They were run down and killed too. A good 1,400 men returned home to kill Canadian raiders whilst Konstantin's erstwhile ally in the Saguenay had a difference of opinion on battlefield strategy. The commander of the Saguenay forces demanded that Konstantin join him in his pursuit of the demoralized Viking forces whilst Konstantin wished to take the duchy as soon as possible to end the war quickly.
One course of action was validated whilst the other was not, the Saguenay forces achieved brief success, before they were slaughtered by a Viking counterattack. In contrast, most of the Serbian troops reached their intended destinations. The Serbian force
took Terrace Bay in a brave crossing of the straits under constant attack by the Viking defenders; the Viking troops could have resisted had they not balked at the prospect of facing the large light cavalry and heavy infantry contingents. As a result of their cowardice, for every one serbian that died - 100 Canadian Northlanders died; 1,000 of them dying in full.
The triumphant soldiers moved on to lay siege of the island of Manitolin. Unbenknownst to the Serbians, rival soldiers were already laying siege to the Northwood Vikings. Rather than fight, the two struck common accord and lay siege to the Fortress together - the Serbians would help them take Manitolin, whilst the Serbians would retain their own captured Fortresses. The enemy of my enemy was not to be trusted; but this was the quickest way to end a war that had been going on for years. Tens of thousands had already died - thankfully, mostly Vikings.
Viking counterattacks were slaughtered, they did what the enemy could not do - and held the straits.
They were getting desperate, the Jarl was captured and thousands dying trying to take those straits.
It is noteworthy that the Vikings during this time raided the Abbess General's people - but grew even more brazen, attacking her Abbey directly, making concubines of some of her battle nuns. Seeing as how the Catholics were proudly running around in their crusades with the Knights of St. Columbus, and the Serbians and the Knights of St. Ursuline were proving the Vikings could be defeated -
The Abbess General went full DIEU (le) VULT, announcing the onset of the Ursuline Crusades. She made her preparations, her vengeance would be at hand.
Back in the Serblands of Thunder, helping the enemy of my enemy helped me in kind;
Viking slaughtered Viking, protecting my holdings at no cost. In order to keep paying for the war Konstantin searched high and low for
any reason to fine his underlings, rooting out corruption and incompetence with hefty fines. Gold for the war effort, chastisement for foolery. The Serbians also managed to take Gore Bay on the island of Manitolin, yanking it out of the hands of the enemy of my enemy. This decidedly swung the war in Konstantin's favour - he only needed to defend the captured lands of Algoma until the the Northlanders lost the will to fight. In the relative peace the armies of the Serbs turned
on the neighbouring Earl of Nagamisis, the poor Earl stood no chance against the Thunder forces on such a great war footing.
It took 9 years of bitter warfare, but the Northlanders were driven out of Ursuline lands.
The Duchy of Thunder more than doubled in size, stretching as far south as Gore Bay in the island of Manitolin - Manitolin could be fully conquered at a future date. Gore Bay was a powerful beachhead onto their lands, an invasion would be an afterthought.
The Marquis of Algoma had fought alongside the Serbians well, but there was now an issue of severe importance that needed to be addressed... The Marquis of Algoma. The Vikings were an ever-present threat from the sea, but by land - only Algoma posed a threat. The lands the Serbians took over were formerly the capital and pride of the previous Marquis of Algoma, something his son the new Marquis no doubt had not forgotten. If he hoped those lands would be returned to him, he was wrong. If he assumed Konstantin would be grateful for his support, he was wrong. His soldiers had outlived their usefulness.
The lands of Algoma were
split in two after Marquis Konstantin usurped the Duchy of Algoma from the Marquis Kewiquonot, still married to his sister. This would make future conquests easier, and allow Konstantin to expand further south into Ursuline lands. It also dealt a deathblow to the Davieux family from which there was no recovery.
No one objected, as technically Konstantin hadn't attacked his ally - he only stole his right to rule. A lesser crime, everyone would agree.
It was fitting that this betrayal concluded such a bitter war. After having fought this chilling decade long war, Thunder was down under in the red, his coffers severely strained to their limits. The Vikings could just raid for more gold, the Serbs had to work hard
and stop their hard work falling into viking hands.
It was so poor that it was to be so that the devil did arrive, in the form of a consumerist broker who worshiped the dollar god. He was a master of intrigue and a eunuch, so getting rid of him became impossible when he arrived.
He offered loans but the loans were no doubt poisoned. He requested special privileges promising old world goods would arrive to Thunder, this was a promise
Marquis Konstantin had to see if he could fulfill.
He tried to do the unthinkable and buy the precious firearm in Konstantin's possession. To think the Marquis of Thunder would be without Thunder sticks! Nonsense! Thankfully the Chancellor of the Exchequer
levied a special tithe to bring Thunder out of the red, and the broker wasn't as persistent in his pestering when it was clear there was no economic leverage in his hands.
The moment the coffers were green and gold flowed once more, war was declared - on the Earl who escaped the rule of the former Marquis of Algoma. Nearly
3,600 soldiers swept away the opposition,
ending the war quickly. Konstantin personally made a killing killing many
at the battle of Blind River. God granted him victory and gave him a sign that what he was doing was just - as
the Abbey of Blind River joined his fold,
a son was born clever and strong. Blind River was key to further expansion, yet was also a liability - it was an Abbey whose lands could support no Fortresses, making it very vulnerable to Viking raiders - nevermind though, Konstantin was already too well acquainted with the Northlanders. God also cured
the bloody cough that had afflicted him on campaign, very little could get any better. In fact, everything was going perfectly. With the Abbey of Blind River under his control the time was right.
King Konstantin of Aurora arose to take dominion of the world. It cost 400 gold but the lands the crown gave claim to would have cost more to fabricate claims on - they were now his rightful lands!
Expansion was swift. The county of Sudbury fell to Aurora quickly, its Duke exiled to the island of Manitolin by Gore Bay. Konstantin's "ally"
likewise found the remaining lands in his fold halved further, his forces shattered in the battle of Chapleau. Interestingly he brought twice as many troops to fight me than he brought to help me. Not an ally worth alliance.
The Pope smelt the combat in the air and crusaded for Uppland, giving Konstantin more breathing room from Viking raiders.
His former ally, the Davieux Earl formerly of Almogad died under siege. The depression and stress of having his lands picked apart by his wife's father was too much to bear. His son had to surrender on behalf of his corpse. No mercy, no remorse.
Evangelicals from the Duchy of Home were the next to earn Serbian ire. High Church Evangelicals were all right as far as other Christians went,
but from a strategic standpoint some of them stood between the two halves of the Ursuline world. All the same, Aurora needed new allies.
An alliance was proposed with the boy king of the High Church Maritimes. The war with the west high church evangelicals was not going to be quick, and it would help to have powerful Evangelicals staying out of the war with the other Evangelicals.
The Ursuline faith was in a sorry state. Occultists sacrificed their members to their dark heathen idols, Norsemen raided their members for gold and slaves, Anabaptists converted them from the true path, Rust Cultists pillaged them for trinkets
and on all fronts the faith was under threat. La Citadelle, the bastion of Ursuline faith had been burnt to the ground. Of note is that despite the Abbess General holding the power to launch crusades, she had withheld this whole time - in the same timespan as the Catholics had already won two Crusades. This was one straw too much for the camel's back to bear.
The Crusade for New England was launched against the foul Occultists. The King of New England was not the direct target, but rather the crazed Duke of Maine - taking his lands would drive a wedge between the two halves of New England and guarantee its eventual fragmentation, blunting the Occultist offensive into Ursuline lands. Despite being locked in grim warfare with the Evangelical Home soldiers,
King Konstantin personally marched to join the Crusade with 121 men, whilst 2,000 remained behind to battle the Evangelicals and maintain siege on their lands. The remaining Serbs rested, killing the ever-present northmen raiders whose number was limitless. The initial crusader efforts went exceedingly well, with the heavy cavalry and embittered zealots mercilessly crushing the occultist scum.
Then winter hit.King Konstantin's small force did not suffer the effects of Winter, it was small enough to live off the land. But the pagan lands were inhospitable and the harsh winter made the lands go from inhospitable to insufferable and lethal. Even the battle nuns of the order of St Ursuline couldn't fight the force of winter; frostbite felled them where occultist axes couldn't. The occultists moved through the blizzards like spirits possessed - King Konstantin looked for a way to defeat them in their own land. It was then that Konstantin realized
there was a fifth column of tribal God-fearing Ursuline men in the West. He and his soldiers returned home with this knowledge,
and Konstantin himself became an adept winter soldier. There were now two armies whose feet could leave no tracks in the white expanse. The evangelicals were decisively defeated
at the battle of Parry Sound where 2,400 serbs routed 1,900 Evangelicals, suffering 300 casualties to their 1,100. The war would be won, in a matter of when and not if.
Heir apparent Dragja Miroslav was also reminded to not be a spoilt git.
Konstantin briefly turned back to fight in the battle of Nippigon, slaughtering 1,200 vikings again. They were persistent.
His patient nature came to the surface as he calmly allowed the Vikings to run into his soldier's killing zone. The greatest development was that after decades of fighting, his hairs having turned grey,
what could Konstantin fear now? A long time ago courtiers called him coward and he'd be too scared to call them out on it. Now? Tens of thousands of dead northland warriors were dead northland warriors because of him, and he had never shied from a single battle with the bastards unless the action of avoidance guaranteed more northland deaths than the action of confrontation. What once caused him to shake merely made him stand tall. He was not the man he was anymore.
He marched south from the battle of Nippigon with single-minded determination.
The Evangelicals would fall. And on the 5th year of war, Parry Sound fell. The Crusade meanwhile was going badly. Many Ursuline generals had scored great victories in battle, but the cold, starvation and disease had rendered their forces incapable.
Only the Serbians remained, with 2,903 soldiers ready for war. They marched on the eve of March, a good time for a campaign (as the name would suggest). The timing was deliberate, by the time
Konstantin arrived for the siege, only 120 Serbians had been lost to the cold, and the snows had entirely left the rugged terrain of Maine. Things were seriously threatened by the arrival of Godi Maxilian and 1,400
viking raiders in Lakehead. There were no troops at home who could stop them. It was turn back and let the crusade fail, or sacrifice a lot of gold to try and do both and risk losing Lakehead and the Crusade.
Konstantin made his decision. 160 gold was used to hire mercenaries of the Black Steel company; they had work experience with Konstantin before. The raiders were so caught up in their desire to storm Lakehead and do unspeakable things that
they were caught unaware by the massed ranks of pikemen, heavy infantry and archers.
The siege was lifted, 800 Norsemen slaughtered with 600 making it back to their longships to go home. And as success was had in Lakehead, success was had
Burlington, just as the frost of winter began to draw closer and envelop the land.
The Siege of Burlington had saved the Crusade momentarily, but there was a new problem. Winter was setting in once more and the tribesmen of the occult still held the home advantage; not only that, but they also outnumbered the remaining 2,700 Serbians by 400 men. Burlington allowed supplies from Maine to flow in, but until Summer the Serbian army could not budge one bit from Burlington lest they be savaged by the Occultist horde outside the gates and beyond the hills of Maine.
Konstantin weighed up the costs of the decisions before him. Engaging the Occultists in pitched battle was too risky when they held this many advantages, a Serbian defeat would kill the Crusade dead in its track and result in the loss of every single Ursuline man, woman and child south of the Saint's river of Lawrence - and possibly even more. King Konstantin Miroslav ordered the march home; Burlington would be retaken by the Occultists of course, but this would buy time for the Serbians to return with reinforcements, already 600 men were prepared to join up with the Serbian host in Aurora - awaiting in their keeps the call to war.
It's unsure why the Occultists did what they did, but they charged down from the hills later that week. They saw the Serbian army retreating, and perhaps they though the Serbs were demoralized, weak pickings - or maybe they were running out of supplies, or realized the Serbians would be back. They tried to end the war quickly and the odds were in their favour. There were 3,400 of them attacking downhill into the plains where under 2,800 retreating remained; they had the home advantage, the best skirmishers and talented chiefs. Their battle
lines were arrayed curiously, they had 700-600 troops arrayed on the right and left wing whilst their centre was held firm by well over 1,700 men led by their finest commander. The Serbians by contrast had split their divisions equally, with 800-900 men in each wing. The skirmish broke out fiercely with the occultist core threatening to break through the Serbian centre. The Serbian wings by contrast fared much better, even going so far as to begin pushing the Occultists back - they had light cavalry in far greater abundance than the Occultists, and these wreaked terrible damage through the sparse warbands of light soldiers the Occultists left to guard the flanks. The skirmishing was non-stop, and the centre of the Serbian army was beginning to buckle - only the commander and his stubborn refusal to let the men retreat holding the line together. And then light shone on the red fields of snow, with over 800 Occultist skirmishers lying slain and frozen. Intermixed with them lay dead Serbs, but of their number was 450 - it was clear who was winning. The powerful Occultist core slammed once more into the Serbian line like a wedge, but it was now a wedge without a hammer. It found itself surrounded as the right and left wings of the Occultist army routed and fled into the Hills, leaving the core alone and unprotected. The remaining Serbian core, heavily demoralized and close to breaking point
led a light cavalry countercharge into the Occultists whilst archers on the right flank harassed their left and heavy infantry cut their way through their right. Soon the tables turned on the Occultist offensive and the main core found itself isolated, attacked on three fronts with the hills of maine at their backs frustrating retreat.
Now the Serbians outnumbered the men of Maine; they tried to cut through and exploit their advantage to the absolute best they could. Before long another 800 Occultists lay slain, and only the slow, brave and infirm remained. One of those men was Chief Wymond II of Maine, the target of the Crusade.
The battle of Burlington's effects were devastating. The Occultist army numbered only in 1,600 whilst the Serbian army still counted 2,000. They were demoralized and scattered, chased by the 2,000, and once they were routed Burlington would remain a strong foothold ready for more Serbians to arrive and take Maine if needs be. It also made King Konstantin the primary contributor to the success of the Crusade, and made him the #1 candidate for the Duchy of Maine, proving himself ever so slightly to the Ursuline faith than the Marquis of Saguenay Serge; and with the capture of Chief Wymond - the war was at its end, and Maine was now his to rule.
To be frank the lands of Maine were worthless, and cost far more to keep than they were worth.
Their only use was for training Miroslavs and splitting the Occultist faith in two; King Konstantin hoped his alliance with the Maritimes would come in handy. Quite frankly besides the county of Nek and Montpeller (which were of moderate value), everything was worthless tribal land.
The Duchy was turned over to Dmitar Miroslav with Montpeller holding his throne; Dragos Miroslav, an ordinary Miroslav and one of his kin was given the other castle, Nek to be his throne. Dragos was
given Burlington and the Duchy of Penobscot in order to elevate him to equal rank as that of Dmitar, splitting the two richest provinces between two Miroslavs, whilst still ensuring highly-capable Miroslavs were on hand to deal with civilizing the rabid Occultist and feral Serbians now roaming Maine.
Perhaps a sign of things to come, although the Ursuline Crusade was a great success
the Catholic Crusade for Uppland was lost to King Beauregard II of Uppland. This was a great boost for the revelationist faith, who had lost much of their Christian roots and degenerated into some pseudo-Christian paganism.
The Vikings were also granted reprieve from Catholic attacks, and in so allowed Viking attacks to continue tenfold. It sometimes struck King Konstantin
that the Vikings attacking him had such a large number of fresh faced teenagers amongst them. In retaliation King Konstantin vowed to put an end to the Norse for good;
attacking the tribesmen of Chief Klaus in the Western border. The Northlanders rallied around Chief Klaus but given his single holding was so lightly fortified by the time the Northland hosts arrived
there was a new chief, and he was Miroslav. Chief Dragija Miroslav quite pleasingly under the regency of some competent regents upgraded his chiefdom into a full-fledged Fortress, and was named Earl.
To coincide with this momentous mission and the newfound foothold into norse lands,
the first unit of elite Gusars was formed. The Norseman philosophy was that the Americans in their final hour had grown soft and weak, and as a result their gods smote the world in punishment. They actively sought out brutal punishment and hard warfare until only the strongest remained; perhaps that is why they liked visiting the Kingdom of Aurora so much - they knew they'd get a good fight.
In the final years of Konstantin's reign many of his sons were men in their own right and he also had grandsons to call Miroslav. Not only that, but he was now the embodiment of a good King, being diligent, strong, just, intelligent and patient - and old.
All the same, Konstantin also outlived many of his sons.
Illness, depression, plague and the occasional murder claimed many Miroslav sons. Just as the Northlanders tempered their sons in Aurora, so too did the Miroslavs. Just as the Miroslav family shrunk,
the Martime King joined up. King Dara became an honourary Miroslav, and earned the friendship of Konstantin. And beyond the borders of the Maritimes the Occultists of New England were falling apart to civil war and rebellion, everything was going according to pan. Unfortunately the unrest spread beyond the border
into Serbian Maine.Konstantin assembled a fleet to carry the troop to war. Surprisingly, with growing confidence on the waters - King Konstantin found he could sail all the way
up and down the river St. Lawrence.
2,400 marched forth to take on 1,800 occultist peasants head on. All around Maine raiders, burners, looters and siegers were laying waste to New England - but this did not perturb Konstantin. He marched forth with the full confidence of victory, his soldiers arrogant,
and they were defeated at the battle of Bangor. 1,000 Serbs died and only 300 Occultists were killed in return.
At once a new fleet was assembled, larger with nearly twice as many soldiers. Yet when the soldiers would arrive led by Dragija Miroslav, they would arrive to find
King Konstantin passed away.King Dragija Miroslav had no time for a coronation, he picked up his father's crown, spent a day mourning - then marched forth to kill the Occultist rebels.
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2010435 times)