|
Europe, 867AD.  During this time Europe was undergoing a period of massive change, Vikings raid England and the northern European countries, the remains of Charlemagne's empire is now three separate countries, all looking to reform the whole. The Roman Empire continues in the east fighting the Muslims who seek to expand their land and spread their religion, meanwhile, internal strife once more strikes the Empire. This is not our story, at last not yet.  In Africa, a new leader has come to claim the Throne of Ghana, Mansa Igoumou I had died suddenly in a freak accident, leaving the noblemen to cast around for a new leader. In the end, their ineptitude in picking one of their own allowed and unknown man, known to history as Dongu Ogoonu, to rally a large enough force to place himself on the throne.  Dongu was the descendant of a proud tribe of hunters, know as the grey ones, and his personal signal reflected this.  As a man himself, he was an intricate web-weaver, lustful and arbitrary in nature, and known to be deceitful in nature, he was diligent, and well loved by his men.  Upon his coronation, he discarded his desert clothing and put on the more ceremonial attire of the Mansa of Ghana.  Ghana herself was of good size, and made up of four provinces, all under the direct control of the Mansa. Doumbi Saleh was the capital. These were not wealthy lands, while each had a fortified castle guarding it, that was all of note in Niono, Oualata and Kirana both had a city and the capital had a city and a temple of the Sahelian religion.  Surrounding Ghana were a number of other countries, many of them only one province in size, and only Gao being able to match Ghana in size.  The army that had helped put Dongu into power numbered little over a thousand men.  In the matters of religion, all in Ghana follow the Sahelian faith, and three of the five holy sites can be found within her boarders. The other two are far to the north along the North African coast.  To help him rule, Dongu had assembled a council of the wise and the great. All these men were at least compitent at their job, and all but the Grand Vizier disliked him. But if a man was not watching his Grand Vizier for trechery, then he did not deserve to be king, and Bankanu was exceptional at his job.  Several other Pretenders stood behind Dongu, and the laws of the land state that all of a kings lands should be split amongst his sons, with the greatest title going to the eldest.  Dongu was unmarried, but, in a strange quirk of fate, every other African lord below the Sahara was in the same state – unmarried and childless! How an event like this came about, we will never know. Dongu, like every other lord on that new years day set about fulfilling the ambition to find himself a worthy wife. With no useful diplomatic marriages possible, Dongu turns to his own court, and finds but one woman in the whole realm who is suitable. Djenly is lowborn, and does not like the kind much, but she is Ghanan, and that counts for much!  Djenly's family are at least rich, and the choice between the hundred gold dowry and the good will and prestige from turning it down was a hard choice for a Mansa who had only just risen to the throne. In the end the impoverished state of the nation meant that Dongu took the gold.  There were other ways to get prestige, and Dongu know that with all the other African kingdoms in the same state as him, now was the best time to strike fast and take land – Bamako was targeted as the first conquest.  The High Priest was informed he was joined Ghana, and the troops marched forwards to enforce this. Meanwhile Dongu spends most of his money on a new village outside his castle, in an attempt to increase the cultivation of the land and provide more money for the royal coffers.  Dongu Ogoonu's first battle was a stunning victory.  While Steward Kabyo lead three hundred men to hunt down the remains of the enemy army, Dongu and his forces settled in for a siege.   Dongu's troops scale the walls and take the castle. News comes from the battlefield of Kabyo's death in battle, and he is replaced by a less able man. The battles do continue to destroy the Bamako will to fight.   Djenly is pregnant! Could the dynastic worries of Dongu be over?  Two days later, Bamako is added to Ghana's lands. High Priest Kozie becomes Dongu's first vassal.   While things are quiet in Ghana, news filters down from Europe.  Although Dongu claimed that he had already read this news in the stars.  Some may scoff, but they could say nothing about his domestic policies.   A little over a year after taking power, and Aissata is born.  The child is weak however, and the Mansa's first child does not survives the birth. This terrible news is followed by the news that the new lands in the capital are not as fertile as once hoped.  The Spymaster at least has good news.  As Dongu's rule continued, he was at the foremost in setting legal precedents – which were backed up by loyal courtiers.   Lacking claims on the lands around him, Dongu carries on ruling the best he can, before Djenly falls pregnant again in late 869.  It is said that this may be due to the fact that for every book on myscisism Dongu bought, he purchased a different sort of book for his wife.  Although it should not be said that the Mansa was not expanding his realm in other ways.   Finally Dongu was graced with a son. Kabayo.  Noticing that Goa had been expanding rapidly, Dongu approached the lords of Djenne, Yaresena, Niani and Bobo, offering them the protection of Ghana.  They all agree, and Ghana swells rapidly. Even Dongu himeself could not have been expecting this much of a increase in the size of his kingdom.  It is in this period that a popular historian has declared that “Ghana decided to give history the finger”  A relatively short update, only covering a few years, but I wanted to bed down and that was too good a place not to stop....
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 14:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 13:02 |
|
|
It's going to be fascinating to see if Grey can bootstrap the Africans into relevance throughout the middle ages.
Neruz fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Oct 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 14:28
|
|
|
Awesome. I've never played as a West African pagan before, so going into this with no knowledge of what sort of unique bonuses and decisions they get is interesting.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 14:34
|
|
|
Pakled posted:Awesome. I've never played as a West African pagan before, so going into this with no knowledge of what sort of unique bonuses and decisions they get is interesting. I'm really interested to see just how far they've gone in modelling the various tribal relations and whatnot. Ovbiously the game still fits within the paradox 'shape' so to speak but there should be plenty of room for uniqueness in the african nations if the devs did their work.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 14:43
|
|
|
Soon the whole world will quiver before Dongu!
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 14:49
|
|
|
I really love the coat-of-arms for Ghana, and look forward to our reforming the faith and conquering the Vatican.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 14:49
|
|
|
Neruz posted:I'm really interested to see just how far they've gone in modelling the various tribal relations and whatnot. Ovbiously the game still fits within the paradox 'shape' so to speak but there should be plenty of room for uniqueness in the african nations if the devs did their work. They haven't. I didn't want to start here because West Africa is very isolated from the rest of the map, and it just becomes a boring wait for the Muslims to the north to be weak enough to seize another county from them after you unify WA (which even the AI does in 50 years. While a British isles start is quite cliche, west Africa is probably the most boring area in the game. Should of gone Norse pirates in the med instead!
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 15:06
|
|
|
Man is that CK2+? Africa always looks so terribly terribly boring in vanilla.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 15:06
|
|
|
We should invade South America.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 15:15
|
|
|
If goons really want to play the Welsh, why can't we unify West Africa then launch an invasion of England as Dongu the Conqueror? That way we don't have to worry about weakening the Caliphate first.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 15:44
|
|
|
Rivensteel posted:If goons really want to play the Welsh, why can't we unify West Africa then launch an invasion of England as Dongu the Conqueror? That way we don't have to worry about weakening the Caliphate first. Who needs the Aztecs? We are better than the Aztecs. C-SPAN Caller fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Oct 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 16:40
|
|
|
And marry a diligent and gregarious Welsh girl who raises our children. 
Readingaccount fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Oct 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 17:10
|
|
|
Readingaccount posted:And marry a diligent and gregarious Welsh girl who raises our children. Dongu II ap Ffrlwncwnnwn, Scourge of Christendom
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 17:20
|
|
|
Readingaccount posted:And marry a diligent and gregarious Welsh girl who raises our children. In CK2+ children will not convert to the culture of their educator unless they are being raised in a province of that culture.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 17:23
|
|
|
lenoon posted:Man is that CK2+? Africa always looks so terribly terribly boring in vanilla. Yeah, I switched to CK2+ when I confirmed the converter worked.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 17:39
|
|
|
Rogue0071 posted:In CK2+ children will not convert to the culture of their educator unless they are being raised in a province of that culture. Plus, while I'm not sure if it's different in CK2+, in vanilla nobody of a different religion from you will willingly interact with you at all unless they're already living in your court, so marrying a Welsh girl is out of the question.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 17:44
|
|
|
Flesnolk posted:Plus, while I'm not sure if it's different in CK2+, in vanilla nobody of a different religion from you will willingly interact with you at all unless they're already living in your court, so marrying a Welsh girl is out of the question. If West African paganism allows the taking of concubines, then you could marry a Welsh woman if you capture her in a siege, make her a concubine (she has no choice because she's your prisoner) and then marry her (she has no choice because she's in your court).
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 17:50
|
|
|
I just don't understand this dumb Welsh obsession.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 17:57
|
|
|
Paradox game = emergence of suppressed nationalism
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:02
|
|
|
Cornwall is Serbia.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:04
|
|
|
Koesj posted:Cornwall is Serbia. Remove Cornish pasty.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:13
|
|
|
Espy posted:I just don't understand this dumb Welsh obsession. There's this impression that playing what's usually thought of as an rear end-backwards rural shithole and turning it into a world-spanning empire is somehow new, hilarious and exciting. I've seen about 5-8 Wales LP's, and almost all of them did inevitably collapse into self-referential in-jokes and LOL SHEEPFUCKERY!!!11!!.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:14
|
|
|
Comrade Koba posted:There's this impression that playing what's usually thought of as an rear end-backwards rural shithole and turning it into a world-spanning empire is somehow new, hilarious and exciting. Ghana is cool despite lack of knowledge on its history, such an unstudied history thanks to western bullshit. This LP banter could easily turn racist from posters if people aren't careful 
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:18
|
|
|
Espy posted:Ghana is cool despite lack of knowledge on its history, such an unstudied history thanks to western bullshit. This LP banter could easily turn racist from posters if people aren't careful Sorry, should've clarified - Ghana is indeed cool. As I said before I don't think I've ever seen an Africa-themed LP that wasn't a zany comedy option kind of thing lasting all of three in-game years. Playing some random underdeveloped European count(r)y and leading them to ~GLORIOUS WORLD DOMINATION~ isn't cool, because it's been done to death over and over again. EDIT: I guess I just get annoyed that Paradox LP's always turn into European History (But With More Wars!) - The Videogame. The grand scope of the games coupled with the modability could potentially turn into great things. Instead, we get Steppe Wolfe and endless flamewars on the historicity of the Grand Empire of Serbia. Comrade Koba fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Oct 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:29
|
|
|
I think picking Wales is cool because Ireland is seen as the easy-mode choice, Scotland can either really do well or really do bad, and Wales is just somewhere in between.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:30
|
|
|
It's also that in vanilla, Ghana is incredibly boring. It looks like it'll be much more fun to play in CK+, so I'm happy with the decision. We should, before a huge 'japs and nips' conversation kicks off, put the kibosh on 'I consider this or that racist'. Lets all be considerate and nice as the Ghanaian empire spreads across the face of the known world.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:30
|
|
|
lenoon posted:It's also that in vanilla, Ghana is incredibly boring. It looks like it'll be much more fun to play in CK+, so I'm happy with the decision. Ain't no place for those degenerate white people in our glorious african empire.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:31
|
|
Hogge Wild posted:Remove Cornish pasty. But then won't the Cornish strippers be violating decency ordinances?
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:38
|
|
|
Comrade Koba posted:Sorry, should've clarified - Ghana is indeed cool. As I said before I don't think I've ever seen an Africa-themed LP that wasn't a zany comedy option kind of thing lasting all of three in-game years. Quit gettin' mad at video games
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 18:53
|
|
|
I think it's cool that this time we get a CK2 LP from the earliest bookmark, but perhaps the next person to do one should pick a later CK2 bookmark for variety...same with EU4, for that matter. That said, for a megacampaign, Wiz started off Azeri in 1187. CK2 has 1204, 1220, and 1241 bookmarks that all offer over 200 years of CK2 while starting from a late enough point that certain things are already set in stone (Plantagenet ascendancy in England and Angevin Empire concerns for France, sack of Constantinople by Fourth Crusade and considerable Turkish presence in Anatolia, Hohenstaufen fusion of the Sicilian and Imperial crowns and the conflict between the Papacy and the Hohenstaufens that would tear central Europe apart through the 13th century). Just saying. Even the 1081 bookmark would be interesting because it's basically 1066 world except post-Manzikert with Turkish domination of Anatolia (which seems to very rarely happen properly in CK2).
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 19:15
|
|
|
My question is, how can Ghana sink the British Navy?
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 19:58
|
|
|
bunnyofdoom posted:My question is, how can Ghana sink the British Navy? Alfred the Great isn't even (yet) on the throne of Wessex (though he is very much alive), no need to fear there.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 20:00
|
|
|
bunnyofdoom posted:My question is, how can Ghana sink the British Navy? Step 1: Inherit the Isles Step 2: Sink the navy
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 20:01
|
|
|
Neruz posted:Ain't no place for those degenerate white people in our glorious african empire. Look, I'm just saying that those people should go back to America where they came from. EDIT: In order to prevent this post from being entirely mock racism, do any knowledgeable goons want to talk about the historical Ghana and other African empires between Grey's updates (with his permission obviously). I suspect most people on this forum had a Eurocentric history education so it'd be interesting to read about what was going on down south. 1stGear fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Oct 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 20:01
|
|
|
1stGear posted:Look, I'm just saying that those people should go back to No Sunset Invasion though in this playthrough 
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 20:09
|
|
|
Yeah, way to be counter-cultural by selecting a fenced off nation for max excitement. Let's turn Ghana into the world hub for slaves!
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 20:23
|
|
|
Hogge Wild posted:Quit gettin' mad at video games Video games are sweet, I get mad at the people playing them.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 20:28
|
|
|
1stGear posted:
Happily! Is that alright Grey?
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 20:56
|
|
|
Readingaccount posted:Yeah, way to be counter-cultural by selecting a fenced off nation for max excitement. It's not totally fenced off, there are 2 paths to Morocco, via the Timbuktu route and the coastal route. Already Ghana is fairly powerful with 9ish counties. I'm sure there will be some kind of mod used for EU4 as well to make Africa more exciting. Plus, 600 years is a LONG time, Ghana can really become a world player in that time. lenoon posted:Happily! Is that alright Grey? I'd be super interested in this. If Grey doesn't want it clogging up the thread, can you do an Ask/Tell thread?
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 21:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 13:02 |
|
|
lenoon posted:Happily! Is that alright Grey?  historical context
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 21:08
|
|
