Following the death of King John I in 1216, barons seized the opportunity during 1217 to in-fight over territory and almost plunged what remained of the country into civil war. The Welsh were quick to take advantage of this situation, and launched skirmishes into Middle England but found themselves being repelled by barons banding together; fearing the land they fought over themselves would be taken by another behind their backs. Having staved off the invasion and lost much of their armies in the process, the barons declared a truce out of respect for one another's mutual assistance. As such, England now finds itself at peace and has no professional standing army.
It is a new dawn for England. King Henry III has returned from his re-coronation and sent word throughout the land that he is God's chosen ruler of England on earth, and that his actions carry behind them the approval of the Pope himself. As a result, the barons have put to bed any treasonous intentions, for now, and have once again pledged their allegiance to the King, intent on carrying out his will; knowing that lands directed to be conquered may be of use to them in any future rebellion against the Crown. Lord Laurence knows this more than most and finds himself in an exceptional strategic position - Nottingham Fortress in the heart of England; protected from the Scots to the North by Lord Jasper of York, closest of all the nobility, geographically speaking, to the King, and in prime position to launch an invasion into Wales, conquering Caernarvon castle - granting him two defensible positions in the centre of the British Isles; and become Lord of two castles, whilst the Crown merely owns one - Winchester castle.
Some veterans from the last decade are garrisoned at Winchester castle, and King Henry still commands the men that travelled with him to Rome and back. It is time to rule.
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I control 6 territories; London (pop. 15,000 - increasing), Winchester (pop. 4,500 - decreasing), Exeter (pop. 3,800 - increasing), Nottingham (pop. 8,500 - stable), York (pop. 4,800 - increasing) and Dublin (pop. 4,000 - increasing).
I have 5 generals; King Henry (London), Duke Edward (Exeter), Jasper (York), Laurence (Nottingham), and Gregory Dudley (Dublin).
My intention is to rule through a code of chivalry and encourage the development of good governors. Galway, an Irish castle is under independent rule, as is Caernarvon, a Welsh castle. I plan to take these two settlements whilst dissuading Scotland from attacking me by creating a border force - though I ultimately intend to rule the British Isles alone, without worrying about being attacked from the rear when the time comes to expand back onto mainland Europe in an attempt to reclaim the "
Angevin Empire".
Byg considers the ability to
Action: Spy on enemy forces, and thus intimately know them, to be exploitative. As such, spy's line of sight has been reduced, and they do not gain skill from
Action: Spy. Instead, they're intended to be used as scouts. With my spy, Richard, I can either
Action: Spy on Caernarvon; likely resulting in his death (gaining me no particular advantage, as I intend to besiege settlements for as long as possible; to whittle down the defending garrison, force a sally, and ultimately lose as fewer men as possible assaulting the walls), or send him north of the Anglo-Scot border to keep watch on their movements, and give me advanced warning of their intentions. Richard is sent North.
Despite a buoyant treasury, Generals in BGR must fund the recruitment of units out of their own pocket (and can claim the cost back next turn from the treasury if they are a designated War Council Member), but can only do so if the men are available to recruit. These men must be drafted from the land in January, and compensation paid to the landowners per region, due to the loss of hands available during the harvest months. The more men drafted for recruitment, the higher the compensation cost. From a previous campaign, I found that relying on the units from the start of the game alone allowed for a focused building policy, creating a solid economy - but this didn't matter much when my single army was slowly hacked away during multiple battles with the Scots over York, and I hadn't drafted any manpower available to recruit as reinforcements. I had the money to equip multiple armies; but no men available to recruit without severely harming my economy and harvest capabilities the following year. Having learnt from previous experience, I select the second lowest option of Military Service of 14 manpower units (the lowest being 0 manpower units) costing the treasury 200 florins per region per month (thus 1,200 florins per turn, with 6 regions). I disband a unit of Archer Militia in Dublin, regaining their 1 manpower cost, intending on using it to recruit a unit of Peasant Infantry to act as a garrison as their upkeep is marginally cheaper. I do the same in London with a unit of Spear Militia, and send two units of Archer Militia in separate stacks towards Winchester and Exeter. I could have simply disbanded them both in London, knowing that the subsequent 3 units of manpower would be shared amongst the Centrally controlled settlements of Exeter, Winchester and London in a few turns time, but recruiting in a settlement also draws a corresponding number of men from the population - and so it's only fair that the units are disbanded, and the population added to, in settlements where recruitment is about to take place; otherwise I will socially engineer ghost towns.
In BGR however, sizeable armies roaming the campaign map without a General to lead them are likely to rebel without the presence of leadership, hence I send the Archers instead of the Spears - as they will die from a quick cavalry charge if they rebel, and move them as single units to halve the chance of rebellion.
With the gained manpower from disbandment, I can't recruit any units yet without incurring double the cost from the treasury, as it is Turn 1 and no one has yet been recognised as a governor (and thus responsible for the cost of recruitment).
Norman Serjeants garrisoned in Nottingham fortress march into York to bolster the garrison along England's Northern frontier.
Princess Margaret and my diplomat stand a-top of the cliffs of Dover, awaiting safe passage over to Europe aboard my 'navy' of 2 units of Holk ships. Princess Margaret will go to Castile in an attempt to marry herself to the Castilian Prince, securing a marriage alliance between England and Spain for future attacks against the French, and my diplomat Laurence will make haste to Rome to secure an alliance with the Papal State, and thus protection against attack from other Catholic nations, picking up trade agreements en route.
My two bishops are moved to London and Winchester regions to increase the level of religious support there, in preparation for the days of centralised command, where faction zeal is low, and quality units can only be recruited from Centrally commanded regions with high levels of religious support.
Lastly, I begin the construction of Logging Camps in all settlements, to reduce the cost of future wooden structures - and lower tax rates to Low, to help improve the governor's chivalry, and increase the rate of population growth.