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General Ludd
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Minion of the Dominion
Aug 2001
time: 05:24
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yeah, 1920... that's what I meant.
So far my game is at 1173 now. I started as the Count of Salerno and am now King of Naples and Egypt. It's been a pretty good game so far.
1066-1077
The first of my Dynasty (Gisulf) did not acomplish much in his life, but did have the good sense to marry his son (Fausto) to the dauther of the Count of Beneveto, who did not have any sons of his own, so that the ladn would be inherited into the Salerno Family.
1077--1117
When Gisulf died and Fausto took over, that's when things started to change for the Salerno Family. After inheriting the county of Beneveto and doubling the size of his demense (to two  )he was encouraged enough to take lead of the first crusades and drive the muslims out from Sicily. When war was declared on the sicilian muslims the neighbouring Dukedom of Apulia joined the crusade, while the muslim Kingdom of Zirid came to the aid of their sicilian vassals and faught against Salerno and Apulia. Most of the battles faught where evenly matched but the the Kingdom of Zirid had many vassals to call apon as their armies where depleted and would be able to win through attrition in a protracted war. However, through a series of lucky events (including support from peasants who took up arms to join the crusades and virtually doubled the size of Salerno's army -albeit with militia and archers only) Salerno was able to save Sicily and end the crusade before the war was able to stretch out too long, and with some cunning manipulation of the Apulian army, he was able to claim all four provinces conquered from the muslims, aswell as a north african province, while Apulia got nothing at all to show for their efforts. After declaring himself Duke of Sicily he was the most prestigious and pious leader in Europe - surpassing even the Byzantine emperor in recognition. He spent the remainder of his life struggling to convert the sicilian provinces to Christianity, but had little success - he spent thousands and thousands of ducats, often going into bankrupcy and having to sell buildings to pay off debt but only managed to Convert a single province to Christianity. He also pressured the Pope into calling another crusade to save Alexandria from the muslims.
1117-1137
When Fausto died his his first son, Simone, took over (he had a second son named Jamal that was so influenced by the arabian culture in sicily that he was not even considered italian - he was given the north african county to rule over). What was most interesting about Simone's Reign was not his own actions but those of the Duke of Apulia... Apparently incensed by the success of the Salerno Family in the first crusades, and the failure of Apulia to claim any land at all, they launched their own crusade against North Africa... But the muslims where not going to be caught off guard and so easily defeated again - they had formed a web of alliances that did not exist during the first crusade and the duke of Apulia soon found himself fighting half of north africa, most of muslim spain, and even the Fatimids. Simone was able to use this conflict to take full control over sicily - conquering the island of malta and taking the (once apulian) province of Messina from the invading muslims, but did not do anything beyond that in fear of facing the wrath of the Fatimids.
1137-1173
Nolfo, Simon's only son, was the next heir to the Salerno family. He was born a genius of diplomacy and believed it was his destiny to rule a Kingdom. The only problem was that in order to declare himself King of Naples, he would have to conquer provinces which where now vassals to muslims kingdoms reaching from spain to Jeresulem. But he had one thing in his favour - all the muslim kingdoms he faced where ruled by old men. So he waited - he waited for them to die, and their alliances to be no more, and he slowly and patiently snatched up their italian vassals one by one untill there where only two muslims counties left in spain (and he needed one more to delcare himself king) But those two provinces belonged to the Fatimids, and there was no chance that he could take them on alone... so he had to look for another way to gain an advantage. The Fatimid's where at war with Byzantium, but constantinople had fallen and Nolfo was not confident that he could rely on the conflict with byzantium to protect him from the Fatimid army.
It was when he heard news of a shiekdom declaring independance from Fatimid rule that he realized his real opportunity. the leader the fatimids was sickly and incompetant, and the only thing keeping the kingdom together was his incredibly skilled chancellor. His plan was to assassinate the chancellor, and watch the Fatimids crumble from within while byzantium waged their incompetant war and wore them down from without, leting him quickly strike at the italian provinces and call himself King of Naples. The only problem was that every assassination attempt failed... failed... and failed again - there must of been half a dozen attempts, and every time his plot was discovered - Nolfo was starting to look pretty foolish. But then, the Fatimids retaliated with their own plot and killed Nolfo's first son, Ausonio - this infuriated Nolfo to no end (he had always had a vengeful personality) and caused him to throw caution into the wind and go to war with the Fatimids, regardless of the danger. T
he fatimid provinces in italy fell quickly, and Nolfo then sailed for Alexandria to get revenge for his son's death. It turned out that his meddling wasn't needed for the Fatimids to crumble apart, and that the Byzanitums where not quite as incompetant as they apeared to be - as his army was sailing to Alexandria, the Fatimids where still fighting once loyal shiekdoms, and Byzanitum was making progress down the eastern coast of the mediteranean (although they never did retake constantinople  ) When Nolfo landed in Alexandria, there was no resistance and it quickly fell. He then marched to Cairo taking two other provinces on his way, and then made peace with the Fatimid's new ruler (the sickly incompetant one died during the war somehow) and declared himself king of Naples and duke of Alexandria, while ending the crusade his Grand Father had called. (A new crusade was immedately called to reclaim Burgos, now that spain is ruled completely by muslims)
The whole experience in dealing with the muslims and having his son killed had made him into a zealous crusader, and he was now on a personal crusade. After making peace he began converting the conquered lands with the same zeal his crusading grand father had, all the while building up his armies for further conflict with the muslims. With the Fatimids suffering from civil war and defeat, they where no longer the intimidating force they once where and once Nolfo had retrained his armies (including a formible 4000 man army trained in the newly conquered Alexandria) he launched another war against the Fatimids. This time the muslims to the west of alexandira joined the fatimids in their war, but it was still not enough. Nolfo quickly conquered all of Egypt with only his alexandiran army, and two regiments from sicily, while a another his uncle Jamal marched east through africaacompaied by a third sicilian regiment, untill they arrived in Alexandria. Happy with this, and now reconized in Europe as the most prestigious and pious leader second only to the emperor of Byzantium (and just barely), he made peace with the Fatimids and declared himself King of Naples and Egypt.
He is now 67 years old and while he had 4 sons of his own, he only has one grandson (that of the assassinated Ausonio) who is now the next heir to the throne. After making peace with the Fatimids for the second time, Nolfo continued in his efforts to convert the muslims and now most of north Africa is Christian. But he controls such a huge demense now, that he does not even have enough family members or even courtiers to divide it amongst, and is directly controling all of egypt and sicily by himself - it's a taxing effort and if he doesn't die of old age soon, he will probably go mad with stress. It remains to be seen how his grandson will fair in ruling such a vast kingdom - although a clever webweaver, he is only a shadow of Nolfo's diplomatic genius.
And that's where I am right now...
 I didn't intend to write an AAR.... but I guess that's what it turned out as.
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14-02-2005 03:33
I did read an AAR once though, where the writer played from 1066 to 1920.
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