Well, I'll confess that I actually wasn't all that compelled by GalCiv II - I prefer a more leisurely pace to my life, and while the way the AI races tend to force your hand in the game might be realistic enough, it's fairly antithetical to my notion of fun.
So I did something else.
Being an Account of the Reign of His Royal Highness, King Knud I, Part the First
In the closing months of the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eighty, the Kingdom of Denmark, for all its ambitions, is merely the most powerful of a squabbling tangle of small principalities stretching across northern Europe. In time, it will be a simple matter to bring to heel any and all of the false claimants to the Crown of the Midnight Sun, but the wealthier lands of the continental center and the British Isles - the English, French, Poles, and especially the Holy Roman Empire - may do so with equal ease, and, for the time being, are not so terribly mistaken to regard the Danes as merely another rebel goat to be eaten at leisure.
Avoiding this threat will require swift and precipitous action. Fortunately, we have now at arms sufficient troops to mount a worthy assault upon any city in the world... leaving only the question of where.
Hamburgers speak German, and the Holy Roman Empire has long been known to have designs on the province. While the Empire's grandiose claims and ambitions cannot help but ultimately conflict with Denmark's, the moment for a direct confrontation will not come for some time.
The broad, wild lands bordering the North and Baltic seas are rich in resources and, in time, will likely prove the core of Danish power, but for now they are only sparsely settled, and all too likely to prove a drain on the Crown's resources rather than a boon.
Between English claims and Danish holdings, however, lie the wealthy but bitterly divided lands of the Low Countries, with their complex web of internal power-fueds centering around the twin fortified cities of Antwerp and Bruge.
With the latest war in the area only just concluded, the moment is ripe, and His Majesty accordingly marshalls the forces of the crown and bids his son, Prince Charles, to break these wild horses to harness.
When, after seven years of travel, the Danish forces at last come to stand beneath the walls of Antwerp, the rulers of that city, being brave but over-certain of their own power, sally forth to drive the invaders from their lands - and are shattered on the field and harried back to their homes, such that Danish blades follow them to their homes and win free their treasure for the benefit of the Crown and its people. A mere month passes before the Great Army is once again on the march, down the road to Bruge, which falls quickly in like manner.
The conclusion of a treaty of peace with the Holy Roman Empire in the intervening years before the arrival of this fortunate news shall be of great value to the Kingdom. While it is without doubt that the German lack of fealty shall tell in the end, the fear of the displeasure of His Holiness the Pope and the Lord Almighty God shall likely stay their hand a while - and win us the time we need.
Breaking character for a moment, what the hell is up with the travel times in this game? Four years to sail, what, a hundred miles? No way!
Ja, -n
===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."
So I did something else.
Being an Account of the Reign of His Royal Highness, King Knud I, Part the First
In the closing months of the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eighty, the Kingdom of Denmark, for all its ambitions, is merely the most powerful of a squabbling tangle of small principalities stretching across northern Europe. In time, it will be a simple matter to bring to heel any and all of the false claimants to the Crown of the Midnight Sun, but the wealthier lands of the continental center and the British Isles - the English, French, Poles, and especially the Holy Roman Empire - may do so with equal ease, and, for the time being, are not so terribly mistaken to regard the Danes as merely another rebel goat to be eaten at leisure.
Avoiding this threat will require swift and precipitous action. Fortunately, we have now at arms sufficient troops to mount a worthy assault upon any city in the world... leaving only the question of where.
Hamburgers speak German, and the Holy Roman Empire has long been known to have designs on the province. While the Empire's grandiose claims and ambitions cannot help but ultimately conflict with Denmark's, the moment for a direct confrontation will not come for some time.
The broad, wild lands bordering the North and Baltic seas are rich in resources and, in time, will likely prove the core of Danish power, but for now they are only sparsely settled, and all too likely to prove a drain on the Crown's resources rather than a boon.
Between English claims and Danish holdings, however, lie the wealthy but bitterly divided lands of the Low Countries, with their complex web of internal power-fueds centering around the twin fortified cities of Antwerp and Bruge.
With the latest war in the area only just concluded, the moment is ripe, and His Majesty accordingly marshalls the forces of the crown and bids his son, Prince Charles, to break these wild horses to harness.
When, after seven years of travel, the Danish forces at last come to stand beneath the walls of Antwerp, the rulers of that city, being brave but over-certain of their own power, sally forth to drive the invaders from their lands - and are shattered on the field and harried back to their homes, such that Danish blades follow them to their homes and win free their treasure for the benefit of the Crown and its people. A mere month passes before the Great Army is once again on the march, down the road to Bruge, which falls quickly in like manner.
The conclusion of a treaty of peace with the Holy Roman Empire in the intervening years before the arrival of this fortunate news shall be of great value to the Kingdom. While it is without doubt that the German lack of fealty shall tell in the end, the fear of the displeasure of His Holiness the Pope and the Lord Almighty God shall likely stay their hand a while - and win us the time we need.
Breaking character for a moment, what the hell is up with the travel times in this game? Four years to sail, what, a hundred miles? No way!
Ja, -n
===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."