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Chapter 3: The Prince of Thieves



Our massive Tengri neighbor declaring war on us is no reason to stop teaching our children. It's very important that they have an absolute hatred of the heathens.



Our first son comes of age. He has lots of Martial, which he'll need. Hopefully he'll pick up Zealous on a pilgrimage.

If you look closely you can see the Cumanian army.



I marry him off to a Midas Touched girl and collect aid money.



I should have kept the money, seeing as piety is fairly useless for Orthodox Christians, but I figured that since Tamar is Zealous, she'd give the money anyways.

With the several mercenaries we've hired, we now have a 11k strong army. It's a shame that half of that is Light Infantry.



We win our first battle and we capture a high chief. His ransom will go right into the war fund.




And then this guy declares war on us.



And now he's in prison.







I don't think the Cumans have much fight in them. I've destroyed most of their other armies.



And there we go.



I'm sure they're harmless.


Speaking of culture, I'm always upset that when you take over a culture with a different retinue, you have to restart the retinue buildings. The reason why it will be aggravating this playthrough won't come for some time.



Something weird happened with my firstborn son at this point. He was no longer in the line of inheritance. He hadn't joined a holy order and he hadn't become a monk. The game said he was to be the heir of some random city, but then he wasn't.



I was hoping for Midas Touched, but this will do.



Apparently we declared war on these guys. Well, we got more land now.



Let's have some archery fun.





It's wedding time!



I didn't have any land to give them, so I built a barony and landed Sir Robin.



I declare another war on the Cumans while they're weak and I have money. I'm aiming for Crimea now.



I also betroth my bastard daughter to the Holy Roman Emperor. Since she's illegitimate and not of my dynasty, this won't amount to much. But marrying my daughter to the most powerful man in Europe is the best I can do for her.



I didn't even bring out the mercenaries for this. It's kinda sad.



See? Easy as pie.



This might be a good time to talk about my husband. He is the prince of Denmark and has a strong claim on it. But Denmark is far away and I'd really like to conserve my resources. I've been winning my wars, but only through sucker punching my enemies. Making a mistake against guys who can go for kingdoms is extremely costly.



Conversion is very important after a holy war, but at least we have fairly high Moral Authority to speed it up.



Imagine my surprise when this event popped up. It seems that the "Rise of the Shia" event becomes rarer as time goes on. But the Seljuks are pretty tough, and they have an alliance with Egypt, the powerhouse of the Islamic world.



Good luck, kid.



The Rurikids at this point have boatloads of dynastic prestige, so our son here is by far of the most prestigious of his brothers.



Valdemar dies, so I marry one of my widower lovers.



I'm sure these guys will never be a threat. Right?

Next Time: GAAAHHH! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!