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Alfred the Great (at Murdering): part 1.
I?m not very creative, but I know how to play the game, so don?t expect anything too flowery aside from my flamboyant penchant for sneaky usurpations. I?m probably going to try and take over England at the least, and Britannia at most, but we?ll see how we go.
Here?s our hero, Alfred the Great. He?s generally considered to be one of the greatest (heh) English Kings of all time, and his traits and stats here reflect this. At game start in 867 he?s an earl under his brother ?thelred who is currently supporting their brother in law, the petty king of Mercia, against the Great Heathen Army.
Historically, Alfred was the designated heir of ?thelred so when the elder died, Alfred succeeded ahead of ?thelred?s young sons. Wessex starts out under Agnatic Primogeniture which makes the historical events of Alfred?s life nigh impossible to achieve without player input if ?thelred ever has any children. I?ve chosen to try out some of the features of Way of Life and go for an Intrigue focus to murder my shitty brother.
To help with my noble goal of fratricide, I enlist the skills of this fine creature to be my wife and spymaster.
Using my special Intrigue diplomatic action will give me extra opportunities to end ?thelred?s worthless life. Sorry, bro. Until paradox makes a more in-depth succession system, this is how it has to be.
Here?s where I?d take the ?Exalted among men? ambition to force the ?Great? epithet on Alfred, but I have too much prestige somehow. Oh well. Alfred the sneaky murdering asshole will have to do.
Nice, dude! Telling everyone your older bro diddles kids is a pro move.
Our Alfred immediately moves away from his historical reputation as an honest and just ruler.
Cool. I?ve never seen this event option. I assume it?s part of Way of Life.
Aaaaaand kinslayer. Whoops. At least we don?t have to worry about getting killed while fighting the Vikings anymore.
?thelred gave away literally all but one of his counties because he had a Stewardship of 2. Alfred the Sneaky Murdering Bastard immediately puts his intrigue skills to good use to rectify this.
Yeah, sure. You do know I don?t have any boats, right?
Alfred starts saying ??lfred worships dark forces? while coughing at feasts until it catches on.
Before this excellent rumour takes fruit, however, ?lfred is unfortunately killed by a mysterious hail of arrows, which is somehow blamed on poor Alfred. I blame the dark forces.
I?m going to run out of counties to fortuitously inherit soon so I jack up my demesne limit.
You?re next Beorhthelm.
Murdering childhood friends is almost as bad as murdering brothers.
Aside from helping us plot nefarious murders, our wife is to provide us an heir. We were skirting a game over after brother dearest popped his clogs.
Finally, our spying yields an opportunity for murder!
Boo. Alfred isn?t very good at keeping his murderous ways a secret.
What he lacks in secrecy, he makes up with murderous efficiency. Poor Beorhthelm bites the dust and we consolidate a nice little demesne
And good news! We have a son and heir to continue our not so good name. This coupled with our ill-gotten counties has given Alfred a nice little platform to expand his power base to the north.
Next time: Alfred the Great at Murdering turns his attention and skills against large swathes of heathens (probably)