AAR: Me, Floris | Completed | Chapter 60 & Epilogue posted (19-09-2015)

You mean things like seeing people on forums telling people that others (ironically implying themselves to be in that number by their pretention) have lives? 

Veraxus5 said:

You mean things like seeing people on forums telling people that others (ironically implying themselves to be in that number by their pretention) have lives? 

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You want to start a debate about the words "funny things happen in the summer"... And no... that's not really what I meant.

Heya all, sorry for my absence, but I've been on an unexpected holiday (which is always a good thing!). I'll be away today for the whole day too, but tomorrow I'll update my game and start working on the story again. Don't worry: I haven't stopped, abandoned or been abducted by Vaegir. I can't promise an update for tomorrow, but I'll do my best to post one this weekend. Let's roll again!

Haha I loved when King Haralus lost his army, I've never seen him say that before even after countless hours trekking around.

monnikje said:

Heya all, sorry for my absence, but I've been on an unexpected holiday (which is always a good thing!). I'll be away today for the whole day too, but tomorrow I'll update my game and start working on the story again. Don't worry: I haven't stopped, abandoned or been abducted by Vaegir. I can't promise an update for tomorrow, but I'll do my best to post one this weekend. Let's roll again!

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YAY! monnikje is back!

woot!

Hallelujah!

At last, the clouds have parted and the sunshine returns. I had started working on a tombstone for Floris but there's plenty of room on the back burner. Welcome home.

My oh my, I'm hardly back and people suddenly visit me like crazy. And work catches up... Anyway, let's first start to reply to all the posts I had missed:

Count Edmundus: That's indeed a lot, and I'm intending to raise the number even more. Unfortunately I think the same thing will happen as had happened when I invited all my lords to the parties: only a dozen will be visible, and the rest will slumber in the dark limbo of no-one's land until a spot will come free. I would've liked to see them all crammed together.

Lord Brutus: Thanks! I had found the groove back.

Bobsama: You've got quite a war behind you. And a lot of prisoners too. But Nords owning half the map... That's quite dangerous. I hope you managed to defeat Ragnar in my absence.

Mrr.Phil: Although it's a good idea to have them locked up in different cells, I'd also like to have them crammed together. I would only have to flood one room to unnoble the Nord kingdom then. Ow, and I won't keep other cities for myself, so that would make it harder to lock them away in Uxkhal.

Bobsama: Exactly! And woah, you've got quite some towns for yourself.

CounterPoint391: And I intend to keep the mojo in play .

KillerDudeMan: What happened at Curaw is part of the business plan: I stopped selling tools over there, and stockpile it until I fetch it and sell it for a better price. But while the workshop stockpiles (and thus doesn't earn money), it does have costs. Even though it doesn't have to buy its raw materials, it does have to pay the wages for the local master and craftsmen. That's where the -60 denars come from.

Mrr.Phil: And unfortunately it would become more than 3 days, more like 3 weeks. But I'm back now, so it's time to revive!

gypsydevil: Oh my, I've set a standard by which people measure their games now... That creates expectations. When I started this AAR, it was just a small side project, but look at it now!
The plan hasn't been abandoned yet, but remember, there are only a few days between the last few chapters! I simply haven't had the time yet to ditch all those villages and execute all details of the plan. Don't worry, in time it will change.

gypsydevil: That statue will be much appreciated, and Floris will even return to admire it himself!

William de Beaujeu: Euhm... Yes, yes, I was preparing my next move. Absolutely! I had to travel far to find a secluded monastery where I could learn from ancient monks to do next. That's the only explanation for my absence. Really!

cardician: I hope you haven't had a nerve breakdown from the waiting yet. But you didn't have to wait as long as the rest. Great to hear you learned much and enjoyed it!

Dohati: Me neither!

Artour Dain: If all goes well, tomorrow or Monday. I'm afraid you'll have to wait just a little more, but now you know that it is near.

gypsydevil: Hm... I could give Floris a big horn .

KillerDudeMan: What a shocking thought ! But even though it might surprise some people, sometimes I do things outside this story.

Veraxus5: That would be just silly of me! Me, getting a life? Time to end it! Wait... something goes wrong in that thought...

KillerDudeMan: I can only agree. Like six years ago, when there was a Venus transit (Venus moved in front of the sun: next one will be in 2012, and the time after that in 2117). I woke that day besides a telescope, after some adventures the evening before to fetch some filters from some really mad scientists, and having dinner on top of one of the highest buildings in the centre of Amsterdam. Before I was fully awake a schoolclass entered the dome, followed by a camera showing me live on national television who managed to show the market reports over Venus... I ended that day by reading Terry Pratchett at an exam (and passing anyway!) and drinking tea in the house of a girl I just met. Yes, funny things can happen in the summer, and I can't wait for the next Venus transit .

monnikje: Wait, that's me...

Ssgt. Griggs, gypsydevil & Jarl Erik the Red: Hurray!

Lord Brutus: Thanks .

It's great to be missed, but even greater to be back! Thanks all for surviving these weeks without Floris, and I'll do my best to make it up. Now it's time for dinner, gaming, writing, image editing and posting. And probably some sleeping somewhere in between, although that's optional...

I decided to start a new game since helping Nords own half the map. You're right in that they're too dangerous to be so powerful, even with angry Jarls. My current game is entering the third year or so; I started as a merchant and then joined the Sarranids. I captured alone and was granted my first castle, which I promptly filled with a load of soldiers. We exterminated Vaegirs with the help of Nords, at which point I renounced my oath while holding onto two towns (Curaw, Reyvadin) since the Sarranids started to have an Emir Overload. I have a screenshot of them with 48 Emirs occupying their original territory plus a little bit more.

I'll tell you more when I get back. And I look forward to your next update.

I looked through the first five pages to see if it had been addressed, and gave up after that, so I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but goddamn: "Me I, Floris."

Dryvus said:

I looked through the first five pages to see if it had been addressed, and gave up after that, so I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but goddamn: "Me I, Floris."

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are you really sure about that? your not thinking of like "john, jake and I"? i believe what monnikje was going for was "The story of me, the story of floris". or similarly "Is there a floris in here?" "Me, i'm floris"

Analyzing the size of the map, it seems that once you inevitably seize the whole map, the territory you will rule is the size of New Jersey.And each country is the size of Rhode Island.

Welcome back Monnikje, seems we had the same holliday period. I visited hastings and several norman castles in the south of England. I am all ready for some dark age slaughter....

Cheers, Gerard

I went to hastings as well , also seeing some interesting castles along the way.

Bobsama: That's a lot of Emirs . But you're doing pretty well too, I hear. Taking your time too, like I have. I'd like to hear more when you return.

Dryvus: 25 pages here on TalesWorld and 11 on Paradox, and no-one has addressed this before. At least, I can't remember it and I don't feel like checking all those pages for it. but anyway, I did think about the title 'I, Floris'. It reminded me of 'I, Claudius'. But when I thought about that, the following popped into my mind: 'It's me, Mario!'. Or, in other words: 'It's a-me, Mario!'. I just combined these two thoughts into one, and the title was born.

Mrr.Phil: Quite interesting to know! But I think that Floris would be more than pleased to have this land once he conquers it all. Let's see... Wiki says that New Jersey is in total 22,608 km2, with 19,239 km2 land and 2,829 km2 water. The old County of Holland, where Floris comes from, is approximately as big as the combined modern-day Dutch provinces of North and South Holland. Their combined surface is 7,520 km2, with 5,486 km2 land and 2,034 km2 water. That's almost twice Rhode Island, which fits indeed nicely.

Gerard Mulder: And you welcome back too . What a coincidence.

I've finished the writing: after I'm done with the editing of the screenshots, I'll post the next chapter.

What i ment that was, by analyzing the party movement speed, wich ranges from 1-15 MPH or KMPH, you get that the size of Calradia is about the size of NJ. And since Rhode Island is about a sixth or an eight or somthing, the 6 kingdoms are average the size of Rhode Island.

I've since turned campaign difficulty up to the highest option.




It's gotten worse, too.

Mrr.Phil: Ah, I thought you meant that it was 'just' as big as New Jersey. Anyway, if Floris succeeds, he'd have a territory three times as large as he had back in Europe. Quite pleasing to know .

Bobsama: Oh my... That's a lot! And I'd definately don't want to attack that Shariz.

Update in a few minutes.

Dear Diary,

The war had taken quite a different course than I had imagined it would. When I started it twelve days ago, I had thought I would surprise them, force them back, take their castles and conclude some business while I were at it. In a way that had happened, but absolutely not as I had thought it would. The fighting is over... For now. And while my men rejoice with the returned Lezalit, I can't feel any happiness. War has changed forever, I can feel it in my snowcold bones.

Two weeks ago I had mustered around 1700 men and 14 lords to accompany me to victory. But in these weeks much has happened, and a lot of lives had been lost in an enormous short timespan. I had conquered Wercheg, but at what price? In a week time my army had been reduced to just 700 men and a handfull of lords. How would I win this war with only so few? Despite my prisoners there were still 26 free jarls at that time, not including king Ragnar himself. If he was smart, he would gather them all and crush my small band. I'm glad that hasn't happened.

Six days ago I threw my recently captured prisoners in the brick of Khudan, and reevaluated my situation. The risk of an all-out mobilization of the Nords was still very high, with that many still roaming free. I needed to hunt them down one by one, and lock them all away before they could destroy my fresh victory. Where to start this mad manhunt? I looked in my backpack, and saw a lot of fish and salt. That moment I remembered my business plan: I needed to relinquish myself from many fiefs and reevaluate the operation of some businesses. I also needed desperately to trade... What better than to combine them all? I would set out to Curaw, a border city, where I would sell the salt and go on from there on to finish it all and capture some nobles on my way. Unfortunately nothing happened the way it is supposed to go. In Curaw the prices of salt had dropped dramatically and to top it, my freshly conquered city of Wercheg was under siege. So I gathered my men and rode out, through the snowy cold landscape. Two jarls had dared to ride onto the peninsula: Tonju and Tansugai. With my army of 700 men I broke their siege by just appearing. They tried to ride away, but couldn't escape my wrath. Unfortunately they managed to evade capture, but their armies had been destroyed anyway.


Glad to be free of snowcold feet I fought fiercely against those two jarls.

Wercheg had been saved - again - but I hadn't come any closer to realising my goals. To do so, I needed to go to the kingdom of Rhodoks and visit both Veluca and Jelkala. That seemed like a smart move, since selling salt in Nord cities seemed a little problematic now. So I rode from Wercheg south. On my way I passed Curaw, and saw the city of Reyvadin on my route. I looked at my men, and decided to make a bald move. The castle was heavily defended, but we were strong: we were Hollandic. Artimenner prepared the ladders, and pretty soon I found myself in another siege.

I had learned from my previous Nord encounters: those huscarls were deadly on walls. So I ordered my men to hold their position, and let my sharpshooters fire their bolts away. I myself had prepared for this, and stocked myself with 91 bolts. Quite some archers fell down from the walls by my hands. When I noticed that my men started to ran out of bolts, I ordered them to finally storm the ladders. I picked up some bolts from fallen comrades, but the fighting continued long after I had ran out of all the bolts on the field. In the end we won, but once again against a very high price. Even though 440 defenders had been killed, and 12 wounded, 682 of my men had been disabled: 222 dead and 460 wounded. Almost no-one was standing anymore.


My men were holding position and fired upon the defenders.

The only good news was that I managed to capture jarl Surdun. I needed to lock him away pretty soon. But the moment I left this freshly captured city, my entire army dissolved. No noble wanted to stay along. They all dragged their wounded to all corners of my kingdom. My army! King Ragnar, give me back my legions! I had now conquered two Nord cities, but had no support anymore to push any further. My own men were bleeding too, so I was forced to return home anyway, where I dropped Surdun in my cell.

Back in Reyvadin I met Baheshtur once again in a tavern. He immediately greeted me like an old friend, like nothing had happened in the past. Apparently my fame had even grown outside Calradia, where he had heard of my progress in his homeland. Still not accepted by his old tribesmen, he decided to try his luck once again at my side. And today was indeed his lucky day. Not only did I accept his warm greetings, I also lifted him up to nobility and gave him the newly conquered Reyvadin as a fief.

When I returned to Khudan, more state business awaited me. Rochabarth had decided to abandon the Sarranids and try his luck in Holland. He couldn't arrive at a better time: I had fiefs to spare. I immediately gave him Alburq castle. Also I asked my wife for advice on assigning the city of Wercheg. When she told me Delinard had already the support of six other nobles, I followed her advice and gave him that fief. but that wasn't all. With pain in my heart I analysed the fighting so far: I conquered quite some Nord land, but lost my entire standing army. I needed time, which I didn't have during this war. So I called Lezalit, and sent him away on a peace mission.


Lezalit returned with good news.

Right after Lezalit I rode out too, to hunt down some Nords. I defeated Harish and Gearth, but captured neither. Now, just before I confronted Despin, he returned with good news. King Ragnar hadn't been able to gather all his nobles. He was rather panicked by my bold moves. Hadn't I conquered quite large portions of Nord lands in less than two weeks? He wanted this to end, before I would usurp everything he owned and hold dear. Good to hear that the news of my diminished army hadn't reached his ears. Here, in the soaring cold of the snowy fields between Reyvadin and Curaw, my men rejoice this 20-day truce. After this small break I will strike again. But for now, I'll need to prepare all over again.



*****
Gameplay notes
I decided to first write this chapter and then upgrade my game and mods to the latest patch. So this chapter has still be made with the goo' ol' 1.125 patch: the next one will be in 1.127.
Here is a picture of Floris' current stats:


As you can see, I conquered Reyvadin. That's all that's changed before this phase of the war ended.