Crusader Kings II AAR — Duke of Bohemia (preview version)
[This AAR is based on the preview version. The game can and probably will change between now and the release]
It's January 1st 1187 and Bedrich I is the duke of Bohemia. He is a vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor and he owns a large area on the eastern border of the Empire.
The laws of the duchy tell us that the oldest male of the dynasty will inherit. Count Konrád of Znojmo, Brno and Olomouc. I don't have any male children at the moment but that does mean that if I die that my children will inherit nothing. Because I'm more loyal to my children than to a far away cousin I will seek to change this unjust law.
Our liege is the Holy Roman Emperor. The crown authority is very low, meaning that the emperor has very little to say and that his vassals can do almost anything they want. The succession laws are favorable to us, the Emperor's vassals will vote on the males in the realm. This means that if we get popular enough we might have a shot at inheriting the throne.
But before we know it the greedy emperor decides to change the laws of the realm giving him more power in the realm. We see this as a problem because we want as little interference in our rule as possible. We ignore his request to approve the change in the law, but there are undoubtedly enough weaklings in the realm to approve this change. We vow to do something about this situation.
Our liege asks our daughter's hand in marriage. This marriage will increase our standing in the realm and create an alliance between us and the Holy Roman Emperor. And because our succession laws don't allow women to inherit there is no real risk for us here. We bid our daughter farewell and send her on her way to the emperor.
Even though the Emperor is our son-in-law and our ally we prepare a plot to take his throne. He will understand our need to acquire more power to secure our family's continued safety. Besides, the Emperor is quite old and in case he dies it would be beneficial for us to have everything prepared to strike during the inevitable confusion resulting from his death.
Our first co-conspirators are the Doge of Genoa and the Duke of Lombardia. Trusting the latter proves to be a mistake because he fails to keep our plot secret. Luckily the Emperor doesn't send his marshal to arrest us, maybe he doesn't want to upset his wife? Or even better, he might fear our retaliation.
Konrád complicates our plans because he becomes the Duke of Moravia. We lose access to his troops and changing our succession laws to primogeniture becomes more complicated. We will need to do something about this in the future.
We are invited to a grant feast at the Emperor's estate. During the feast Bishop Cataldo challenges us to a dual. We are a little embarrassed by his behavior but we have to accept to preserve our honor. We kill him in a fair fight.
We suspect that Konrád found out about our plans to relieve him from his lands and inheritance and decides to strike first. After several close battles we come out on top and he gives up in disgrace.
Following this treachery we decide to change our laws and deny Konrád his inheritance. After instituting primogeniture our half-brother Vladislav becomes our new heir.
Despite our continued efforts to plot against our liege we are awarded the honorary title of Seneschal. This gives us prestige and coin.
One day after Christmas of 1197 our liege dies. This must be an omen! But we're not the only plotters to recognize the weakness of our new liege. Duke Friedrich VI of Swabia wants to get rid of elective succession to improve his own inheritance chances.
Without any intervention from us the Pope excommunicates the Holy Roman Emperor! This is excellent for us! The current Emperor is now an excommunicated minor, his vassals will not be pleased and they would want to join our plot. Almost the entire Empire sees that the realm cannot prosper with the current leadership. Most vassals join us now and we actually have more than twice the power the Emperor has. We send the Emperor a letter with an ultimatum: give the title to me or see our troops ravage his lands. He refuses.
Vassals who initially refused to join my plot now see the foolishness of their decision. We ask them again if they want to replace the current unholy Emperor with someone who can lead the realm to greatness. Most accept and the Emperor has almost no one left to defend him. Even the King of France and the Pope himself fight for our cause.
After a little over a year the Emperor surrenders and hands us his title. Now begins our perilous task to secure our position. Even though a lot of the vassals supported us with our mission the only reason they did was because the previous Emperor was so terrible, and they probably didn't want to end up on the losing side. A lot of our vassals don't like us, especially the German dukes don't like to be ruled by a Bohemian Emperor. It will be hard to stabelize our Empire and secure succession.
[Note how our name changed to Bedrich II because a previous Emperor was called Friedrich]
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March 19th, 2012 - 14:30
“enough weaklings in the realm….” ha. yup.
cheers, im going to have a go playing as these fruity-loop-euro first reich fascist anti-human degenerates, then i’ll go back to playing as one of satans dukes , opps the king i mean, thy leige! of the engl-ISH then brit-ISH, german-yiddish queen we have now and mad phil the greek (husband), that christianity show they do and most people in media people give is usualy circus act material, most that do in TV “pray” to the other if you take my meaning, google “bohiema grove” if you dont sleep that wall these days, and ecpecialy take a look if you DO sleep soundly still as if you do in this society..well one must be depraved to an extent to not notice it all around them.
March 19th, 2012 - 14:44
well explained, and funny lol.
duels in front of the kaiser ha whatever next … germanic politicians saying they have advanced any since the day rome rolled over them =)