Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah - Ethiopian CK2 AAR

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Chapter IX - Full Metal Jerusalem
January 19, 952 to June 21, 968​

​

Despite having just completed a war with the Abbasids, I do not seem to have a truce with them. I'm guessing that the Caliph died right afterwards. I swear that I didn't have anything to do with that (this time). That actually was natural causes.

But with no truce, that can only mean one thing. It is time to march on Jerusalem. The Abbasids are already struggling, being overrun with rebels. So its really a great time to strike. The Abbasids themselves were pushovers in battle. The only really worry was that the Saffarids joined the war and marched their army across the Middle East to defend the Abbasids. But luckily I was able to hit 100% war score only a few weeks before the Saffarids got close enough to attack me.

In the meantime, Empress Margherita was misbehaving. She attempted to murder on of the counts under me. The only reason I can think of for this behaviour is that I stood to inherit the county if he died. But that is pretty terrible reasoning, as I gave him that county to begin with, so killing the count would have been counter productive. This leaves me with no choice but to order her arrested.

She unfortunately escapes and flees to the Alps to hide. At this point there is only one sensible solution to resolve this little quarrel. Murder.

The Emperor hired some assassins and had her tracked down to Switzerland. At that point she had a small "accident". Emperor Degna Djan is clearly a just man.

But an Emperor needs a wife. A replacement is found in Heilwiva Karling, a Karling princess who has claims on Bavaria, Italy, Burgundy, and Germany. It would be a lot of fun to press some of her claims, but that isn't going to happen.

New wife, and gained control over the holy city of Jerusalem. Why not celebrate by making myself the King of Jerusalem. Probably the last king title I'll make, as well as destroy the Kingdom of Nubia, since I don't want to have to manage too many kingdoms and their successions.

Out of the steppes comes news of the Tengri Reformation. The Cumans have gained control of pretty well everything from Ukraine eastwards, and have managed to reform the Tengri faith. I'm just hoping they can provide a nice counter balance to the Byzantines.

With all that done, the Abbasids have had time to replenish their forces. Naturally the first thing they do is try and take back Jerusalem.

The Abbasids siege Hebron first, and manage to occupy a few holdings before the Abyssinian army can show up. The first engagement is the Battle of Bethlehem, which is really a great place to have a decisive battle to decide the fate of the Holy Land. The Abbasids lose, and retreat to the coast, where the Abyssinians defeat them again at the Battle of Agelen. The Abbasids are defeated, and Jerusalem remains Ethiopian.

Since the first war for Jerusalem, three sons have all reached the age of 16. Princes Haeran, Iskinder, and Hakim. Haeran and Hakim both make decent military commanders, while Iskinder is rather useless.

That brings us to four sons, and one small problem. Of all the king level and higher titles currently held by Emperor Degna Djan, one, the Kingdom of Egypt, is still under gavelkind succession, and will go to the second eldest son, while everything else is currently planned to go to Prince Degna Djan, who is superior to his brothers. This leaves us with only one logical solution. Murder.

A few accidents and suddenly the whole succession crisis is averted and everyone lives happily ever after. Well, mostly everyone.

But now that Prince Degna Djan is going to inherit everything, he needs a wife. He is married to Gerberga Chatenois, one of the better available stewardship characters.

Speaking of succession crisises, my brother Aman has decided he wants one of my titles. Immediately set a plot to make sure he has an accident. I'm not going to pay to kill him immediately just in case the plot fails to fire in time. That way we can have an exciting succession war. Killing him immediately just seems so anticlimactic.

And guess who is leading the plot for me. The Coptic Pope. Coptic Church is #1 Church.

With the Pope on my side and my brother being severely allergic to lethal falls, he doesn't stand much of a chance. I'll have to remember to talk to the Pope next time I need someone murdered.

And to celebrate murdering half my family, I took a nice vacation to north Africa. The duchies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania were added into the realm without much of a struggle.

Abyssinia continues to grow, now reaching from Gabes in the west to Jerusalem in the east. We now border the Byzantines, though since they can't holy war me, it should be difficult for them to attack me.

And as one final bonus, Poland can into Sweden.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

So the save file is broken in my Steam install, crashing as soon as I unpause. Luckily I predicted such an event and made a second copy of the game on my computer. The only problem is that for some reason it doesn't recognize any of the DLC, which creates a few problems. If anyone knows how to fix that, then I can continue on playing.

 

[Honkoid]

I haven't updated my CK II to 2.0 yet, so maybe this is not the reason:
In my installation folder are two executables, ck2.exe and ck2game.exe.
One starts the game directly without any DLC and one starts the launcher first, in which you can activate all DLC.

I hope that helps.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I haven't updated my CK II to 2.0 yet, so maybe this is not the reason:
In my installation folder are two executables, ck2.exe and ck2game.exe.
One starts the game directly without any DLC and one starts the launcher first, in which you can activate all DLC.

I hope that helps.

I was using the launcher but the DLC still didn't work despite everything being activated.

On a positive note, after looking through the Paradox forums, I discovered that I can opt into a patch 1.111 "beta" that allows me to play on the old save. Crisis averted! (For now!)

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Chapter X - Iskanderocracy
June 21, 968 to January 12, 986​

In the continuing adventures of Emperor Degna Djan, a new holy war is launched the west. The target is Tunis, for several reasons. First, Tunis is an awesome duchy to hold. Second, it forms a much better defensive frontier than Tripolitania to invasion from the west. Third, a secret reason that may come up later. Or might not. We'll see how that turns out.

And since so much of Abyssinia is located far away from Tunis, this allows for the debut of the Abyssinian navy. The Ethiopians apparently only learning how to build boats once they reached the Mediterranean. Allows for large numbers of soldiers to assemble in Egypt and be quickly ferried to Tunis. Also, note that the Duchy of Cibyrrhaeot has turned into a republic with trade posts in Egypt. It also somehow became Nestorian. Not sure how any of that happened.

Prince Degna Djan, the current heir to the throne of Abyssinia has his first son. He shamefully breaks the family tradition by not naming him Degna Djan. Instead using the name Iskander. But wait, isn't this chapter named after a combination of Iskander and Idiocracy? Must be some sort of foreshadowing!

Tunis crushed. Abyssinia strong. No surprise.

Tragically, Emperor Degna Djan never makes it back from Tunis. He dies of measles at the age of 69, and is replaced by Emperor Degna II Djan.

Just a reminder of what the new emperor is like.

He obviously has big shoes to fill, so in order to quickly make a name for himself and build up prestige, a two pronged invasion of Arabia is launched. War is declared against the Abbasids for Oultrejourdain, and against the Musaids or something like that for Oman. The Murasids or however it was spelt aren't the same dynasty that started the game in Oman, changing at some point. Not that I really noticed, since I haven't payed any attention to Oman at all.

While that is going on, to the north something miraculous. Byzantium is actually experiencing a civil war! It is kind of like spotting a unicorn. A unicorn that I want to murder for its land.

No big surprise, the campaigns against the Abbasids and Misaruds or Miserids, or just those guys in Oman, goes well. The Abbasids are but a shadow of their former glory, and were only able to raise a few thousand men in their defense.

Unfortunately while fighting the wars, Empress Gerberga died of illness.

The new empress is Solene, a Lotharingian princess.

Not too long afterwards, Emperor Degna II Djan is travelling when his driver is forced to take a detour. They are then ambushed by highwaymen. Things are not looking good for Emperor Degna II Djan.

The highwaymen murder the Emperor. Mayor Walid of Heliopolis had ordered the assassination, for reasons that I really can't comprehend. Maybe he was upset about the breaking of the Degna Djan tradition. This leads to a question of why an Emperor is travelling without any sort of bodyguard.

And so Iskander rises to the throne. Hey look, Iskander, the guy the chapter is named after! How unexpected! He is completely unremarkable. Except for the fact that the Emperor of Abyssinia is now white.

Naturally Mayor Walid is imprisoned for his treachery. Though apparently invoking the death penalty for regicide would be considered tyrannical. The Ethiopian system of laws is clearly a bizarre world. That is something someone should really look at reforming. Maybe after the whole bodyguard thing is worked out.

And because CK2 loves dumping bad stuff on top of you all at once, the new emperor is greeted by news that an adventurer has raised an army to seize one of his titles.

An initial wave of 20,000 men march out of the Arabian desert to attack Oultrejourdain, followed by another 9,000. The 7,700 defenders from the Kingdom of Jerusalem are really hoping that the reinforcements from the rest of the kingdom show up soon.

Luckily 22,000 men from Egypt arrive just in time to join the battle, including the emperor's 8,500 strong personal retinue. Apparently the emperor can have a personal army, but a personal bodyguard is some sort of extravagance. But anyway, crushing victory, leaving Erdem and his army retreating.

Erdem is defeated after the remainder of his army is destroyed, and Emperor Iskander gets some free prestige out of it.

The emperor reaches 16 without being murdered, and continues to proud family tradition of strong military leaders. He is not as gifted martially as his grand father, but still a very capable leader. Just don't ask him to work out any sort of treaty. He is a horrible diplomat.

Which is of course why he went out and found a wife who is good at diplomacy. Let Iskander do the warring, let her work out the diplomacy.

So after that turbulent period, the Abyssinian Empire still stands strong, reaching from Tunis to Oman. And quickly running out of easy avenues of expansion.

 

[Synobun]

This is fantastic! Maybe you could try your hand at... suggesting another civil war in the Byzantine Empire.

 

[madviking]

subbed.

 

[Maniacal]

Abyssinia is looking very strong indeed!

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Chapter XI - The Usual Seljuks​

January 12, 986 to August 20, 1005​

To celebrate the continuation of the adventures of Abyssinia, Why not invade the Abbasids while they foolishly attack the Saffarids. Invaded the duchy of Arabia to ensure that the Byzantines wouldn't get any ideas. I don't want them taking it and cutting off easy access to the Arabian peninsula for me from the north.

On the homefront, Emperor Iskander secured his line of succession with the births of three children. Prince Taye, the new designated successor, and his twin siblings, Prince Abebe and Princess Hagos. Those are apparently the types of names you get once you stop calling your kids Degna Djan.

After the defeat the Abbasids faced against the Abyssinians, and their continued failures invading Persia, a civil war was inevitable. The Hashimids of the Arabian peninsula rebelled, presenting a perfect opportunity to expand our borders and completely encircle the Red Sea.

After a very predictable crushing of the Hashimids, the Red Sea is now Ethiopian territory. If we could just figure out how to sail boats on it, transport would be a lot simpler. But unfortunately, all those sea monsters that must live there prevent any sort of water based transit.

Two more daughters followed the conquests. Zala, who is a bit of a moron, and Totit, who is not.

From the east comes news of the Great Seljuk. Apparently this Seljuk fellow seeks to conquer all those useless steppes to the north of Persia. He appears near Kyzylorda, in Khiva, causing further strife among the Muslim rulers in the region, which is always welcomed by the pious Miaphysite emperor of Abyssinia.

He arrives with tens of thousands of horsemen, and quickly overwhelms the lands of Khiva. Considering we have a buffer consisting the Persian mountains and the Arabian desert, this is of no great concern.

What is of great concern is to the north, where the Byzantines have become engulfed in a civil war, which presents a great opportunity to expand our borders. A de jure claim for the county of Tyrus, as well as a totally legitimate claim on Crete are pressed in the war.

As the full might of Byzantium cannot be directed against us while they attempt to put down their rebellious vassals, Abyssinia wins with ease. Tyrus comes into our realm as one of our rightfully held territories as a result of our kingship of Jerusalem, while Crete provides a nice springboard for any future attacks into Byzantium.

Prince Taye turns 16, and proves himself to be a brilliant commander, with 24 martial.

Prince Abebe does not turn out to be a brilliant commander, but he turns out to be a not terrible spy.

With that, the Abyssinian and Byzantine Empires continue dominate the eastern Mediterranean. The Seljuks have made some incursions into Persia, but not enough to be worrying. It becomes a question now of how long until Abyssinia and Byzantium face each other on the battlefield.

 

[scheva007]

Really great AAR, a joy to read.

However, i though you couldnt kill your own children?

 

[madviking]

you can't plot against your children but you can assassinate them.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

you can't plot against your children but you can assassinate them.

It gets really expensive.

 

[madviking]

yea but if you were like me and had three non-dynasty grandsons to kill before a dynasty granddaughter it's worth it.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

yea but if you were like me and had three non-dynasty grandsons to kill before a dynasty granddaughter it's worth it.

You can plot against grandchildren though, so it wouldn't be as expensive unless you wanted it done immediately.

But I have definitely been in that situation before. Like the time my dynasty was down to two sisters, both of whom had been married off before all the males had died, and had their own children and husbands they had to murder to ensure the survival of the dynasty.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Chapter XII - The Princess Byz​

August 20, 1005 to August 1, 1022​

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After first swarming the plains of Khiva, the Seljuks turned south, overruning the ruling dynasties of Persia. Only the Samanids remain independent. I'm sure the Seljuks will take care of them shortly. Having a unified Muslim power to the east provides a nice distraction for the Byzantines, potentially getting them to ignore me for a while.

It is important that the Byzantines ignore me, cause there is some plotting to do. My heir, Prince Taye is married to Princess Petronia Makedon, who has a claim on the throne which can be passed along to her children. Also a decent diplomat, which doesn't hurt.

On a side note, the Byzantines are a complete mess right now. In the last 16 years, they have had six different emperors. And only one of their deaths has been the result of me.

To help pass the time while awaiting the plotting to bear fruits in a few decades, a military expedition is launched into Arabia. The deserts of Nefoud are fairly worthless, however on the opposite side are the provinces of Basra and Damman on the Persian Gulf, which are much more valuable. Nefoud is taken from the Abbasids easily, and the northern half of Basra is captured from a rebellious vassal of the Abbasids, giving Ethiopia land at the mouth of the mighty rivers of Mesopotamia. But also a land border with the Seljuks.

As this is CK2, the best laid plans are ultimately futile, as the game will throw a wrench into it when given the opportunity. My heir, Taye, dies at the age of 34. So ends that attempt to get a claim on Byzantium.

The title of heir now falls to Abebe, Taye's younger brother. Not all is lost though, as Abebe can be used in Taye's place, once that pesky wife of his is killed off. The emperor got a little murder happy, killing Abebe's wife, as well as the husband for candidate for marriage. And it caught up to him, and he was murdered by an assassin. That kind of thing tends to happen when you anger a lot of people by doing things like "murdering their family". But in the end it should result in his plot being successful. Unless CK2 decides to mess it up again.

Emperor Abebe is nothing spectacular. A decent intrigue rating, but that is it. His new wife, Dorothea Makedon, also lacks in the stats department. But he is not some shallow guy who only cares about a woman's stats. No, instead he married her because he can use her to get control of Byzantium. Abebe is a romantic like that.

Not wanting for some sort of divine providence to disrupt his ambitions, immediately after the wedding ceremony he declares war on Byzantium as a civil war there breaks out to press his wife's claim. Cause there is nothing quite like honeymooning on a military campaign to depose your wife's relative from their throne.

The state of things on the outbreak of the Abyssinian-Byzantine war.

 

[NinjaCow64]

 

[CivCube]

Reverse Crusades!!!

 

[Leonel]

God wills it!

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Chapter XIII - Claimspotting​

August 1, 1022 to September 25, 1041​

What with the whole civil war thing, Byzantium's forces were a bit preoccupied. This allowed for Abyssinian forces to land completely unopposed in Constantinople and around Thessalonika. The rebel forces were too preoccupied with overthrowing the Byzantine child emperor, and the Byzantine forces too occupied with putting down the rebels to bother even trying to dislodge my forces.

Before long however, the rebels won. The child emperor was overthrown, and Eustathia was installed as Basilissa. Eustathia is Dorothea's cousin, since the Makedon family has basically become a giant octopus at this point with branches of the family sprouting off in every direction. Of Dorothea's parents, cousins, uncles, and siblings, at least eight of them have managed to at one point be the ruler of Byzantium. Also, Estathia and Dorothea look a lot alike.

Meanwhile, Emperor Abebe and Dorothea have their first anchor baby son, who will one day inherit the two empires if all goes to plan. Yonas is not born in the purple, so if Dorothea has another son after being made Basilissa, he will step ahead of him in Byzantium's succession. Luckily Abyssinia is under elective, so that can be quickly accounted for.

After the Byzantine civil war ended, their forces were able to reorganize and attempt to repel the Abyssinians. This resulted in two decisive battles. The first, the Battle of Servia, took place near Thessalonika. A force of 12,000 Byzantines led by the Varangian Guard, attacked the Ethiopian forces besieging the province. With the help of some reinforcement from nearby Chalkidke, the Byzantines were easily repelled.

The second battle was the Battle of Dorieion, in Prusa. 32,000 Byzantine soldiers attacked about 12,500 Abyssinian, who were reinforced from Nikomedia for a total of 25,000. Despite this disadvantage, the Abyssinians were victorious. This battle really demonstrates the best strategy for fighting wars in Asia Minor. Since pretty well every province is mountainous, sitting back defensively here is the best strategy unless you can attack with overwhelming force. Especially since this is hard difficulty, so the AI armies had morale advantages.

With the short reign of Basilissa Eustathia over, the reign of terror of Dorothea begins.

Naturally, some of her vassals are not cool with this new development and immediately launch a civil war for elective monarchy.

Luckily my entire army had barely left Constantinople, and was able to quickly turn around and besiege the faction leader's holdings. It was really a poor decision to declare war so quickly by him.

With that over, the Abyssinian army heads home. Except for the 11,000 members of Emperor Abebe's retinue. They stay behind as a sort of Ethiopian Varangian Guard to safeguard the new Empress' rule.

To the west, in the deserts of the Duchy of Tunis, a Shia revolt breaks out. Emperor Abebe naturally puts it down, but during one of the battles a man named Taffounnout is captured. Normally the Emperor would simply execute a rebellious traitor like this, but to show what a great, compassionate man he is to his vassals he instead forced him to become a Miaphysite and pressed him into service as a general in his armies. Truly Abebe is a kind man, and didn't just want to make use of Taffounnout's military skills.

If you were paying attention last update, you may have noticed that there was suddenly an independent county in Yemen that wasn't there previously. You may be wondering how that came about. Well, during the initial invasions of Yemen by the Abyssinians and Hashimids, who you may remember were once actually powerful, scary, and existed, Yemen was more or less divided between us. Somewhere in this confusion, two baronies managed to escape annexation from either me or the Hashimids, and remained independent for all this time simply because I didn't care enough to do anything about it. Somehow, the baronies became the top tier holding, probably when they were vassalized by the Abbasids recently. But that changed, as Abebe conquered the territory for the Duke of Sanaa.

Finally, Yonas, heir apparent to Abyssinia and Byzantium, turns 16 and becomes a grey eminence, which will be important if he wants to successfully combine both empires.

Aside from Taizz, there wasn't really any territorial additions of note, so no map this time.

 

[NinjaCow64]

That was about as awesome as I expected. a.k.a VERY.