultural influence, and most of the Ansars being elsewhere, only Al-Mutamin and El Cid's armies could attack that year. Al-Mutamin's army killed 2 Archers in the region around Orleans and Angers that were mildly threatening and because they could, and El Cid's army killed one of the Spearmen in Marseilles. But there would be plenty available to attack later, especially with the group of Assassins that was discreetly moved outside the city.
Noticing the military alliance Cordova had signed with the Byzantines, the Bulgarians seemed under the impression that they'd also want to sign one with them, against Denmark, in 1261. How completely wrong. The Magyars declared war on the Turks, putting them at war with all of their neighbors except the Byzantines, who also got the Magyars to declare war on the Burgundians.
The Bulgarians, a bit upset about Cordova not declaring war on Denmark, became happy again after they captured Rome shortly afterward, putting one of the most important cities in Europe in their hands, and the spiritual center of Western Christianity in the hands of a country that was mostly Eastern Orthodox. That could prove to be... interesting, or maybe not.
In other news, the Fatimids captured Dankirke, the Danish colony in Africa that wasn't on the coast, the Turks captured Chernigov, Kiev, giving them a border with Polish-occupied Kiev, and Germany settled the gap in Eastern France where Rheims once was.
The Assassins stationed outside Marseilles in 1263 decided that killing all 3 of the remaining Spearmen garrisons in the city would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. They were right, and it was also a fun way to bring the city into the hands of Cordova.
To the north, Al-Mutamin & Company advanced towards Ghent, the closest Burgundian city in the Netherlands. They were too far away to do much to it yet, but Al-Mutamin's army killed one of the Spearmen units in the city.
In what would at the time seem to be an unimportant development, Cordova entered into peace negotiations with the Celts. They no longer had any reason to fight each other. It would probably not be anything of importance, just a "The Celts give Cordova, who kind of won, something for peace" thing. And yet it would be one of the most important events of the next several decades, simply because the Celts agreed to give the city of Strathclyde, on the border between them and England, to Cordova, probably just to screw with England.
At first, the Cordovans thought nothing of the city. It was too far away from them and close to English and Celtic cities to be of any value to them at all. They at first just planned to give it to England to screw with the Celts, until they heard a very interesting report: The English Relic, the Holy Grail, was being carried by a unit of Pikemen in the area, just outside the Celtic capital of Dalriada, not defended by anything else. It was entirely possible they might be able to grab it out from under the noses of both the English and the Celts.
But it wouldn't be easy. They had no easy way of getting the soldiers they already had there, so they'd have to rush-build everything in Strathclyde. Even that would be difficult: There wasn't a Harbor anywhere on the British Isles, preventing them from accessing the resources they had in Southwestern Europe. The only thing they could build of any real strength were Assassins. Even then, it would still be difficult: They'd have to take the grail, then escape with it. They knew a method of doing that by giving a city away, but they'd need enough movement points to get someone with the Grail back into the city to do that. It would take several years to accomplish this, and the right amount of luck.
Back at Ghent, it seemed the Cordovans weren't the only ones who wanted it. Swedish Berzerkers attacked the city from the sea, killing the last remaining Spearmen unit in it to take the city for Sweden.
In matters far more interesting to Cordova, the Celts and English did battle in the area around Strathclyde. A large number of Celtic units moved themselves to the Hill to the Southwest of Strathclyde, which was almost immediately attacked by a unit of English Crusaders, who killed one of the Spearmen units in the Celtic stack. And then came the move that surprised almost everyone.
The English Pikemen that held the grail attacked Dalriada.
And they were killed by the defenders, leaving the Grail just lying out there in the middle of the Scottish Highlands.
And yet, the Cordovans couldn't take it.
They'd managed to, at great expense, rush the training of an Assassin, who was ready by 1266 to attack, but only one. He could go grab the Grail easily, of course, but that "attack" would take too long for that year and use up his movement, allowing the English to counterattack and grab Strathclyde and the relic back before they could do anything about it. So they could do nothing but wait and try to rush more units for later and let the Celts grab it.
Back on the mainland, they started going after the Burgundian Archers near Ghent and Aix-La-Chapelle in preparation to attack the city. Two Ansars and Al-Mutamin's army killed 3 units of them. Not finished, Al-Mutamin's army went on to kill one of the units of Spearmen defending Aix-La-Chapelle, and then, finding himself too injured to continue, got two more Ansars to kill two more units of Spearmen in the city- only to find more, and nobody else capable of killing them that year, except his army, which was too injured to risk it. It would stand for another few years.
Meanwhile, the city of Moron was built in Central France, to close the gap between Cordovan-controlled cities and grab the French Iron sources.
Exactly as predicted, the Celts moved to grab the Holy Grail in 1267, even if all they could muster for the job was a unit of Spearmen and another of Archers. An Archer would later be tasked with picking it up.
The Abbasids acknowledged their weakness and inability to get Alexandria back by signing peace with Denmark, and the Byzantines told Norway they should declare war on Kiev, although it's doubtful either could actually harm the other.
The Danes also built a city in what used to be Northern France, probably to make up for losing the city of Helsinki back to the Fatimids, and the Abbasids saw another of their cities burned by probably the Byzantines- specifically, Aleppo, just to the Northeast of Baghdad.
Most of the things that happened in Cordova in 1269 related to the war against Burgundy. The soldiers sent to Italy to see if Burgundy still had the Shroud there complained about the lack of roads there and Bulgarian soldiers constantly getting in their way, and the Ansars capable of attacking Aix-La-Chapelle did so, killing the final unit of Spearmen in the city that had troubled the Cordovans 3 years ago just by existing.
Another Ansar, just because, decided to take up residence on the hill near Dorestad, home of the final Burgundian King.
Back in Strathclyde, it was decided to rush a unit of Spearmen, seeing as how Assassins were so horrible at defense, for both defending the city and the Grail, should they be able to get it.
Cordovans living near the edge of the Strait of Gibraltar in 1270 saw across the Strait that massive numbers of Fatimid soldiers were massing outside Aarhus, the last remaining Danish city in Africa. It wouldn't be Danish for much longer.
At Dorestad, a unit of Archers attacked the Ansars on the hill outside of the city, doing enough damage to make them retreat back into Cordovan-controlled territory, and to some surprise, one of the units of Spearmen in the city then attacked the Ansars and killed them. It was probably the only way they were going to kill them, after all. They were soon partially avenged by Swedish Berzerkers, who killed the Archers, but the Spearmen remained not dead for a little bit longer.
The Burgundians seemed as determined as the Norwegians to somehow escape death that year, asking for peace treaties with England, Cordova, and the Byzantines. England and the Byzantines agreed to the treaties (costing me my silks, god damn you Burgundy!), but Cordova, obviously, didn't. Also, Poland declared war on Turkey, putting the Turks at war with not only all their non-Byzantine neighbors but a good deal of their neighbors' neighbors.
And the Burgundians were certainly in trouble- Verdun, on the southern tip of Italy, was captured by Bulgaria, leaving them with only two cities left. Speaking of doomed countries, Mosul, an Abbasid city a bit to the Northeast of where Aleppo was, was burned.
Grailwatch, the committee dedicated to watching the Holy Grail's movements, reported that it was being carried by two units of Archers and one of Spearmen, and located just to the Southwest of Strathclyde as of 1270, making everyone wonder why both the English and Celts decided to attack with the units carrying it. It's not like the English couldn't attack: Although the Grailstack wasn't attacked, several other Celtic Spearmen units were killed by Englishmen, most of them assumed to be Crusaders.
And, finally, Cordovan scientists finished work on a technology for better, more professional armies and weapons, letting them upgrade their Pikemen and Spearmen again, to Swiss Mercenaries. (3/5/1) Apparently, all European Professional Soldiers were from Switzerland.
Al-Mansur's army, having healed a while ago and come to the Netherlands to aid the Cordovan invasion, reached the frontlines in 1272 and killed two Spearmen randomly hanging around in the area, including the one that had killed the Ansars a few years earlier. To the south, El Cid's Army was finally close to reaching Antwerp, the only other city Burgundy still controlled, although Bulgaria was still very much in their way.
The Fatimid soldiers spotted across the strait of Gibraltar easily overwhelmed Aarhus in 1273, leaving them with no more annoying Viking colonies to deal with. From what little of the battle the Cordovans could see, there were 3 defensive units in Aarhus, and the Fatimids took only one of Swordsmen as casualties in the battle. They didn't even need any of their more powerful Ansar Warriors, Archers and Swordsmen were all that was necessary.
In a move that many Cordovans lamented, Bulgaria captured Antwerp, giving them complete control of Italy. It was now certain that Burgundy lost their relic a long time ago, to either Germany or Bulgaria.
And those were far from the only cities to fall. Poland captured Gyor, an isolated Magyar city near the Western Turkish border, England captured Gwynedd, in Wales, from the Celts, and New Medina, a now-isolated Abbasid city that was the farthest-North city they had, was burned. Al-Rahman wonders why the Byzantines burn all of the cities they conquer.
But the Abbasids were the latest to join the "Doomed nations who want peace treaties" club, signing one with fellow doomed country Norway and another with the not-at-all-doomed Magyars.
The Swedish Berzerker near Dorestad attacked the city. The brave Spearmen defending it were able to fight him off and gloat about it to Sweden.
Grailwatch report: The Celts continue forward and suicidal with the Grail, for some reason.
The English, seizing the opportunity, attacked. English Knights did battle with Celtic Archers near Strathclyde, injuring them a bit before retreating, and Crusaders finished the job. Another unit of Crusaders killed a unit of Celtic Spearmen further to the South, and then they attacked the Grailstack itself. A combined force of Knights, Crusaders, and Pikemen attacked the Spearmen and 2 units of Archers, in that order, and then another Pikemen moved into cover it. There were now 2 units of Pikemen defending the Grail, and Cordova only had a unit of Assassins and another of Spearmen in Strathclyde to attack with. Once again, they were one unit short of being able to attack the Grail and escape with it. Not that it would help: The Grail was in English territory, so they couldn't use the roads to escape. They really needed a harbor.
In better news, Seville finally finished work on a great form of Medicine that would help Cordovan soldiers heal in foreign territory.
For a while, the Turks had knowledge of the technology of Exchequer, which Cordova wanted for economic reasons, but couldn't get out of them for the technology of Invention. Maybe selling them Invention, and then Professional Armies, would work? Maybe, maybe not, but it was worth a try, and so they tried it in 1275.
They quickly found that no, Turkey wasn't willing to trade Exchequer for Professional Armies, or anything else. Oh well, it was worth a try, and at least they got quite a bit of money out of it.
With Antwerp taken and all of the Cordovan army healed, they no longer had any reason not to just attack Dorestad and end Burgundy for good. And so they did. The city put up a great defense, having more units than they were thought capable of supporting at that point, but it didn't help them. Al-Mansur's army killed all 3 of the full-Strength Spearmen defending it, and then Al-Mutamin's killed the recently rushed Spearmen unit, an Archer unit, and a Swordsmen unit from back when they still had Iron. All that was left was to kill King Philip, last ruler of Burgundy and only thing standing between it and total destruction. He put up such a great fight, nearly defeating the unit of Ansars that killed him, that they couldn't help but feel impressed at how badass he was, but he wasn't quite that strong, and so, Burgundy fell.
Hoping it would benefit them in their attempt to get the Grail, the Cordovans decided to sign an ROP with the Celts. To do this, they first needed to build an embassy in Dalriada.
It had a lot of workers and Spearmen in it, and would be able to hold out for a brief assault against England, but not forever. Perhaps this was good enough to be able to convince the Celts to give one of the workers to Cordova in the Right of Passage deal, or maybe they just wanted the ROP that much.
The Celts quickly put it to good use, sending a unit of Archers in 1276 to kill some English Knights they otherwise couldn't have reached. They were later killed by English Pikemen, but oh well.
It was a surprisingly uneventful year compared to recent ones. Sweden and Poland ended the war they hadn't been fighting for 25 years, and England signed peace with the Abbasids, who they'd likely never fight, being on opposite corners of the map, and all.
Turkey's ever-increasing size increased more, as they captured the Danish-occupied Kievan city of Pereyaslavl, and the Magyar city of Mohacs near Crimea, cutting them off from their cities on the Black Sea.
Yet again, in 1278, the Cordovans had gotten another unit, this time of Longbowmen, (6/1/1 here) rushed in Strathclyde. Yet again, it couldn't help, as the Grail was covered by 2 units of Pikemen and one of Crusaders, and it was retreating back into England anyway to heal.
The Cordovans decided that Aix-La-Chapelle was useless to them, and they wanted to quickly bring all of their units back to Cordova quickly, so they just gave it to Germany.
As to why they wished to bring them home quickly: Well, for one thing, just because, and for another thing, because they were planning to head to Jerusalem soon. They were gathering in Granada, on the Southeast coast, because that was probably the closest city in Cordova to Jerusalem. It would only take 36 years to sail there with Galleys.
If 1276 was uneventful, 1279 was more uneventful. Cordovan reports reported little but unit movements, like the Grail heading into Bamburgh, England, and the fall of the Polish city of Gyor, that they'd themselves only recently taken from the Magyars, to Turkey.
Noticing that they probably wouldn't see the Grail for a while, if at all, the Cordovans decided to rush a Harbor in Strathclyde in 1281 so they could finally build Ansar Warriors there, and upgrade the Spearmen to much more useful Swiss Mercenaries.
Kiev joined the "Oh crap, I'm screwed, time to sign peace!" movement in 1282, getting the Abbasids and, somewhat surprisingly, Danes, to stop fighting them.
Sweden won the race to building a city in Northern France, probably one of the last anyone would build in the French ruins.
England continued beating the Celts, killing 2 Archer units with Knights and Pikemen. It was pretty much all the Celts had left.
With the harbor done in 1284, Strathclydians started working on an Ansar, although they couldn't rush it yet- not enough money.
1285 was one of the most peaceful years in Cordovan memory. Literally- 4 wars ended. The Turks signed a peace treaty with Bulgaria, showing that despite the capture of Mohacs, Magyar giving the two a border, the Turks didn't feel like conquering their homeland... yet. Germany was really, really peaceful, ending their wars with England, Kiev, and the Fatimids, ending their wars with all but the Turks. Maybe they wanted to work with Kiev to fight the Turks, or something.
England captured Dyfed, giving them complete control of Wales and killing one of the two Celtic kings, and Hatin, an isolated Abbasid city in Egypt on the Fatimid border, was destroyed by an unknown attacker, probably the Byzantines, again.
Now that the Ansar in Strathclyde was rushable, it was rushed, in 1287. The Cordovan plans to hopefully get the Holy Grail continue to be in "hopeful" stage, as they'll need England to kindly bring it out again first.
The Celts, sensing impending doom, signed a peace treaty in 1288... with the Abbasids. Well, at least they're no longer threatened by tons of European countries who were only fighting them for the lulz. The Kievans saw Sweden be MA'ed against them by the Turks, but also signed a peace treaty with Poland, for a net gain of 0. But that was probably big for them- Sweden was a threat, but Kiev, Poland, Denmark, and Germany were now firmly united against Turkey, and none of them were at war with each other anymore. The Magyars were also fighting the Turks, but they were also fighting Kiev and Poland, so they weren't much help here. Maybe they'll be able to at least stall the Turks a bit if they've decided to put their differences aside to fight a common enemy.
The Fatimids kicked Denmark out of Africa, maybe for good, by capturing Alexandria, and England continued advancing towards Dalriada. To some Cordovan surprise, they actually had an army, although they wondered whether the leader of it should actually be called Alfred the "Great"- it consisted of 2 Horsemen, a Swordsmen, and a Knight. Not a great combination, the Swordsmen would only slow the mounted units down.
They reached Dalriada in 1291, and two of the English Knight units killed 2 of the Celtic defenders of the city. Cordovans were dismayed to find the Grail still missing. Three more defenders were killed by Knights and the Army of Alfred the Great in 1294. Dalriada still stood, but probably not for very much longer.
In very interesting news, the Fatimids declared war on the Abbasids. They, unlike the many other non-Byzantine nations crusading against them, could do actual damage- maybe even succeed where the Byzantines had failed, and take Jerusalem. Speaking of the Byzantines, they finally signed a peace treaty with the Abbasids...
...only to immediately declare war on them again. What the hell?
The last interesting thing of the year happened in Bamburgh, England. No, the Holy Grail didn't show up again- the city just completed a wonder, the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
Tired of waiting for it to re-appear, the Cordovans decided to investigate Bamburgh to see if it was still there. They found a few Pikemen, one of which might be holding the grail.
It was the best shot they had. They'd have to somehow sneak what units they had in Strathclyde through English territory- maybe sign a Right of Passage and use it to attack them- and find the Grail- then take it.
Because they weren't sure if bringing just the Crown of Thorns to Jerusalem would be enough.
