Wittelsbach

[Duke of Bavaria]

So i am about to write my first AAR now.
I know it will be less than perfect but i just want to try one, perhaps i can learn from it.
I have also played EU II and Vicky and basically always play Bavaria as i study Politics and Bavarian history and are from Bavaria. Also playing a minor is always fun , as i dont like to go on World conquest but prefer a historical and roleplay approch to the games (so no EU II for me).
But i will just begin now, i hope i will get a lot of responses to my efforts.
Oh and please be kind and overlook the bad english , as i am not a native speaker as said before. Critical responses welcome, though.

So here will follow my game as Niederbayern and the Wittelsbach family soon.

I will play from 1066 on and on the most difficult step.
I will not use any help like bridefinder or something else.
So it could happen that the AAR end suddenly when i loose.

[Francis II]

Sounds good. Good luck with it. The Wittelsbachs have a long a storied history.

[Duke of Bavaria]

Otto I, Count of Niederbayern

Otto I, count of Niederbayern looked out of the window of his rotten "castle", which basically consisted of some farm houses on a hill, "protected" by palisade.

The mighty capital of Niederbayern:

No, his Niederbayern surely wasnt one of the richest counties in the Empire, and compared to the whealthy lands to the south of the Alps, which he of course had only heard of, his whole country seemed like a big rotten farm.
His anchestors had reached control over this piece of land by taking over the leftovers of Roman culture and administration here in Southern Germany. His rule in Niederbayern was strong, but what did that mean...
He was ambitious and could do basically nothing to gain glory with the limited resources he had.
Ambitions...yes...he dreamt of one thing...he had heard about a Bavarian duchy that stretched from Frankonia to Tirol, from Schwabia to Austria...he wanted to build that Duchy again and perhaps even rule it without anyone above him...he would be willing to risk his life in battle for this anytime, as he was known as a good fighter...
But these were his ambitions and this was Niederbayern, poor and under the indirect control of Otto von Nordheim, Duke of Bavaria who himself only was a liege to Heinrich von Franken, the emperor.
The road to glory for the Wittelsbach family would be long and hard...but it was time to begin it right now...

[thrashing mad]

Good luck with AAR. Don`t worry about english, mine is poor but people seems to not bother. It`ll be indeed interesting long road to glory, starting as Count

[Duke of Bavaria]

So in 1066 Otto began to do what was in his power to bring Wittelsbach on its way to glory.
He assembled his court, that was his wife Haziga, which he married on his final step to bring Niederbayern under control, as she was the only daughter of his old rivals for power, the family of Andechs, her older half brother, Friedrich von Andechs, who had no claims for the Andechs lands anymore and now spent the rest of his live with his half sister, and the three sons of the Wittelsbach family Ekkehard, Bernhardt and Otto.
"Sons, this moment will be a very special one in the history of our family, i will take action to make us the most glorious family in whole Bavaria, and one day your task will be to keep up the quest for glory..."
"OK, but can we play now..."
"Yes you can but never forget my words..."
"OK, bye.."

After that little talk with his sons he started to get things going.
He handed over the treasure chest with the 22 gold coins, that were all his belongings to his wife Hadziga, so he could never spend most of his income on beer and wine again, and called her his "steward" from that day on.
Her brother was appointed as "Chancellor", which meant everbody who wanted to speak the Count had to make an appointment with him first, a incident that didnt happen too often, really...

But a few weeks after Friedrich announced a visitor to the King. Otto was delighted to see his efforts pay off. The visitor was a local craftsman, who had been ón a visit to his uncle in Salzburg. There he saw a weapon that could strike the enemy on a long distance: The bow.
Of course this weapon had been known before in Niederbayern, but the improved technology from Salzburg improved it from a toy to a serious weapon. "If that isnt a prove i am on the right way...", Otto shouted in jubilation.

This picture was drawn after the peasants of Niederbayern tried the new weapon for the first time:

[Duke of Bavaria]

Soon after this great event Friedrich approached Otto again, saying there was a guest waiting for him.

"Bring him in, then, what are you waiting for?"

Friedrich brought the stranger in front of Otto.

"So who are you, what do you want."

"They call me Georg and i was living in Austria before, but my Count expelled me because i was accused of a crime. But it wasnt me...please i need a new home...me and the woman that is travelling with me...she was accused to be involved in this thing too..."

Otto thought that surely this guy might be able to cause trouble, but he didnt look at all like this, and when he questioned him further he found out that he was a noble man, too. Surely his count was a bad man as are all that occupy the lands his future Bavaria will be based on, and so he decided to buy the 2 refugees a house and as the woman who travelled with Georg proved to be witty and intelligent and also looked good, so he wanted him to see her more often he appointed her as new Chancelor.



Friedrich was shocked!!!!
Even when Otto appointed him to the newly created position as Spymaster he still seemed very unhappy...perhaps not the best move to have someone like him protect you...
As Otto just was in the right mood he also appointed Georg as marshall, as everyone knew Georg was the Saint of Knights and so he surely would fill out this role very good...thats what Otto thought until he saw him permanently falling down from almost every horse he ever rode and constantly injuring himself with the weapons he tried to fight with...well now it was too late...


As he didnt quite pan out to be a Georg like this:





...Otto just decided to call him "Boy George", never really knew why exactly, though.

[Veldmaarschalk]

Good luck with your first AAR !

[Duke of Bavaria]

So Otto had something like a real court now and it seemed good things were to come on a constant basis, but then one day Ekkehard, the first born son of Otto wanted to have a talk with him:

"You know father, i know you have great plans with our family , but i just dont know if i can live up to all that. I try to do my best, i practice jousting and fighting every day, like you told me and in the evenings when i am already very tired i still cant sleep because i have to think so much about our great plans and if i can live up to them...it really just seems to be too much for me sometimes...it just feels like i cant take it any longer, you know..."

Otto wasnt touched too much by this confession: "Well, just keep on doing your best son, and i have to say your best still isnt as good as the achievments of your brother Bernhardt..."

Ekkehardt closed his eyes and hung his head as he left the room...
He decided to concentrate on learning martial skills even more to prove he is the right heir for the County...even if that meant never to feel good again and get a little away from other things in his live.

The burden of being the first born son seems to get a little too much for Ekkehard:

[Duke of Bavaria]

After his son said he feels that he feels tired a lot Otto himself thought he could use some time away from Niederbayern to keep in good shape for the great things to come. So he visited the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Heinrich von Franken at his court. Words can not explain the impressions Otto took with him from this visit...now he wanted to be a great ruler even more...but at the moment the only way to achieve this surely would be good marriage politics or a wonder. For the first one there was one negative aspect more...The Emperors wife was pregnant, so his family should reign another generation if it became a son...not that anyone at the imperial court really would have considered marrying anyone from the "family out of the woods". But anyway this was a thing to worry about , when Ottos sons would be older...

Heinrich von Franken seemed to have a golden future in front of him:

[Duke of Bavaria]

After Ottos return from the Imperial Court he immidiately had to solve another problem: "So my third son Otto has to begin an education...i think i will send him to to be raised by monks...he has 2 older brothers and i only can offer one poor county to my heirs...it surely will be best if he can go into a monastery and live there when i die some day..."
So Ottos son Otto, or as he was called by all, "Ottilo" , was sent to a monastery to receive the holy word. he adopted to the life there very fast and was said to be a very modest scholar.

[Duke of Bavaria]

Ottilo immediately took part in some researches at the monastery and it was found out that the rule of the princes in the HRE is based upon "divine right", which means no one can question this rule. The nobles where very happy to hear this as they now could tell their peasants it was gods will that they are ruled by nobles. This happiness was over when Count Otto told them he had a vision last night: "God wants all nobles to give me more money for his eternal praise..."

[Duke of Bavaria]

It was the year 1068 now and Niederbayern had lived through some changes the last year, when one day a stranger ran through the capital of Niederbayern shouting: War!!!!!!!! War!!!!!!!!
Immediately the whole population was upset and in terror and they caught the man and brought him in front of Otto I:
"War? What war?"
" I am an Austrian and was an ambassador to the Byzantine Empire when war broke out between the Empire and the Principality of Belgrade. The Emperor accused me of being a traitor but i managed to flee in time. When i arrived in Wien i was immediately sent on to tell the news of this war in the whole Holy Roman Empire...so i have to tell you now...the strange thing is that the Byzantine Emperor died only days after the war broke out..."
"Enough, get him out of here...why do you bother me with these drunk weirdos...Byzantine Empire...he surely made that up after he drank too much...theres only one Empire thats for sure..."

[Duke of Bavaria]

After this episode some real issues had to be taken care of:

As some people seemed to really believe some of the things the stranger said Otto decided it was time to stengten the true faith again, perhaps by building a church. So he asked the most clever people in his reign to try and make a plan for a church...as Niederbayern people are superior to most other people they had made a plan for a church soon after and wanted to build it with a new technology: brick work. Everything seemed to be going well until one day: The last words of Otto on this day before he went berserk were: "How much???!!???!!!!!!
Soon after 2 new candles for the old wooden church were bought...and you didnt hear much of a new one.


Much to modern and expensive for Ottos taste:



Ohh, and by the way master, we should perhaps build a sawmill first...

[Duke of Bavaria]

That was a shock for Otto.
"So basically we have no money at all to strenghten our County?", Otto asked his wife Haziga.
"Well you didnt spend all of it on booze so we actually have a little more than a year ago, but we cant afford to build a chruch with that."
"But other countries build churches...what do they do different"
"Well, we are a poor county as we dont have much traders and no gold, silver or salt mines so thats about it..."
"That cant be all..."
"Ahh there i remember a thing, when i travelled with my father to the south to meet our relatives in Italy i once talked to a farmer and he said they use there fields only every two years and because the fields can regenerate in the year off the corn grows better, we could try that, too."
"Well its worth a try...we have enough space..."

Effect:



"Well that will give us some more income from farming, perhaps we can even improve this system even more...let the farmers try things in this area.

[Duke of Bavaria]

So the economy was on a good way. "Time to deal with some family issues again", Otto decided. "I think i should take care of Berhard myself as he seems to be most gifted of all my sons and if Ekkehard should keep up his issues Bernhard could step in as heir.
From now on Otto took intensive care of Bernhard, which cost him some money and he didnt have much time to think of perhaps having more kids, but he thought it would be best to have a well educated son, that makes the most out of his potential. He didnt care that other people thought it was very bad of him to support his second son more than his first born, but what did he care about other people.

[Duke of Bavaria]

Sad news reach Otto soon after: Friedrich has died.
Even after Otto took away the prestigious position of Chancelor from Friedrich he always kept as loyal as you just could imagine.
So who would protect Otto now?
Suddenly he heard someone scream outside.
When he went to the window he already knew who it was: Georg had fallen from his horse ones again and was now holding his hurting leg.
"Georg come in i need to talk to you."
When Georg entered Otto laid his arms around his shoulder and began to talk to him in his kindest voice: "You know , i hate to loose such an excellent marshall, but we are now in peace and i think you could serve me better as a Spy Master, what do you think about this...?"
"Well Mylord, it surely will be hard to give up my position as marshall as i enjoy riding and fighting so much, but as long as i can serve you i will do anything..."
Otto felt relieved.
So he would have to prepare his horse on his own when riding out, but no one could laugh about his marshall anymore.

[Duke of Bavaria]

So much for today...so time for you now to give me some comments and critical suggestions.

[Tskb18]

Pointless points: anchestors = ancestors, ón = on, monchs = monks. Berhard = Bernhard.
The words/meanings are still clear of course.

Anyway, like the AAR so far. Dunno anything about the Wittelsbachs or Bavaria.
But the tone comes across well.
For example, i like the kids not paying attention (life imitates art, and vice versa).
Or the chancellor and unexpected appointments. And the technology pictures/stories.
Deftly done.

Not much critical, i know.
Oh well, count me as a lurker as the story continues!

[Duke of Bavaria]

Thanks for reading and commenting so far...couldnt find all minor errors and will make some in the future...sorry in advance...

[Tskb18]

In my Firefox browser, you can enable an automatic spell-checker. (Your browser probably has it too.)
(Though of course you should probably write first in notepad or better yet word-processor [so you don't lose a post if you lose a connection] but the browser can provide a rough and ready secondary check.)

There is also a Find function, hold the Control and F key at the same time.
Ctrl+F is a useful time-saver. Same function accessed via the Edit->Find drop-down menu.

No worries, they were just minor minor points that i wouldn't have supplied unless you asked!
(And mostly as an excuse to post more than my appreciation for a fine AAR start.)